Pierrepoint wrote a book titled: Executioner : Pierrepoint, but I don’t know if that’s the one people are thinking about either.
[QUOTE=betenoir]
First of all, what an appropraite name for this thread.
Secondly, should I decide to go on a killing spree (still weighing the pros and cons) I believe I will head for one of the few states that still has hanging as an option…/QUOTE]
Don’t come to the U.K., then - we’ve given up on the death penalty here .
(Of course, I don’t have any idea how good the prison food is, so yoiu never know, maybe that’s another way of doing it.) :eek:
Heck, why not make the lethal injection a shot of pure heroin so the condemned can go out on a rush of mind-bending pleasure?
I read Pierrepoint’s book many years ago, while staying with an elderly Aunt, who had an unusual collection of books.
What I remember most vividly about the book was the final section, where Pierrepoint wrote that after an unspecified personal revelation, he came to the belief that capital punishment was wrong.
I must have read the book some 30 years ago, but apparently my recollection was accurate.
This is what Pierrepoint wrote about it, "“I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people…The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off.”
And this seems to have been the incident, “He had also been forced to hang James Corbitt on 28 November 1950: Corbitt was a regular in his pub, “Help The Poor Struggler”, and had sung “Danny Boy” as a duet with Albert on the night he was to murder his girlfriend in a fit of jealousy because she would not give up a second boyfriend she had. This incident in particular made Albert feel that hanging was no deterrent, particularly when most of his clients were those that had killed in the heat of the moment rather than premeditated or in furtherance of a robbery.” Source: http://albert-pierrepoint.biography.ms/
There is, weirdly enough, an entire website devoted to the Pierrepoints as executioners, but watch for the nasty little pop-up.
http://www.pierrepoint.co.uk/albert.htm
This site has this to say about the OP’s question:
“As well as being the most prolific executioner he was also considered the most efficient having been responsible for the swiftest execution on record. It took place at Strangeways Prison in Manchester in 1951. On the 8th May of that year James Inglis was led from his cell and pronounced dead just 7 seconds later.”
The entry on Pierrepoint by Brian Bailey in the Oxford DNB (subscription required) adds a note of caution.