It took some time to get Peter Wade, a labourer from Rathfarnham, to trial. He was charged before a magistrate with murder on 29 October 1883 and in those days trial and sentences were done within a space of ten days if the case was clear and the jury sure. But Wade must have thought the omens were good when his trial at the Green Street Commission Court in Dublin was deferred. The counsel for Wade asked for a delay because, as he put it, there had not been sufficient time since professional assistance was assigned to make enquiries. The Crown was busy enough, as there was a nasty Westmeath murder to sort out.
But on 15 December he stood in court. Wade was just twenty-three, and he was working as a labourer. The charge was that he had killed an old man aged seventy, Patrick Quinn, a gardener living with his wife at Knocklion. A few days before the death, Wade had come to the Quinn’s house and asked to see the old man. He told Mrs Quinn that the matter was a private one, but she was slightly suspicious, saying that there were no secrets between herself and her husband. But Wade stayed hanging around the place and when he did get to talk to Quinn, they were busy with a discussion of another man called Malone.
The two men seemed to argue about Malone: Wade said he was a rogue and Quinn contradicted him. They talked about Malone leaving his holding without paying his rent. There was some bad feeling, but at that point Mrs Quinn was not sure exactly what that was; but she did have a very good look at Wade of course, and that was important later.
On the night of the 27 October, just after that meeting, Wade returned. The men spoke, sat down and had some tea. According to one report, there would have been no cause for concern then, and shortly after that they walked out together. But it was not long after they left the house that neighbours heard screams and in a short while, Quinn’s body was found. But another story on the case makes far more sinister reading. That account states that Wade waited outside Quinn’s house waiting for the old man to come home; when he did come home, Wade asked a friend to go in and lure him out.
A short while after the screams were heard, Quinn was found dead in a lane. He had been half-beaten, half-kicked to death. The wounds on his head were horrific, so savage had the attack been. The only talk about the case at the time was about Quinn finding a job for Malone, and Wade had taken against him for that, such was his capacity for enmity and hatred.
The hunt for Wade did not last long, even though he had tried to disguise himself, very feebly, because he had merely clipped his moustache. But there were bloodstains on his clothes when he was arrested, and some hair that matched his was found near the body. Clearly, Peter Wade was not the smartest of individuals. Mary Quinn, of course, described Wade clearly and confirmed that when she saw him on his first visit, he had had a moustache. He was well known to the local police, and Constable John Burke stated that he had known Wade for nine years.
Wade was arrested while in his bed and taken away for questioning. When it came to him putting together some kind of story in defence, Wade said that he was not the killer, but that he had sent to decoy Quinn out of the town so that others could lie in wait for him. It did him no good at all and the jury found him guilty of wilful murder.
By 14 January, after an application for reprieve to the Under Secretary, a Dr Kaye from the Under Secretary’s office wrote to Wade’s solicitor with the news that after a full consideration of all the circumstances of the case, his Excellency has felt it to be his painful duty to decide that the law must take its course. Wade had no hope, and he wrote this last letter from Kilmainham:
I cannot leave this world and face my God without clearing the people I told Sergeant Seads about. They know nothing about what happened and had no hand in it. All I said in that statement was wrong. I hope the men I mentioned in my statement will forgive me. I should like it published and their characters cleared. Fully expecting in a few hours to meet my God, I declare what I am now saying is true.
This was witnessed by some of the men who would see him die the next day - Governor J Leslie Beers and Martin Walsh, Chief Warder.
On 15 January he was hanged. Before death, he had spiritual support from Reverend Monsignor Kennedy and Reverend O’Reilly, who heard his confession and administered the sacrament. Wade was in the hands of a very experienced executioner, Yorkshireman Bartholomew Binns, a man who kept a shop in Dewsbury when he was not plying his second trade of hangman. He gave Wade a speedy death, there being just two minutes between the first pinioning restraint and the man swinging dead on the noose. In other words, he died of asphyxia, and very quickly.
But there is a dramatic coda to the story and it is about the widow. Mrs Quinn caught the attention of the papers that day. She had walked all the way from Rathfarnham to Kilmainham to hear the bell toll and then to watch the black flag hoisted when all was finished. She had actually asked to watch Wade die but that request had been refused. She began to cry bitterly when she saw the black flag; but she came through that to tell the press that she was now happy. As The Times reported: ‘It was a happy sight for her for now she knew that her poor dear husband had been avenged… She had been married 44 years and never had an angry word with her husband all that time. She manifested a very bitter spirit, remained watching the flag for a long time and exclaimed repeatedly, “Oh was not I lucky to be able to identify the murderer!”’