Albert Pierrepoint - Legacy

Legacy

It is believed that Pierrepoint executed at least 433 men and 17 women, including six U.S. soldiers at Shepton Mallet and some 200 Nazi war criminals after World War II. He asserted in his autobiography never to have given a precise number of his executions, not even when giving testimony to the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment of 1949. A figure of 608 people was given in the credits at the end of the film Pierrepoint, although there is no reference for it.

Steve Fielding lists (in Appendix 2 of his book) 435 executions performed by Albert Pierrepoint, a list for which he claims to have examined the Prison Execution Books (National Archives LPC4) for the majority of prisons in Great Britain, and which includes the German executions. These carry all details on hangmen and assistants. In the absence of an official number, Fielding's total appears to be the best available figure. Because of the film's North American release title Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, Albert Pierrepoint is often referred to as Britain's last hangman, but this is not true; executions continued until 13 August 1964 when Gwynne Owen Evans was hanged at 8.00 am at Strangeways Prison by Harry Allen with his assistant Royston Rickard, while Peter Anthony Allen was hanged simultaneously at Walton Prison, Liverpool by Robert Leslie Stewart with his assistant Harry Robinson, both for the murder in a robbery of John Alan West.

Pierrepoint has also been incorrectly called the last official Chief Hangman for the United Kingdom (and, for a time, the unofficial one for the Republic of Ireland, along with his uncle, Thomas). However the United Kingdom has never had an Official Executioner, as right up until 1964 all such appointments were made by the Sheriff of the county in which the murder took place. After 1900 the Sheriffs would only hire men on the Home Office list, but the lists do not refer to "Chiefs" or "Assistants", merely that they were "competent" for the Office of Executioner or Assistant; therefore, Stephen Wade was nearly always chosen as the "Number One" for jobs in Leeds and Durham, even after Albert was well established throughout the rest of the country. Legally the status of hangman was a position "unknown to the law", as the execution was officially carried out by the Sheriff, who after 1800 would always delegate it to the hangman.