The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a Letter from Kingston, Jamaica, April 1.

'The 16th of last Month was hanged at Spanish Town one James Hutchinson, the most detestable and abandoned Villain that ever disgraced the human Species. He was a Native of North Britain, and had a Pen in Pedro Valley, in St. Anne's Parish. When any of his Neighbours' Cattle trespassed on his Lands he always secured them as his own, and by that Means had acquired a little Fortune, and it is imagined that many People had been murdered by him for demanding their Property; and this Conjecture seems but too well founded, as you will observe in the Sequel. Mr. Callender (whose Land joined Hutchinson's) had lost a Jack Ass, and seeing him in this Wretch's Pasture, went to him and requested that the Ass might be turned into the Highway, when he would take Care he should trespass upon him no more. Hutchinson told him this Command should be immediately complied with, and when Callender had turned his Back, and was going away, the Villain took up a Gun and killed him on the Spot. A Man then lying sick at Hutchinson's, hearing the Report of a Gun, crept out of his Bed and asked what Firing that was, and said, I believe you have shot the Man that I heard inquiring about the Ass. The Villain replied, "Go instantly to your Bed, or I will serve you the same Sauce." The sick Man, however, in the Course of the Evening, found Means to get privately out of the House, and immediately lodged a Complaint, upon which Hutchinson was apprehended; and, by the Information of one of his Negroes, the Place was discovered where he had conveyed the Head of Callender, and where near twenty other human Skulls were found. The Body was thrown in a Cockpit (as it is here called) a Place deemed inaccessible, being down a perpendicular Rock, that had been split by an Earthquake, or so formed by Nature, the Bottom of which could not be discerned. Upon a Point of the Rock, however, which jutted out, the unfortunate Man's Body was seen, and well known by his Clothes. By some daring Contrivance, a Person went down a considerable Length, and discovered a great Number of human Bones, but no Skulls, so that it is to be supposed this merciless Villain had always taken off the Heads of those he had murdered, in the same Manner he did with poor Callender. At his Trial he had several of our most eminent Counsel to plead for him, and during the whole Time, from his Commitment to his Execution, he behaved with the greatest Insolence. He employed the whole Day before he died in writing, and told the People he had made his own Epitaph, and left orders to have it engraved on his Tombstone. It is long, and ill wrote; but he concludes it in these Words, speaking of the Court and Jury:

Their Sentence, Pride, and Malice, I defy,
Despise their Power, and like a Roman die.

Lewis Hutchinson, hanged at Spanish Town the 16th of March 1773, aged forty Years. Thus was the World rid of this detestable and most execrable Monster.'