Albert Pierrepoint ( / ˈ p ɪər p ɔɪ n t/; 30 March 1905– 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. After leaving the Struggler in the fifties, Pierrepoint ran another pub, the Rose and Crown in Much Hoole, Lancashire. He died in Southport in 1992 at the age of 87 - having come to the view that executions ‘solve nothing’ and ‘are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge’. John Haigh, the Acid Bath Murderer. Hanged in 1949, Haigh murdered six people for their property and pensions before dissolving their bodies in acid. His victims included Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife Rosalie, whose brother was a hotelier from Withington’s Hartley Estate. is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree. There have been murders since the beginning of time, and we shall go on looking for deterrents until the end of time. If death were a deterrent, I might be expected to know. It is I who have faced them last, young lads and girls, working men, grandmothers. I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown. It did not deter them then, and it had not deterred them when they committed what they were convicted for. All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder. [78] This was the answer of a young Albert Pierrepoint who made a career out of killing more than 400 people.

A Very English Hangman: The Life and Times of Albert Pierrepoint

Pierrepoint and his wife ran their pub until they retired to the seaside town of Southport in the 1960s. In 1974 he published his autobiography, Executioner: Pierrepoint. He died on 10 July 1992, aged 87, in the nursing home where he had lived for the last four years of his life. [76] [77] Views on capital punishment [ edit ] At the time the policeman was shot, Bentley had been under arrest for 15 minutes, and the words he said to Craig—"Let him have it, Chris"—could either have been taken for an incitement to shoot, or for Craig to hand his gun over (one policeman had asked him to hand the gun over just beforehand). Bentley was found guilty by the English law principle of joint enterprise. [63] [64]Richardson, Robert (13 July 1992). "Obituary: Albert Pierrepoint". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 October 2010 . Retrieved 31 August 2018. In school when asked to write about what job he would like when he was older, Pierrepoint would say "I want to be a public executioner like my dad is, because it needs a steady man with good hands like my dad and my Uncle Tom and I shall be the same." Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Campbell, Denis (13 July 1992). "Capital punishment achieved 'nothing but revenge' ". The Irish Times. p.7.

Great dynasties of the world: The Pierrepoints | Family | The Great dynasties of the world: The Pierrepoints | Family | The

In July 1940 Pierrepoint was the assistant at the execution of Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary who had been convicted of shooting the colonial administrator Sir Michael O'Dwyer. [b] The day before the execution, Stanley Cross, the newly promoted lead executioner, became confused with his calculations of the drop length, and Pierrepoint stepped in to advise on the correct measurements; Pierrepoint was added to the list of head executioners soon after. [28] [29] As lead executioner, 1940–1956 [ edit ] Albert also reportedly hanged 200 people who had been convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria and hanged a number of German spies. In August 1943 Pierrepoint married Anne Fletcher after a courtship of five years. He did not tell her about his role of executioner until a few weeks after the nuptials, when he was flown to Gibraltar to hang two saboteurs; on his return he explained the reason for his absence and she accepted it, saying that she had known about his second job all along, after hearing gossip locally. [38] Irma Grese and Josef Kramer, both officials at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, awaiting trial; both were executed by Pierrepoint. Fielding, Steve (2008a). Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners. London: John Blake Publishing. ISBN 978-1-8445-4611-4. Henry was removed from the list of executioners in July 1910 after arriving drunk at a prison the day before an execution and excessively berating his assistant. [7] Henry's brother Thomas became an official executioner in 1906. [8] Pierrepoint did not find out about his father's former job until 1916, when Henry's memoirs were published in a newspaper. [9] Influenced by his father and uncle, when asked at school to write about what job he would like when older, Pierrepoint said that "When I leave school I should like to be public executioner like my dad is, because it needs a steady man with good hands like my dad and my Uncle Tom and I shall be the same". [10] [11] [a]Henry Pierrepoint (left) and his assistant, fellow executioner (right) John Ellis, pictured on his way to Swansea jail to hang murderer Joseph Foy. Henry was the father of Albert Pierrepoint. Albert followed in the family footsteps and executed over 400 criminals in his lifetime. Picture taken 10th May 1909

Notebook of executioner who hanged Nazi war criminals and Notebook of executioner who hanged Nazi war criminals and

Pierrepoint is portrayed by Edwin Brown executing Timothy Evans in the 1971 film 10 Rillington Place. Pierrepoint served as an uncredited technical adviser on this film, to ensure the authenticity of the hanging scene. [90] Gowers, Ernest (1953). Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1949–1953: Report. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. OCLC 226990460. Nicholas, Siân (2017). "Joyce, William Brooke (known as Lord Haw-Haw) (1906–1946)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/37621. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Pierrepoint (2006)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 17 July 2016 . Retrieved 30 August 2018.Dunn, Jane (2008). "Ellis [née Neilson], Ruth (1926–1955)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol.1 (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/56716. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The meeting marked the point at which Albert Pierrepoint’s two worlds - jovial Oldham publican by night, clinical state hangman in his spare time - collided. After the war, Pierrepoint left the delivery business, and took over the lease of a pub, the Help the Poor Struggler on Manchester Road, in the Hollinwood area of Oldham. [53] In the 1950s he left the pub and took a lease of the larger Rose and Crown at Much Hoole near Preston, Lancashire. [54] He later said that he changed his main occupation because: Over the course of his career as a hangman, Albert travelled the country, overseeing the hangings of hundreds of people.