Thomas Henry Scott was an English

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorizing or ordering him to ...

from 1889 to 1901. He was from

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. A ropemaker by trade, he acted as executioner on seventeen occasions. He was on the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

list of approved executioners from 1892 to 1895."The English hangmen 1850 - 1964"
capitalpunishmentuk.org. Retrieved 2010-10-31. Scott was an assistant executioner for James Berry as early as 1889.Fielding, Steve (2008).
The Executioner's Bible: The Story of Every British Hangman of the Twentieth Century
'. John Blake. p. 37. Starting in January 1892, he worked as an assistant hangman to James Billington, who was the chief executioner of Great Britain and Ireland. Scott was scheduled to assist Billington in a

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

on 17 December 1895 at Walton Prison. On the night before the execution, he reported to the prison at 9:00 and then picked up a

prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

. They had sex "for about an hour and a half.""Victorian Murder Cases: Elijah Winstanley - Wigan 17/12/1895"
truecrimelibrary.com. Retrieved 2010-10-31. Later, Scott realised that he had been robbed and reported the incident to the police. His wallet and glasses were later recovered when the prostitute showed up at the police station. When the Home Office was informed of Scott's deeds, they immediately removed him from the Home Office list. Billington performed the execution alone. No longer welcome in England, Scott moved to Ireland and was the chief executioner there until 1901. In January 1899, he carried out three executions in a five-day stretch; he was assisted by Bartholomew Binns each time. Scott carried out just one hanging in all of 1900 and then two in January 1901. He lost his job in Ireland when the authorities learned about his activities in England. The last hanging he performed was that of John Toole, at

Mountjoy Gaol Mountjoy Prison (), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Ray Murtagh. History Mountjoy ...

, on 7 March 1901.Fielding (2008), p. 44.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Thomas Henry English executioners Year of birth missing Year of death missing

See also

References