Execution of William Sheehan. [From our London Correspondent]

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 145, 13 March 1886, Page 4

Execution of William Sheehan. [From our London Correspondent]

The last scene in the terrible Castletownroche tragedy took place at Cork on the morning of tho 19th instant, when William Sheehan was privately executed within the precints of the male prison. The condemned man slept well during the preceding night, and arose at a quarter to seven, when, after partaking of breakfast, he engaged in prayer with the priest who had throughout been attending on him. He was thus occupied until n've minutes to eight, when he was pinioned and led to the scaffold, situated but 30 yard 3 from the cell. During tho progress of the procession the prisoner answered in feeble voice the responses to prayers for the dying. Arrived at the scaffold, Berry quickly took him in hand. Tho drop was but six feet, and death was instantaneous. The wretch must have suffered far less than the relatives he so brutally murdered.

Shcehan's Execution. As many of the late Mr Wm. Sheehan's friends in Auckland (I refer more particularly to the local police, to whom he paid such a touching tribute in Couit) will doubtless be anxious to hear as much as possible about the amiable matri-fratricide's last moments, I attach a full account of the execution from the "Freeman's Journal":— To-day Wm. Sheehan paid the penalty of the cruel crime of which he was convicted at the last Cork Assizes — the murder of his mother, brother, and sister, near Castletownroche. The culprit, from the first moment he was charged, acted the hypocrite by indignantly protesting his innocence and threatening dire consequences to his accusers for the inconvenience caused him. During the trial, and even when sentence of death was passed upon him, he manifested the same thorough insensibility, and apparent absence of any of the feelings of our better nature of which even the most depraved are not wanting. When he was located in the >f condemned cell " after sentence had been pronounced ho appeared to bo utterly oblivious of his position, remorseless and callous to a degree. Since then, however, thanks to the benign influence of religion, he was a changed man. The ministration of the prison chaplain reconciled him to his fate, and he faced it in the true spirit of penitence. He always declared Brownes innocence of any participation in the crime, but he did not know the result of his trial, except he learned it from his wife at the interview which he had with her about ten days ago. Since his removal to the condemned coll, Sheehan took his meals regularly and well, and slept soundly at night. He ate his supper last night in the usual way, and retired to bed at ten o'clock. He directed his attendant to wake him at three o'clock, which was dono, and from that till half-past six o'clock, when the Rev. Father Barrett visited him, he was engaged in prayer. The chaplain and the condemned man then proceeded to the chapel, and

they continued the devotions. The unhappy man then made his last confession^ and the Rev. Father Barrett celabrated the sacrifice of the Mass, at which Sheehan received the Holy Viaticum. After Mass they received the Litanies togßther, and at a quarter to 6ight the chapel bell began to peal forth in slow and melancholy measure the death-knell. The sound of the bell, as it was heard in the chapel, was like a summons from the grave, and the victim heaved a long deep sigh as it fell upon his ear. At six minutes to eight the chief warder appear-ed at the chapel door and gave the order to move. The culprit was scarcely able to walk, and he leaned on the left arm of the priest, a warder walking abreast on the left. Then followed the subsheriff (Mr Gale), the governor of the gaol (Major Roberts), the deputy governor (Mr Patterson), and three warders. From the chapel to the execution chamber is about forty yards The scaffold platform is level with the ground outside, so that the first idea which the condemned prisoner receives of the use of the room is when he sees the rope hanging from an iron beam overhead. The procession having arrived opposite the door of the chamber, the executioner made his appearance, and at once proceeded to pinion the man. Tins operation was performed with some tediousness, and then the executioner took the place of the warder at the left of the culprit, and they stepped in on the trap. On the route from the chapel to the scaffold, the Rev. Father Barrett recited the Litany, Sheehan pronouncing the responses with a firm voice. Precisely at eight o'clock the bolt was drawn, and the unhappy man was launched in to eternity. Before the trap fell he, in an audible tono, begged God's pardon for the murders which he committed. He recited an Act of Contrition, and the chaplain gave him absolution, and then breathed into his ear several pious aspirations such as " Jesus, have mercy on me," "God be merciful to me a sinner," "Holy Mary pray for me." The bolt was no sooner drawn than the black flag was hoisted over the battlements of the prison, thus announcing to the group of about fifty persons who had gathered together on the Gaol-road that the law's stern vengeance had been satisfied. Berry was the executioner, The drop was six feel , and death was instantaneous. The body was kept suspended for an hour, and then cut down and removed to an outer yard, I where it was viewed by a coroner's' jury previous to its consignment to an unhallowed grave within the precincts of the gaol. The face, as he lay in the rude coffin, presented the usual appearance of death from strangulation. The skin turned a livid blue, the mouth was distended, and the eyes only half closed. He wore the same raiment which he wore at the trials. The black flag was hauled down at one o'clock. Sheehan was only thirty-two years of age ; his hight was sft 4in, and his weight 1461b.