Crime & punishment > Whinny Park murder

The funeral of Mr Millie took place on Tuesday the
27th of July, and was attended by a numerous and res¬
pectable assemblage—but by no means by any mob. The
clergymen of the two adjoining parishes, the Reverend
J. Brodie, and the Reverend D. Ogilvie, were both pre¬
sent ; as were also the most of farmers in the immediate
neighbourhood. Mr Millie had lately erected a little
monument, to the memory of his parents, in Monimail
church yard ; and his own grave was made beside theirs.
There were two brothers-in-law to attend to the decencies
of his funeral; and the whole was conducted with that
propriety and order which is characteristic of the coun¬
try-people of Scotland on such occasions.
The crime is in its whole circumstances, one of the
most atrocious which has been known. In the coolness
with which it seems to have been projected and carried
into execution, it comes nearest to the murder of Weare
by the miscreant Thurtell: but there the criminal and
his victim had both equally forfeited the respect of hon¬
ourable men : in the present case, Millie was a person
who, if somewhat remarkable for his secluded habits, was
valued both for his ingenuity and integrity : he had afford¬
ed the person upon whom suspicion has fallen, an asylum
and decent means of subsistence, when he was wandering
the country in rags, without even shoes or stockings;
and had become security for him when he wanted credit
for purchasing the most ordinary necessaries of life.
The coolness with which the wretch had continued, for
a whole month, to carry on his depredations after the
murder, is not the least striking indication of his hardi¬
hood ; and will scarcely find its parallel in any of the for¬
mer records of crime.
A most singular circumstance connected with this af¬
fair has lately come to our knowledge; and which we
should have bad some hesitation in publishing, had not
the gentleman who witnessed it, allowed us at the same
time to authenticate it by his name. On the Wednesday
night (21st July) before the discovery of the body, the
Reverend Alexander Espline, parochial teacher in Moni¬
mail, chanced to be returning from Auchtermuchty to