Previously to his execution he made a confession of the circumstances of the murder more in detail than those which he had previously delivered. He said that he had had the murder in contemplation for a week before its commission; and that the visit of Mr. Paas to his workshop on the fatal 30th of May, was deemed by him to present a favourable opportunity for completing his sanguinary design. When Mr. Paas entered his shop on the evening of that day, he shut the door, and he then paid him the amount of a small bill in which he was indebted to him. Mr. Paas had receipted the bill, and, having risen from his seat at the table, was examining the binding of a book which lay on the press, when he conceived that the favourable moment had arrived. Taking up the press-pin (a heavy iron instrument), he walked behind his victim, and struck him a tremendous blow on the back of his head. The unfortunate gentleman raised his hands to his head, and staggering towards the door, cried out, “Murder” as loud as his voice, enfeebled by the attack which had been made on him, would allow; but his assailant, now terror-struck, followed up the blow which he had already dealt with others of equal severity on the top of his head. The third stroke was sufficient; and the unfortunate victim of his crime fell heavily to the ground. Turning on his back, his arms were convulsed for a few moments, when they ceased to move, and “all was over.” His murderer now retired from the room, and locked the door, but returned again at night to dispose of the body. On his entering the workshop he stumbled over his victim, and his nerves were dreadfully shaken by this circumstance, but speedily getting rid of his alarm, he commenced the work of cutting up the body, and recovered his usual firmness; and so completely was he restored, that he declared that he could have continued the horrible occupation in which he was engaged for a much longer time than he did, if he had deemed it necessary to do so. He then declared, as a dying man, that he had consumed by fire every particle of the body and clothes of the deceased gentleman, except those parts which had been found; and he stated that pride had driven him to commit the crime, and that he was desirous of procuring money, in order to embark for America. He alluded, with seeming horror, to a connexion which he had formed with a society of young men, who professed Deism, in Leicester, and at whose meetings the works of Tom Paine, Carlile, and others, were read; and emphatically added, “Until I got connected with these persons, attending as I did some place of religious worship three times every Sunday, I considered myself a moral young man; but my heart was changed by their example.”
When the body of the convict had hung the usual time after his execution, it was cut down and conveyed back to the jail, in order that the necessary preparations might be made to carry out that portion of the sentence which directed his remains to be gibbeted in chains. The head was shaved and tarred, to preserve it from the action of the weather; and the cap in which he had suffered, was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension in Saffron-lane, not far from the Aylestone Toll-gate, a short distance out of the town of Leicester. A gallows, thirty-three feet in height, had been already erected; and the horrible burden which it was intended to bear was soon attached to it. On the following day, thousands of persons were attracted to the spot, to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition; and considerable annoyance was felt by persons residing in the neighbourhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were, in consequence, made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning, instructions were received from the Home Office, directing the removal of the gibbet, and granting the remission of that portion of the sentence, by which this exposure, the remnant only of a barbarous age, was required. These orders were immediately obeyed; and the body was subsequently buried in Leicester.
WILLIAM JOBLING.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
AT the Durham assizes, on Wednesday the 1st of August 1832, William Jobling was tried on an indictment charging him with the wilful murder of Mr. Fairles, a magistrate, on the previous 11th of June. Mr. Fairles, it appeared, had given offence to the colliers, from his spirited exertions to suppress their riotous proceedings. On the day in question he was returning from the Jarrow Colliery on his pony, when he was overtaken by the prisoner and a man named Armstrong, who, having first asked him for money, dragged him from his horse and beat him unmercifully with a bludgeon, and also pelted him with stones as he lay on the ground. Mr. Fairles was found in a state of insensibility, and, on his recovery, swore distinctly to the prisoner and Armstrong, as the persons by whom he had been attacked. He subsequently died of his wounds. The prisoner was secured at Shields; Armstrong escaped; the prisoner was found “Guilty,” and received sentence to die on Friday—his body to be hung in chains.
This sentence was carried out to its full extent, the body of the criminal being suspended to a gibbet in the neighbourhood of the scene of the murder.