EXECUTION OF A MOTHER AND SON.

Evening Post, Volume XLIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

EXECUTION OF A MOTHER AND SON.

By the double execution •which took place at Dortmund, Germany, on April 13th, a mother and son pa.id the penalty for a peculiarly horrible murder which was perpetrated nearly a year ago. The Bcene of the crime was a little village named Loh, not far from Dortmund. A miner who was no longer fit for work was there, on May 11th, 1891, deliberately murdered by his wife and' two sons, who had conspired together to get rid of him in this manner. The woman and her two sons were tried and convicted of the murder. Frau Kruse and the elder son, Wilhelm, being condemned to death, while the younger son was sentenced to penal servitude for life. According to the custom which obtains in that part of Germany, the condemned criminals were beheaded with an axe. When six o'clock struck Wilhelm Kruse was led out to the courtyard, where a scaffold with a block upon it had been erected. Not a moment whs lost in carrying out the last penalty. Kruse submitted quietly while his shirt was unbuttoned and folded back. This done, he was laid upon the scaffold. The executioner then raised his axe, and with one swift, powerful stroke, severed the murderer's head from his body. The truncated corpse having been placed in a coffin which was in readiness, the blood-stained block was sluiced with water, and fresh sand was sprinkled on the ground, which had also been deluged with blood. The .female prisoner was then led out. She walked with a firm step, and was remarkably self-possessed to the last. She was delivered over to the headsman in the same manner as her son, and in a few seconds her head also rolled upon the ground. Both executions were performed with wonderful celerity, occupying between them hardly ten minutes.