SECRETS OF THE MURDERER'S CELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9253, 5 January 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

SECRETS OF THE MURDERER'S CELL.

JThere Sias "just died l n Paris a venerable ecclesiastic named the Abbe Crozes, whose .Jong career of useful beneficence was amid surroundings which to most anen would have been extremely painful, if tnot absolutely repulsive. The deceased *,bbe was chaplain to the prison of La tßoquette, and'from 1860 to 18S2 ib had *een his doleful duty to take pastoral charge-of all criminals sentenced to death. DDuring his twenty-two years of office he had attended to the scaffold no fewer than .fifty-one murderers, comprising, among others, La Pommerais, Avignoin, Troppmann, and Billoir. The sole accusation which his detractors could urge against tho " auinonier" of La Roomette was that he Was apt to show a little too much commiseration for the atrocious desperadoes •who received his ministrations, and that lie was moved even to use his influence to obtain a reprieve for the exceptionally bloodthirsty young monster, Troppmann, who satisfied his craving for slaughter by the massacre of an entire family. The Abbe Crozes occupied a very humblo apartment in a house close to the gaol, and lais room was adorned with all kinds of sordid articles presented to him as souvenirs by the assassins who had received tho coneola.tions of religion from his hands at tho supreme moment of their fate. One of the njost curious of tho attributes of the excellent priest who has just passed away Tcmains to bo described. It wns he who supplied the condemned with stimulants just before their execution. While praying with the malefactors, ho gave them a small glass of " mole-cassis," which our Paris correspondent describes as "black currant cordial, dashed with brandy." The publication of such a petty detail is not without its use, inasmuch as it serves to illustrate a fact with which it is highly expedient that not only the community at large, but tho criminal classes in particular should be made fully conversant — tbat nine-tenths of the statements made as to murderers " dying game" are so much arrant nonsense. In almost every case when a criminal is led to execution, whether it be by the guillotine or by the . gallows, it is found absolutely necessary to administer some kind of alcoholic stimulant to the trembling wretch ; and in olden times, when the condemned prisoner was allowed to drink as much as ever he liked on the morning of execution, it was ;probably the man who was the most drunk "who died exceptionally "game." It may Eeem at the first blush somewhat indecorous that a gaol chaplain should be, above all others, the functionary entrusted with the task of giving a parting " nip" to 0 criminal; but, on reflection, the "auxnor/.ier" may appear to be the most suitable person by whom so delicate a function could be performed. From the time of his Condemnation the prisoner has been on terms of affectionate friendship with his /Spiritual instructor, at whoso hands be knows that he can safely, expect kindness and sympathy ; and it may be with a feeling of gratitude, which for a moment partially softens his depraved heart, that the malefactor accepts a dram from his confessor. The like refreshment offered to him by the executioner or by one of the prison Varders might be accepted only with repugnance, or rejected in the disgust of desperation. A learned English judge, in sentencing 01 prisoner to be hangedTonce deprecated (any attempt " to pry into the secrete of the .murderers cell;" but in this inqnisitive •age it is thought desirable to know how criminals, as a rule, encounter their doom, and to what extent the practice of different nations varies with respect to the treatment of those upon whom the last penalty of the law is to be inflicted. In JBngland very little is allowed to ooze out touching the last moments of a condemned murderer; yet somehow or another the public contrive to get enlightened as to the circumstances that on the night before his execution the condemned man enjoyed more or less sleep, and that on the fatal morning he partook more or less heartily of breakfast. The knowledge of these facts need not by any means be regarded as of a morbid or sensational nature, since pu.blic curiosity has in all ages and in all countries demanded the communication of tfuch particulars. The gravest historian is *not ashamed to describe how Mary Queen x>f Scots supped with her ladies at FotherInjray, and drank to them, on the evening before she was done to death ; and French critics are even now squabbling as to whether the Girondins did or did not feast ■convivially together on the night before they were summoned to the guillotine. Few chroniclers have omitted to mention that at noon on the fatal 30th January, 1649, an ample dinner was prepared in the tanqueting-house, Whitehall, for Charles T., Ln case the unhappy King should like to {line before he was beheaded. The martyr, towever, declined the savoury repast, and ■corrtented himself with partaking of a Tnanchet of bread and a glass of claret. 