Broadside concerning a letter from Robert Emond to Magdalene Munro

Transcription

LETTER

Directed to Magdalene Munro, North
Berwick, from Robert Emond, pre-
sent prisoner in the Calton Jail, on
suspicion of the Murder of Mrs Franks
and her Daughter.

Calton Jail, November 18, 1829

MY dear Wife, I am now contined in the Cal-
ton Jail charged with the murder of your
.sister and daughter, which I declare to you I am
perfectly innocent, though I have done as much as
deservas the gallows. My dear Magdalene, I am
sorry and even wish to take my own life when I
think upon what I have done te you. I can't get
rest .night nor day. I confess that I am a great sinner,
and nothing hurts me more than to think that I
am under suspicion of the crime of murder. I
assure you that I am perfectly innocent of the
crime laid to my charge, and I hope God Almighty
who sees into all things will be my advocate on
the day of trial I am aware the people are invo-
terate against me, because the proof (in their opi-
nion) is so much against me. I again, my dea-r
est Magdalene, declare, I am innocent, although
at this time my mind is so much affected that I
hardly know what I say. I have been examined
before the Sheriff of Edinburgh saveral times, but
I think they can't prove nothing against me. The
public are aware I understand of the iron heels of
my shoes corresponding with some marks in Mrs
Franks house, and with a bloody shirt found in my
house, which you can prove was occassioned by
the blooding of my nose, or you know better by
the blood that flowed from your head the Sunday
preceding that most horrid murder. I understand
that the authorities in Edinburgh are anxious to

discover my old coat,--------but I hope in God

they never shall. My dearest wife, my name has
been branded in Edinburgh by illiterate stationers,
and I suppose that even my name in North Ber-
wick is held in as much dread as the notorious
murderers Burke and Hare. I must allow suspi-
cions are against me, but that is nothing, I again
implore you to banish from your mind the idea

of being the murderer of your sister and niece.....

My love to all your friends for friends I have none.
Would that God would take me to himself,..
ROBERT EMOND.

We have before alluded to the prints in the
bloody floor in Mrs Franks' house, corresponding
with a pair of shoes be longing to Emond; these
shoes are not likely to be unatched in Scotland ;
they were manufactured in Sunderland. We are
also informed, that Emond, when he left his own
house on the Sunday night, wore two coats. He
acknowledges that he put an old intending to
sleep in his pig-stye, it was to keep the other clean.
This coat he alleges was so much soiled by his
falling in ditches, that he tore it in pieces, and
threw it away. When seen at Dreme he wore an
old coat. More suspicious circumstances against
Emond have transpired,?a shirt with blood on
the wrist was found in his house at North Ber-
wick; and in addition to this, another shirt was
found, the front of which is stained with blood,
as if a quantity had spouted against it, and been
partially washed out. There is also a print upon
the breast, as it a bloody hand had taken hold of
it. When Emond was shown this, he exclaimed,
' Oh! God, be merciful to me !' Captain Brown,
that active messenger, has likewise made import-
ant discoveries, tending to connect Emond still
more closely with the atrocious murders for which
he stands committed.

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