The Gallows - Thomas O'NEIL hanged in the Jail Yard - At first he stated that his name is not Thomas O'Neil, but Thomas McLARNAN and that he was born at Maghera, County Derry, Ireland, on the 12th of August 1823. 'Had I nine more days to live' he said, 'I would be 53 years old'. He came to this country in 1839, as a sailor boy, arriving in St. John on the 7th of May, this being the first place of landing. Altogether he has lived here 15 years. He returned across the Ocean and came back in 1840, as one of the crew of brig "Betsy". On getting here he deserted, and it was then he deemed it prudent, for fear of detection to change his name, and assumed that of O'Neil, his mother's maiden name. In October 1843 he married his first wife, a Miss ANDERSON and four years later went to the United States. Of the twelve children which his first wife bore him, seven are still living, scattered far and wide. All are natives of this Province. For a couple of years preceding his marriage he worked for a well known firm of ship owners. After returning from the States in 1847, he was present when a man named BUSBY was shot on Cooper's Alley, but denies he had a hand in it. ... The body the Thomas O'Neil to be buried in the burial ground connected with the Alms House in the City & Co. of St. John ... The body was passed in an express wagon and conveyed to the Catholic Cemetery ... (see original)