| Show BURCHELL IS 1 DEAD I The Murderei of BemvelT Pays the Penalty OF HIS MOST COWARDLY CRIME Ho iDIed Game and Made > o Confession Ills Executionwas Not a Success it Being by Strangulation WOODSTOCK Ont Nov HAt 829 this I morning Reginald Burchell was launched L into eternity for the murder of his fellow countryman P C BenwelL He partook sparingly o breakfast atC then began to I prepare for the final ordeal He put on a white flannel shirt with coat and vest bu asked the turnkey to see this was replaced after the execution by an ordinary white shirt with starched collar and tie He would not wear a starched collar at the execution ex-ecution hb said because it might interfere with placing the rope around his neck From half past 6 and from then on a crowd began to collect in front of the jail chiefly newspaper men from all over Canada and the United States At half past 7 the doors were all opened and the crowd admitted and passed through to the yard in which the scaffold was erected About fifty were admitted The executioner appeared on the scene at twentyfive minutes before S rope in hand and began to put things in order The scaffold was made of three pieces of timber C inches square two up rights sunk in the ground and a third crossed over the top A rope ran over the pulleys in this cress beam and a canister weighing 350 pounds of iron was attached to the opposite end of the noose and was held up by a cord to the staple The cut ting of this cord released the weight which falls and jerks the condemned man upward four feet At 815 the hangman having completed preparationsoutside came in in a long black Prince Albert coat and relieved Night Guard Midgley He bad a hard look about the mouth buta telltale moistness moist-ness about the eyes He climbed the stairs and stood on the gallery beside Burchalls corridor door There an old soldier stood gloomy aud sorrow ful until the sad procession passed out and down the spiral steps At S23 the doctor and I executioner were beckoned to go up He I had been walking around the rotunda in his hands were straps with which to tie Burchalls arms waiting for the signal He put behind his back and partly under the skirt of his coat the russetcolored straps went upstairs and in a minute or L two he took them to strap the prisoners arms behind his back Then the awful I march to death began at 825 First came II I the rural dean Wade in surplice and leading the Church of England service for the dead Behind him was TJr Cham oeriain followed uy A D Stewart and Deputy Sheriff Perry The prisoner came next deathly pale but resolute his jaws locked with the fixity of death His step was steady but his jet black hair and moustache made the pallor of his face like marble Ho was dressed in dark colored tweed clothes a white flannel shirt with a black bow at the collar and light patent leather shoes He looked so young and there was such an expression of immovable e esoluticn and undaunted cour age that the men who saw him and know him worthy of dBath in the light of the law forgot that he had shot a friend in the back in a lonely swamp The faces of half the men there were as white almost as that of tho doomed man At the foot of the spiral staircase the procession formed and his I friend Weetham walked on one side of him with DayGuard GeorgePerry onjthe other Jailor Cameron following them and after came the hangman The aged sheriff was supported to the door of the corridor over lookmcr tho west yard The march was siow along the corridor and out into yardAVeetham walked close and held one hand in both of his with all the assurance of a friends hearty clasp The principal actors in the tragedy stopped with their charge fifteen feet from the scaffold and the solemn tones of the burial service thrilled every one there with a horror that hardly let them realize the tremendous importance of that in which they were takine part They felt an over powering pity for the blackhaired white faced young man standing on tho threshold of eternity His eyes had not that trace of frivolity that had lightened his imprison ment As he stood listening to the low toned priest his eyes were fixed on the blue sky over to the north There was not a haunted look nor was there any fear in his eyes but a fixed purpose that seemed to consume his reason It is not possible to imagine the expression of his face He was lining a lifetime in that hour and mo one there but would have spared him the strain of his terrible ordeal It was not despair but he had strung his whole being up to die game At the words Dust to dust in the service Burchall stepped firmly forward and took his place under the scaffold with his face to the south and turned up slightly He took Weethams hand in his and they kissed under the gallows The executioner put a strap around prisoners legs just above the knees When the clergyman tooK Burchalls hand and kissed it the wit nesses were sure the end was near and the suspense was terrible on the witnesses but I HO human beine can say how terrible to the i man standing mono mere on the green sward As the priest entered upon the Lords prayer the executioner put the black cap over the head of the doomed man and adjusted the noose about the neck Burchall had declared he would say nothing I at the scaffold and the witnesses did not ex pect he would His silence seemed to be part of the intensity of his purpose to be silent concentrated a hundred times He aid not say a word after leaving the cell except it might have been to mutter a word t j Weetham or Wade when he bade them good hvc with a kiss tYt 82 < six minutes alter the procession started from the corridor the words De liver us from evil gavo the signal and a quick pull on the small rope by the execu tioner who stood behind tho laws victim released the immense weight It dropped with the rapidity of thought and sank six or eight inches in the ground by the force of its weight Burchell had been placed close to one of the uprights and the jerk of the noose drew his body first obliquely then up The body jerked up into the air about live feet and fell until within two feet of the ground Convulsions com menced half a minute later but wero not at nil violent more resembling heavy breath ing with a slight twitching of hands and legs At S3Qli the convulsions ceased At b35 Dr Chamberlain declared life extinct Ho said his neck was broken was Mrs Burchell remained in the cell with her husband this morning when she was led away weeping Burchell slept a little i but his demeanor during tho night re mained unchanged He had an impression some one would publish a bogus confession from him so he prepared the following his final statement as Woodstock jail November 10 1SPO All rights reserved hT 4 h > u ux LCL illY Avruu A LUcre sUaIl auan appear IH the press or in any other manner whatso ever any confession that I had any hand In tho murder of F C Benwell or any personal knowledge of said murder with intent or malice aforethought or any per sonal connection with the murder on the 17th of February or other days or any knowledge that any such murder was likely to be committed or any statement further than that I may have made public previous to this date I hand this statement to the care of George err of Woodstock Ontario that he may know that any con fessions or partial confessions arc en tirely fictitious and in no way ever written by me neither emanated from me in any manner whatsoever to any person and the whole isjQctitious and without a word of truth This likewise applies to my story I In the Mad in which I have made no such confession or partial confessions This holds good throughout Signed REG BuncnnLL The post mortem showed death was tausedby strangulation The body will 4 be burried in the jail yard i |
