Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Transcription

Trial and Sentence.

A full and particular account of the Trial and Sentence of Rober
Emond, who is to be Executed at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the
17th of March, 1830, for the Barbarous Murder of Mrs Franks
and her Daughter, near Haddington, and whose body is to be
delivered to the Professor of Anatomy for Dissection.

Edinburgh, 8th February, 1830.?This day came on the trial of this criminal, whose
alleged crimes have excited so deep an interest throuchout this country. Shortly after nine
o'clock, the Court Room was nearly filled by advocates, writers to the signet, and the jury-
men. At a quarter from ten o'clock the prisoner was brought into the Court by two police-
officers, and looked very composed. His general appearance has certainly nothing in it to
indicare a ferocious character. The following indictment was then read?" Robert Emond,
grocer and draper, formerly residing in North Berwick, in the county of Haddington, pre-
sent prisoner in the jail of Edinburgh, you are indicted and accused, at the instance of Sir

William Rae of St. Catherine's, his Majesty's Advocate, that albeit,by the laws of this and

every well governed realm, murder is a crime of an heinous nature, and severely punishable ,
yet true it is and of verity that you, the said Robert Emond are guilty of the said crime,
actor or art and part, in so far as, on the night of the 25th day of October 1829, or on the
morning of the 26th day of the same month, or on one or other of the days of that month,
or of September immediately preceding, or of November immediately following, you, the
said Robert Emond, did within or near the house then or lately occupied by the now de-
ceased Katherin or Catherine Munro or Franks, widow of the deceased James Franks, or
by the said Catherine Munro or Franks, jeintly with her daughter Magdalene or Madeline
Franks, situated at or near the village of Abbey of Haddington, in the parish and county
of Haddington, violently, wickedly and feloniously attack and assault the said Catherine
Frank , and you did with a table knife or hatchet, or some lethal instrument to the prose-

head and face by which her skull was fractured in several different places, and she was
thereby severely and mortally weunded ; and immediately thereafter died from the in.
uries thus received, and was thereby murdered by you the said Robert Emond, and you

the said Magdeline Frank's person, and you did with a table knife, hatchet or some other
sharp and lethal instrument to the prosecutor unknown, inflict on her eight or thereby
severe blows or cuts on the head, by which her skull was fractured in several different
pieces, the upper part of the cranium broken in pieces, and she was instantly bereaved of
life, and thereby murdered by you the said Robert Emond "

Mr Riddell, sheriff-substitute of Haddington, and John Purves
clerk, proved the four declarations omitted by the prisoner. After
which Marion Inglis, near neighbour to the late Mrs Franks, de-
livered her evidence in a very clear and distinct mannre. She was
Mrs Franks and Madeline at half past 8 on Sunday evening before
they were found dead, they being in the habit of getting milk every
night from the witness, and they were both quite well then. John
Storrie and Alexander Dudgeon, millers, then described how Mrs
Franks and daughter's bodies were found on Wednesday, on their
going over the garden wall, to see if the pigs had meat. John
Lloyd, superintendant of police at Haddington, afterwards describes
what he saw, and took place, on his going to Mrs Franks' house on
the 28th October last, when he took Emond prisoner who asked in
a stammering way for what ? He told him that he was accused of
the murder of Mrs Frangs and her daughter ; when he said "Who
could say so." He then mentions the state in which he found stoc
kings, he had on at the time, which were wet and bloody.

Several other witnesses were then examined, among which was
Catherine Franks, daughter of the late Mrs Franks, only 11 years
old, who described the quarrel between Emond and his wife on the
Sunday, and his return home on Monday morning, all wet and
dirty. When he came in she was very frightened at him, he ap-
peared so wild and singular, though he said, " How are you all this
morning." Witness identified the shoes he had on then, and ex-
claimed, " There are the shoes he was brushing, and they were wet
at the time." The examination of James Paterson, teacher, North
Berwick, and his wife, followed, as did John Dunbar, barber, North
Berwick, Charles Ramage, constable, and Major-General Dalrymple,
who found in a room up stairs a coat, vest, trowsers, shirt, and also
a pair of stockings wet, and a pair of shoes with a pair of stockings
stuffed inside, which he identified in court.

Robert Tait, from Glasgow, another witness, stated, that Emond
slept in the same cell with him in the Calton jail, in November last,
and that on the Tuesday morning after Adams was tried, E?ond
said, he did not think a thief should suffer death ; adding, surely if
they were so severe with Adams, they would be much worse with
him, if the charge with which he was accused was made out. Wit-
ness said, " Did you really do it then ?" Emond replied, " Oh, yes,
but do not speak of it; the very thought of it goes to my heart like
a knife." D. A. Murray corroborated the last witness, after which
W. Morris and John Brown were examined in exculpation, when
the Lord Advocate shortly addressed the Jury, and claved a verdict
of Guilty.

His Lordship was followed by Mr M'Neil, for the pannel. After which the Lord Justice
Clerk summed up the evidence, and the Jury retired at ten minutes before 3 o'clock this
morning. In a hour they returned, when they unanimously found the pannel Guilty. He
was then sentenced to be executed at the head of Libberton Wynd, on Wednesday morning
the 17th March next and his body to be given for public dissection.

(Price One Penny.)

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