Lord High Executioner: An Unshamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind [Hardcover]

Howard Engel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Engel, an award-winning mystery writer, has written a scholarly history of executions and executioners, with an emphasis on England and the Commonwealth countries. Notable beheaders' and hangmen's lives are presented with their thoughts and beliefs on how executions should be carried out. Engel briefly discusses capital punishment in Europe and the United States. In so far as he states that he is in favor of abolishing executions but has attempted to be unbiased, he fails. In his discussion of the death penalty in the United States, he uses cases that were causes celebres among opponents of the death penalty: Barbara Graham, Caryl Chessman, Ted Bundy, etc. Nevertheless, academic libraries should consider this title because it contains material that is rarely covered: capital punishment in Canada and women who have been sentenced to death. Unlike Engel, Farrington, a writer and ex-Fleet Street journalist who worked for several years at London's Central Criminal Court, has written a concise survey of "justice" through the ages. The punishments and tortures discussed, seen as barbaric today, were once considered appropriate for the particular time. Heavily illustrated, this book is not for those with a weak stomach. The major drawback is the use of red pages with black words and black pages with white words, which makes the text difficult to read. In addition, there is no bibliography. Despite these flaws, this is a good purchase for popular true crime and history collections.
Michael Sawyer, Clinton P.L., Ia.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Key Porter Books (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550137905
• ISBN-13: 978-1550137903
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,001,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Executioners are people too....., April 7, 2004

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lord High Executioner: An Unshamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind (Hardcover)

I found this book to be quite entertaining and informative look at people who executed other people in the name of the law. The book centered more or less around British justice system. In more ways then one, these executioners tries to be as professional as possible in their crafts. The author goes back to the mediveal period to the current time in telling accounts of how executions were done and conducted. Stories like one of James Barry (a hangman) who came up with a chart of how far a man should drop before his neck breaks on the knotted rope based on the body weight revealed that some people tries to make serious work out of their job.

The author writes with clarity and the book appears to be well researched. I supposed the author tries to insert an political anti-capital punishment bias into this book but I thought the effort was partially defeated because the book showed how capital punishment if properly applied, works! (Meaning, murderers don't killed again after they were hung!!) After that read this book, I was more for capital punishment then before.