Pierrepoint - A Family of Executioners

by Steve Fielding (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2008

  $18.36

  Between them, the three men in the fearsome Pierrepoint dynasty executed over 800 people during a career spanning more than half a century. Henry, his brother Thomas, and his son Albert, dispatched some of the most infamous criminals of the 20th century, and in the process earned a public notoriety that followed them throughout their eventful lives.For years, the three men were faced with the task - prestigious to some, horrific to many others - of being the last point of contact for the guilty and condemned. The Pierrepoints executed criminals the nation over before travelling to many countries including Egypt and postwar Germany, where they hanged Nazi war criminals, and gained a reputation as the world's most deadly practitioners of the art of hanging. Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners recounts the intriguing stories of the three men and the effect that their macabre occupation had on their personal lives. This definitive guide is filled with shocking inside tales from the official records and diaries kept by the Pierrepoint family. With revealing insights into the intense rivalry between fellow executioners, new light is shed on the menacing world of years gone by.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $9.07

  For fifty five years, generations of the Pierrepoint family served as fearsome hangmen in England. The dynasty began in 1901 with Henry Pierrepoint. He was followed into the gruesome profession by his brother Thomas and in time, his eldest son Albert. Between them, they carried out an amazing 900 executions. This book recounts the lives and tales of the Pierrepoint family; their reasons for taking up the profession and the inside details of the execution cases and the deeds themselves. Insight is shed on the feuds and intense rivalry between fellow hangmen as well as the notorious cases that kept the family firmly in the spotlight. With extracts from diaries and comments on the families representation in the media, this book provides a fascinating look at a profession that is long gone, but certainly not forgotten.