EXECUTION OF O'DONNELL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1126, 15 January 1884, Page 3

EXECUTION OF O'DONNELL.

Pat. O'Donnell, the murderer of the informer Carey, paid the penalty within the walls of Newgate on the morning of December 17th. The drop fe'l precisely at 8 o'clock. The previous night O'Donnell went to bed about 10 and remained apparently asleep till 5.30. At 6 the priest came and the prisoner remained in prayer for some time. At the conclusion of prayers the sacrament was administered. O'Donnell partook of alight breakfast, and appeared to eat it with relish. At 7.45 the prison bell began tolling, and a similar warning was sent from the belfrv of St. Sepulchre's Church on Holborn Viaduct. Directly after the I Governor of the Gaol with the head j warder entered, and o'Dont.ell was at once led to the pinioning room, half way between the condemned cell and the prison yard. Here they found the executioner, Binns, awaiting them, together witli theSheniff of London, three war ders and the prison doctor. Binns bound O'DonnelPs arms with leather thongs, O'Donnell submitting quietly. The procession was then formed, the prisoner in a cloak, and they quickly marched to the prison yard, passing so close to the few spectators admitted that they could have touched O'Donnell but for the lattice-work that separated them. The scaffold was quietly reached. The noose hung ormn ously from the cross beam above. The scaffold was half boarded up, so that O'DomieU'a attendant* wore seen by those

present only from the waist up. Binns lost not a moment in placing thg white cap over the victim's face and adjusting the noose, aud a moment after O'Donnell disappeared, a quivering cord being all that remained to show where he had stood. The Governor and the doctor gazed a moment into the cellar pit in which his body swung, and then hurried away. Outside the gaol a considerable crowd were assembled. They dispersed directly the black flag was hoisted. Twenty police were detained inside the gaol and constables were posted around the walls outside. The body of O'Donnell, after hanging an hour, was cut down, and later in the day the inquest was held, with the usual verdict. The remains were interred in quicklime under one of the flags in the corridor known as the Birdcage walk. While being pinioned O'Donnell smiled, and seemed indifferent to h''s approaching fate. Ho expressed to the Governor his regret for the scene he had made in the dock after being sentenced. He walked firmly to the scaffold. His death was instantaneous, the fall being 8 feet. His brother was not admitted _to the execution, but remained outside praying excitedly. The morning was wet and gloomy. The crowd around the gaol was quiet. Strenuous efforts were made, especially by Irish-Americans to procure a mitigation, or at least a respite, and delegations waited on President Aurthur to ask that the United States to intervene in the matter, which was accordingly done through Minister Lowell in London. For this action, as well as resolutions passed by the United States House of Representatiyes, the New York Tribune and Post have only language of the strongest censure, and charge the President with yielding to Irish clamor, and thus putting himself in an absurd position. Outside the Irish American element in the United States there is no feeling in the matter whatever. Such American newspapers as discuss the sentence and its execution admit its justice.