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Pierrepoint - A Family of Executioners
 
 
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Pierrepoint - A Family of Executioners (Paperback)

by Steven Fielding (Author) "It was this short note, sent to Home Secretary Sir Matthew Ridley in the early part of 1901, which set in motion a chain of..." (more)
2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 319 pages
  • Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd; illustrated edition edition (7 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184454611X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844546114
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 92,376 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #11 in  Books > History > Britain & Ireland > British Heads of State > Henry I

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Product Description

Product Description
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.
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First Sentence
It was this short note, sent to Home Secretary Sir Matthew Ridley in the early part of 1901, which set in motion a chain of events that resulted in the Pierrepoint family name becoming one of the most famous in modern British criminology, and being connected with capital punishment for the next half century. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not as creepy as the Addams Family!, 8 May 2006
By A. Parry "arwel parry" (Cheshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners (Hardcover)
This is an interesting tale of the Pierrepoint family, Henry, his brother Thomas, and son Albert, who all followed the same occupational sideline to boost the family income.

I was surprised at the apparent ease with which Henry secured a job as Assistant Executioner - he wrote a speculative letter to the Home Secretary, and within a month he was starting a week's training course to quite literally "learn the ropes"; he assisted at his first execution within nine months, and was chief executioner - fitting the noose and pulling the lever - in less than two years. After this, the family members were able to pass on inside information to each other on what the job involved and how it was done, so they had an advantage when it came to applying for vacancies - Henry taught Tom, who taught Albert, who in turn advised Robert Leslie Stewart (who conducted one of the last UK hangings in August 1964) who was the husband of one of the barmaids Albert employed in his pub.

Of necessity, the book becomes rather repetitive, usually with a description of the crime and of the condemned, the date and place of the execution, and any unusual event which occurred during the hanging and how much of a "drop" was given to each "client". Appendix 2 lists for each of the family's clients their name, age, date of execution, location, and identifies the chief and assistant executioners.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the book was several times disturbed by a lack of adequate proofreading. There are several references to a place called "Lunburg", which I presume was actually "Luneburg"; there's just plain carelessness
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as it should be., 20 Sep 2006
By Robert Lawes (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners (Hardcover)
I approached this book expecting to learn some intersting new revelations about the lives of the Pierrepoint men but instead found it a very dry recounting of almost every person they had ever hung. After a while this dry style consisting of the date and victim plus a little information on the crime repeated over and over will get on your nerves. That said there are one or two new facts to be discovered and it makes a good place to start if you have no real knowledge of the Pierrepoint family. The best place to start really is Albert Pierrepoints own biography.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre at best..............., 15 Aug 2008
By Pashazade (Sussex) - See all my reviews
This book should have been fascinating unfortunately it is far from this. I was hoping for insight into the executioner as a person and their feelings towards their job. Instead it is one long list of executions plumped out by facts of the crimes. Well written, I'm sure the author would write a fascinating true crime account, but ultimately not worth the time it took to read it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Dull and poorly written
This is supposed to be a book about a family of executioners but is just an unimaginative and monotonous litany of executions by three hangmen who happen to be from the same... Read more
Published 6 months ago by East Coast Scribbler

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather dry
Want to know about the family of hangmen that were the Pierrepoints? Well don't start here, as this book gives exhaustive detail on all the people they hung, and those people's... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Geoffrey Saunders

5.0 out of 5 stars Pierrepoint Steve FIelding
Excellent book , thoroughly enjoyed reading it, factually brilliant , a must read for anyone interested in such a fascinating part of our history. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2006 by Janet

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