Albert Pierrepoint
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Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoint was born in Clayton, West Yorkshire, Clayton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His family struggled financially because of his father's intermittent employment and heavy drinking. Pierrepoint knew from an early age that he wanted to become a hangman, and was taken on as an assistant executioner in September 1932, aged 27. His first execution was in December that year, alongside his uncle Tom. In October 1941 he undertook his first hanging as lead executioner. During his tenure he hanged 200 people who had been convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria, as well as several high-profile murderers—including Gordon Cummins (the Blackout Ripper), John Haigh (the Acid Bath Murderer) and Jo ...
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Clayton, West Yorkshire
Clayton, or Clayton Village, is a civil parish in the City of Bradford metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, situated to the west of Bradford city centre. It is listed in the ''Domesday Book'', meaning that it dates back to at least the 11th century. It was privately owned from 1160 to 1866. It was noted for its clay. More recently, Clayton was a key location in the British and international wool trade, being the home of the British Wool Marketing Board headquarters. The old building was demolished and converted into housing in the late 1990s. The village re-acquired civil parish status with a parish council in 2004. The main street of the village – Clayton Lane – which runs alongside the park, includes several traditional pubs, a popular crawl route for many residents. Starting at the top of the lane is ''the Fleece'', moving down past ''the Royal Hotel'' to ''the Albion'' and ''the Black Bull'' – the oldest pub in the area.''The Fiddlers Three and'' ''the Qu ...
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Lord Haw-Haw
Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce and several other people who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the United Kingdom from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling," spoken in an affected upper-class English accent. Through such broadcasts, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda tried to discourage and demoralise allied troops, and the British population. Although the broadcasts were known to be Nazi propaganda, they often offered the only details of Allied troops and air crews caught behind enemy lines. The nickname, coined by a reporter, was applied to other broadcasters of English-language propaganda from Germany, but it is Joyce with whom the name is overwhelmingly identified. Aim of broadcasts The English-language propaganda radio programme ''Germany Calling'' was broadcast to audiences in the United Kingdom on the medium wave station Reichssender Hamburg and by shortwave to the U ...
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Richard Brandon
Richard Brandon (died 20 June 1649) was the common executioner of London from 1639 to 1649, who inherited that role from his father Gregory Brandon and was sometimes known as Young Gregory. Richard Brandon is often named as the executioner of Charles I, though the executioner's identity is not definitively known. Biography Brandon was born in London, at an unknown date, son to the common executioner of London, Gregory Brandon, and his wife Alice. Gregory Brandon had become executioner in 1611, and was then living with his family on Rosemary Lane, Whitechapel (now known as Royal Mint Street). Though little can be ascertained of Brandon's early years, rumours abounded of his gruesome upbringing as the son of London's executioner. He was rumoured to have decapitated stray cats and dogs, in training for his future position. Brandon's father, Gregory, found himself on the wrong side of the law in January 1611, when he was convicted of the manslaughter of one Simon Morton, though he ...
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John Billington (executioner)
John Billington (1880 – 27 October 1905) was an English executioner. He was on the Home Office list from 1901 to 1905. Career Billington came from a family of hangmen. His father, James, was an executioner from 1884 to 1901, and his two older brothers, Thomas and William were employed in the same occupation. In early 1902, at the age of 21, John attended an execution training course at Newgate Prison. His brother William was England's primary executioner by this time, and the two became partners. They first worked on 18 March. John was the assistant for 10 of William's commissions in 1902. He helped perform the last execution at Newgate and the first one at HM Prison Pentonville. Billington continued as an assistant through most of 1903. However, with his experience, he was soon promoted. On 2 December 1903, he carried out his commission as a chief executioner in Manchester, with John Ellis as his assistant.Fielding, p. 265. Twenty-nine executions took place in England and I ...
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William Billington
William Billington (1875 – 1952) was an English executioner. He was on the Home Office list from 1902 to 1905 and had participated in hangings from 1899. Career Billington, second son of executioner James Billington (executioner), James Billington, carried out his first hanging in July 1899. Even though he was later 'adopted' by his mother's extremely close friend,Clara Smith, as he and his mother lived with for the end of his younger years. It is unsure why his mother moved in with her and how she accomplished such. Many think they could've been more than friends. He later assisted his father in several more commissions throughout the rest of 1899, and underwent formal training in early 1900. He was also an assistant executioner in 1900. After his father died in December 1901, William became the principal executioner for England. He was at first assisted by his older brother Thomas Billington (executioner), Thomas and then by his younger brother John Billington (executioner), ...