2vot so temperate, nearly a hundred years afterwards, was wicked old Simon Fraser, X,ord Lovat, who, before he was led to the Jjloek on Tower Hill, breakfasted heartily 'on minced veal and mulled wine ; while -Laurence, Earl Ferrers, who was hanged nc Tyburn for murdering his steward, indulged himself in the Tower with such inordinate quantities of madeira, porter, nnd brandy that the lieutenant was constrained to diminish his distinguished prisoner's daily allowance of stimulants. Eren on his way up Holborn Hill his lordship was desirous that the coach should stop at a tavern in order that he •"might refresh himself with a parting bumper; but, on the sheriff representing to him that tho halting of the procession might occasion an inconvenient concourse of people, the noble peer consented to dispense with an ultimate drink, remarking at the same time facetiously " that he should be like the saddler of Bawtrey, who was hanged for leaving his liquor." The ■ Eaid saddler was a malefactor who had ] 'peevishly refused to partake of the bowl of . ale which it was formerly the custom to ■offer the criminal at some half-way house between the gaol and the place of execution. The cart moved on, and the sober •saddler duly swung ; but only two minutes after he had been turned off there arrived a reprieve. Had he stayed for his liquor, he ■ might have escaped the rope. " St. Giles' bowl," of which felons bound to Tyburn partook in front of an inn at the top of High-street, St. Giles', was abolished shortly before the execution of Lord Ferrers; otherwise, throughout the eighteenth century, as had been the case for i many generations previously, all prisoners provided with sufficient money were allowed to get as drunk as ever they chose in gaol; nor did authority think it in any way scandalous that a man on his way to the gallows should be in a condition of , complete or partial intoxication. The normal austerity of English prison discipline is only relaxed to the very slightest extent in the case of a malefactor doomed to death. The popular and erroneous notion is that the prisoner against whose name the fatal words, " Sus. per coll." have been written in the calendar ; is allowed to have anything he likes to eat * or drink up to the time of his ascending ,-the scaffold. In reality, very few physical indulgences are extended to him; .only he occupies a larger cell than ordinary; he is never left unattended by ■ warders ; the chaplain is constantly with him ; he is suffered to receive the visits of his relatives, if he have any ; and he has timely warning from the governor or the ,fiheriif of the day appointed for his execution. In France an almost direct con'trary mode of procedure is adopted. The condemned man may have well-nigh whatever food he chooses to pay for ; he is permitted to drink a moderate quantity of Hvine; on his_ smoking tobacco not the ; elightest restriction is placed, and it is not •uncommon for him to appear on the place .of execution with a pipe or a cigar between ;.his lips ; he is allowed to play cards in his cell; in addition to the supervision of a ivarder, he frequently enjoys the society of a fellow-prisoner known as a " mouton," or epy, employed by the authorities to worm, if possible, a confession from the culprit; and, finally, he never knows until the very liriorning of doom when his execution is to ■fcake place. Often he is roused by lantern light by the governor, the chaplain, and J the "greffir" of the gaol to hear that his Appeal to the Court of Cassation has been Rejected, and that before another hour has texpired his head must fall. Then enters executioner, with his scissors and his straps, who cuts the hair away from the 'nape of the culprit's neck, and binds his Avrists and ankles. The grim toilette over, 'there, is a claog o f a bell, a roll from the.

drums outside, a huge pair of gates close to the condemned cell are flung open, and the criminal finds himself in the Place de la Roquette; the crimson posts and gleaming knife of the guillotine staring stark before him, the place kept clear and hemmed in by troops, a black fringe of crowd in the distance. The priest is with the wretch to the last; the executioner's assistants gather round him ; in an instant the knife falls, and all ia over.—Daily Telegraph.