THORN EXECUTED

Gisborne Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5666, 21 December 1920, Page 5

THORN EXECUTED

SEQUEL TO PUKEKAWA

MURDER

PRISONER’S LAST WORDS

“I AM NOT GUILTY.”

AUCKLAND, Dec. 20. For the murder of Sidney Steymour Eyre, a farmer, on August 24, at Pukekawa, Samuel John Thorn died on the scaffold in Mt. Eden Gaol this morning. A moment before the drop fell he protested his innocence, ana his ignorance of the identity of the murderer. He slept well throughout the night and woke of his own. accord, at siij o’clock, breakfasted well, and walked to and up the scaffold without a tremor. The execution took place promptly at 8 o’clock. There was no one about the .gaol precincts when the Press representatives jvere admitted half-an-hour earlier. The morbid public curiosity which was so marked a feature of some previous hangings was fortunately absent in the present case. Thorn was' confined in a little cell off an iron guarded hall leading to the gaol yard. At first, it is understood, he did not desire to see a clergyman, but nearer the date of the execution he asked for one of the Presbyterian denomination, the Rev. F. It. Jeffries attended and read tho Scriptures and prayed with him. A few minutes before 8 o’clock the Sheriff (Mr A. • Stubbs) • the Inspector of Prisons (Mr. M. Hawkins), the superintendent of the gaol (Mr. T. Vincent), the deputy superintendent (Mr. W. T. Leggett), Dr. D. ’W. N. Murray (gaol surgeon), the Rev, E. C. Budd (gaol chaplain),. Chief Detective McMahon, and Constable Kelly (police photographer), together with 'newspaper representatives and warders, made their way along the passage from the officials’ rooms to the hall off which was the condemned cell. Here the Sheriff stopped and demanded “the body of Samuel George Thorn.” Instantly the cell door was opened, and, attended by the Rev. F. Jeffries and several warders, Thorne came forth. His arms were fastened to his sides with leather straps. He wore a pair of white canvas trousers, a brown shirt open at the neck, and low-heeled shoes. Falling in between the warders and with, the rest of the party bringing up the rear he walked firmly the few steps from the hall to the open air, where in a little paved yard in a high-wall-ed and secluded part of the prison the scaffold was erected.

> Thorn mounted the steps firmly. With him went the chaplain, reciting the office, for the dead, and the principal prison officials, and a second later the executioner. The others, bareheaded, stood in a little group in the yard below, and watched in the brilliant sunlight which streamed from overhead, leaving the platform m gloom. Thorn stood on the trapdoor firmly. Then the Sheriff, in a loud voice, called, “Samuel John Thorn, have you anything to say?” Thorn spoke the first word or two indistinctly to those below, but, gathering vigor as he went on, said;— “Yes,. f l want to thank the gaol officials, especially the three warders who attended on me, for their kindness. But it is very unjust, very unjust, of the police the way they have treated me. lam not guilty. Ido not know who did it. lam prepared to meet my God. I have made my peace with Him.” The signal to the executioner was given,- and Thorn died on the scaffold. Thorn was described in the prison record as aged 39, married, and his religion was given as Presbyterian.—» Press Assn.