Triple Execution at Winchester.

Hastings Standard, Issue 153, 23 October 1896, Page 4

Triple Execution at Winchester.

At Winchester, in July, the execution took place of three men sentenced to death at the recent assizes. The culprits were : Sannt"l Kdward Smith, a private in the King's I'oyal Killes at Fa rnborough, who shot Corporal I'avne ; I'iiilip Matthews, a coachman, who killed his little girl, Klsie, aged six: and Fredrick liurdeii, a Southampton dock laborer, who murdered his swealheart, Angelina Faithful. Since their incarceration the murderers had occupied separate cells, adjacent to each other, and had been visited with great regularity by the !!■ v. -1. A. Ladbrooke, the prison chaplain, to whom all three listened with respectful attention, but Smith seemed absolutely cailous. About ten minutes to eight the chaplain, who had been in the cells .since six o'clock', was closeted with Smith, who seemed to have softened somewhat towards the last. A moment: later the FnderSherit'f and his deputy, Mr Godwin, reach'd the corridor, and were followed by a large stall'of warders, the Governor, ]>r. Richards (prison surgeon |. and ]!illingion and his assistant, the latter carrying the straps to be used in pinionin. At eight o'clock the hangman performed the preliminary operations in the cell, and a procession to the scaffold was at once formed the chaplain going 011 before and reading impressively the opening sentences of the burial service. The place of execution was a few yards from the cells, and the condemned men all walked {irmly. The scaffold had only been used for single or double executions hitherto, and a new cross-beam had been provided to avoid possible mishap. The three- ropes were already in position. Burden was placed in the centre, with Smith on his right and Matthew 011 his left. With great expedition ISillington adjusted the ropes, and W ilkinson simultaneously strapped the culprits' leg-; ; the hangman then drew 011 the white caps, and. just, as the chaplain had said, " Lord have mercy upon us,'" and was commencing the Lord s praver, Hiliington drew the lever, and the execution was completed. There was not the slightest hitch or delay, and the prison doctor who descended the pit immediately after the drop fell certified that death was instantaneous. A notable feature about this triple execution was the presence of the pressmen. After the revelations made through Lloyd's about the bungles at the hanging of Chipperiied and Milsoni, the prison authorities wisely came to the conclusion that it would be better to admit the Press after all.