State Journal

The Execution. We take the following account of this melancholy scene from the Journal and Boston Transcript.

Simon L. Crockett and Stephen Russell were executed this forenoon in the yard attached to the Leverett street prison, Boston, in pursuance of their sentence: and have thus, with their lives, paid the penalty of the awful crime of arson, of which they were convicted. An immense number of persons assembled at an early hour in the neighborhood of the prison, and occupied every shed or dwelling house, from which a prospect might be obtained of the violent deaths of two human beings! The prisoners were brought out of their cells at about half past ten o'clock, and conducted towards the gallows, which was erected this morning at the end of the yard. Crockett bore his fate with apparent firmness—but Russell, not having been recommended by the Jury to mercy, was confident until this morning, of receiving a reprieve or commutation of his punishment. When conducted towards the gallows, his countenance was deadly pale and his whole frame seemed agitated with terror.

A very brief interval elapsed after they reached the gallows, before the sentence of the law was executed upon these offenders.

They were attended by the Rev. Mr. Taylor. Before leaving the cell, Crockett made a long, fervent and powerful prayer for himself and companion in guilt and suffering, and then walked firmly to the scaffold.

Just before his execution he wrote a long letter to his wife, who resides in Maine (where he has also a mother living) from whom he had been separated, and letters to two of his former companions, imploring them to take warning from his fate, and turn from their career of iniquity. There were six or seven thousand persons on the land, from whence a view could be obtained of the gallows. We have heard of no accident, and there was no disorder, and what is still better, there were but few females present.