EVANS ROBERT of Carmarthen, Wales 1873 - 75.
'Evans the hangman' as he was known, acted as principle executioner on several occasions, including at the treble hanging in Gloucester prison on the 12th of January 1874 when 19 year old Mary Ann Barry and her common law husband Edwin Bailey were executed for the murder of their illegitimate child, together with Edward Butt who had strangled his girlfriend. He also assisted Calcraft on several occasions.
INCHER GEORGE from Dudley 1875-1881.
Acted as executioner at Stafford on three occasions, between 1875 and 1881 for the hangings of John Stanton, Henry Rogers and James Williams. He also assisted William Marwood at multiple executions, e.g. those of the four Lennie Mutineers at Newgate in May 1876.
ASKERN THOMAS of York 1816 - 1878. Period in office 1853 -1877.
Thomas Askern was principally the hangman for Yorkshire. Askern, like all of York's hangmen up till then, he was drawn from the inmate population - he was in prison for debt at the time. His first job was the hanging of 28 year old William Dove at York Castle for the murder of his wife on the 9th of August 1856, as Calcraft was busy elsewhere.
He also officiated at Leed's Armley prison and was responsible for four executions there as well as nine at York. As with Calcraft, the availability of a good rail network enabled Askern to work further afield. He was a regular visitor to Durham where he was to hang Britain's greatest mass murderess, Mary Ann Cotton on the 24th of March 1873. Askern was to perform the last public hanging in Scotland, that of 19 year old Robert Smith on the 12th May 1868 at Dumfries, for the murder of a young girl.
He also hanged Pricilla Biggadyke at Lincoln in 1868, the first private female hanging. She was later found to have been innocent and was pardoned. Askern died in Maltby, at the age of 62, on December 6th 1878.
SCOTT THOMAS HENRY of Huddersfield.
Period of office 1892 - 1901. Acted as executioner on several occasions.
The long drop removed all the gruesome struggling and convulsing from the proceedings and was, undoubtedly far less cruel to the prisoner and far less trying to the governor and staff of the prison who, since the abolition of public hangings, had to witness the spectacle at close quarters.
He was duly appointed as official hangman by the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, replacing Calcraft and received a retainer of £20.00 per annum plus £10.00 for each execution but unlike Calcraft got no actual salary. He also was able to keep the condemned persons clothes and received travelling expenses. The rail system was so advanced by this time that he could travel anywhere in the country with ease thus making it possible for him to carry out most of the executions within England and in Ireland.
There was a famous rime about Marwood at the time which went 'If Pa killed Ma who'd kill Pa - Marwood'. Marwood was something of a celebrity and had business cards printed - 'William Marwood Public Executioner, Horncastle, Lincolnshire' and the words 'Marwood Crown Office' over the door of his shop.
In his nine years of service he hanged 176 people, including 8 women, before dying of 'inflammation of the lungs' in 1883.
Four of Marwood's notable cases were :
Charles Peace was a burglar and murderer whom Marwood hanged on the 25th of February 1879 at Armley Goal in Leeds. Peace was the archetypal Victorian criminal who struck fear into the hearts of everyone at the time.
Kate Webster. an Irish servant girl who murdered her mistress and cut up her body was executed on the 29th of July 1879 at Wandsworth Prison, the only woman to be hanged there. Percy Lefroy Mapleton murdered Isaac Fredrick Gold on a train on the Brighton Line so that he could steal Gold's watch and some coins. He was arrested almost immediately but managed to escape from custody before being arrested again, convicted and finally hanged at Lewes prison on the 29th of November 1881.
Marwood travelled to Ireland from time to time and had the job of executing Joe Brady and four other members of the 'Invincibles' gang for the murders in Phoenix Park Dublin of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Harry Burke the Permanent Under Secretary for Ireland. These hangings took place on the 14th of May, 1883 at Kilmainham jail in Dublin.
Marwood worked with Incher on the occasions that needed 2 executioners i.e. doubles, until 1881 and then used Bartholomew Binns as an assistant until 1883 when Binns took over as No. 1. During Marwood's reign as No. 1 there were 14 double executions, 3 triples and one quadruple (at Newgate). He worked without an assistant for most executions but one assumes that if needed the warders they were there to assist.
