The Silverstream Murder.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 225, 23 March 1898, Page 2

The Silverstream Murder.

EXECUTION OF PHILPOTT. HE CONFESSES HIS GUILT. Telegraph. Press Association Copyright. Wellington, This Day. Frank Philpott, alias Stanhope, was hanged at the Terrace Gaol at 8 o'clock this rooming for the murder of his main Ernest Alfred Hawthorne, at Silverstream, ou September 7Uj last. The convict slept soundly from 1 till o 30, and was watched all night by the warders m turn. After rising he had half an hour's exercise and took a light breakfast. There were present at the final sceue the Sheriff and Head Gaoler, the Eev. C. Dallaston, of the Baptist Church, who had been in constant attendance on the convict, E Arnold, J.P., IVJz* Wiliiston viaiting justice, Dr Teare, prison doctor, and members of the Press. Constables were stati'ined on the hills aboye the gaol to prevcut spectators gathrrin", hut very few were present, and i;i ;iuy caso they could have seen nothing, as the scaffold w;\3 surrounded by a Ugh screen. When the o01oi;il procession relished tbe scaffold i\Jr Dcil'axton asked Phiinott whether there was anything ho would like to say. The condemned man, in a voice on the whole iirm but betraying some signs of emotion, saul he had acknowledged and confessed his sin in the face of God. He had confessed to Mr Dallaston and Mr Garvey, the gaoler, and given them power to make his confession public. He thanked the gaol officials for their kind ness to him and wished everyone goodbye. . Long, the executioner, then arranged the rope, and Philpott stood firm. There was a slight increase of colour in his face and it was evident he keenly realised his position, but he showed no signs of his breaking clown, and met his fate manfully. The executioner, curiously, forgot to draw on the cap till reminded by the gaoler, and as he stepped forward to do so Philpott closed his eyes. When the drop fell death was instantaneous. There was no struggle and no movement of the body. As soon as it was cut down a jury was empanelled and a formal verdict was returned. The remains will be buried this afternoon at the Karori cemetery. Philpott's confession is as follows: — "On the afternoon of September 7th, 1897, 1, Frank Philpott, shed the blood of Alexander Hawthorne, during a quarrel. It is my earnest desire that this my confession should be published on Wednesday, March 23, 1898. One of the reasons why I make this confsssion is because I could not go out of this world leaving, as my defence implied, a stain upon the character of Mr Frederick Charles Sowerby. Signed— Frank Philpott, March 22, 1898." In explanation of the allusion to Sowerby it may be mentioned that during the defence it was suggested Sowerby had a cause of quarrel against Hawthorne, and he might have been guilty. Philpott, before his arrest, had tried to excite Sowerby to jealousy against Hawthorne.