| Show BIRCHALL EXECUTED woodstock ont nov 14 at this morning regi reginald kalcl birchall was launched into eternity for the murder murde of his fellow countryman FC P C benwell he partook spar apar angly of a breakfast at six then he befanto began to prepare forthe for the final ordeal he put on a white flannel shirt with coat and vest but asked the turnkey to see that this was replaced by an ordinary white shirt with starched collar and tie he would not wear a starched collar at the execution he said because it might interfere with the placing of the rope around his hh neck at half past six and from then on a crowd began to collect in front of theja the jail fl chiefly newspaper men from all over canada and the united states at half past seven the doors were all opened and the crowd admitted to pass through the yard in which the scaffold was erected about fifty were admitted the executioner appeared on the scene at about twenty five minutes before eight rope in hand and began to put things in order the scaffold was made of three pieces of timber six inches square gwo uprights were sunk ip in the ground and the third timber was crowed crossed over the top the rope ran over pulleys on this cross beam and a canister weight of pounds of iron were attached to the opposite end of the noose doose and held up by a cord to the staple the cutting of this cord releases the weight which falls and jerks the condemned upward tour four feet at THE HANGMAN laving having completed his hia preparations outside came in a long black prince albert coat and removed the night guard midgley he had a hard look about his hia mouth but a telltale moistness about the eyes he climbed the stairs and stood on the gallery beside Bircha llla corridor door there as aa old solder stood gloomy and sorrowful until the sad p passed out and down the spiral steps at the exe executioner was beckoned to go up he had been walking around the rotunda das holding in his hands the straps with which to tie fireballs bin Bire hallos balls arms waiting for the signal he put behind his back and partly under the skirt of his coat the russet colored straps and went upstairs A minute or two he took to strap the prisoners arms behind his back and then the awful march to death be gan at first came the rural rn dean ean wade in surplice and reading the church of england service for the dead behind him came dr chamberlain followed by A D and deputy sheriff perry the prisoner came next deathly pale but resolute his jaws looked locked with THE FIXITY OF DEATH his steps were steady his hetblack jet black hair and moustache made the pallor of the face like marble he was dressed in dark colored tweed clothes white flannel shirt with a black bow at collar and light patent leather shoes he looked so young and there was such an expression of unmovable resolution and undaunted courage that the men who saw sa him and knew him worthy of death in the eye of the law forgot that he had shot a friend in a swamp the faces of half of bf the men there were as white almost as that of the doomed man at the foot of the spiral staircase the procession formed and his friend leetham harn walked on one side of him with the day guard george perry on the other jailor cameron followed them after the hangman and the aged sheriff supported to the door of the corridor overlooking the west yard THE MARCH was slow along the corridor and out into the yard beetham We etham walked close by and held one of Birch alps hands bands in his with all the assurance of a friends clasp the principal wath a actors in the tragedy stopped with the charge fifteen feet from the gallows and the solemn tones of the anglican service thrilled every one there with a horror that hardly let them realize the tremendous importance ortance of that in which they were f taking aking part they felt an overpowering pity for the fhe black haired whited face young man mad standing on the threshold of eternity his elis eyes had bad not the trace of frivolity that lightened big biff imprisonment As he be stood listening to the low toned priest his bs 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 von ron sume his reason it is not possible to imagine the expression of his bis face he was living a lifetime in that hour and there thera was no one there but would have spared the strain of his terrible ordeal it was not dot despair but he had strung the whole being up to die game at the words DUST TO DUST in the service Bire birchall fireball ball a eppedi firmly forward he took his bis place under the scaffold with his face to the south and turned up slightly he took Wee thams band in his bis and the friends kissed under the gallows the executioner put a strap around the prisoners prisoner Jo logs legs just J above the knees when the clergyman clergy man toi took ok Birc halls hand and kissed it the suspense was terriace ter riale on the witnesses no human knowledge ean any how terrible it was to the man standing alone there on the green sward award As the priest entered upon the lords prayer the executioner put a black cap over the head of the doomed man and adjusted the noose about the neck birchall Birc ball bad declared that he be would say nothing at the scaffold and the witnesses did not expect he would his silence seemed to be the intensity of his purpose he did not say one word after leaving the gell cell except it might have been to mutter a word to beetham or wade when he BADE THEM GOOD EYE BYE with a kiss at six mina minutes after the procession had started from the corridor at the words idelia ID deliver eliv us from evil a signal was given and a quick pull on the small rope by the executioner who stood behind the laws victim released the immense weight it dropped with the rapidity of thought and sank bank six or force of its weight burchall had been placed close to one of the uprights anti and the jerk of the noose drew his body first obliquely then up the body was jerked up into the air about fi five ve feet and then fell to within two feet from the ground the convulsions commenced half a minute later but were not at all violent more resembling hevy breathing with a slight twitching of the hands and legs at ac the convulsions had bad ceased at dr chamberlain declared life extinct he said the neck had bad been broken mrs birchall remained in the aall with her husband till I 1 this morning when she was led away weeping birchall slept little but his bis demeanor during the night remained unchanged he had an impression that sone some one would publish a bogus cobates coat sion AS by him so he be prepared the following as his final statement WOODSTOCK JAIL NOV 10 1890 all rights reserved P if after my death there shall appear in the press or in any other ut manner anner whatsoever any confession that I 1 bad any hand in the murder of D C benwell or any personal knowledge of said murder with intent or malice aforethought or any personal connection with the murder on the alth of february or other days or any knowledge that any such murder was wap likely to be committed or any statement ment further than any that t I 1 may have made public previous to this date I 1 hand this statement to the care are of george perry of wood stock ontario that he may know that any or partial confessions fes entirely or partial confession sare entirely fictitious and were in no way ever written by me neither have they been demanded from me in any form whatsoever to any per the whole is 18 fictitious and without a word of truth this likewise applies to my story awry in the MW meal in which I 1 have made no DO such confession or partial confession this holds good throughout signed REG BIRCHALL the postmortem examination showed death caused by strangulation the body will be buried in therall the jail yard |