All the normal preparations were made on the gallows, set up in the coach house at Exeter prison, but when Berry pulled the lever nothing happened. Berry stamped on the trap but to no avail and Lee was then taken back to his cell whilst the trap release mechanism was tested. It worked perfectly. The process was now repeated but with the same result and yet again the trap worked perfectly after Lee was removed. After the third unsuccessful attempt the governor stayed the hanging whilst he obtained directions from the Home Office. Lee was later reprieved.
Various theories abound as to why the trap would not open with Lee on it, ranging from divine intervention through the wood swelling in the damp weather to the more believable one of one of the prisoners who had helped to erect it placing a wedge between the leaves of the trap which he removed again as soon as Lee was taken off and reinserted at each new attempt.
The reality was, however, more prosaic. When the trap had been erected in the coach house at Exeter, having been previously used at a different location for the hanging of Annie Tooke in 1879, the metal work was not installed correctly and one of the long hinges fouled on the side of the pit when their was weight on the trap doors but not when there wasn’t.
Another unfortunate experience concerned the execution of Robert Goodale at Norwich Castle on the 30th of November 1885. Goodale who weighed 15 stone (95 Kg.) but was in poor physical condition, was decapitated by the force of the drop. (The only recorded instance of this in Britain, although two other of Berry's victims, Moses Shrimpton at Worcester and John Conway at Kirkdale were nearly decapitated by the drop) The last case led to Berry's resignation as he blamed the prison doctor Dr. Barr for interfering with his calculations.
The opposite problem occurred in at least three of Berry's other hangings when the condemned clearly strangled to death due to the length of drop being insufficient. These were David Roberts hanged at Cardiff on the 2nd of March 1886, Henry Devlin, executed September 23rd 1890, in Glasgow for murdering his wife, and Edward Hewitt who was executed at Gloucester in June of 1886.
By a strange coincidence Mr. Berry was called upon to hang Mrs. Berry who had poisoned her 11 year old daughter for £10 life insurance. The execution took place on the 14th March 1887at Walton prison Liverpool (the first in that prison). Not only did the executioner and the prisoner have the same surname, and although not related, they actually knew each other, having danced together at a police ball in Manchester some years previously.
BINNS BARTHOLOMEW. Period in office - 1883 - 1884.
Sacked as chief executioner but later assisted Tommy Scott on several occasions in 1900/01. Binns was perhaps one of the least successful British hangman only holding the job as principal for a year although he had assisted Marwood at executions. After complaints about his work and his character he was removed from the Home Office list of hangmen.
His first 'solo' execution was that of Henry Powell on the 6th of November 1883 at Wandsworth Prison. He also dealt with Patrick O'Donnell an Irish Republican who murdered the chief witness in the Phoenix Park murder case
SCOTT THOMAS.
Thomas Scott was a hangman from Huddersfield in Yorkshire. He had the honour of seeing executions in Belfast move into the 20th century when he hanged John Gilmore in 1894 and then returned to hang William Woods in 1901. On both occasions he acted without an assistant. Woods was the first person to be hanged on the new execution chamber in 'C' wing.
BILLINGTONS
The Billingtons were a family from Bolton in Yorkshire. The first of the family to become a hangman was James who carried out his first hanging at Leeds in 1884. His three sons followed in his footsteps but hard luck fell on the family at the start of the 20th century when James died in 1901 and his older son Thomas died just a month later. The remaining two sons continued to perform executions in England and Ireland.
James Billington of Farnworth near Bolton in Lancashire 1847 - 1901.
Period in office - 1884 - 1901.
James Billington had a life long fascination with hanging and had unsuccessfully applied for Marwood's post but managed to secure the Yorkshire hangman's position. He succeeded Berry as the executioner for London and the Home Counties in 1892. James' first execution was at Armley Gaol in Leeds on the 26th August 1884, when he hanged a Joseph Laycock, a Sheffield hawker, for the murder of his wife and four children. Laycock was to have said just before being hanged 'You will not hurt me?' to which James Billington replied, 'No, you will never feel it, for you will be out of existence in two minutes.' This execution was judged to be successful and James went on to complete 147 executions, finishing on December 3rd 1901 with the hanging of Patrick M'Kenna at Strangeways prison in Manchester, who was to die for murdering his wife.
James died 10 days later of bronchitis and was succeeded by his two sons, William and John, who had assisted him at various hangings..
James Billington hanged 24 men and three women at Newgate Prison, including Henry Fowler and Albert Milsom on the 9th of June 1896 for beating to death 79-year-old widower Henry Smith. He also carried out the first hanging of the 20th century when he executed thirty three year old Louise Masset at Newgate on the 9th of January 1900 for the murder of her illegitimate son. He hanged Amelia Dyer at Newgate for the murder of 4 month old Doris Marmon a baby who had been entrusted to her care, having received £10 to look after her.
This particular form of murder was known as 'Baby Farming' and it is thought that Dyer had murdered at least six other babies for money. Each baby had been strangled with white tape. As Mrs. Dyer said, that was how you could tell it was one of hers. At 57 she was the oldest woman to go to the gallows since 1843.
Perhaps his most interesting execution was that of the poisoner Dr. Thomas Neil Cream on the 15th November 1892, again at Newgate. Cream waited till the very last moment as he felt the mechanism under the trap begin to move to utter the words 'I am Jack the....' It is highly unlikely that Cream could have been Jack the Ripper but it certainly caused a stir at the time.
Thomas Billington 1872 - 1902. Period in office 1897 - 1901.
(possibly assisted his father from 1894 under the name of Thompson)
Thomas Billington was James Billington's eldest son. Thomas assisted his father and brother William at some hangings but died of pneumonia aged 29 in 1902.
William Billington 1873 - 1934. Period in office - 1902 - 1905.
The second of James Billington's three sons, William took over from his father and was assisted by his younger brother John. He executed Mrs. Emily Swan and her boyfriend John Gallagher, who died together at Armley prison Leeds on the 29th of December 1901 for the murder of Emily's husband. Hooded and noosed on the gallows Emily said 'Good morning John' to which he replied 'Good morning love'. Emily replied 'Goodbye, God bless you' before the drop fell ending any more conversation.
William carried out the last execution at Newgate hanging George Woolfe on the 2nd of May 1902. He also dealt with Annie Walters and Amelia Sach who were hanged at Holloway prison on the 3rd of February 1903 for baby farming. (the first executions at Holloway prison). Assisted by Henry Pierrepoint he also carried out the first hanging at Pentonville on the 30th of September 1902, when they executed John MacDonald who had stabbed one Mr. Henry Greaves to death.
John Billington 1880 - 1905. Period in office - 1902 - 1905.
John was also on the Home Office's approved list of executioners and assisted his brother William. He also carried out 16 executions as principal, including those of Henry Starr for the murder of his wife at Walton prison Liverpool on the 29th of December 1901 and Samuel Holden at Winson Green prison in Birmingham on the 17thof August 1904, while his brother was dealing with John Thomas Kay on the same day at Armley prison in Leeds.
News Headlines 'Executioner may resign'
From the Bolton Evening News, December 10, 1903: A statement has appeared to the effect that William Billington contemplates resigning his work as hangman after having held the gruesome post for nearly two years, from the time it became vacant on the death of his brother, who did not long survive the father.
Billington has informed a Press representative that his absence from business at Bolton causes a considerable loss and this is advanced as the reason for relinquishing the post. It is not expected that the present assistant hangman will seek the position his brother is about to vacate. Each of the Billingtons has proved an adept as hangman and the only hitch during their official reign occurred at the execution of the Muswell Hill murderers on which occasion Wilkinson, Billington senior's assistant, failed to get clear of the drop before it fell.
As the result he went down into the pit clinging to the legs of Milsom, and preventing that wretched man having the same straight drop which so promptly closed the life of Fowler, his companion in crime.
