18th January 1813: 'An Attentive Hearer' writes again about Mellor's last words

CONFESSION OF THE MURDERERS.

Mr. Printer.—The Editor of the Mercury has taken great pains to controvert the account I gave you, of the murderer Mellor’s Confession on the scaffold, by positively asserting “that neither in his prayer not in any other part of his address did he make the confession imputed to him.” In reply to this I will maintain that my public statement is a correct one, and that Mellor did actually make use of the expression “imputed”to him —“US POOR MURDERERS.” Certainly no one who was present and listened with any attention to the culprit, can deny this fact. The Editor of the Mercury may not have heard this expression, (he did hear, however, what nobody else heard, that the Jury recommended Smith to mercy.) Or, if he did hear the confession, he may, for aught I know, have very prudent motives for concealing it from the Public. I was not the only person who heard the confession—it is corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses.

AN ATTENTIVE HEARER.

Leeds, Jan. 16, 1813.

---

This is from the Leeds Intelligencer of 18th January 1813.