EXECUTION OF MRS DEAN.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9182, 13 August 1895, Page 5

EXECUTION OF MRS DEAN.

(PRBSS ASSOCIATION TEI.BGRAM). INVERCARGILL, August 12. Minnie Dean was executed this morning. She slept from 11.30 p.tn. till three o'clock this mornine. She took no breakfast, only a sip from aglaee of spirits given her by the gaol surgeon. At three minutes to eight the Sheriff demanded her body, and at two minutes past eight Mrs Dean w»3 dead. " Don't let them keep mc in agony, doctor," were her parting words to the surgeon. She marched from the cells with her arms pinioned behind, and np the steps of the scaffold on to the trap-door, apparently the most self-possessed of the dismal f>rocession. She stood h&tle3B and ereot, aciug the weat, a black board marking the grave of Walsh, the Waikawa murderer, being directly in front of her, while the hangman adjusted the rope and placed she while cap on ; then her legs were pinioned, and for the first time the marvellous will power of the woman to a certain extent gave way. She swayed backward and forward, holding firmly the warder's hand. Iv reply to the.question of the Sheriff, " Do you wish to say anything before you leave this world 1" she said, " No ; except that I am innocent." After her legs were pinioned she said,' " Ob, God, let mc not suffer." The hangman drew the lever, and all vnvs over; . death being instantaneous. Tho drop allowed w«w 7ft 9in, and the aciiffold used was the one built for th 6 execution of Captain Jjirvoy, of Dun* Klin, who poisoned his wife about a quarter of a century ago. To the Rev. Mr Lindsay she slated thut as far aa the evidence was concerned the sentence was justified, bub she protested her iunoconca us regarded intention and forothought. The only persons present, beaides the gaol officers, were the Sheriff, Doctor, Magistrate, and Press reporters. The body has been claimed by her husband, and will bo buried iv the Wiuton Cemetery. It is understood thot Minnie >D3un left a written statement, which will'ho'forwarded to the Government, placing a different aspect on the case from that inferred from the trial. The circumstances connected with the conviction of Minnie Dean are briefly as follow : —An advertisement appeared in a Chriatchuich newspaper to the effect that some person was wanted to adopt a child in consideiation of payment. The advertisement was answered by a woman who aigued hcrselt "M. Cameron," writing from the Larches, Win ton, Southland. The letter stated that a Mrs Gray would meet the person who brought tho child to the Bluff. M. Cameron, Mrs Gray, and Minnie Dean were subsequently proved to be tho same person. The child was taken to the BlutY, and the woman in charge of it was met by Mrs Grey or Minnie Dean, Mrs Dean took the child homo to the Larches and kept it there a few days. She then announced her intention of going to the North and taking the child with her. When she left she took a large tin box, which was noticed by more than one person to be very light and on her return to be remarkably heavy. It was proved aC the trial that while away Mrs Dean purchased a bottle of laudanum and on her return to the Larches the child was not with her. A girl who was staying with her remarked on the weight of the box. Mrs Dean told her to pub it among some rushes, and when the girl next saw it ib was open and empty. Mrs Dean was seen afterwards moving some plants she had brought with her toanotherpartofthegarden. The police found the. body of the child buried underneath where the plants had been set, and Professor Black found laudanum in its stomach. The case of another child named Eva Horneby, whose body also was fouud in the garden, was in many respects similar to that of Dorothy Edith Carter, and its murder seems to have been planned in the same cold-blooded, deliberate manner. Mrs Dean met Mrs Horusby at Millburn, and received the child Eva Hornsby and £9 10s. She travelled in the same carriage as Mrs Hornsby to Clarendon. Here Mrs Dean left) the train with the child, and when she entered another train going to Invercargill nearly an hour later she had no child with her. She alighted at Mutaura and purchased some plants, appa- . rently to be used as in the other case. Beaides these two children, thero were several others who disappeared in the mosb mysterious manner. One of these wae a oliild entrusted to Mrs Dean by a woman named Mrs Kernan, more than three years ago. On this woman going to the Larches a year subsequently, tflrs Dean denied -having ever received the child. A Mary Olsen also states that she had given a child named Willie Phelan to Minnie Dean aud never saw or heard of it again. She received a letter from the latter, the substance of which was as follows :—" Dear Mte Olsen— The skeleton of the child found in my garden at the Larches, is that of your child, Willie Phelan. He fell accidentally into the well. 1 believe he was chasing fowls. I did all I could to restore animation, but could nob succeed. I shed bitter tears over, him, as bitter as any mother." A Mary Cameron gave a child named Cyril Scoular to Mrs Dean a few years ago. The child remained at the Larches for about three years. Mrs Dean then reported that the boy had gone away. In the morning Mrs Dean gave him some laudanum, and said that she wished to keep him dozey so that he would not be cross with, the lady he was going with. Another boy named Henry was brought to the Larches. He, too, disappeared after being there a few months. Mrs Dean waa of medium height, thin, very erect, with' iron grey htiir and long nose, high forehead and peering dark eyes, and protruding under lip. She appeared to be abou, sixty years of age, though she described herself as being forty-eight. At the trial Detective Herbert eaid he had reason to believe that Mrs Dean was sent out to Van Diemen's Land when, about twenty five years of age.