Secrets of Britain's most famous hangman to be revealed

Secrets of Britain’s most famous hangman to be revealed as Albert Pierrepoint’s chilling notebook detailing every execution he carried out is discovered

•  Albert Pierrepoint executed more than 400 people during his 25 year career
•  His notebook is set to be sold at auction after being found during a clear out

The secrets of Britain’s most famous hangman have been uncovered after a chilling notebook detailing hundreds of executions was found during a clear out of a house.

Albert Pierrepoint kept the pocket book throughout his 25 year career, during which he executed more than 400 people, including murderers and Nazi war criminals.

In his notebook, the executioner wrote meticulous notes on every single individual who met their fate in his dreaded hangman’s noose.

Across eight columns he jotted down details, including name, age, height, weight, date and place of execution.

The Yorkshire-born hangman also provides details of his subjects’ neck types, which were either ‘ordinary, strong or thin’.

Albert Pierrepoint executed 400 people during his more than 20 year career as a hangman

The hangman’s notebook is expected to sell for £12,000 when it’s sold at auction in May 

In his notebook, the executioner wrote meticulous notes on every single individual who met their fate in his dreaded hangman’s noose

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.

Pierrepoint is believed to have a had his notebook with him while carrying out his executions and is believed to have referred to it when he wrote up official reports

READ: Hangman’s chilling tools of the trade: Sinister killing kit used by Britain’s last executioner Albert Pierrepoint is set to fetch thousands at auction

The hangman, a former green grocer who followed in his father and uncle’s footsteps by taking up the job of executioner, gave the book to his god-daughter.

She unearthed it during a recent clear out of her home and has made it available for sale at auction.

Pierrepoint worked as a hangman for more than 20 years, from 1932 to 1956, and was responsible for the death of over 200 Nazi war criminals after WWII.

After he retired, the former executioner ran a pub his wife Annie in Southport, Merseyside, before he died aged 87 in 1992.

He later published an autobiography in which he admitted that he didn’t believe in capital punishment.

The executioner was, however, hailed as a hero by many, once his identity was his revealed. 

The executioner jotted down meticulous details on every person that died in his noose

High profile murderers including ‘Acid Bath Murderer’ John Haigh are listed in the books

William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda during the war, is listed in Pierrepoint’s book

Pierrepoint’s notebook is expected to fetch £12,000 when it goes under the hammer at SAS Auctions of Newbury, Berkshire on 11 May.

The historic pocketbook, titled Details of Executions, is being sold along with photos of Albert Pierrepoint and his father.

The vendor, who is not being named, knew Pierrepoint as ‘Uncle Albert’ and recalled him being a ‘mildly spoken, kind, calm’ man who was ‘lots of fun’ and ‘always keen to play football in the garden.’

‘These items are far too precious and too unique to be left in a drawer,’ the seller said. 

‘There is already a generation that think hanging in this country happened thousands of years ago, rather than relatively recently.

‘After the Queen’s passing, I decided to sell them as I feel strongly that history could be lost if they are not preserved.’

Pierrepoint used the details he recorded to calculate the height of the drop needed to kill

Those listed in the little book include some of Britain’s most notorious criminals before, during and after World War Two.   

They include the infamous traitor William Joyce who, as Lord Haw-Haw, broadcast Nazi propaganda during the war.

Joyce was executed by Pierrepoint on January 3, 1946 at Wandsworth Prison in London.

The ‘Acid Bath Murderer,’ John Haigh, who was convicted of killing six people between 1944 and 1949, is also listed in Pierrepoint’s book as is the Rillington Place Strangler John Christie.

Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be executed in Britain, is another notable name listed in the hangman’s notes.

Pierrepoint opened a pub in Southport, Merseyside, with his wife Ann after he retired

The hangman later said he was against the death penalty in his autobiography 

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.

Their cases played a major part in the death penalty being scrapped in Britain in 1965.

Adam Inglut, a specialist at SAS, said: ‘This is an exceptional piece of British history and a real insight into the career of one of Britain’s last executioners.

‘The notebook offers us a chance to read and understand the intricacies of this most unusual career.

‘Getting the drop height right was a bit of a unique science. The heavier the person, the shorter the drop.

‘If they fell too hard there was a chance their head would come off. If they didn’t fall hard enough they would hang there suffocating to death.

‘This notebook would have been with him when he carried out his work in prisons. He wrote up an official ledger later on and no doubt used these very notes.

‘It is an extremely rare and unique piece from history which is very unusual to come across.’

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