EXECUTION OF ROSS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 May 1922, Page 8

EXECUTION OF ROSS.

GUN ALLEY MURDERER END FACED CALMLY. PROTESTATION OF INNOCENCE. Protesting his innocence to the last, Colin Campbell Ross, condemned to death for the iQurder of Ahra Tirtschke, whose body was found in Gun-alley on the morning of December 31, was executed at M&lbourne Gaol at 10 a.m. on April 24. Present at the execution were about 50 people, comprising officials, police and press representatives. In the precincts of the gaol buildings, however, both in Russell and Victoria Streets, the crowd must have numbered over 1000.

The governor of the gaol, the sheriff, and the official party arrived at two minutes to 10, and punctually on the stroke of the hour, the hangman, heavily masked, emerged from a cell at the side of the gallows platform. He was followed by a masked assistant. Crossing over the scaffold the two men entered the condemned cell at the opposite side in which the prisoner had been placed earlier in the morning. Ross was then brought from the cell, where for three-quarters of an hour he had been with his spiritual advisers, to the centre of the platform. He walked firmly the few steps between the cell and the gallows, and needed no assistance. With his hands and feet bound and a white cap on his head, Ross stood perfectly erect and listened, without any apparent distress, while Rev. W. L. Fenton read some verses from the Bible. His hand twitched slightly; otherwise the prisoner was far more passive than the chaplain. In accordance with custom, the sheriff then asked Ross whether he had anyt thing to say. . For a moment the priss oner remained silent; then, speaking in ■ a subdued, but clear, voice, he briefly 1 protested his innocence.

“I am now face to face with my Maker,” Ross declared, “and I swear ,by Almighty God that I am an innocent man. I never saw the child; I never committed the crime, and I don’t know who did. I never confessed to anyone. I ask God. to forgive those who have sworn my life away. I pray God to have mercy on my poor darling mother, and on my family.” Immediately ho had finished speaking the cap was pulled down over his face, and at a given signal from the sheriff Ross was executed. Death was instantaneous.

Outside the crowd waited on after j those who had witnessed the execution had long gone their way. They neither heard nor saw anything, but it was 1 eleven o’clock before they dispersed. ‘ The Attorney General, Mr. Robinson, declined to divulge the nature of the additional evidence secured by the Crown against Ross. Although Ross died protesting his innocence for the crime for which he was hanged, the fresh evidence, it is believed, will not be made public. The Attorney-General declared that Ross had had an absolutely fair trial. According to official directions, the Government reward for the conviction of the murderer of Alma Tirtschke will be apportioned by the Police Department. Several witnesses for the Crown will participate in the reward.