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Executioner Pierrepoint

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What does it take to be an executioner? What kind of man must one be in order to push the lever and "drop" a man or woman into the hereafter? After thoroughly reading through this book three times, I still cannot answer that question. I have privately wondered if I had been born in similar or identicle circumstances during the same era, could I have performed the job. In all honest, I cannot answer that question either, despite my hardcore opposition to capital punishment.

"Executioner, Pierrepoint" is the life story of Britain's last Chief Executioner, written by Pierrepoint himself and revealing, perhaps for the first time, the secrets of the gallows in Great Britain. Whether you are good, bad or indifferent on the issue of capital punishment, "Executioner, Pierrepoint" is a very good read, if you can get past Mr. Pierrpoints very "British" style of writing. The slang terms, and phrases that he uses struck me as being very common to what one would expect to hear in Great Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. I could almost hear in my mind his accent coming off the pages. His autobiography was well written and he did a good job of leading me through his life story beginning as a child in World War I, the turbulence of World War II, the changes in public perception about capital punishment in Britain during the 1950's, and ending with his retirement in the late 1950's all without boring me in the slightest. In fact I found it difficult to put the book down.

I would definitly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about history or penology. I believe that you will find it as informative as I did.

A truthful, direct, plain-spoken autobiography. Albert had been born into the business - both his father and his uncle had the job, if you can call it that. At the start of the 20th century the job was done by part-timers & freelancers who had other day jobs or small businesses. A hangman might get a couple of hangings a month, traveling to various prisons across UK to kill condemned prisoners. For Albert, growing up poor in rural Yorkshire, the job offered an apportunity to travel, plus he really wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. Albert never thought much about moral/ethical/humanistic issues - he let the judges and the juries think about those weighty matters. Instead he threw himself into becoming the best craftsman he could be. Since hangings were customarily performed at 8 am, he perfected his technique to such an extent that entering a condemned prisoner's cell as the prison clock struck for the first time, he'd have a body dangling from a perfectly still rope by the time the clock struck for the 8th time. In the end Albert came to believe that capital punishment was no deterrent but only satisfied society's need for revenge. A gripping read to the last drop.

Anybody looking for a lurid account of hangings with lots of gruesome details will likely be disappointed by this book. However, anybody interested in the history of judicial hanging in Britain will definitely want to read it. The book is largely a biography, both of Albert Pierrepoint and, to a lesser extent of his father and uncle, both famous hangmen in their own rights. Indeed, a good deal of the first third of the book mostly relates experiences of his father as originally published in some contemporary newspapers. In dealing with his own actual experiences in the execution chamber, Pierrepoint is very brief and sticks only to a few basic facts. Mostly, the book is about his personal approach to the job and how he ultimately became opposed to the death penalty.

Although I very much enjoyed the book, I have to say that I found Pierrepoint to be a bit self-serving and a touch full of himself. He repeatedly tells the reader how discreet he was and how regarded his responsibility as 'sacred'. Other hangmen, however, specifically his colleague, Syd Dernley, for example, have suggested that he was not above a bit of levity when it came to his avocation and, his assertion that he never bragged publicly by referring to himself as 'Executioner' falls a little flat given the title of this autobiography. Some have accused him of hypocrisy by writing this book and then criticizing John Ellis for turning a profit from his experiences but, whatever one's opinion on this issue, the book is well worth the read.

"Executioner: Pierrepoint", an autobiography by Albert Pierrepoint, gives the life story of Great Britain's most famous hangman, in his own words. Mr Pierrepoint tells of his boyhood, of his discovery that his father and favorite uncle were official executioners, his desire to follow in his father's footsteps, and of his subsequent life as an official executioner for Great Britain (and unofficial one for Ireland).

A hangman in Great Britain was expected to efficient, dignified, and discreet, and the book reads exactly this way. Although the positions of executioner and executioner's assistant were only part-time jobs, Mr Pierrepoint took great pride and professionalism in his craft, attempting to execute the condemned prisoners quickly and in an as dignified way as possible. (He would have the condemned hanging from the end of the rope less than 20 seconds from the time the condemned prisoner's cell was entered, and in one case, in only 7 seconds.) The author's primary jobs were as a grocer and later as a pub owner, but until World War II, very few of his associates knew that he was also a hangman.

Mr Pierrepoint does not give graphic, lurid tales of his work. Instead, he calmly describes the process and how it worked, and only in a few specific cases does he mention names. After World War II, though, he was chosen to execute those German war criminals in British jurisdiction, and because of this, the public learned his name and what his part-time job was, to his great dismay. It only added to the irony that a humble English grocer was the person to hang so many formerly powerful war criminals.

As the death penalty was outlawed in Great Britain in 1964, and hanging as a means of judicial execution is rapidly waning throughout the world, this book provides a look into how criminals were hanged in the early-mid 20th century. At one point, Mr Pierrepoint was virtually the only official executioner "working" in Great Britain, and it's estimated he hung 435 men and women in his 25 years as an executioner (just over 200 of these were German war criminals). As such, he probably hung more people than anyone in history, and was well qualified to write these memoirs.

I recommend this book to those with an interest in capital punishment in the 20th century