How Garrotters are Punished in England.
--The following is extracted from the Durham
Chronicle, an English paper:
‘
John Croudace and
Thomas Allison, who were convicted at the assizes last week of garotte robberies at
Sunderland, and sentenced, the former to five years and the latter to ten years penal servitude, with twenty lashes each, underwent the punishment of flogging at the county prison on Saturday.
The instrument of punishment was manufactured by a sailor, who is undergoing imprisonment in the goal, expressly for the purpose.
The cat is ingeniously composed of nine thongs of stout leather, in each of which are nine knots, and these being connected to a flexible handle, the power, wielded by strong hands, is terrific.
At every stroke the knots cut deeply, making flesh and blood fly in every direction.
The prisoners were firmly tied up in a reclining position, the lower part of their shoulders exposed, the higher and lower part of their backs being protected by padding.
The warders,
Hodgson and
Allison, executed their task with the skill of more practised hands.
The officials of the goal were present, but the prisoners were kept in their cells.
Hodgson and
Allison alternately inflicted ten lashes each on each of the prisoners.
The first lash was received with comparative equanimity by each prisoner; but on the second, the yell of deep and excruciating agony which burst forth is represented as indescribable.
Their cries continued during the whole of the punishment, and these, together with the sight of the flying flesh and blood, the mangled backs of the sufferers, and the clotted skeins of the cat, made up a spectacle of horror overpowering to those who witnessed it. When the punishment had been inflicted, the prisoners were taken down and removed to the prison infirmary in a state of complete prostration — indeed, it is fevered that neither of them could have received another lash without the greatest danger.
Although the prisoners did not witness the punishment, they could hear the shrieks of the unhappy sufferers in their cells, and it is to be hoped the contemplation of the punishment may have a salutary effect on their minds.
’