He executed several famous criminals, notably: Herbert Rowse Armstrong who he hanged on the 31st of May 1922 at Gloucester prison for the murder, by arsenic poisoning, of his wife. There is some doubt now over Armstrong's guilt and new evidence has been unearthed by another, present day solicitor, who acquired Armstrong's practice in Hay on Wye and works in his old office and even bought his house.
Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen is perhaps the most famous criminal to come Ellis's way. He was hanged on the 23rd of November 1910 at Pentonville prison for the murder of his wife, Cora Crippen. Crippen was the first person to be caught by the use of the new wireless telegraph system allowing him to be arrested aboard the S. S. Montrose on which he had sailed to Quebec in Canada with his lover Ethel Le Neve. At the time it was seen as the 'Crime of the Century' and has held a fascination for many ever since.
George Smith was the famous 'Brides in the Bath' murderer whom Ellis hanged on the 13th of August 1915 at Maidstone prison. Smith had married and then drowned Alice Burnham, Beatrice Constance, Annie Mundy and Margaret Elizabeth Lofty for financial gain, via their life insurance policies and wills.
Sir Roger Casement was unusual in that he had been convicted of treason, having tried to get the Germans to send arms and equipment to Ireland to start the 1916 Easter Uprising. He was hanged at Pentonville on the 3rd of August 1916.
In 1923 Ellis had the worst job of his career when he and Robert Baxter hanged Edith Jessie Thompson aged 28 on the 9th of January at Holloway for her part in the murder of her husband Percy who was stabbed to death by Frederick Bywaters. She had to be carried to the gallows and it was reported that her underwear was covered in blood after the hanging. After this all other women were made to wear canvas underpants.
This pair also hanged Susan Newell at Duke Street prison Glasgow on the 10th of October 1923. 30 year old Newell had strangled newspaper boy, John Johnston, who would not give her an evening paper without the money. She was the first woman to hang in Scotland for over fifty years and on the gallows refused the traditional white hood.
John Ellis carried out his final execution on the 28th of December 1923, when he hanged John Eastwood at Armley prison in Leeds, for the murder of his wife. In March of 1924 he tended his resignation due to poor health, having executed a total of 203 people. Before his suicide on September 20th 1932, Ellis wrote his memoirs 'Diary of a Hangman' which has been recently reprinted.
The Pierrepoints
As the Billingtons era closed another family was to carry on in the craft of hangmen. This family was known as the Pierrepoints. The first to become an executioner was Henry Pierrepoint, a married man from Huddersfield. In 1901 at the age of 25 he assisted Billington at Newgate prison. He acted as assistant executioner until he received his first appointment of number 1 in 1905. However due to his drinking habits he is reputed to have been replaced by Ellis.
For fifty five years, generations of the Pierrepoint family served as fearsome hangmen in England. The dynasty began in 1901 with Henry Pierrepoint. He was followed into the gruesome profession by his brother Thomas and in time, his eldest son Albert. Between them, they carried out an amazing 900 executions.
Henry Pierrepoint 1874 - 1922 from Bradford Yorkshire.
Period in office - 1901 - 1910.
Henry Pierrepoint carried out 107 executions in his nine year term of office. He took great pride in his work and calculated the drops most carefully - he is said never to have had a single bungled hanging.
His first job was at Newgate, assisting James Billington, with the execution of Marcel Fougeron on the 19th of November 1901. Between January 1902 and March 1903 he assisted at a further fifteen hangings and is thought to have carried out some of them as principal.
Henry, assisted by his brother Tom, hanged Rhoda Willis at Cardiff on the 14th of August 1907. Willis, (also known as Leslie James) was executed on her 44th birthday for the murder of a day old baby whom she had agreed to look after for £6.00 paid to her by its unmarried mother. She was thus, in effect, another baby farmer, although her good looks and golden hair made a big impression on Henry.
Like James Billington, Henry Pierrepoint was the founder of a family dynasty, persuading his older brother Tom and son Albert to follow in his foot steps.
Files recently released by the Public Record Office show that Henry Pierrepoint was sacked because he arrived for an execution in Chelmsford in July 1910 'considerably the worse for drink' and had got into a fight with John Ellis on the preceding afternoon.
