SMILING ASSASSIN
Inside deadly double life of pub landlord Albert Pierrepoint – whose friendly face hid how he killed nearly 600 people
A SMILING pub landlord led a secret double life and was responsible for the deaths of nearly 600 people.
Anyone supping a pint in a boozer where Albert Pierrepoint worked would more than likely be unaware that he was Britain’s most prolific hangman.
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Even as a youngster he had always wanted to put people to death.
Pierrepoint was the last man to hang a woman in Britain, as well as the last person to be hanged in Wales.
Being a hangman was something of a family business as his dad, Henry, and his uncle Thomas also did the job.
Born in 1878, Henry Pierrepoint became a hangman in 1901, helping out James Billington, who had carried out the first execution in Wales in the 20th century, having executed William Augustus Lacy in 1900.
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Henry quickly became the principal executioner in Britain and persuaded his older brother Thomas to join him.
Albert’s dad worked as a hangman for nine years, carrying out 105 executions.
His career came to a sudden end though when he turned up drunk to hang someone and his name was removed from the official list of approved executioners.
He died in 1922 after a long battle with alcoholism.
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Thomas went into the hanging business in 1906 and retired 38 years later when he was in his 70s and it’s thought he was responsible for nearly 300 executions.
His nephew Albert would go on to notch up an even greater tally.
ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A HANGMAN
Even when he was an 11-year-old schoolboy Albert knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.
In a school exercise Albert once wrote: “When I grow up I want to be the Official Executioner” and he would read his uncle’s diary, which detailed everyone that had been put to death by his hand.
Albert was born in Clayton, Yorkshire, in 1905 and when he was just two his dad and uncle hanged Rhoda Willis who had been convicted of killing a baby.
He eventually became an executioner himself when he was 27 and went on to become Britain’s longest serving hangman.
Albert spent some time in London on a training course where he was given a dummy to practice on.
By now, his dad had died in his mid-40s, having been driven to drink by his job.
Due to his dad’s battle with the bottle, Thomas warned his nephew that “if you can’t do it without whisky, don’t do it all”.
Albert worked alongside his uncle for 13 years before becoming a lead executioner in 1940 and began his work by ending the life of gangster Antonio Mancini who is claimed to have said “cheerio” when the trapdoor beneath him opened.
EXECUTED WAR CRIMINALS
He gained such a reputation the British Government used his services to execute war criminals after World War Two.
Albert executed Nazis, including 13 just in one morning.
He went into retirement when he was 51 following a dispute over a hanging fee.
Albert had travelled in January 1956 to Strangeways Prison in Manchester to hang Thomas Bancroft, a child killer.
However, having done his usual preparations, he was stood down after Bancroft gained an eleventh-hour reprieve.
Having carried out his preparations, Albert expected to be paid his full £15 fee but was just paid £1 instead.
The rules stated the executioner would only get paid if and when the people were put to death.
Albert objected to this, saying he had travelled to Manchester, prepared everything and even paid to stay in a local hotel overnight.
PUB LANDLORD
With his pride hurt, he retired and went to run his pub in Oldham, Help The Poor Struggler.
He then went on to run the Rose and Crown in the village of Much Hoole, Lancashire.
In May this year Albert’s macabre notebook which listed every execution he had carried out went up for auction, eventually selling for £12,400.
The book includes Nazi collaborator William Joyce and serial killers John Christie and John Haigh, who was known as the 'Acid Bath Murderer.'
The document includes Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be executed in Britain.
He wrote meticulous notes of every unfortunate person who entered his noose.
Across eight columns he noted their name, age, height, weight, date and place of execution and remarks of their neck type, which were either "ordinary, strong or thin".
He used this information so he could calculate the correct drop height to achieve the quickest and cleanest death for the condemned man or woman.
NOTEBOOK
Some of the names listed in the little book include some of Britain's most notorious criminals before, during and after World War Two.
One of the most infamous names is that of the traitor William Joyce who, as Lord Haw-Haw, broadcast Nazi propaganda during the war.
He was executed by Pierrepoint on January 3, 1946 at Wandsworth Prison in London.
The name of John Haigh, the 'Acid Bath Murderer' who was convicted of killing six people between 1944 and 1949, is also in there as is the Rillington Place Strangler John Christie.
One of the most notable names in the book is Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be executed in Britain.
She was hanged in Holloway Prison in July 1955 for shooting dead her lover outside a pub in Hampstead, North West London.
The names of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley also appear. The two men were convicted of separate murders only to be posthumously pardoned.
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Their cases played a major part in the death penalty being scrapped in Britain in 1965.
Albert went on to publish his autobiography in which he admitted that he didn't believe in capital punishment. He died in 1992, aged 87.
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