SUPER-BANDIT HANGED

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1926, Page 4

SUPER-BANDIT HANGED

NEW SYSTEM OF EXECUTION. NEW YORK, April 3. America’s most noted master bandit, Gerald Chapman, met death on the gallows early to-day at the State prison at Wethersfield, Connecticut. His case provides a classic illustration of the • law's delays and of the curious popular sentiment prevailing on the subject of crime in the United States. Since his arrest a year ago Chapman has been regarded by large sections of the public, as a hero of type of Oick Turpin. As late as yesterday he was allowed to make a dramatic appearance before the State Board of Pardons and to deliver a strong speech in which he pleaded for penal servitude instead of death.

To permit of his trial for a murder in Connecticut, the President commuted his sentence for a great post office robbery in New York. Chapman protested against the commutation on the ground that it delivered him up to death. His counsel exhausted every artifico of the law to secure his acquittal, and carried his appeal against the commutation of his sentence for the lessor crime t the Supreme Court of the United States. Their >contention was that as lie escaped from prison before committing the final crime he must finis'’ tlie earlier sentence before being punished for the final crime.

The appeal was refused, hut while it was being heard the Governor of Connecticut. thrice postponed Chapman’s execution.

Chapman went to death with a hitter smile. He was hanged by a new svstem. A 30011). weight was attached to one end of the rope, at the other end of which was a noose which ran over a pulley. On the release of the weight, bv the pressing of a pedal the body was jerked high into the air and suspended several feet above the floor. The execution provoked To-day wide snread editorial pleas for the total abolition of capital punishment.. *. RECORD KISH CATCH LONDON, March 31. Great quantities of fish were landed again yesterday for the Good Friday demand. At Hull the record amount, of 1,120 tons was brought in by 47 trawlers and 12 special trains were needed to carry it In various parts of Ihe country. Prices declined considerably.

The supplies at Grimsby constituted' a post-war record, but the demand did not come up to expectations. Ninetytwo vessels landed catches, and more than a hundred were unable to got into dock through lack of accommodation. Some were diverted to other 'ports.

Billingsgate received -Hi tons by water and !!7!) tons by land. 'There was ample fresh fish for all demands. Wholesale prices were far from high. They worked out to from 3d to about •ltd per II) for small haddocks and just over od per 11) for large, about 2d to Ltd per lb for cod, and Is to Is 2-fd for halibut. Retail prices for these fish in London shops yesterday averaged fid per lb in the market, and averaged lOd in the shops. Soles realised wholesale from just under Is per lb. to about Is 9d. and could be bought retail for from Is fid. The big landings yesterday should have Die effect to-day of further falls in shop prices.

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