EXPIATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

EXPIATED.

CONSTABLE'S MURDER. BROW\E AND KENNEDY PAY THE PENALTY. Under leaden skies and -with biting cold winds sweeping round the high walls of their prisons, Frederick Guy Browne and William Henry Kennedy were executed for the murder in Essex on September 2S last of Police Constable (.'utteridge. Browne was hanged at Pentonville Prison, where he earned the reputation of being the worst man ever guarded iri the condemned cell, and Kennedy at Wandsworth. Great crowds assembled outside the piisons as the hour tixed for the execution, nine o clock, drew near, and there was an affecting scene when Mrs. Kennedy arrived in a taxi cab at the gates of Wandsworth. As the hands of the prison clock reached the fatal hour she collapsed. Dozens of women crossed themselves, weeping bitterly. Both men had long last interviews with their wives a few hours before the sentence was due to be carried out. Browne, it is stated, ate a hearty 1 and walked to the scaffold definantly, showing no trace of nervousness. Kwiijoiy aisii met his tate with fortitude, but gave way to emotion when the chaplain entered his cell to prepare him for the end.

Although Browne spent a quiet night in his cell at Pentonville, the four warders who, since his extraordinary attempt at suicide Jitter the sentence, when he cut himself in six places with a concealed safety-razor blade, have watched liim day and night, kept up a ceaseless vigil. The condemned man slept well, and had to be awakened at eieht o'clock. He made no comment, lmt ate an extremely good breaklast, and then sat sullenly awaiting the executioner. Xot once did he show the slightest trace of emotion. The chaplain arrived and tried to talk with him, but Browne took no notice of his words. Not since his sentence lias he allowed the chaplain tn converse with him.

.At livci minutes tu nine Baxter. the executioner. entered the condemned cell and walked over to Browne. The doer opened. and Browne, surrounded by wardeis. marched to the execution .shed, only a yard <>r two from the cell. He went calmly to the scaffold, with .'in air of defiance. ,\ moment later the bolt was drawn, and Browne had passed out of this life. In the crowd outside the prison were Browne's grey-haired father and Mr. Fineh, his brother-in-law. Every window facing the prison was tilled, and men even ehmbed on the roofs of buildings opposite in the hope of seeing the interior of the prison. As the clock struck nine there was a tense siience. Men bared their heads and women knelt in praj ei. After a lew minutes the customary notice was pinned on the prison gates saying that judgment of death had been carried out.

Kennedy's Emotion

Kennedy met his end in Wandsworth Prison less calmly than his confederate in the brutal murder. Throughout his detection in the condemned cell he turned on all possible occasions towards religion, and became a model prisoner anxious to please his captors and take advantage of tiie privileges allowed him. Kennedy rose at 6 a.m., and an hour later was visited by the Roman (,'atholic chaplain. Father J. 1). Dun eh, who remained v ith him a long time. The condemned man ate a breaklast which he had chosen himself, and a few minutes betore the hour of execution he was led from his cell. He walked firmly to the seatiold, but spasms oi emotion were reflected on his face. _ Mrs. Kennedy was a pathetic figure outside Wandsworth Prison. After attending early Mass. she drove to the prison in a taxicab just before nine o'clock. She sat motionless in the cab with her eyes fixed on the prison clock. As the clock struck nine Mrs. Kennedy broke down. Fallir.g forward in the cab. she burst into loud sobs and cries. The cab then drove ba--k to the Romnn Catholic church from which Mrs. Kennedy had been driven, -lust before this there had been a dramatic see; c outside the prison in which a smartlydressed girl about 2U had figured. The gii' T was weeping when she arrived at the prison gate. On the gate was a notici announcing that Kennedy's execution Wns to take place at 9 a.m. The girl reO'l rue notice, and was then on the verge of > ;>!- lapse. "He didn't do it! He didn't do it'" she sobbed and shouted, and then imiikd away. There were many women in 111*■ crowd of several hundred pep!..- ■.;; tl ii • • t Imprison. In a corii'-r i;nd*. i 'rer- ii- .n :v-; the prison gates a i epi <\--nt.uic< oi ligious societ\ iec : 'ed praver- i,'"-:ue • •-.> were nearly a hundred peop].-. they joined in the The c rowd surged *'»i ward ai d brok*: t'.e police cordon when tin- notices ..t execution were posted on tie pi .son gate.