MURDERER HANGED.

SYKES PAYS PENALTY FOR KILLING TWO GIRLS.

"I AM SORRY."

LONDON, April 27

Walter Sykes, the Rotherham murderer, who was executed at Wakefield Gaol, made no written confession, but as he was being pinioned he was heard to remark, "I am sorry." Pierpont, the executioner, who was assisted by A. F. Lumb, was" quick with the pinioning, and in a few seconds Sykes had paid the penalty. Sykes' demeanour all through had been cool, and there were no signs of trembling as he walked to the scaffold. Death, it is stated, was instantaneous. The crime for which Walter Sykes, 24, showman's laborer, paid the penalty with his life stands out as one of the most revolting in the annals of Rotherham. There were two victims of the tragedy, Amy Nicholson, ten, of Abdy Farm, Kimberworth Park, and Frances Alice Nicholson, seven, Scholes Cottages, situate about threequarters of a mile away. The girls were cousins. On Friday night of November loth, 1912, they attended a rehearsal for a concert in the old chapel at Kimberworth, and left for home about 8 o'clock. It was a dark night, and the journey which had to be undertaken was not only long but exceedingly lonely. They had companions with them part of the way, the! last to leave being Doris Stainrod. The next chapter in the story begins at Abdy Farm. When the children did not arrive in a reasonable time the brothers of Frances Alice, who were to meet her at her uncle's house, set off in search, but without result. It was not until next day that the mother of Frances Alice found the children lying dead under a hedge with their throats cut. The only clue was a woollen glove found near the scene, and the impress of corduroy in the soft earth. Then came the exciting chapter of the whole history- On Sunday afternoon, December 29th, Vesey Haigh, eighteen, a trammer, saw Walter Sykes at Kilnhurst. Sykes said, "Yon bobby is watching me for the Kimberworth murder, and when he is watching me hq is watching the right one, but; he will never catch me. He will find me sharper than himself." Haigh followed him to Mexborough and gave information to the police. At the lock-up prisoner confessed the crime. Very soon afterwards he retracted by saying "What I have already told you is not true."