'Hangman dropped for drinking'
The mystery of why one of Britain's most famous hangmen left his job has been solved - more than 90 years on. Henry Pierrepoint, who had been chief executioner, gave up abruptly in 1910. His son Albert, chief executioner himself, said he never knew why his father 'resigned'.
But files recently released at the Public Record Office show that Henry Pierrepoint was sacked because he had arrived for an execution in Chelmsford in July 1910 'considerably the worse for drink'. According to the chief warder, as his officers were handing over the prisoner's details Pierrepoint suddenly 'opened a volley of abuse' at his assistant, John Ellis. Both executioners had arrived the afternoon before the hanging,as usual.
Ellis later wrote: 'He rushed at me and knocked me out off the chair I was sat on. I got up but was again knocked off. He was going for me again when warder Nash, who had heard the noise, came in, and attempted to stop him, but failed, and the blow struck me behind the ear.'
Ellis claimed that he had advised Pierrepoint to drink less as it 'gave the public the impression he had to drink to do his work'. Removed Though one witness said the execution the following day was 'carried out with the most extraordinary dispatch', Pierrepoint was nonetheless removed from the list of 'approved executioners'.
Home Office officials wrote that he should 'never be employed again'.
According to Steve Fielding, author of The Hangman's Record, several hangmen had to be sacked for arriving at executions drunk. One tried to hang a priest by mistake. Pierrepoint did not give up easily though. As a hangman, he travelled all expenses paid around the country, a rarity at the time. His fee was £10 per hanging, a significant sum. 'Undermined'
The files show Henry Pierrepoint appealed directly to the home secretary.
He said Ellis had been trying to undermine him, because he wanted to be chief executioner. But it had no effect. Henry Pierrepoint spent the rest of his life in the gasworks - and writing his reminiscences for a weekly paper. Henry's brother Tom remained an executioner. And his son Albert of course became the most famous British hangman of the 20th Century. He executed an estimated 450 people, including Ruth Ellis, John Christie, and the commandant of Bergen Belsen.
Thomas Pierrepoint 1870 - 1954.
Period in office - 1906 - 1946.
Tom was six years older than his brother Henry and worked as a hangman for 37 years before retiring in 1946 in his mid seventies. He is credited with having carried out around 300 hangings although no exact figure has been verified.
Some of his famous cases were :
Ethel Lillie Major hanged on the 19th of December 1934 at Hull Prison for the murder of her husband. Nurse Dorothea Waddingham who was hanged for poisoning one of her elderly patients on the 16th of April 1936 at Winson Green prison in Birmingham.
On the 10th of March 1930 Pierrepoint executed Alfred Arthur Rouse at Bedford prison for the murder of an unknown man. Rowse had killed the man and then put him in his (Rouse's) car and set it ablaze in an attempt to fake his own death for the insurance money.
He also hanged Charlotte Bryant, who went to the gallows at Exeter on the 15th of July 1936 for the murder of her husband by arsenic poisoning. Tom was appointed as executioner by the US Military and was responsible for several of the hangings of U S servicemen at Shepton Mallet prison curing World War II, assisted by his nephew, Albert.
Some of his notable executions were : Neville George Clevelly Heath who was hanged on the 16th of October 1946 at Pentonville Prison for the sexual/sadistic murder of Margery Gardner who was found dead in a hotel bedroom. When discovered she was lying on her back, in one of the single beds nearest to the door. She was naked and had her ankles bound with a handkerchief. She had a lot of bruising to her face and her nipples had been almost bitten off. Something had been inserted into her vagina and sharply rotated. On her back were seventeen criss-cross lash marks. The cause of death had been suffocation, but only after the horrific injuries had been inflicted.
During World War II, Pierrepoint was called upon to assist with or be principal in the hangings of the 16 American soldiers executed for murder and rape at Shepton Mallet military prison in Somerset. After the war Albert made several visits to Austria and Germany and on the 13th of December 1945 hanged 13 German war criminals at Hameln jail including Irma Greese, Elizabeth Volkenrath and Juana Boreman and ten men including the 'Beast of Belsen' Josef Kramer. He is thought to have hanged around 200 Nazis in all.
