GRIM LAST RIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

GRIM LAST RIDE

PUBLIC EXECUTIONS CRIMINALS IN PEKING WINE, ORATORY, THEN DEATH executions are of such common occurrence in Peking as to escape almost all mention in the newspapers these days, states the British United Press. Several times a week throughout the summer the "Black Maria" has lumbered across the Bridge of Heaven to the execution ground opposite the gate of the famed Temple of Heaven. There, on a dusty plot against the ancient wall of the Altar of Agriculture, a man is dragged out with his arms tightly tied behind his back. The condemned person is usually allowed all the wine he wants before going on the last ride. This has varying effects. Some strut with alcoholic bravado; some orate dramatically to the everpresent crowd; while some stumble along confusedly, held up by their guards. A favourite trick is to make a long harangue to the crowd, usually enjoining the audience not to follow the path which has led the criminal to his doom. Flights ol Eloquence The innate sense of the dramatic in all Chinese often carries these men away on the flights of their own eloquence, even at this time. The crowd is, usually generous with its applause. Then conies the short march to the wall. The condemned man is made to kneel upright facing the wall. A single soldier with a short rifle steps up close behind, fires at the back of the head, and the faceless corpse falls forward. After simple formalities, the body is placed in a cheap coffin, and the crowd disperses. When a particularly notorious criminal is to die, he is often paraded through the streets in an open cart. And always the condemned man going to execution has a bamboo wand three feet long stuck in the collar of his jacket. This holds over his head a piece of white cloth inscribed with his name and crime. "White Monkey's" Doom That the wine does not always drug the criminal into quietude was illustrated recently when "Little White Monkey," a cat burglar was executed, j When the police van arrived at the Bridge of Heaven the burglar had slumped in his corner. Prodding failed I to arouse him, and when the guards j dragged him out he seemed to be quite dead. Although they put a couple of bullets through him for the sake of form, the guards swore that "Little White Monkey" had been literally frightened to death. Sometimes executions are not public, particularly if the condemned man has been tried by court-martial. At these, it is commonly reported, the criminal must have a goodly sum ready to bribe his executioners to shoot him through the head. One poverty-stricken young soldier, convicted last year of being a Communist. writhed on the ground with seven bullets in him before being given the coup de grace.