The Hangman's Tale: Memoirs of a Public Executioner

One would think that executioners would be in a position to provide interesting memoirs. Invariably it turns out that they only want to write about the criminals and cases they are involved with. Their contribution, in the larger picture, is quite small - a matter of minutes in a life of crime. Not surprisingly then, if the tale of the criminal is to be told, it must be almost entirely without reference to the executioner. What would really be interesting is a work about how execution works, how the bureaucracy and administration of death operates, how executioners come to practice their calling and how do they live in day-to-day world among people engaged in more mundane professions.

Memoirs of a man that had been an assistant executioner in the UK during a period of the 1940s and 1950s, and had been an assistant to the noted Albert Pierrepoint, the last of England's well-known hangmen. A great deal of technical insight as to how hangings were carried out toward the end of capital punishment in the UK.