Customer Reviews

Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind

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Mr.Engel gives us an enlightened account of the history of the personalties who haunt our nightmares: the executioners. He is generally objective in his treatment of that morbid fraternity but cannot resist the temptation to editorialize on the humanity and efficacy of the death penalty. I, for one, join Mr. Engle in opposing it and I am thankful for his frank and honest treatment of the subject.

Howard Engel's treatment of the history of executioners is both entertaining and biased (as he readily admits). The book begins well with many an ironic turn of phrase and gallows humor but by the end, Mr. Engel's political bias has taken over. He seems to have a particular obsession with Fred Leuchter. How anyone could link so-called holocaust denial into a book which purports to give an overview of executioners is beyond me. The first half of the book is an entertaining read; the second half a hackneyed polemic.

Not only does this book take you through the long drop, the short drop, and the always crowd-pleasing beheading, it takes you through the lives of the death bringers themselves. Some who were truly masters of their craft, and humerous tales of those who would need four hits with a sharp axe in order to take the head. Not nearly as dry as most books written on the subject, has good illustrations and would be an excellent research tool for any writer. Begins with an intensive focus on England, especially the infamous "road to Tyburn" and continues onto focus on the hanging methods in Canada, and lastly the evolution of death in America. The volume also gives a brief note to the only documented female headsmen that I have yet to come across. High marks! Where most history books run by numbers, names, and locations, this one takes the time to give you an intense look at the method of execution and the personal character and life of each on of its subjects. Very well researched and I cannot praise the quality of the writing enough.

This is a popular, anecdotal, enjoyable account of executioners. It relies over-much on the stories of the criminals who were executed rather than focusing on the exeuctioners themselves. Alas, this is a necessity for filling pages since the documents are scanty and sparse more than a century back. Still, this book is fun and reads well. For the non-academic reader it should be quite interesting. The scholarly reader would do well to continue searching elsewhere.

If you've ever wondered about the men and women who administer the death penalty, you'll enjoy this work. Engel goes back to Elizabethan times to show how the job of executioner has evolved. He also discusses how those who fill the position have fared, both inwardly and in society at large, and makes a case for the inhumanity of capital punishment based on how it affects those who administer it.

Those adamantly in favour of the death penalty may find Engel's bias offensive. Those adamantly against the death penalty, however, will find his book enlightening and informative.

Wry! Using mock detachment, clinical detail, understatement and overstatement, Howard Engel presents a chronicle of capital punishment through the eyes, ears, minds and hearts of the world's tribe of hangmen, headsmen and their henchmen. With feigned scientific aloofness and a straight face, Engel allows the death penalty to speak for itself against itself. His masterful treatment of a sordid subject proves that a light jester teaches more than a heavy sermonizer.

Mr.Engel gives us an enlightened account of the history of the personalties who haunt our nightmares: the executioners. He is generally objective in his treatment of that morbid fraternity but cannot resist the temptation to editorialize on the humanity and efficacy of the death penalty. I, for one, join Mr. Engle in opposing it and I am thankful for his frank and honest treatment of the subject.