Irma Greese Nazis War Crimes
She was among the 44 accused of war crimes at the Belsen Trial. She was tried over the first period of the trials (September 17 - November 17, 1945) and was represented by Major L. Cranfield. The trials were conducted under British military law in Lneburg, and the charges derived from the Geneva Convention of 1929 regarding the treatment of prisoners. The accusations against her centred on her ill treatment and murder of Allied nationals imprisoned at the camps, including setting dogs on inmates, shootings and sadistic beatings with a whip.
She was convicted of crimes committed at both Auschwitz and Belsen and sentenced to death by hanging. Her subsequent appeal was rejected. Ten others were also sentenced to death including two other women, Juana Bormann and Elisabeth Volkenrath, with whom she stayed up the night before their execution, laughing and singing Nazi songs. Executed at Hameln jail by Albert Pierrepoint, she was the youngest woman to die judicially under English law in the 20th century.
She showed no remorse, and her final words to Pierrepoint were: 'Quick, get it over'.
Another famous case was that of 'Lord Haw-Haw', real name, William Joyce, whom Pierrepoint hanged at Wandsworth for treason on the 3rd of January 1946. John George Haigh the famous 'Acid bath murderer' came Pierepoint's way on the 10th of August 1949 at Wandsworth Prison for the murder of Mrs. Durand -Deacon. Her gall stone and dentures were not dissolved by the acid in which he had dissolved the rest of her body and remained to convict Haigh.
Derek Bentley was hanged on the 28th of January 1953, at Wandsworth, for his part in the murder of PC Miles. The case has been the subject of books and the film 'Let him have it' and efforts for a pardon for Bentley continue to this day. (He was finally found to have been innocent in 1998).
Another controversial case was that of Timothy John Evans whom Albert hanged on the 9th of March 1950 at Pentonville for the murder of his wife at 10 Rillington Place the home of John Reginald Christie. Christie admitted killing seven women in total. He was hanged on the 15th of July 1953 at Pentonville Prison. In 1966 Evans was granted a posthumous pardon. On the 13th of July 1955 at Holloway Prison, Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
Pierrepoint resigned over a disagreement about fees in 1956. He had gone to Strangeways on a cold day in January 1956 to hang Thomas Bancroft. He arrived at the prison only to find that Bancroft was reprieved. He claimed the full fee of £15, (more than £200 at today's prices), but was offered just £1 in out-of-pocket expenses by the under-sheriff of Lancashire.
Pierrepoint appealed to his employers, the Prison Commission, who refused to get involved. The under-sheriff sent him a cheque for £4 in final settlement. But to Pierrepoint this was the end of the road and a huge insult to his pride in his position as Britain's Chief Executioner. He also wrote his autobiography 'Executioner - Pierrepoint' which is still available. Albert was landlord of a public house 'Help The Poor Struggler' beerhouse in Manchester Road in Hollinwood, Oldham. Pierpoint had been landlord since he took over in 1946, having been executioner since 1931. He died, still in residence, on 11th July 1992 at the age of 87. His death was announced on the BBC midnight news. He was said to pull a good pint! The public house, which ended its days as an electrical shop, was demolished in the 1980's.
September 17, 2005
New British made film The Last Hangman (UK, director Adrian Shergold): Between 1933 and 1955, Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s Chief Executioner, responsible for more than 600 hangings. Timothy Spall gives a devastating performance as a decent man engaged in the loneliest of professions. The title is somewhat misleading. Hangings were carried out until 1964, but Pierrepoint was the last man to hold the official office of Chief Executioner.
As the film begins, Pierrepoint is proud to be offered a job as a hangman, following in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps. Since he’s only needed every few months, he maintains his job as a grocer’s deliveryman and keeps his moonlighting a secret from his friends and even his wife (Juliet Stevenson). He is very good at his new profession, and is determined to complete each job as quickly and humanely as possible. It’s a bit odd seeing him trying to shave seconds off the time required for each execution, much like a professional athlete trying for a world record. That is, until you realize that his desire is for the prisoner to have as little time as possible to be afraid. After each execution, it falls to Pierrepoint to cut down the body and prepare it for burial, and it’s touching to see the tenderness he displays. After the execution of one woman, he tells his assistant, 'She’s paid the price, now she’s innocent.'
