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Broadside entitled 'Shocking Depravity!'

Transcription

Shocking

DEPRAVITY!

A Full and authentic account of the most Shocking
Case of Depravity on record in the annals of the
history of this Kingdom, which took place in the vi-
cinity of Airdrie, on Sabbath morning, the 2d June
instant, by six Monsters in the shape of human
beings !

The following account of this most deplorable case is copied from
the Glasgow Free Press Newspaper, which exceeds any thing of the
kind that we remember ever to have read or heard of. That six
persons, who consider themselves men, should be found in our
boasted civilized and enlightened country, in our day, to lend their
united assistance for such a diabolical purpose as is here described,
is beyond all credibility, and makes our very blood run cold !

On the evening of Saturday last, a labourer and his wife, residing
at or near Kipps, on the line of the Glasgow and Kirkintilloch rail
road, had occasion to be in Airdrie, making some purchases for the
family, and being late in getting payment of their wages, and con-
sequently, later than usual in getting their marketing finished, were
proceeding in a homeward direction about eleven or twelve o'clock
at night, when by some preconcerted scheme, two villains, under the
pretence of being constables, seized the husband and dragged him
towards the jail.    The poor woman, meanwhile, alarmed for her
children, and assured that her husband would speedily follow, ven-
tured to return alone, when four accomplices in the diabolical plot
came forward, and pretending to commiserate her hapless situa-
tion, proposed escorting her homewards in safety, by a nearer path
than the ordinary road.    Seeing so many apparent friends around
her, and being anxious to reach home as quickly as possible, she,
unconscious of danger, consented to be guided by them.    The road
chosen by these monsters, lay through an extensive park, and led to
the corner or wing of a plantation ;   thither they bent their way,
and    *    *    It would harrow the feelings of the most hardened, and
shock the ears of the most indelicate, to narrate the details of the un-
fortunate woman's struggle, and the beastly treatment she experien-
ced at the hands of these unmanly ruffians ; suffice it to say, that
that the party employed to capture the husband, left him so soon as
they considered their accomplices had got his wife fairly out of the
way.?The injured husband, on regaining his liberty, hurried home,
and found, indeed his children, but his wife was nowhere to be seen.
A glimmering of suspicion flashed across his mind.    Having pro-
cured the assistance of a neighbour, the husband rushed out, mad-
dened with rage, and not knowing whither he went?inquiry seem-
ed useless.    By the merest accident, however, he discovered his
abused partner at the corner of the aforesaid plantation as the clock
struck three on the Sabbath morning?her clothes torn to tatters?
her limbs lacerated?her little stock of provisions and clothes Car-
ried off, and her body nearly inanimate.    Thus has been perpetrated
in the vicinity of Airdrie another of the most monstrous and diabo-
lical deeds on record; and with shame let it be said by persons re-
siding in, or belonging to the town, and persons too who are notori-
ously known ; though they have for the present fled.    The case of
the Gilmerton Carters bears no parallel to the foregoing in point of
deliberate atrocity.    The injured woman is respectably connected,
and we are happy to add is gradually recovering.    The Procurator
fiscal has been apprised of the case, so that in the course of a few
days, we may expect to hear of the apprehension of the offenders,-?
Glasgow Free Press.

Menzies, Printer, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.

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Probable date of publication: 1835   shelfmark: F.3.a.13(90)
Broadside entitled 'Shocking Depravity!'
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