Hello and welcome back to the channel, if you are new here, hi, you’re very welcome.
This is Reading the Past and I’m Doctor Kat.
I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes for my return to health in the comments on
my last video; fortunately, it was a very quick cold (which I think may become an increasingly
common occurrence for me as Gabriel is starting day care now and I am aware that children
are essentially pestilence vectors – last week’s cold came from him). All this is
to say, I’m much better now, thank you.
Before we jump into the video I want to talk about a really fun thing that I got to collaborate
on with the wonderful Lauren from Lauren Learns History. For those of you who follow me on
Instagram (if you aren’t already, you should be… it’s a good time… I’ve started
going live over there) you will have seen pictures of me frolicking about on the deck
of the Golden Hinde and having a generally lovely time. I’m so happy she invited me!
If you are curious to see the finished product then you are in luck; it went live on Lauren’s
channel yesterday (I’ll put it in a card and link it in the description box). Lauren’s
channel is fabulous, especially if you have children around that you are trying to indoctrinate
into history geekdom – which I think we should all be aiming to do. I hope you check
her out and enjoy her content as much as I do.
Also, huge shout out to Pete from the Golden Hinde for his part in the video and for taking
such good care of us. I’m going to leave a link to the Golden Hinde as well because
they have some really cool information and events that you might like to check out.
Bu now, it’s time for another look at the macabre side of history as it is October and,
thus, Halloween month. Today we’re looking at a family of hangmen… as family businesses
go; execution feels like an odd legacy to pass along. But here we are!
Let’s take look…
There aren’t many famous executioners in British history; in fact, I don’t think
it’s stretching it that far to point out that there are probably countless famous or,
perhaps more properly, infamous executions that you can list right now. The amount of
any executioners you are able to name is far below that though, right? For instance, Anne
Boleyn’s execution by sword is one of the most famous beheadings in history; but who
swung the blade? The swordsman of Calais, said to be connected to St Omer – fiction
has chosen to refer to him as Jean Rombaud – but we don’t actually know his name.
When it comes to Anne’s cousin, Katherine Howard, there is even less information about
the person who physically ended her life in 1542.
However, if we do know their name, we know almost nothing about them besides that; take
Charles II’s blundering beheader Jack Ketch – we are sure of very little about him,
apart from his name and the fact that he was famous for doing a terrible job of chopping
people’s heads off.
Fast forward over two centuries and we encounter not just one executioner who we have more
details on, but a family of them – the Pierrepoints. From the start of the 20th century, first
Henry, then his brother Thomas, and eventually Henry’s son Albert would end countless lives
of those convicted and sentenced to die.
Although they were not the only ones to keep the trade in the family; they are certainly
the most famous. Perhaps Henry Pierrepoint’s willingness to make execution into a family
business was inspired by the example of the man he assisted when he was first starting
out in the trade – James Billington. James had three sons, all of whom would also become
executioners, William, John and Thomas Billington. Henry assisted members of this family between
1901 and 1905; from which point Henry was taking the lead in executions.
In 1903 Henry Pierrepoint assisted William Billington at the double hanging of the pair
discussed at the end of my video from last week – the Finchley Baby Farmers – Anne
Walters and Amelia Sach.
Henry would be removed from the official list of qualified executioners by the Home Office
in 1910, at which time the Home Secretary was Winston Churchill. Henry’s removal was
a result of his perpetual drunkenness. He arrived drunk to carry out a hanging at Chelmsford
Prison and proceeded to fight or assault his assistant, John Ellis. It was Ellis that reported
Henry to the Home Office.
Henry’s brother, Thomas, had begun his own hanging career in 1906; having apparently
been convinced to take it up and then trained by his brother. His career would be far longer
than his brother’s; he continued on until 1946, during which time he is thought to have
executed nearly 300 people.
The hangman’s fee was £10 for each execution, rising to £15 in the later 1940s. According
to the National Archives currency converter, in 1945, £15 would be the equivalent of approximately
£533.27 in 2017; which doesn’t sound like very much but was apparently would have paid
for 10 days labour by a skilled tradesmen. The Pierrepoint brothers had other sources
for income.
The hangman was certainly a role that required training – gone were the days of botched
beheadings or hangings that were simply waiting for the condemned to strangle to death; as
would have been the case at the famous Tyburn Tree.
By the late nineteenth century hanging was as much a mathematical problem as anything
else. Long drop hangings were now the order of the day. The desired outcome being that
the hanged person’s neck would be snapped at the end of a rope. A hanging was considered
to have been botched if this was not achieved.
To assist the hangman the Home Office published an Official Table of Drops to indicate the
ideal rope or “drop” length for the condemned, based upon their height and weight. It seems
that these ideal lengths were, in practise, more of a minimum length for those actually
doing the hanging. The hangman would certainly weigh and measure the condemned, but they
would then factor in a longer drop than that recommended by the Table.
On 30th November 1905 a new Pierrepoint was born in Bradford. Albert was Henry’s son
and Thomas’ nephew. He was 11 years old when he learned the truth about the job that
drew his father away from home. Not long after this, Albert wrote the following, in a school
assignment: “When I leave school I should like to be the Official Executioner …”
Perhaps he hoped he would assist his father and be trained by him, as his uncle had been.
