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Albert Pierrepoint (/ ˈ p ɪər p ɔɪ n t / PEER-point; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him.
Sep 15, 2015 · Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s most famous 20th-century hangman. This article utilises diverse sources in order to chart his public representation, or cultural persona, as hangman from his rise to prominence in the mid-1940s to his portrayal in the biopic Pierrepoint (2005).
- Lizzie Seal
- 2016
Aug 13, 2014 · Albert Pierrepoint was a long-serving hangman in England and became the Chief Executioner in 1941. Born in Yorkshire in 1905, Pierrepoint was acknowledged by the Home Office as the most...
- Bridge to The Past
- Civilised Hanging
- Regrets
- Fraught Future
Pierrepoint came to embody our strange relationship with the institution. As the son and nephew of hangmen, he seemed to continue some kind of artisan family tradition. His oddly sympathetic public profile was established during the 1940s when he carried out multiple hangings of Nazi war criminals. By the time Pierrepoint had resigned from the exec...
The first was Pierrepoint as an efficient and professional hangman. This was a portrayal that he contributed to in his memoir and media interviews. It stressed the meticulous care he took and emphasised his speed and efficiency. It was in keeping with 20th century understandings of execution. The bodily suffering of the condemned should be minimise...
The final aspect of Pierrepoint’s cultural persona is that of the haunted hangman, traumatised by guilt and regret. It is a noteworthy portrayal because it does not draw on his self-image. In fact, it contradicts his accounts of being untroubled about those he had hanged, even if they were subsequently pardoned. Some press reports about Pierrepoint...
Maybe Pierrepoint had an easy ride. Now that it is more than half a century since anyone was hanged in Britain, we can use him to understand better how this conflicting cultural persona of the executioner has contemporary relevance in the US, where the death penalty is increasingly beset by scandal. Pierrepoint was able to construct an air of profe...
- Lizzie Seal
Mar 12, 2009 · On 3 January 1956, Albert Pierrepoint arrived at Strangeways prison in Manchester to carry out the execution of Thomas Bancroft, a convicted murderer, in what would have been the 436th death...
Feb 9, 2024 · From British serial murderers to Nazi war criminals, through to some of the bitterest miscarriages of justice that helped gradually shift the debate on capital punishment before its suspension and...
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Sep 15, 2015 · In the 21st century, he was portrayed as a victim of the ‘secondary trauma’ of the death penalty, which resonated with worldwide campaigns for abolition.
