EXECUTION OF MINNIE DEAN

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1759, 14 August 1895, Page 2

EXECUTION OF MINNIE DEAN

SHE PROTESTS HER INNOCENCE.

. ' Invercargill, Monday. Minnie Dean was executed this morning. She slept from. 1130 till 3 this morning. She took no breakfast and only had a sip from a glass of spirits •given her by the gaol surgeon. ,-. At three minutes to eight the Sheriff demanded the body, and at two minutes past, eight, Minnie Dean said—‘Don’tlet them keep me in agony, doctor.” These were her last words to the surgeon. She inarched from the cell with her arms pinioned behind her, and up to the steps-of the scaffold on to the trap, door, apparently the most self-posses-' sed of the dismal procession. She stood hatless and erect, facing the west, a black board marking: the grave of: Walsh, the Waikawa murderer, being directly in front of her, while the hangman adjusted the rope and placed the white cap on her. Then lier legs weTe pinioned, and for the first-time the marvellous will power of the woman to a certain extent gave way, and she swayed back and forward holding firmly to the warder’s hand.

In reply to the question of the sheriff;, ‘ Do you wish to say anything before you leave this world ?’ she said ‘ No! Except that I ani innocent.’ After lior legs ..wore pinioned, she said,"* Oh, (bed! let me not suffer.’ The hangman drew tho lever and all was over, .death, being instantaneous. The' drop '.allowed was seven feet nine inches, and the scaffold Was the one built fox' the execution of Captain darveyy of Dunedin, who poisoned his wjfe, about a quartern? a century ago. To the Rev Mr. Lindsay she stated that as far "as the evidence was concerned the sentence was justified, but ■ she protested her innocence as regards intention and forethought. The only persons present besides the gaol .officers were the sheriff, doctor magistrate, and Press reporters. '• "

The body has boen claimed by her husband, and will be buried in the Winton cemetery. It is understood that Minnie Dean left a which will be forwarded ft); the Oovernment, placing a different aspect on the case to that inferred at the trial.

During the execution a boy fell from the roof of a'bmldihg to the ground, a distance pf fifty feet, fracturing his knee.."; * .