As it was, his father – removed for reports of drunkenness and violence while on duty
– would die in 1922 when Albert was 17.
Uncle Thomas would step into the role of Albert’s mentor. He was trained at Pentonville Prison.
In 1932, Albert was 27 years old when he was placed on the Home Office list of executioners.
As was customary he began as an assistant. He first acted as principal executioner of
record 9 years later, on 31st October 1941. Antonio Mancini was a known gangster who had
been convicted in the stabbing death of Harry Distleman that occurred in the early hours
of 1st May 1941.
In 1972 Albert’s memoir was published, in it he recounted some advice given to him by
his uncle: “If you can't do it without whisky, don't do it at all.”
When his uncle’s career came to an end in 1946, Albert became Britain’s preeminent
executioner.
But even before this he was still lead executioner in a number of high-profile cases. During
the second world war he was tasked with executing enemy spies, in addition to a number of American
soldiers sentenced to die by courts martial.
After the war, in December 1945, he was sent to Germany to execute 13 convicted war criminals.
This number included the commandant of Bergen-Belsen, Josef Kramer and one of his camp guards (probably
one of the most infamous women of the SS) Irma Grese.
Albert was soon back in Britain, who had some serial killers to deal with. On 16th October
1946 – the “lady killer” – Neville Heath was hanged by Albert at Pentonville
Prison. Nearly three years later, on 10th August 1949 he hanged the “acid bath murderer”
– John George Haigh at Wandsworth Prison. Four years after that on 15th July 1953 – he
hanged John Reginald Halliday Christie.
Controversially, three years before Christie’s hanging, on 9th March 1950, Albert had also
hanged Timothy Evans a developmentally delayed may who had been wrongfully convicted of the
murders of his wife and infant daughter; who had, in fact, been killed by their neighbour,
Christie.
Three years after the Evans hanging and in the January before Christie’s, Albert hanged
19 year old Derek Bentley who had been part of a bungled robbery in which his accomplice
shot and killed a police officer. The trial, conviction and sentence were controversial
in this case too. Bentley claimed that he was encouraging his partner to hand over his
weapon when he told him to “Let him have it” – the prosecution claimed this was
actually an instruction to shoot. There is a suggestion that a head injury and episodes
of seizures had impacted Bentley’s intellectual capacity making him mentally much younger
than his 19 years. In 1998 Bentley’s murder conviction was quashed.
Albert Pierrepoint is frequently named as the last executioner in Britain; but that
title actually belongs to Harry Allen and Robert Leslie Stewert – at 8am on 13th August
1964 at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison and Liverpool’s Walton Prison respectively,
these hangmen enforced the capital sentence on the two men convicted of killing John Alan
West. Harry hanged Gwynne Owen Evans while Robert hanged his accomplice, Peter Allen.
Albert did hang the last woman to be executed – Ruth Ellis. Her 1955 execution was and
is controversial. It is frequently argued that, as a victim of domestic violence that
even resulted in her miscarrying a pregnancy, Ruth’s shooting of the man who had victimised
her – David Blakely – should not have resulted in a murder conviction and death
penalty. Her fate so unsettled the British public that it is credited, in part, for the
eventual abolition of the death penalty in this country.
Perhaps the significance of Ruth Ellis’ execution, coupled with the fact that she
was executed alone – rather than the more confusing same-day executions in Manchester
and Liverpool nine years later – is why Albert Pierrepoint is remembered as the last
executioner.
There is some dispute over the number of people executed by Albert over the course of his
career – some sources say it was 435 others say 600. It’s an odd thing to lose track
of, I’d say!
Also disputed is how Albert felt about carrying out the executions. In his memoir he appears
unsure of the value of the death penalty as a form of justice or as a deterrent. More
opaque is the fact that he is quoted as saying “I refuse to speak about it. It is something
I think should be secret, myself. It is sacred to me, really”; he also referred to it as
his family's “unique tradition of service to the State”. Yet, when talking about those
he had hanged he used terms of compulsion or coercion, rather than choice; discussing
how he “had to hang” one person or another.
He had volunteered for the role, approached the Home Office to be put on their list, been
trained by his uncle and then accepted each successive execution as it came up. Like his
father and uncle before him, he had other ways to earn money. Albert’s other source
of income was running pubs.
Albert would see the
suspension of the Death Penalty in 1965. This became permanent in 1969. There were still
crimes that carried the option of a capital sentence – namely treason and piracy with
violence – until 1998 when capital punishment was also formally abolished for those offences
too. There is now no crime that carries the death penalty in Britain.
But what do you think?
Were you familiar with the Pierrepoints and their macabre family trade?
What do you think Albert thought or felt about being one of Britain’s hangmen?
As always, I’m looking forward to reading your conversations in the comments section
underneath this video, or you can find me on social media. I’ll leave links to the
other places you can find me on the internet in my description box, follow me over on some
or all of them so we can continue this conversation and start some others.
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I hope you’re going to have a great day whatever you’re doing and I look forward
to speaking to you all in my next video. Take care of yourselves, bye-bye for now.