Broadside entitled 'Melancholy Accident with Farther Particulars relative to the Gilmerton Murder, &c.'

Transcription

Melancholy Accident,

WITH

Farther Particulars

RELATIVE TO THE         

Gilmerton Murder, &c.

A true and farther particular Account of the whole tran-
sactions of these Monsters of Iniquity, the (supposed)
Violaters and Murderers of that unfortunate woman
Margaret Paterson.

The following melancholy and fatal accident is copied from this
day's (Tuesday's Observer.)....

Distressing Accedent. ?Yesterday morning two slaters, employed
in repairing the roof of the Sugar-house, Canongate, were precipi-
tated to the ground, from the fastening of the ladder on which they
were standing giving way ; when one of them was killed on the
spot, and the other died in the course of the afternoon.

Thomson is aged from 20 to 22 years, and unmarried ; Dobie,
who is about 28 years of age, is married, and has two children.

Strange to relate this country, which used to boast itself so
much of the fancied moral superiorty of its people over those
of the sister kingdoms, has been disgraced by the commission of a
series of crimes so novel in their character, and arguing such a degree
of hardened depravity or calculating villany upon the part of the
perpetrators, as to astonish the whole world. We have had Burke
and Hare coolly pursuing deliberate murder as a trade, we have had
Stewart or Broadfoot, and his female associate, carrying on a system
of robbery by administering a fatal drug to those whom they had
marked out as their intended victims; and it is but the other day
that the remorseless Emond expiated on the gallows the innocent
blood which he had so inhumanly shed to gratify his causeless
revenge.

But we have how to state to the natives of Scotland, (this moral
country) that a crime has been committed which throws into the
shade Bulk, (Stewart) Broadfoot, and Emond, and which, we believe,
never happened in any spot in Modern Christendom. The unfor-
fortunate woman, Margaret Paterson, met Dobie and Thomson, at
Grayfield, and asked them for a ride, as she thought they belonged
to Dalkeith. They told her they were going round to Gilmerton,
and proposed conveying her to that place, provided she would give
them some whisky. The unfortunate woman agreed to this pro-
posal, and the parries in consequence adjourned to a public-house
near the toll-bar, where the carters called and paid for two gills, and
Margaret Paterson for an equal quantity, which was all drank.
They then set out for Gilmerton, by the Craigs road, which runs
between Sunnyside and the property immediately adjoining, from
the Dalkeith road on the east, till it reaches the Gilmerton or New-
battle road, on the west, a little to the northward of the village of
Greenend. The carters did not stop at Greenend, but pursued
their course towards Gilmerton; bent apparently, on the perpetra-
tion of the crime, which there is but too much reason to believe
they soon afterwards committed, within a short distance of that
place.

We cannot ascertain what time Dobie returned with or without
his cart. It is evident, however, that Dingwall, a quarrier, found
Thomson's cart at his door unattended, arid saw a woman's shawl
and other articles in it. Dingwall afterwards met Thomson, and
said to him, 'You have had a woman in the cart,' to which he re-
plied, " Oh, yes, she is coming behind.' We understand that on
the Tuesday after this foul and unnatural murder was committed,
Dobie made the treatment of Margaret Paterson a subject of mirth
in a smithy at Greenend. We know the very words the ruffian
made use of on this occasion, but as we cannot pollute the ears of
our citizens in describing it in English, we refrain from translating
it into any other language.

Edinburg - Printed for Felix O'Neil.

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