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

by Howard Engel (Author) "When Pharaoh of old hanged his chief baker, he pardoned his butler, just as the imprisoned Joseph had predicted..." (more)
Key Phrases: reluctant hangman, official executioner, triple tree, James Berry, Lord High Executioner, Home Office (more...)

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 Description

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Key Porter Books (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550137867
• ISBN-13: 978-1550137866
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,258,071 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Facinating, November 19, 1999

By	Edward Groh (Linthicum, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it., September 6, 2007

By	James R. Holland "Author of Adventure Photogr... (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

Public executions have always attracted large crowds of curious citizens. This was even truer in the pre-mass communication, pre-radio, pre-television era. When the most exciting forms of entertainment were traveling minstrels and circuses, executions were a favorite form of spectator sport. It was even required in some areas that everyone witnesses punishments in hopes that they would avoid breaking the same laws. History records huge crowds coming from great distances to see the final act of their fellow humans. Hangings, impalements, drowning, beheadings, burning people at the stake, drawing and quartering and disemboweling were horrible events. Carrying out these legal executions was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. And most people weren't anxious to have the job. Sometimes other condemned prisoners had their own sentences commuted if they served as the executioners of their fellow condemned prisoners.
Since executioners were considered practitioners of the worst job on the planet, many of the people serving as the actual final instrument for carrying out the dictates of the judicial system, were ostracized by society. This book does a decent job of portraying the world of the executioner and details the lives of many of England's most infamous executioners. Since so many of these people didn't have any idea of what they were doing, it was a major breakthrough when some of the more sensitive executioners began to develop more humane ways to carry out death sentences. Eventually, these men devised scientific methods to instantly break their client's necks rather than letting them slowly strangle to death. Likewise for developing machines to instantly cut off heads rather than maybe having an executioner have to swing his ax or sword half a dozen times to complete his work.
The book is morbidly fascinating. The author did a good job of trying to stick with the facts and not editorialize on the subject of the death penalty. The author's bias against the death penalty does show up in the text occasionally and usually results in him making bleeding heart (no pun intended) conclusions that defy both common sense and historical fact. The book is still worth reading because it shows that humanity is definitely making progress and is at least trying to be as humane as possible in cases of capital punishment. It also introduces and discusses many fascinating historical characters on both sides of law. It's good to see that some high-minded individuals can make even the dirtiest job in the world more humane and scientific. Those were traits that many of the viewers of these macabre public events didn't really appreciate or desire. Many actually preferred long, drawn out shows and that morbid fact is why most executions are no longer major public events.