Pierrepoint’s reputation grows and after the war, he’s flown to Germany by the British Army and placed in charge of executing scores of Nazi war criminals. As a result, his secret is leaked to the press, who now broadcast his identity as the finest hangman in the land. With his earnings from these jobs, he and his wife decide to open a pub(!), which does a booming business, thanks in part to his notoriety.
But the job begins to take a terrible toll. Even after he tells his wife about his second profession, she doesn’t want to hear about it. Nobody really wants to hear about it. When protestors start demonstrating against capital punishment, Pierrepoint finds himself the target of their ire. Doubts begin to creep in to destroy his previously unshakable faith in what he does. By the mid-1950s, Albert Pierrepoint resigns his position (ostensibly over unpaid fees) and completely reverses his own position on capital punishment, though he initially keeps his opinions to himself. In his 1974 autobiography, however, he finally confesses that the whole experience had left a bitter aftertaste for him and that he felt that capital punishment had 'achieved nothing but revenge.'
Though this is a fairly standard biopic and 'issue film,' the performances of Juliet Stevenson and especially Timothy Spall are remarkable. Pierrepoint’s determination to remain detached takes a terrible toll on his life and is bound to fail eventually. The obvious conclusion is that killing corrodes our humanity, whether the killer is a murderer or an executioner on the state’s payroll.
Robert Wilson from Manchester.
Period in office - 1920 - 1936.
This executioner also came from Manchester and visited Belfast on four occasions to act as assistant. He assisted Willis to hang Pratley and Thomas Pierrepoint to hang Cushnan, Doran and Cullens. Robert Wilson hanged William Henry Kennedy on the 31st of May 1928 at Wandsworth Prison for his part in the shooting of police constable George William Gutteridge.
Robert Baxter of Hertford.
Period in office - 1915 - 1935.
Baxter came from Hertford and began his career in 1923. He was assistant to Pierrepoint and helped to hang Smiley in 1928. Baxter (assisted by Willis and Phillips) hanged Jean-Pierre Vaquier at Wandsworth prison on the 12th of August 1924 for the poisoning, by strychnine, of his lover's husband. At the same moment that Robert Wilson was executing Kennedy (see above), Baxter hanged Frederick Guy Browne for his part in P C Gutteridge's murder, at Pentonville Prison.
William Willis from Manchester
Willis was from Manchester and acted mostly as assistant to Ellis and the Pierrepoints. He did however act as number one on fifteen occasions. On his travels to Northern Ireland he carried out the following executions. 8.2.1923 William Rooney at Londonderry. 8.5.1924 Michael Pratley at Belfast.
Alfred Allen - Wolverhampton.
Period in office 1928 - 37.
Acted as chief executioner on several occasions.
Thomas Mather Phillips.
Period in office 1918 - 1941.
Acted as chief executioner on several occasions, having previously been an assistant to Pierrepoint.
Stanley William Cross.
Period in office 1932 - 1941.
Cross also acted as chief executioner on several occasions.
Harry Kirk from Huntingdon.
Period in office - 1941 - 1950.
Harry Kirk had worked as an assistant to Stan Cross, and to both Tom and Albert Pierrepoint. He had a very short career as a hangman. When he executed Norman Goldenthorpe at Norwich on the 22nd of November 1950 for the murder of 66 year old Emma Howe at Yarmouth, snorting sounds were heard coming from the prisoner. This was apparently due to the hood becoming stuck in the eyelet of the noose. This was thus Kirk's first and last hanging as principal.
Steve Wade from Doncaster.
Period in office - 1941 - 1955.
Steve Wade also worked as an assistant to Tom and Albert Pierrepoint on 31 occasions and carried out 28 executions in his own right after Albert resigned.
