A MURDERER EXECUTED

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11945, 14 July 1904, Page 5

A MURDERER EXECUTED

CHIMB ON THE S.S. WAIWERA. United Press Association—By Electrio Tslegraph—Copyright. LONDON, July 12. John Sullivan was hanged at Penton- ;. ville for the murder of tho deck boy - Dennis Lowthian aboard the New Zealand trading steamer ■Waiwera. (raoit otjb owm corbesfondent.) LONDON, June 4. While on tlie voyage from Monte Video to Teneriffe, one of tlie eailors o_ board the ■■■'■ c.«. Waiwera, a man named Sullivan, attacked one of the deck boys named Lowthian, and killed him by striking the 'ad with some kind of sharp instrument, cutSing him over tho head. Tho motive for v the crime is an yet hardly known; in fact, up to tho time of the arffral of the Waiver* in London the instrument with which tho deed was done had not been discover- . . cd. Tho theory for the act which seems to find most credence among those of the . company's staff who made first enquiries, , is that the equatorial heat affected Sullivan's brain, and that he attacked Lowthian when not responsible for his actions. He ' 'wars placed under arrest by the captain, who. on arrival at Teneriffe, apprised the British Consul of what had occurred. The Consul cabled to the Foreign Office, and its officials communicated with the police, '....so. that, when the W&iwerw reached London in tho early hours of Thursday morning, Sullivan was handed over to them. " Soon after his arrest, Sullivan was brought up at the Thames Police Court, and. charged with the wilful murder of Dennis Lowthian, aged 17, a deck boy, on the high peas between Monte Video and Teneriffe, on the 10th of May. Sullivan's age was given as 40, and his address was stated to be 66 Saxelby road, Custom House. Inspector Heed asked that only '. evidence of arrest, should be token on that occasion, a a the Treasury were considering the facts, and on the remand would, be represented. At three o'clock in the morning ho (the Inspector) had boarded the «.*. Waiwera on her arrival in the' Thames, snd had arrested the accused for Ihe wilful murder of Dennis Lowthian. In reply the prisoner said: "I am sorry I did it j it is sad for his parents." It was mentioned that after the murder had be*n committed a long statement in , connection with the deed was found, in the handwriting of the prisoner, and the elocument concluded with the words: "I shall cut his head off and take it overboard with mc." The entry in the ship's log on the 10th of May showed that the murdered kd was on the deck in conversation with Quartermaster Fisher, when he received two frightful Wows on tho head from a chopper, Lowthian immediately falling to . the deck. On tho arrival of the ship's doctor the latter at once saw that the lad , could not live, and the 'boy almost im..nwdiately gave a quiver and died. Sullivan was atantling close by, and is reported to have said: "You don't want tho doctor. He's dead enough. I knocked his brains out—what ought to have been done to him long ago."