Hanged After Three Trials.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 February 1911, Page 4

Hanged After Three Trials.

DRAMATIC STORY OF MURDER FOR. LOVE. William Soanlani, an Irishman who served l'or some years in tllio American army and returned home with a. pension a. few years ago, lias been hanged at Cork gaol for the murder of his wife's sister. Bridget Gayer, a. girl of nineteen. .Beforo marrying Bridget's sister, Scanlan wanted to marry Bridget, but she was tilien only seventeen, and her mother said she was too young. He was tried threo times for the murder, and the trials excited an extraordinary interest throughout Ireland, partly because Bridget Gayer was a beautiful and charming girl, and partly because the evidence against Scanlan was all circumstantial —that is to say, no witness saw the girl killed. At the first -trial—in the winter of 1909—the jury disagreed. The second trial had to 'be postponed on account of the illness of a witness, until the summer of 1910. Again the jury disagreed. Scanlan was found guilty at his third trial in November. Bridget Gayer disappeared on July 12th, 1909. Eight days later her body was found, covered with grass, In a trench at the corner of a. field near tilie Castleharrison road, not- far from Oharleville, to which town she had driven with one of her sisters, on the morning of her disappearance. There were five revolver bullet wounds in the hody.

A few days before the discovery. Scanlan, who had previously suggested that the girl had gone to America, told a man he met in Feenagh that ho thought her body would probably he found ' : in some old ditch or dyke," and he added, "Dead men tell no tales." Scanlan was arrested the day after Bridget's body was found, and lh<e said, on "being challenged, "Let ye prove it.". He said to his wife, "If anyone can prove that they saw me walking with Bridget that day. T am willing to take the rope." Tli'at Scanla.n did walk with the girl along the rood near the field where her body waii found was proved beyond any reasonable doubt at the last trial. Nine men and women were called who saw a man and a girl walking or standing near the field, including a man who knew Scanlan, and called him by name as he passed. Several of the witnesses .said that Scanlan was the man they saw. and others gave a fairly complete and accurate description of the clothes Bridget was wearing. One Woman, from her garden, watched tthe man and the girl climb the fence and go into the Held. where they disappeared in a hollow. That, was the last anyone, save the murderer, saw of Bridget Gayer alive. Scanlan was afterwards seen rid-

ing on his lior.se rapidly towards Buttevant. Tt was proved that ;lw was at Charleville duribig tlio day, and that be never mentioned this to •any member of liis family.