LETTER FROM THE MURDERER KELLY.

West Coast Times, Issue 344, 30 October 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM THE MURDERER KELLY.

(ritOJI Till; DAILY SOUTHEHN CROSi, OCI. 18). One of the most determined criminals that ever we had in this province, and who has made himself well known by his daring crimes, escaped from the Mount Eden Stockade yesterday morning. The man's name is Isaac Robinson, and we daresay that most of our readers will have some recollection of his former exploits. He was in the 40th Regiment, and has deserted twice. On his second desertion, he made his way down to Waiheki, and was for some time employed there by Mr Adam Chisholm, a settler. One day, while he was sitting with Mr Chisholm in the house, he took up a stick and struck him a blow on the head which very nearly proved fatal. Mr Chisholm being unable to leave the house to give any alarm for two days. Robinson took away a gun, a pair of pistols, and a sum of money. A short time after, Robinson was captured, after a desperate struggle, at Howick, to which place he had made * his way from Waiheki. Robinson was sentenced at the Supreme Court to three years imprisonment, with hard labor, for assaulting Mr Chi&holm. He had not been confined long in the stockade when he made his escape, running in the direction- of the Wb.au.- Immediate pursuit was given, but Robinson managed to get clear off. Next day a settler, named Griffiths, was knocked down and stripped, near the Whan, by Robinson, who put on Griffiths' clothes, and left his own prison dress. As in the case of Chisholm, the blow was a severe one. Griffiths lay a long time insensible, and was hardly able to reach his house. Some weeks after, when he appeared to give evidence in court, his head was bound up, and Robinson laughed very heartily at 'his lugubrious appearance. This time Robinson was ! captured in the Flat Bush, by a constable named King. F)r this offence, and the escape, Robinson was sentenced to six j r ears imprisonment. Since that time up till a very few days ago, Robinson was kept heavily ironed. Upon making promises of good behaviour he was relieved from irons, we believe, by the direction of the Visiting Justice. About half-past eight o'clock yesterday morning, while Robinson was at work in the mason's department, he suddenly slipped away, taking with him a stonebreaker's hammer handle, and, running to the right of the entrance gate, he contrived to hide himself from the view of the warders by the newly-erected officers' quartets and a shed, Getting to the wall, he dropped a height of about ten feet at an angle which concealed him, and then starting out while the nearest" sentry's back was turned, he ran across the paddock > towards the Kyber Pass Road. A Mr Hall appears to have attempted his arrest, but, on closing with Robinson, he was immediately knocked down with the blow from the hammer handle. Robinson then entered a dense scrub, and was lost to sight. Two warders were posted by Mr Tuckwell on 1 the Paumure Bridge, two on Point England, and two on the Onehunga and Penrose Road, also two near St John's College, so that it is considered physically impossible that Robinson can long escape apprehension. The scrub in which he was seen to enter is also surrounded with armed warders, who are under orders to watch there till daybreak. The fugitive Robinson, whose character may be gathered from the above sketch, is a brother of Kelly, who was recently executed at Nelson for the Maungatapu murders. The following letter, written by Kelly a short time before his execution, was sent to Robinson, but, we believe, wjas not given to him. It is written in a very small, steady, and rather pretty hand :—: — Nelson Gaol, September 25, 1866, j\ly Pear Brother — In this my unfortunate, peculiarly unfortunate position, and writing a most sorrowful epistlo to you I ask you in the name of God whom I and ever}' man must fear not to condemn your Own Dear Brother on account of having been arraigned convicted confounded and to death for one of the most extiaordinary complicated cruel and barbarous murders that I believe to have taken place in the world condemn me for I am as innocent as yourself and I tell in my dying words and call upon my God to witness I am speaking the truth- that I never to my knowledge in all my knowledge of my life ever remember seeing any of the unfortunate men that it is said were murdered on the Maungatapu Mountain so let your Dear Brother's dying words console you and keep your heart up upon the strength of your Own Dear Brother being sacrificed to appease I do not know what but God help me and give me strength to meet my fate like a brave man but whatever it be it will serve the villiauous,ends of our school mate Tom Sullivan who has proved himself to be a wholesale murderer a perjurer before my trial and a perjurer at my trial and a cruel wicked and dangerous man but may God forgive him and arouse his conscience to its proper office before he reaches to the other side of the grave and after I am dead and gone and rotten and almost forgotten proclaim my innocence to the world although my body will be commingled with the earth it was made from as it will be the means of showing judges juries and all other law officers, of the Crown how careful they ought to be when one of their fellow-creatures lives in depending upon the breath of one like Tom. * * * Oh God help me in so trying and fearful solemn serious a moment as this is to me penning these lines to you my Dear Brother after his Honor Captain Walmsley the Sheriff communicating to me that it was his Honor's painful duty to inform me that the General Government had decided that my sentence (which is the most inglorious of deaths) is to be carried into at * period not far distant,

