A Book of Remarkable CriminalsIrving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
History
A Book of Remarkable Criminals
Irving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
Criminals -- Biography
A woman with whom Mrs. Dyson very much resented finding herself
classed--inebriety would appear to have been their only common
weakness--was Mrs. Thompson, the "traitress Sue." In spite of the fact
that on February 5 Mrs. Thompson had applied to the Treasury for L100,
blood money due her for assisting the police in the identification of
Peace, she was at the same time carrying on a friendly correspondence
with her lover and making attempts to see him. Peace had written to her
before his trial hoping she would not forsake him; "you have been my
bosom friend, and you have ofttimes said you loved me, that you would
die for me." He asked her to sell some goods which he had left with
her in order to raise money for his defence. The traitress replied on
January 27 that she had already sold everything and shared the proceeds
with Mrs. Peace. "You are doing me great injustice," she wrote, "by
saying that I have been out to 'work' with you. Do not die with such a
base falsehood on your conscience, for you know I am young and have my
living and character to redeem. I pity you and myself to think we should
have met." After his condemnation Mrs. Thompson made repeated efforts
to see Peace, coming to Leeds for the purpose. Peace wrote a letter on
February 9 to his "poor Sue," asking her to come to the prison. But,
partly at the wish of Peace's relatives and for reasons of their own, a
permission given Mrs. Thompson by the authorities to visit the convict
was suddenly withdrawn, and she never saw him again.
III
HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION
In the lives of those famous men who have perished on the scaffold
their behaviour during the interval between their condemnation and their
execution has always been the subject of curiosity and interest.
It may be said at once that nothing could have been more deeply
religious, more sincerely repentant, more Christian to all appearances
than Peace's conduct and demeanour in the last weeks of his life. He
threw himself into the work of atonement with the same uncompromising
zeal and energy that he had displayed as a burglar. By his death a truly
welcome and effective recruit was lost to the ranks of the contrite
and converted sinners. However powerless as a controlling force--and he
admitted it--his belief in God and the devil may have been in the past,
that belief was assured and confident, and in the presence of death
proclaimed itself with vigour, not in words merely, but in deeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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