The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
On Wednesday the 28th of January, pursuant to his sentence, Burke
underwent the last penalty of the law. During the latter portion of his
confinement, he declared that his confession had tended materially to
relieve his mind; and he professed great contrition for his crimes. On
the day of his execution he was removed from the jail to the lock-up, at
the Court-house, where the scaffold had been erected, under a strong
escort of police. The crowd which had assembled to witness his final
exit from the scene of life was tremendous; and seats commanding a view
of the gallows were let at a large price. Upon his coming forth upon the
platform, he was assailed by the hideous yells of public execration,
with a species of ferocious exultation. The concluding moments of his
existence must have caused him the most acute suffering, for, stung to
madness by the horrible shrieks with which he was greeted, he appeared
anxious to hurry the executioner in the performance of his duty, as if
desirous to escape from that life which he had spent so ill. Very soon
after eight o'clock, he was tied up to the gallows in the usual way; and
he immediately gave the signal for the falling of the drop, by throwing
down his handkerchief. A short, but apparently a severe struggle
succeeded; and in less than two minutes he ceased to move. His body hung
suspended for half an hour, when it was cut down, and placed in a shell,
which had been brought to the scaffold for its reception. A struggle
took place among the officials present for scraps of the rope with which
he had been hanged, shavings of his coffin, and other relics of a
similar character; but by nine o'clock, the crowd had dispersed, and in
a few hours afterwards, all appearance of his execution had vanished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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