EXECUTION OF MRS PEARSEY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3752, 5 March 1891, Page 2

EXECUTION OF MRS PEARSEY.

The execution took place at eight o'clock on the morning of December 23. Late on the previous evening, about halfcpast nine o'clock, the condemned woman « as removed from the cell in which she had been imprisoned into the condemned cell in the male wing, which is in close proximity to the execution shed. Mrs Pearsey was attended by three women warders, and on her way was in tolerably good spirits, but complaining of the dense fog. Soon after ten o'clock the Rev. Mr Duffield, the chaplain, returned to the prison, and proceeded immediately to her cell. He had an earnest conversation with her for rather more than half an hour, and urged her,' Do not be launched into eternity with anything on your mind which you can now explain.' She replied faintly, ' I have nothing to explain. lam not guilty.' All day she had eaton very little, and when she went to rest about balf-past eleven she took no supper. Her sleep was very disturbed —not half an hoar of consecutive slumber dimmed her senses—and about balf-past three she rose and dressed, and then asked for a cup of tea. She ate nothing. From that time she occupied her time in reading, now and then addressing a remark to her attendants, who were far more exercised at the terrible crisis than she was herself. \ It was about six o'clock when he chaplain next visited her, and he received him in a languid m<mner, always evading conversation on the subject of the murder. The chaplain had hoped to have received from her at that trying moment some confession in regard to the part she bore and in solemn words pointed out her position once more. He urged her to make some reparation to her fellow creatures by letting them know the truth, but all he could get from her was that it was absurd to suppose that Hogg was connected with it. For more than an hour this painful interview was maintained, but no change was made iu her obdurate contention that she was not guilty. A little after seven o'clock he left, and her breakfast was brought in. But she would not eat anything—merely drank a little tea. Apain, about half-past seven, the chaplain returned, and for some time engaged in prayer. She was perfectly calm, and repeated the Lord's Prayer with him in a quiet but distinctly audible voice. Again and again he. urged her to make her poace before the inevitable overtook her. but met with no response.

At length, just as the clock pointed to five minutes before the hour, he said, " The foot ot the executioner is almost at your door. Now I ask yon, for the laßt time, is there anything you have to say to me?" "No." "Do you admit the justice of your sentence ?" " Yes ; but the greater part of the evidence was false." " Then you mean to say by that that you are guilty ?" asked Mr Duffleld, in anxious expectation of a reply. But no reply came ; she shook her head and sat down upon a form.

After a word or two more of exhortation and sympathy, the chaplain left, and the officers of the law entered. When she saw them she quietly rose from the form where she was sitting, and the female warders gathered round her, " This is Berry, the executioner," whispered one. •'' I know," she replied, as she took his proffered hand. Scarcely a word was said as she was pinioned—a work of only a few seconds duration.

Just before the pinioning she had some more tea, and in answer to Sir James Whitehead's que tion as to whether she had anythi n to say, she replied in the negative. She turned round to the female warder's who had been her constant cotnp anions since her conviction, and ca Italy bade them

"Good-bye"—not n tremor in her voice, and no trembling in her bands. They who during their enforced intercourse with her, had grown to like her quiet submissive ways—her uncomplaining fortitude—were much affected, and when Berry had completed his operations two set out to walk with her, one on each side. By a sign however, she rufused their aid, and walked alono nnd unsupported into thecorridor Here were assembled certain other gentlemen who watched the procession pass in solemn silence. It only went across the corridor into the exercise yard beyond. By another recent merciful modification, at this point the white cap was drawn over the prisoners eyes, so that she saw not die instrument of death. Guided by Berry, the warders led her directly under the rope. The chaplain meanwhile had placed himself just in front of the wretched woman, reciting passages from the Burial Service.

Arrived upon the drop, the female warders left her.and two male warders took their place while Berry fixed the rope. Not a word was spoken after leaving the cell by the prisoner, or anyone else, save the solemn phrases, of the litnrgy. So sooa as the strap was affixed around her dress just below the knees Berry touched the warders, who stepped back, then laying his hand on the lever he pressed it down, the door opened, and Mary Eleanor Pearsey passed away almost instantaneously from sight. Death must have been immediate, there was only the smallest vibration of the rope—which gave a drop of six feet—and, as was given in evidence at the inquest, it resulted from dislocation of the .vertebra—not from strangling. None the less when, after an hour, she was taken down and laid in her coffin, there was an unusual suffusion of blood visible under her delicate skin, and the purple hue ot her lips, curled back and showing her prominent teeth, gave evidence of pain.