The Sun. — 1834-09-16 (London, England)

PARALLEL CASE TO THE HORRIBLE MURDER AT PENTONVILLE, OF A FAMILY DESTROYED BY THEIR FATHER.  In the city of Hamburg, in 1803 there lived a candidate for Holy Orders (as they call an unordained clergyman in Protestant Germany), of the name of Riesau. He was a man much respected for the general good tenor of his conduct, and kept an academy for the education of youth, in the Groningen-street, near the Senate House and Exchange, the most central and respectable part of the city of Hamburg. His family consisted of his wife and six or seven children, all daughters, the eldest of whom, at the period above stated, was betrothed to a young man holding a si. tuation in a public office. Amongst the pupils of the Rev. Mr. Riesau there were a few boarders, who, of course, slept in the house ; and it was his laudable custom to exhort them all to goodness and virtue on their retiring to bed. On a Sunday evening. the night of the horrible tragedy in question, Mr.. Riesau had some serious conver sation with his wife, on the sad probability of some of their numerous family—being all girls—deviating from the path of virtue, and suffering the horrors of a career of infamY and vice. " Sooner would I behold them die before my very_ eyes," exclaimed the agitated father. His wife endeavoured to calm his ruffled feelings, and they retired to repose. About midnight Riesau got out of bed, struck a light, and taking his razors from the case, proceeded deliberately to commence the horrid work of death. Going into the chamber where slept two of his youngest children, he cut their_ throats in their sleep, without awakening or injuring two of He ut au then his little pupils, who slept in the same apartment. entered his wife's room, and with incredible celerity p end to her existence, and two more of his daughters, in the same horrible manner. His eldest girl, who was shortly to have been married, slept up stairs with two of her sisters ; thither the wretched man now proceeded, his hands imbrued in the blood of those he loved so dearly, and in a few ..4. • the moments the two younger girls had ceased to exist t t eldest girl, however, happened to awake at the very morneil, her father was approaching her ; she sprang out of b 0 fell on her knees, implored him to spare her lifer urging, that being on the eve of marriage she was, at all events, sure o a protector and a home ; ill-fated man refused to listen to her plea ; and aftecrt inflicting on her several dreadful gashes, succeed e -n spite ultimately in effecting his horrid purpose, i after her resistance. About one o'clock in the morning, washing his blood-stained hands, Riesau left morning house, locked the door, and, proceeding to the borders of the rirl but the Elbe, he deliberately walked into the water, probablY eve T ? ow the intent to drown himself. The water was, howr very low, and when about up to his middle, he took a p knife from his pocket and inflicted an incision, though byas no' means dangerous, on his throat. In this situation he vi discovered, and taken out of the water by a watchman_; being conveyed to the watch-house, he was soon recognized, but refused to be taken home. In' the early part of the morning the horrible deed came to light. At first, Riesa an denied all knowledge thereof, but ultimately confessed, ti n' related all the particulars. He was soon after Put be his h • trial, and sentenced by the Hamburg Senate ta ra broken on, or rather by, the wheel, from head to foot „.‘ll 8 German, von oben nach unten, as more lenient than ll_ contrary, as the first stroke of the wheel breaks bone and causes instant death.) The house where the above horrible crime was Pe3rllo, Crated remained empty, as an accursed abode, from 18° i 1814, when a Jew, of the name of Sachse, on condition a getting it nearly rent free, opened it in the tobacco busiar-g*_. the bras and the prejudice having died away, did very good bole% This case is parallel to that of Steinberg, of Peutevld in inhi every point except that the Hamburg murderer fadlfold. 2 attempt at suicide, and expiated his life upon the oc—