GUNN'S EXECUTION

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12084, 23 June 1920, Page 5

GUNN'S EXECUTION

Per Press Association

Auckland, June 23

Deunis Gunn, convicted on a charge of murdering Mr A. Braithwaite, late Postmaster at Ponsouby, was executed this morning at 8 o’clock within the Mount Eden The hanging was witnessed by about a dozen persons, ail officers except representatives of the newspapers. Precisely at the hour, Gunn was led out of his cell and took his place in a little prooesison which had to traverse a dozen paces to the yard on the eastern end of the main gaol building, where the scaffold had been erected. In front of the condemned man walked Father Herring reading the burial service. Gunn wore his prison clothes, without a coat. He was bareheaded, and had his hrms pinioned at his sides with leather straps. The scaffold-—the same that is used at various gaols of the Dominion—was erected alongside the prison waT, and was covered over with a temporary canvas roof. The steps leading to the platform are about fifteen. The platform was about ten feet square, the lower part being covered in so that the body could not be seen when it dropped through the trap-door. While the hangman—the same man who acted at the execution of Eggers and Kottman —was making final arrangements, the burial service was continued, and at the end Gunn made responses, several in number, calmly, with his eyes closed. He was pale and never opened bis eyes, bat showed no feeling whatever. Just before the end his body swayed slightly, as though he were faint. After ti?e last of the responses in the burial service, Gunn held out the crucifix which he had been carrying, and handing it to the priest, said in a low voice: “Give this to my mother, and say goodbye, please.” Then the sheriff stepped forward, and asked the prisoner if he had anything to say. Gnnu replied, clearly and evenly: “I am prepared to meet my God and my Greater. ” The hangman then quickly drew a white cap over the man’s head, fixed the rope, and drew the bolt. Death was instantaneous. MESSAGE TO THE POLICE. Among those who witnessed the execution this morning was Detective-Sergeant Cum using, the police officer who was engaged on the trial, and a few minutes before Gunn was Ted out from his cell a message was brought to the detective by Father Herring to the effect that Gunn wished to say that he bore no ill-will against those who had been engaged in the prosecution. Gunn asked specially that the message be conveyed personally to Detsctive Gumming. OLD CUSTOMS ABOLISHED. In former executions it was cua tomary to toll the gaol bell as th e man lefr his cell and until he was hanged. It was also usual to fly a black flag from some part of the gaol. A number of people in the vicinity of the gaol this morning waited a long time for the flag to go up, but both this custom and that of tolling the bell have been discontinued. The execution was completed within five minutes of the time Gunn left the cell. THE US'QUEST. The inquest required by the Crimes Act was held at the gaol this afternoon, before Mr Wilson, S,M., and a jury of four. Evidence was given by the gaoler (Mr Vincent), the sheriff’ (Mr A. Stubbs), a'bd the gaol surgeon (Dr. Murray). The jury found that death was dne to hanging, and that the sentence of the Supreme Court had been carried but.

GUNN’S STATEMENT. PROVED FALSE BY POLICE. Wellington, June 22 The Minister of Justice, the Hon. E. G. Lee, informed the press that in the statement made by Dennis Gunn, and signed by him in the presence of a Magistrate, Gunn admitted that he committed the burglary a Ponsonby Post Office. “His story,’’ said the Minister, “is that he and two other men took different parts in the crime; that one of them followed the nostmaster, and subsequently returned to the other two with the keys of the Post Office; that these two (Dennis Gunn being one of them) robbed the Post Office; that after leaving the Post Office Dennis Gunn told the man who had been at the postmaster’s house that it was decided to hide the revolvers. This man showed three revolvers and he (Dennis Gunn) hid them in the blackberries. The police made full Investigations before the trial as to the movements of the two men referred to by Gunn, and satisfied themselves by the statements of a number of credible people that neither of those men was ia the locality where the crime was committed on the evening of the 13th March; and, further, that their movements on that evening are fully accounted for.’’