His last job was that of Alec Wilkinson whom he and Robert Stewart hanged at Armley jail on the 12th of August 1955. He was always Albert's most trusted assistant. Stephen died in 1956.
Harry Bertrum Allen from Manchester 1911 - 1992.
Period in office - 1941 - 1964.
After Pierrepoint’s resignation, Steve Wade and Harry Allen took over the job as joint No. 1. However the execution business was slowing down with very few hangings in the run up to the Homicide Act of 1957 (There were none in 1956).
Allen performed 29 executions and assisted at around 40 others. He also worked in Cyprus on a number of occasions. John Vickers became the first man to die for a murder committed under the provisions of the Homicide Act of 1957 when he was hanged at Durham on the 23rd of July 1957.
Allen hanged George Riley on the 9th of February 1961 at Shrewsbury Prison for the murder of his neighbour, Adeline Mary Smith. Perhaps his most controversial case was that of James Hanratty who was convicted of the A6 murder and hanged at Bedford prison on the 4th of April 1962. There have been serious doubts raised over Hanratty's guilt and attempts to win him a pardon continue to this day. In 2002 Hanratty's family had their appeal turned down after DNA evidence showed conclusively that Hanratty was guilty.
Harry Allen was the last hangman to carry out his duty in Northern Ireland. He had been a one time assistant to Thomas Pierrepoint. On the 20th of December 1961 he hanged Robert McGladdery in Belfast prison. Just five months before he hanged Samuel McLaughlin on the same Gallows. Allen carried out one of the last executions in England in 1964 when he hanged Gwynne Owen Evans in Manchester. At the exact same time, the executioner Stewart was hanging Peter Allen in Walton Prison.
Allen's last job was the hanging of Gwynne Owen Evans at Strangeways Prison at 8.00 a.m. on the 13th of August 1964, whilst his accomplice, Peter Anthony Allen, was suffering the same fate at Walton. (See below) Allen and Evans were the last men to suffer the death penalty in Britain.
Robert Leslie Stewart from Edinburgh 1918 - 1988.
Period in office - 1950 - 1964.
Stewart shared the distinction of carrying out one of the two last hangings in Britain when he executed Peter Anthony Allen at Walton prison Liverpool at 8.00 a.m. on the 13th of August 1964 for his part in the murder of John Alan West a 53 year old laundry-man who was killed during the course of a robbery carried out by Allen and Evans.
Assistant Executioners.
There were many more names on the Home Office list of approved executioners over the period covered, but they only acted as assistants and are, thus, not always recorded. Amongst the better known of these was Sid Dernley, who assisted at 25 executions between 1949 and 1954 and also wrote a book called 'The Hangman's Tale' detailing his experiences.
Dernley died in 1994. A lesser known name is that of Royston Lawrence Rickard, who assisted at the executions of Ruth Ellis and James Hanratty, amongst others and also at one of the two final British hangings, the execution of Peter Anthony Allen on the 13th of August 1964. The assistant at the other execution on that day (that of Gwynne Owen Evans) was Harry Robinson.
There were many more names on the Home Office list of approved executioners over the period covered, but they only acted as assistants and are, thus, not always recorded. Amongst the better known of these was Sid Dernley, who assisted at 25 executions between 1949 and 1954 and also wrote a book called 'The Hangman's Tale' detailing his experiences. Dernley died in 1994. A lesser known name is that of Royston Lawrence Rickard, who assisted at the executions of Ruth Ellis and James Hanratty, amongst others and also at one of the two final British hangings, the execution of Peter Anthony Allen on the 13th of August 1964. The assistant at the other execution on that day (that of Gwynne Owen Evans) was Harry Robinson.
Robert Leslie Stewart (1918-1988), from Edinburgh, was one of the last executioners, officiating between 1950 and 1964.
Stewart performed one of the simultaneous final executions in the United Kingdom, when at 8 a.m. on 13 Aug 1964 Peter Anthony Allen was hanged at Walton Prison in Liverpool for the murder of John Alan West, while at the same time his accomplice Gwynne Owen Evans was also being hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester.
