Executioner Pierrepoint: An Autobiography

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Campbell, Denis (13 July 1992). "Capital punishment achieved 'nothing but revenge' ". The Irish Times. p.7. is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree. There have been murders since the beginning of time, and we shall go on looking for deterrents until the end of time. If death were a deterrent, I might be expected to know. It is I who have faced them last, young lads and girls, working men, grandmothers. I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown. It did not deter them then, and it had not deterred them when they committed what they were convicted for. All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder. [78] McLaughlin, Stewart (2004). Execution Suite: A History of the Gallows at Wandsworth Prison 1879–1993. London: HMP Wandsworth. ISBN 978-0-9551-0801-3. Madra, Amandeep Singh (2008). "Singh, Udham (1899–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/73200. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Great dynasties of the world: The Pierrepoints | Family | The Great dynasties of the world: The Pierrepoints | Family | The

Steve Fielding sketches the outline of the family story in Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners, The Story of Britain's Infamous Hangmen (2006). The book is as much a history of the executed as of the executioners. During his time as assistant and then chief executioner, Henry carried out 105 executions. His brother Thomas, who succeeded him in the role, executed 294. And Henry's son Albert executed 435, including William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw), Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis. Between them, the Pierrepoints carried out more than 800 executions. Most were men and most had been convicted of murder, although Thomas and Albert also executed some prisoners who had been convicted of treason. In July 1940 Pierrepoint was the assistant at the execution of Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary who had been convicted of shooting the colonial administrator Sir Michael O'Dwyer. [b] The day before the execution, Stanley Cross, the newly promoted lead executioner, became confused with his calculations of the drop length, and Pierrepoint stepped in to advise on the correct measurements; Pierrepoint was added to the list of head executioners soon after. [28] [29] As lead executioner, 1940–1956 [ edit ] Southport's Albert Pierrepoint Chief Executioner who executed more than 400 people before becoming a death penalty abolitionist_100 (copy)

Klein, Leonora (2006). A Very English Hangman: The Life and Times of Albert Pierrepoint. London: Corvo Books. ISBN 978-0-9543255-6-5. Twitchell, Neville (2012). The Politics of the Rope: The Campaign to Abolish Capital Punishment in Britain, 1955–1969. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: Arena Books. ISBN 978-1-906791-98-8.

Pierrepoint by Albert Pierrepoint: Books - AbeBooks Executioner Pierrepoint by Albert Pierrepoint: Books - AbeBooks

This was the answer of a young Albert Pierrepoint who made a career out of killing more than 400 people. He was 26 by the time he went into the job, after stints as a drayman and an interview at Strangeways. And while Pierrepoint would not retire from his grim business for another six years, executing Corbitt, his friend from the pub, is said to have haunted him.The meeting marked the point at which Albert Pierrepoint’s two worlds - jovial Oldham publican by night, clinical state hangman in his spare time - collided. In late 1945, following the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the subsequent trial of the camp's officials and functionaries, Pierrepoint was sent to Hamelin, Germany to carry out the executions of eleven of those sentenced to death, plus two other German war criminals convicted of murdering an RAF pilot in the Netherlands in March 1945. He disliked any publicity connected to his role and was unhappy that his name had been announced to the press by General Sir Bernard Montgomery. When he flew to Germany, he was followed across the airfield by the press, which he described as being "as unwelcome as a lynch mob". [39] [40] He was given the honorary military rank of lieutenant colonel and, on 13 December, he first executed the women individually, then the men two at a time. [41] [d] Pierrepoint travelled several times to Hamelin, and between December 1948 and October 1949 he executed 226 people, often over 10 a day, and on several occasions groups of up to 17 over 2 days. [43] Two of those convicted of treason and hanged by Pierrepoint, John Amery (left) and William Joyce (right) In addition to his 1974 autobiography, Pierrepoint has been the subject of several biographies, either focusing on him, or alongside other executioners. These include Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners by Fielding, published in 2006, [88] and Leonora Klein's 2006 book A Very English Hangman: The Life and Times of Albert Pierrepoint. [89] There have been several television and radio documentaries about or including Pierrepoint, [90] [91] and he has been portrayed on stage and screen, and in literature. [h] Pierrepoint was born in Clayton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His family struggled financially because of his father's intermittent employment and heavy drinking. Pierrepoint knew from an early age that he wanted to become a hangman, and was taken on as an assistant executioner in September 1932, aged 27. His first execution was in December that year, alongside his uncle Tom. In October 1941 he undertook his first hanging as lead executioner.

Albert Pierrepoint - Wikipedia

He had a fine voice, and was usually joined in the singalong at the piano - a fixture in post-war pubs - by a man who called him ‘Tosh’, who he called ‘Tish’ in return. By the time Pierrepoint’s name went up above the door of The Struggler he was well-known for his work executing Nazi war criminals. At the time, capital cases were only carried out for one murder, even if there was evidence for more deaths. [61] Albert’s first job, at 12, was as a piecer at a textile mill in Failsworth, after he moved to the Manchester area with his mother. But he always knew the fate that awaited him. As a schoolboy, when asked to write what he wanted to be, he answered: “When I leave school I should like to be the Official Executioner.” Robin, Gerald D. (September 1964). "The Executioner: His Place in English Society". The British Journal of Sociology. 15 (3): 234–253. doi: 10.2307/588468. JSTOR 588468.

In March 1950 Pierrepoint hanged Timothy Evans, a 25-year-old man who had the vocabulary of a 14-year-old and the mental age of a ten-year-old. [60] Evans was arrested for the murder of his wife and daughter at their home, the top floor flat of 10Rillington Place, London. His statements to the police were contradictory, telling them that he killed her, and also that he was innocent. He was tried and convicted for the murder of his daughter. [f] Three years later Evans's landlord, John Christie, was arrested for the murder of several women, whose bodies he hid in the house. He subsequently admitted to the murder of Evans's wife, but not the daughter. Pierrepoint hanged him in July 1953 in Pentonville Prison, but the case showed Evans's conviction and hanging had been a miscarriage of justice. The matter led to further questions on the use of the death penalty in Britain. [62] Morrison, Blake (23 November 2012). " Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami – Review". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 August 2018. There were soon rumours in the press that his resignation was connected with the hanging of Ellis. [72] In his autobiography he denied this was the case: