EXECUTION OF A CONSTABLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9307, 16 September 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXECUTION OF A CONSTABLE.

SAD STORY OF THE STREETS.

An ex-police constable named George Samuel Cooke, aged 27, was recently hanged within the walls of Newgate Prison for the murder at Wormwood Scrubba of Maud Smith, alias Merton, an account of which crime appeared in those columns on August 5. Representatives of the press were, by order of the High Sheriff of London, excluded from the execution. The condemned man went to bed about ten o'clock the previous night, his usual hour, but throughout the night he was very restless, and slept little. He got up just before seven in the morning, and quickly dressed in the clothes which he wore at his trial. Breakfast, which consisted of two eggs, bread and butter, and" tea, was brought to his cell soon afterwards, but he ate very sparingly. During the brief interval the convict spoke cheerfully with the warders, whom he thanked most heartily for the kindness which thoy had shown him. The chaplain remained with the unhappy man until within a few minutes of the time .fixed for the execution. At threo minutes to the hour Billiugton entered the condemned cell. Cooke OFFERED NO RESISTANCE, nor did he make any observation during the process of pinioning his arms. On leaving the cell a procession was formed, and proceeded to the scaffold. The way was led by a warder, behind whom came the chaplain reciting a short service taken from the Service for the Burial of the Dead. The convict, who walked between two warders, is said to have borne himself at this trying moment with remarkable fortitude. He walked with a firm step to the scaffold, which is situated within a very few paces of the condemned cell. The convict, who was pale and haggard, shook hands with the chief warder, Mr. Scott, and thanked him for what he had done. The final preparations were very quickly carried out. The convict stood nearly six feet, and weighed about 12 stone. He was given a drop of over five feet. Death was instantaneous. In her almost frantic efforts to - secure a reprieve, the condemned man's sweetheart addressed pathetic appeals both to the Queen and the Duchess of York. To Her Majesty she wrote :— To Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. —May it please your Majesty. I have learnt last night the awful news that my sweetheart, Constable George Samuel Cooke, who was to bo my husband in October next, has to suffer the extreme penalty of the law on Tuesday morning. Both the coroner's and the Old Bailey jury recommended him strongly to your Most Gracious Majesty's mercy, and I now in my despair approach the throne. I know your Majesty has a heart for the sufferings of your humblest subject. I therefore beg, even now at the last moment, to ask your Most Gracious Majesty's interception on behalf of the man I plighted my troth to. Think, your Majesty, of the happiness of your beloved grandson, whose marriage with the Princess May gladdened my heart as well as that of the entire nation, but joy in my case has given way to the darkest of sorrow, sorrow so overwhelming that I scarcely know what I do, sorrow which has even driven me to take the liberty of appealing to your Most Gracious Majesty on behalf of my wretched lover now in Newgate. I beseech your Most Gracious Majesty to spare his life and save an unhappy girl from destruction. — I am, your Most Gracious Majesty's most humble and obedient subject, etc.

The letter to the Duchess of York was worded as follows :—

To Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York. —May it pl*ise your Royal Highness. A poor lonely girl implores you to intercede with Her Most Gracious Majesty, our Sovereign the Queen, on behalf of Constable George Samuel Cooke, who was to be my husband, and who is now condemned, if no reprieve takes place. Tuesday morning is fixed for the execution. I do not wish to harass your Royal Highness with the details of the crime of which he is accused. Suffice it to say that both the coroner's and the Old Bailey jury recommended, my lover to the mercy of the Crown on account of the great provocation he had received. Your Royal Highness' kindness of heart is a household word in every home and cottage. I implore you to help me, and give my future blighted life the ray of sunshine that the unfortunate man will have time for repentance, and that he will not be suddenly hurled into eternity. —I am, your Royal Highness' humble and obedient servant, etc.

THE MURDERER'S HISTORY. Cooko started life ten years ago as an assistant to his father, who is a working farm steward. He is the only son of his parentshonest, hard-working folk, who live in a little ivy-covered cottage in the pretty fishing village of Kessingiand, about five miles from Lowestoft. Farming was not to his liking, and after two years of it he gave it up to become a fisherman. Ho had one thought then of some day being the owner of a fishing smack, so he set to work. But his voyages were unsuccessful. Twice was he overtaken in squalls off the north coast. On the last occasion he was washed overboard by a heavy sea, and rescued in an unconscious condition, so that for days he lay hovering between life and death. Then it was he decided to go to London. His three years ab sea had taught him that the life of a fisherman was fraught with many dangers, and smilingly he would remark that he had not been born to be drowned. So when his health returned he went bo London, and his first letter to his parents acquainted them of the fact that ho had joined the metropolitan police, and was engaged on duty within the precincts of the House of Commons. After two years' work as a member of the A Division he was transferred to the E Division, and it was while on duty in the Holborn district that he met the woman for whose death he himself had to die at the hand of the hangman. She had then only commenced her evil career. lb is said that Cooke's first impulse towards her was that of the good Samaritan. He defired to save her from herself. He failed, and the acquaintance with the woman gradually developed into the wretched liaison which has terminated so badly for both of them. When complaint was made against him by the woman to his superiors at Bow-street, he was removed to the X Division. It was thought that ab Wormwood Scrubbs he would be free from the attentions of Maud Merton, who had grown to love him with the brutal, unreasoning passion of a lustful, jealous woman. Cooke would have been dismissed from the force at the outset of the trouble had it nob been for the fact that in every other respect he was an excellent officer. He had a perfect genius for regulating street traffic ; he was steady and sober, and in the cases he had before the courts showed himself to be possessed of much tact and discretion. When he was removed to Wormwood. Scrubbs he gave an undertaking that he would nob soe the woman Merton again, and Sub-commissioner Bruce, of the metropolitan police, who, with his wife, takes a philanthropic interest in fallen women, set himself the task of saving the woman from the streets. Lodgings were taken, and art arrangement was made whereby she was to bo paid 15s a week until such time as a situation could bo got for her. She professed to be anxious to reform ; to those who were befriending her sho poured out her thanks, and then —one evening sho was taken into Bow-street Police Station as "drunk and disorderly," charged with importuning men in the Strand, Her penitence in the dock seemed sincere; she asked to be given another chance, and tho policecourt missionary promised to get her into a home. She was then discharged, and three days later was killed by her quondam lover whom she had gone to visit ab Wormwood Scrubbs, and she ab the time of her death was barely 20 years of age.