Exit Ellis.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3491, 2 March 1905, Page 2

Exit Ellis.

LAST SCENE OF TE AWAITE TRAGEDY. CONDEMNED MAN’S PROTEST; James William Ellis, alias John McKenzie, who was found guilty and condemned to death at the Supreme Court at Wellington last month for the murder of Leonard Reeves Collinson, at Cole's creek, Te Awaite station, on February 26th, 1904, was executed at the Terrace Gaol on Tuesday morning at eight o’clock. The condemned man spent the previous day in the same cheerful spirits he had shown since being sentenced. He occupied himself during the evening reading. During the day he told the gaoler that he hoped no one would ask him any questions. Ellis went to sleep at eleven o’clock on Monday night and slept very soundly, having to be shaken at 7 o'clock next morning to wake him. He was visited by the gaoler, surgeon, and the Rev. Davys, but had nothing to say. On the way to the scaffold he asked for some brandy, which was given him. He did not seemed at all concerned, but walked steadily and briskly to the platform. When Ellis took his position he was quite composed, though a trifle pale. Just before the bolt was drawn he was asked if he had anything to say, and he replied : “ Nothing at all, only that I’m innocent. That is ail I have to say-" The bolt was then drawn and death was instantaneous. Ellis being a small man, an eight feet drop had to be allowed.

Besides the officials three pressmen, and two others were the only persons present. The scaffold and rope were th« same as used for McLean (the Amberley murderer), Bosher and Phill* pott.

The portable scaffold, last used at the hanging of Findlay, at Lyttelton, some three years ago, was erected in a small yard at the back of the prison facing Devon street. Outside view of this last grim detail in the law’s final exaction for murder was shut off by a high tarpaulin screen. The scaffold was situated at no great distance from the condemned cell. The culprit had to mount some half-dozen steps before reaching the platform in which the trap-doors were fixed. These met la the centre directly under a cross beam, from a ring in which the noose is adjusted, the length of the drop into the pit underneath being regulated accord* ing to the stature and weight of the felon, and every precaution taken to secure that the work of death should be expeditious, painless, and accompanied by as little indication of its method as possible. Close by the scaffold a small platform was erected, from which the officials and the few spectators allowed to be present wit* nessed the final scene.