Albert Pierrepoint was known as Britain's most famous executioner, who legally killed up to 500 prisoners. Albert knew from a young age that he wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps, who was a second generation executioner. He even wrote a school essay about wanting to become Britons most successful executioner.
When Albert’s father died in 1922, he started studying his father’s diaries and Journals, hoping to perfect the art of hanging someone.
What made Albert so well-known and sought after was his quickness, his effectiveness and his calmness during each execution. The size of the noose and rope lent played an important part in the process of killing someone. When done correctly it would avoid decapitation or slowly strangling the person to death. A quick human death by snapping the neck was the goal of the hang-man.
The Black Out Ripper George Cummings
In 1932, at the age of 27, he was finally given the chance at executioner by assisting his uncle. His first solo execution came in 1941, when he hanged a murderer called Antonio Mancini. The following year he executed George Cummings, who was known as the “Blackout Ripper.”
Beast of Belsen and the Hyena of Auschwitz.
It wasn’t until after “World War 2” ended that his career took off, killing over 200 war criminals. Among them was the “Beast of Belsen” and the “Hyena of Auschwitz.”
The acid bath killer John George Haigh.
On February 1948, he executed 13 people in a single day. The following year he executed “John George Haigh” better known as the “Acid Bath Murderer,” who got to enjoy a Brandy before being hanged.
He wasn’t always surrounded by death, with the money he earned he opened a pub called “Help the Poor Struggler.” His two Jobs would eventually intertwin, when a regular at his pub “James Corbet, had a wild night of drinking and even singing songs with Albert, before going home and killing his wife. This resulted in a death sentence for James, which had to be carried out by Albert. Albert went on to write that it was the one and only time he regretted executing someone.
Ruth Ellis
In his last five years of executioner he hanged serial killer “John Christie” and “Timothy Evans,” including the controversial Ruth Ellis, who had shot and killed her abusive husband, and that’s when the view on capital punishment began to change.
Albert Pierrepoint decided to retire as executioner after a payment dispute in 1956. He passed away on July 10th 1992. His Final death count stands at 550. Continue reading
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