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Thomas Billington (executioner)
Thomas Billington (1872 – 10 January 1902) was an English executioner from 1897 to 1901 and was one of four family members who worked in the occupation. Biography Billington was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He worked primarily as a barman, but his father, James Billington, was an executioner and gained his son a job as an assistant executioner in 1897. Thomas was on the Home Office list from 1897 to 1901. He usually worked as an assistant to his father or to his younger brother, William. His youngest brother, John, also became an executioner. Billington assisted his father in seven hangings in 1898. However, in the summer of 1899, he disappeared. His wife had died around that time, and his father later wrote that he had joined the army. After 18 months, he returned home and assisted his father in an execution at Cork on 11 January 1901. He was an assistant to either his father or to his brother in seven hangings that year. He assisted his brother full-time after his father beca ...
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James Billington (executioner)
James Billington (5 March 1847 – 13 December 1901) was a hangman for the British government from 1884 until 1901. He was the patriarch of the Billington family of executioners. Billington died at home from emphysema in the early hours of 13 December 1901, ten days after having executed Patrick McKenna, a man he knew well. Early life Billington was born in Preston, Lancashire, the son of James, a labourer from Preston, and Mary Haslam of Bolton. In 1859 he moved with his family to Farnworth, northwest of Manchester. After leaving school he worked in a cotton mill for a time, but by the early 1880s he had become a Sunday school teacher and was running a barbershop in Market Street, Farnworth. He also worked for some time as a wrestler, miner and pub singer. Billington had a "lifelong fascination" with hanging, and made replica gallows in his back yard on which he practised with weights and dummies and, it was rumoured locally, stray dogs and cats. In an interview publish ...
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Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall ( ; born 27 February 1957) is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. Spall is known for his collaborations with director Mike Leigh, acting in six of his films: '' Home Sweet Home'' (1982), '' Life is Sweet'' (1990), '' Secrets & Lies'' (1996), '' Topsy-Turvy'' (1999), '' All or Nothing'' (2002), and '' Mr. Turner'' (2014). He received nominations for the BAFTA Award for his roles in ''Secrets and Lies'' and ''Topsy-Turvy'' as well as received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his portrayal of J. M. W. Turner in ''Mr. Turner''. Spall has acted in films such as ''Hamlet'' (1996), '' Still Crazy'' (1998), '' Nicholas Nickleby'' (2002), '' The Last Samurai'' (2003), '' Enchanted'' (2007), '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' (2007), '' The Damned United'' (2009), '' The King's Spe ...
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Pierrepoint (film)
''Pierrepoint'' is a 2005 British film directed by Adrian Shergold about the life of British executioner Albert Pierrepoint. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the UK on 7 April 2006. In the United States, it had a limited theatrical release at three screens on 7 June 2007, grossing $21,766. It was released on DVD on 30 October 2007. Commissioned as a television film in 2004, ''Pierrepoint'' was broadcast on ITV on 25 August 2008, when it attracted an estimated audience of 3.6 million. The film was renamed ''Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman'' for its North American release, although Pierrepoint was not the last British hangman. Premise The film is loosely based on the life of Britain's most prolific hangman, Albert Pierrepoint (played by Timothy Spall), from the time he is trained for the job and accepted onto the list of the country's official hangmen in 1932 until his resignation in 1956. The film is a highly fictionalised ...
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Capital Punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is called a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is ''condemned'' and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term ''capital'' (, derived via the Latin ' from ', "head") refers to execution by Decapitation, beheading, but executions are carried out by List of methods of capital punishment, many methods, including hanging, Execution by shooting, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, Electric chair, electrocution, and Gas chamber, gassing. Crimes that are punishable by death are known as ''capital crimes'', ''capital offences'', or ''capital felonies'', and vary depending on the jurisdic ...
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Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Preston, Lancashire, Preston, and the county town is the city of Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster. The county has an area of and a population of 1,490,300. Preston is located near the centre of the county, which is urbanised and includes the towns of Blackburn and Burnley; the seaside resort of Blackpool lies to the west, and Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster is in the north. For Local government in England, local government purposes the county comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Blackburn with Darwen and Borough of Blackpool, Blackpool. Lancashire County Council and the two unitary councils collaborate through the ...
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Undersheriff
An undersheriff (or under-sheriff) is an office derived from ancient Kingdom of England, English custom that remains in, among other places, England and Wales and the United States, though performing different functions. United States In Policing in the United States, American law enforcement, the undersheriff is the person second in charge of a sheriffs in the United States, sheriff's office. In some departments, the title of undersheriff is official, while in others, a different official title is used for the second person in charge. For example, in many small departments, the title of Chief deputy, chief deputy sheriff is often used for the second in command; however, in some large departments, the undersheriff is second in command and in turn oversees several chief deputies. Vice versa, sometimes undersheriff ranks below chief deputy depending on the sheriff’s department. The undersheriff and chief deputy titles are in some cases used to describe the same individual. In some ...
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