THE CREWE MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 120, 22 May 1890, Page 5

THE CREWE MURDER.

RICHARD DAVIES' LAST LETTER,

The mother of Richard Davies received the following letter, written by the unhappy youth a few minutes before his death. It is almost illegible, scratched in pencil, and indicates the tremor which he felt at his approaching doom: — "Dear Mother,— I declare with my voice, truthfully, in my last hour, that I never sbruck my father on the nighb of his death. I never had the axe in my hand. Weep not for me, dear mother and loved ones, for I am going to the home of glory, saved through the blood of our dear Saviour Jesus. My sins havo been washed away, and unto the Lord I commend my soul, to inherit ebernal lite in heaven. May I meet you all bhere. God bless you all, and keep you. Farewell, dear loved ones; farewell, farowell.—Richard Davies."

It may be remembered that Richard Davies has throughout denied that he was an actual participant in the. crime. He stated in the condemned cell a few moments before execution that he never touched the axe with which the deed was done. In his communication to tho Home Secretary he confesses that he stopped the trap in the lane at the Hough, but by arrangement between them George Davies was to be the actual murderer, he (Richard) agreeing to interfere only if George were overpowered by his father. He describes the struggle between George and the deceased, how the boy stunned his father wibh the axo and bhrew him into the. .pad., how George asked him to " finish \v,a fatheroff" wibh a pistol bullet, how he refused, and then George agMH. belaboured his father over tho head with the axe until he wan dead. This confession elicited, no reply whatever from Mr Matthews,