ABSTRACT
The execution of Richard Coates, aged twenty-one, a private in the Royal Artillery, for the murder of a girl named Alice Boughen, barely six years of age, the daughter of a private in the same regiment, took place this morning within the Essex county gaol at Springfield, near Chelmsford. The circumstances of the crime have been fully reported. The convict was employed temporarily as a regimental schoolmaster, the little girl was one of his pupils, and he killed her after committing another crime. At and after his trial he protested his innocence, but a few days ago, after an interview with his father and mother, he asked for writing materials and made a full confession, and expressed his penitence for the crime. This confession, in all material respects, tallied with the evidence of the witnesses for the prosecution. The prisoner seems to have behaved very well since his conviction and to have paid attention to the exhortations of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, the chaplain of the prison, and he attended regularly at chapel. Mr. Gepp, the acting under-sheriff, accompanied by some of his officers, arrived at the prison a few minutes before eight o’clock this morning, and soon afterwards the prisoner was pinioned. He did not say a word while this operation was being performed, but appeared to be listening attentively to the ministrations of the chaplain.
