Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13879 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

The personal account of Britains longest serving Hangman.
A lot of this book does concentrate on Pierrepoints home life and how he came to get such a strange job. He started out as executioners assistant to his uncle before taking over himself.

For obvious reasons He declines to go into depth with any specific cases unless he has prior permission from the families involved, then usually only to clear up a popular misconception.

He does however go into the technicalities of being a hangman and the procedures involved.

I found this book quite fascinating, and would reccomend it to anyone who is interested in this particular subject.

An excellent book
I have bought four copies of this book at various times, all because I have lent my copy to someone who has not returned it.

It is an absolutely fascinating autobiography of Albert Pierrepoint, who was a hangman for more than 25 years(No 1 for many years) in both Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. In that time he hanged hundreds of people, including the officers from Belsen Camp and many of the Gestapo officers who murdered the RAF officers who took part in The Great Escape.

Mr Pierrepoint dispels many of the myths which still abound regarding the secrets of the execution chamber and the death cell, including the fact that he could, and frequently did, carry out an execution in just EIGHT SECONDS from entering the condemned cell to the prisoner being dead.

He also reveals the fact that he resigned from his post because he concluded that execution solved nothing and was not a deterrent to murder.

"In all that I did", he writes, "I do not now believe that I prevented a single murder"

Anyone who is interested in this aspect of the judicial system MUST read this book - as also must anyone who is interested in the Capital Punishment debate

Executioner Pierrepoint: An Autobiography
I have read this book and used it for reference. Not only is it a very interesting book to read, but also a good point of historical reference. Surprisngly, I did not think it was that ghoulish and I am quite squeamish when it comes to real blood and guts.

I would also recommend the book for those interested in debating capital punishment. It's quite enlightening about what happens and what can go wrong. If Pierrepoint is correct he was very humane, which is more than can be said about others in his profession.