Covering the paper I am now writing upon with salt sorrowful and bitter tears and Dear Brother I am quite sensible at this awful moment to me what is the end and design of the Sacrament of Repentence and that I am not making use of such asseverations as I have with any earthly motive and would to God I were as happy as not to have lost the grace received in Baptism then there would be no need of the Sacrament of Repentence as there is but bear well in mind Dear Brother I have no need of the repentance of the most grievous sin of shedding my fellow man'i blood Oh no thank the JLord of all for that and therefore out of God's infinite mercy and goodness I hope and pray for God's condescension in my weakness and misery that it may please Him to give me His grace as there is no succour to be compared with the help of the Omnipotent King of Glory. * * * My Dear Brother at times since my arrest I have compared Tom with one of King Richard the Third's hired assassins whom Shakespeare made to say of conscience that it was a dangerous accusing thing and that it made a man a coward and that it ought to be thrown away and live wifch-

out it. ~* - ;K * * As this is my last letter to you or any other person I must acquaint you that I am so glad at the wonderful change that I noticed to have taken place at inj trial on the part of the inhabitants of tins town for on account of the Mautfatapu Mountain affair being so dreadful and causing such intense anxiety in town and throughout the country generally after I was arrested I was hissed hooted and spit at by living beings from 18 inches high to upwards of six feet (but principally the rabble) who oftentimesfilled the air with shoutings and ravings of indignation little conscious Dear Brother that I was as innocent of the Maugatapu Mountain murders as themselves but God forgive everybody as I do myself and I tell you again I was so glad to see the very opposite extreme at my trial and I do not believe from my own experience all over the colonies that there is such a Christian like or so well disposed a community -at this side of the line as the population of Nelson.

Now for a few words to you about Dick Iliil as you know a little about him there is great change in him since you knew him God help him I often cry and pray for him for he was a good man one time but Dear Brother my pen could not describe him to you now he is a terrible murderer by his own awful confession the unhappy maa tried to do me good he might as well have held his tongue he did not make his confession soon enough wheu he did make it I was thunderstruck he told me to remember him to you he appears to be quite resigned to his fate and I do really believe he is preparing his wicked and sinful soul to meet his God as well as he can. I have turned my paper this way through my tears causing me to make smears. So now Dear Brother I will conclude with telling you to communicate this sorrowful tidings to our relations and friends as you please as I have not written to any person but yourself ' so farewell for ever and adieu farewell again from me to you good bys and God bless you and everybody living so farewell to mankind farewell to the world and farewell to the land that I live in and when I am dead and this you are reading Oh pray that my sins may be forgiven I pray for this I hope for this and I heartily wish for this so another farewell adieu and good -bye from- your own Tommy yes Oh yea your own Tommy Noon and I remain your affectionate and loving brother

Thomas Noon.

Now mind and keep your heart up when my time comes I will meet my iuglorioua and shamful death with the help and assistance of God Almighty. So another farewell adieu and good bye I'll leave off writing and have a good cry For the day is approaching that I hare to

die It is a pity for to see

In a condemned cell Tommy Who has been judged wrongfully To die the death of ignominy Through not proving an alibi Which would at onne have set him free From wilful corrupt gross perjury But to the gallows he must go Compelled from friends to part Hard as it is it must be so

But still it grieves his heart To die for murdering of a man He never seen in all his life Winch will appease the monster Sullivan

Bloodthirsty deadly strife Those are my dying words to God

Before whom I'll soou appear So fellow man do not think it odd

But believe it with a tear As unhappy Tommy Kelly can' sign this with

conscience clear Of telling lie to his fellow man or his God

whom he does fear But tis so G-od's will must be done Kelly's

life's blood will soon cease to ruu And may the Nelsonians kindly agree Tommy's besn murdered and ought to be free

Oh do this tis the wish of one broken-hearted

to have justice done him when he his de-

parted And may G-od bless everybody tliat is my prayer for I ought not to be here I

solemnly declare So now Pll dwell and bid farewell to friends both far and near and may the Lord

have mercy on me before whom I must

appear For I've never spilt man's blood since on this

earth I'll trod But I've been a kind free hearted man though at times I've not been good So a good day and a, good bye to all and a sorry day and a sorry bye upon myself will fall But I pray G-od held me in my difficulties both great and small And not allow your Tommy in the pit of hell • to fall And when I am gone Oh do not wrong me And then I will die free and happy So now I'll make up my mind to die happy Freely believing nobody will wrong me Unhappy unfortunate much injured Tommy So good bye again from broken-hearted Kelly So now adieu to writing and to man God bless everybody Tommy lays down his pen And says Amen.

A private letter of the 17th July, from Algiers, gives a deplorable account of the destruction caused in that province by the locusts. Their invasion had lasted two months. They had nearly eaten up all the crops, and -in many places stripped every green leaf from the trees.

A fearful storm is reported to have swept over the Adriatic. The Italian fleet in the harbor at Ancona has suffered severely, and the iron-clad Affondatore was sunk. The crew were saved, and active efforts were being made to raise her. A committee of enquiry has been institute^ \q i»Y<migftte tj** ww qI : this aii^mr,