BROKEN ON THE WHEEL.

Waikato Times, Volume II, Issue 101, 21 December 1872, Page 2

BROKEN ON THE WHEEL.

There is no state in Europe in which the barbarous punishment of breaking on the wheel is inflicted on criminals except Scrvia, of the semi-dependencies of Turkey. InServia they have three methods of punishing murderers, high way - robbers, and incendiaries. In the most aggravated eases, breaking on the wheel is inflicted. In other cases the culprits are tied (o chairs, and the headsman runs a sharp knifeacross their throats and then breaks their spine. If there, are peculiar circumstances of mitigation the culprits arc shot by a file of soldiers. Ono of the most revolting crimes ever committed in Scrvia was the assassination of the whole family of a wealthy farmer named Delrcstisy, in the Bialin, district, about twenty miles from Belgrade, the capital of Scrvia. On the 24th of Apri.l Detrestisy, a man of about forty years of age, his wife Susanna, twenty-nine years old, and his three children, Frances, Kathinka, and Andreas, aged respectively twelve, nine, and four years old, were found in the house murdered. It was also discovered that tho mother and the two daughters had been outraged. All tho victims had been beaten with bludgeons and then stabbed. An active search was at once made for the perpetrators. Two days afterwards they were discovered in a forest about four miles from where tho crime had been cum-mitlo-J. They were Scbastulos Alcxiry, formerly a noncommissioned officer in the army of the Sultan of Turkey, and Moses Alexander, an Austrian Jew. When they were arrested the officers found several hundred zequins and the watch of tho murdered farmer in their possessions. They were taken in irons to Bucharest. "Upon being brouglit'bofore the examining magistrate!* they denied any 'knowledge of the crime, but the lash, which is there still used upon mendacious criminals, was not long in eliciting n confession from the tortured Wcrtbstcm. After receiving fifty lashes on his bare back, he confessed that Alcxiry nnd ho had broken into the house of the farmer in order to rol) him of 300 zequins. They succeeded in forcing ther way into the house, but were confronted by him, whereupon a desperate scuffle ensued. The farmer fought valiantly, but they clubbed him, and then finished him with their dirk knives. Alcxiry refused to confess, and remained firm even under the torture of the lash, freely administering by order of the magistrate. Botli Alexiry and Wei t istcin were c mimitted. Their trial before the full bench of criminal judges came on the 11th of June. It lasted but, one hour. Both were found guilty of murder without extenuating circumstances, and sentenced to be broken on the wheel. There was loud applause in Court when the sentence was pronounced. Alexiry listened to it without emotion. Werthslein, however, broke into loud screams—tore his hair and yelled for mercy. The 14th of July was fixed for tho execution. They were to expiate their doom on the old glacis of the fortress of Belgrade, upon which Prince E.ugene, of Savoy, made his famous assault.' The execution was to take place at 8 a.m., and an enormous concourse assembled to witness it. Tho scaffold was circular, of wood,, and the only distinctive feature about it was a St. Andrew's cross, slightly elevated above the platform About half-past 7 the executioners arrived. One was a heavy built man, and the other almost a giant. Both weredressed in green flannel jackets, and had their arms bare. When the clock on St. Mary's steeple at Belgrade struck 8, there emerged from the gate of the fortress a procession headed by four horsemen. Next followed the carriage in which the judges and tho priest were seated. As the procession emerged from the gate loud shrieks were heard. They were those of Worth stein, who, chained as he was, hand and foot, screamed to Heaven for help. Under ordinary circumstances his appeals might have had some cfl'eet upon the people. But knowing the fearful crime which he and his accomplice had committed, there was not a voice raised in his favour, and the soldiers were rather encouraged to puncli him with tho butt end of their muskete. When the criminals had been brought on the platform excry stitch of clothing left upon Alexiry was torn off, and he was firmly tied to tho St. Andrew's cross. Until this moment he had preserved his equanimity. But now the executioner drew from a green bag a sort of iron club, witli a knob at its head. Tho fastened criminal looked wistfully at the man who was to torture him, and then put him to death. executioner raised the iron club and crushed Alexiry'e right shoulder. The murderer gave a shriek, and made a desperate effort to free himself. He struggled desperately in his agony, but the next blow which the executioner gave him—on the knee-pan—elicited from the culprit a shriek of pain that caused the blood of the spectators to freeze. After this infliction he seemed insensible, and the other blows that crushed his joints, and the finishing strokes on the belly, were given as to a dead man. Meanwhile, Werthstein, in his chains, had to look on. He rent the air with his lamentations, and came near fainting away when the executioner dealt Alexiry the first blow. He flung himself to the floor and begged piteously for his life : but after the lifeless corpse of Alexiry had been detached from the fatal cross, the Jew was dragged to it, and, in spite of his invocation, fastened to it like his accomplice. He yelled even before he received the first stroke with the iron club ; but when that instrument descended upon his shoulder-blade joint he gave an unearthly scream, and the executioner's blow upon his knee-pan made him ho\yl still worse. For five minutes —an eternity under the circumstances —be continued his yells, and it wa? not until the executioner gave him three heavy blows on the abdomen that all was quiet, and Servian Justice wa3 satisfied.