CONFESSION OF MANNING.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 484, 23 March 1850, Page 3

CONFESSION OF MANNING.

The following statement we have received is in substance tbe confession made by Manning at the interviews which he had with his relatives since sentence of death was passed upon him: — He declare] most solemnly that a month before the actual commission of the cyme, his wife spoke to him of her intention io .murder O'Connor, in order that she might become possessed of, the Urge amount of mo*

ney which she knew he hid. He endeavoured to turn her thoughts away from the commission of such a deed, saying that she would be buog for it. She, however, said that she w«a determined to shoot him, and that he must help her to bury him in the kitchen. About , this period she purchased • dozen battles of brandy, and though at other times and in other circumstances than they were then living, she would have been chary of making such a purchase, she kept him fully supplied with the liquor, so that, to use his own words, " during the whole of the time I was not in my right senses." He first thought of giving information of his' wife's inten ton to the police, but fear of his wife, who he said had great mastery over him, or a belief that she would not carry out her intentions, restrained him from saying anything about the matter : but he declares he repeatedly told her he would have nothing to do with it. Nearly about this period O'Connor was invited to stay a short time with some friends at Boulogne, and she was to meet him there. She said if the opportunity did not present itself of doing away with him at Miniver-place, that she would' do so at Boulogne, adding that it would never be found out. With a view of accomplishing her purpose, she purchased a small pair of pistols at the shop of Mr. Blanch, a gun-maker, ia Gracecburch-srreet, who, at her request instructed her how to load them. In order to be the better prepared for the disposal of the body, and to destroy any traces of guilt, she directed him to purchase the crowbar to raise the stones in the back kitchen, and the lime to burn '.he body. Mantling declares also that the hole in which the body was found was dug by Mrs. Manning with the dustshovel produced at the trial, a fortnight before the murder, and that she carried the earth out by pailfuls, and mixed it with the ashes in the dust-bin. It was in June, he says, that the conversation took place with respect to whit would make a person put his name to a cheque for £500. O'Connor was at that time supposed to be a teetotaller, and Massey, Manning says, suggested that morphia (which he described as a white powder), if put into the tea, would so stupify him as to render him a ready instrument in their hands. It was, however, never given to him. It may be remarked that Manning was then in needy circumstances. Manning's attention was called to the state of O f Connor_ on the night when Mrs. Manning bathed his temples with eau de Cologne, in order to ascertain if he had been drugged ; but he declared that nothing . had been given to him, and that he was under the influence of brandy, which he had taken from fear of cholera. On the night of the murder he says O'Connor called at Miniver place, and after exchanging a few words with Mrs. Manning, went away. In half an hour he came back, his demeanour evinced irresolution whether to stop or not, thus accounting for his being seen on London Bridge about five o'clock, going towards the city. He must, therefore, immediately have changed his mind and gone to Miniver place. Mrs. Manning pressed him to stay, and he walked into the parlour and sat down. Immediately afterwards she said to him, " Come down stairs,and wash your hands before dinner." to which O'Connor replied, "No, I don't care about it to night." "Oh' r she said, " you had better do so, as Miss Massey (who Manning says she kuew was not in town at the time) is coming, and you know she is a very paiticular lady, and you should show yourself off to the best advantage." He says this was a mere trick to get him to go downstairs. He further says he did not think so ai the lime, as he had no i.lea that ia the evening she was about to peipetrate the crime of m-irder. He asseverates this most solemnly. O'Connor did go down into the back kitchen, Mrs. Manning following closely after him. At this time Manning was upstair* in the front room dressing. In a few minutes his wife came up stairs, and exclaimed,, " I have done it — he ii dead enough.", Manning says he was dreadfully frightened, and told her "she was a dead woman, and would be hung for the murder." She got into a passion with him and said he was "ad — d coward;" and pointing a pistol at him, which he says was loaded, exclaimed in a threatening manner, "if you' don't come down and see him I will serve you th« same." He then as>ked her how she did it, and what, O'Connor said. And, after drinking a glass of neat brandy, she explained that when her victim got to the bottom of the stairs he said, " What, haven't you got this drain finished yet?" The next moment sh« said she pressed the muzzle of the pistol close to the back of ins head and shot him dead. We may remark that this will account in some measure fcr the report of the pistol not being heard by Manning himself, nor by the neighbours. After souio hesitation, and overpowered by her menace*, he did go down, and he says Ie was horrified to fitid O'Cont nor lying on bis face, partially in, a stooping posipre, .bis bead hanging into, , the,: grave which had been prepared foe him, and bit ,

hands up to thesidei of his head. Manning vrhVn explaining thi't to his brother and sister, to the governor of the gaol, .and- the chaplain, went down on bis knees in the cell, in order the better to illustrate the. position of the unhappy man. "This was ten minutes after the commission of die murder. Mrs. Manning turned over the body, and struck him oh the head three or four times with the crowbar, exclaiming, "You d — d old villian, you will never deceive me or any one else any more." Manning then says he ran up stairs ; he was followed shortly afterwards by his wife, who showed him the keys she had taken from the body. She then took off her gown — the oue produced at the trial, and proved to have been stained with blood, and washed herself, her hands being smeared with blood. She then went out, saying she would be back directly. Not liking to remain in the house he went into the yard, and sat on the wall and smoked a pipe, and had a chat with the neighbours. He told her he would not stay in the house, hut she persuaded him to do so. When she came back, having been at O'Connor's lodgings, she bad some scrip, some of which the burnt, finding it useless ; the rest she kept. Manning's brother asked him at one of the interviews what had been done with the clothes and the crowbar ; and be said that the clothes were burnt, and that she must have taken the crowbar with her, and he supposed, dropped it at one of the railway stations. The next day she pledged two gold watches belonging to O'Connor, but he could not tell where. On the Monday after the murder, when he came home, she told him that two persons, whom she believed to be officers in private eloihei, had called for O'Connor. These persons, it will be recollected, were Mr Welch and Mr. Flynn, who stated in their evidence that she trembled and looked so pale that they asked her if she was ill. Manning told bis wife, who was extremely frightened at these inquiries, that she had evidently been found out, and that she would be hung. She then fainted, but Manning gave her some brandy, which soon restored her. Afterwards she said she would not stop any longer, that she would go to America, and that if she were discovered she would stick out till the eleventh hour. After some delay she said, "Now, Freddy, go to Bain - bridge's and endeavour to self the furniture. See what arrangements you can make. Don't be in a hurry, but stop and smoke your pipe. I'll be there in a couple of hours." He did •o, bat as she did not come he went to the house and found her gone. Being almost pennyless, he pawned the pistols at a pawnbroker's in Bermondaey-street, and afterwards sold the furniture and went away to Jersey. She got all the money from him which he obtained at the bank. He declared he knew nothing about the Great Western Railway robberies, but implicated Poole and others. He said Mrs. Manning, who no doubt was in Poole's confidence, knew something about them. 'At the conclusion of his last interview with his brother and sister, he said, when they were leaving, " Mr. Keene, I have to ask you one great favour — that you will not, for the sake of my family, allow any one to take a cast of my head, to be exhibited at Madame Tussaud's. Mr. Keene assured the unfortunate prisoner, and also his brother and sister, that if he could prevent this being done he would do so. Manning reiterated the assertion that, so help him God, he had never injured a hair of O'Connor's head, adding that the statement, as given above, was true in every respect ; and that if he were executed the life of an innocent man would be taken. All the persons present, at the request of Manning, knelt down and engaged in prayer.