Pierrepoint (3 page)

After a brief greeting, Billington led the way as they set off to the execution shed to test the apparatus. Billington allowed Henry to attach the sandbag – filled to match the weight, age and general condition of the prisoner – to the noose; this was done before every execution, to take the stretch out of the rope. Billington rigged the drop and once he was satisfied all was in order he carried out a test drop in front of the
governor and prison engineer. The rope was left stretching overnight and a prison officer was posted outside the execution chamber, which stood in the prison grounds, to make sure no one tampered with the apparatus.

After evening tea, Harry was shown his quarters and discovered that instead of sharing the attic room he had stayed in during training, he was assigned to the second condemned cell, utilised when a double execution was scheduled but otherwise empty. They retired after supper and, finding sleep hard to come by, Harry prowled around the room, taking in the grim atmosphere of the prison, knowing that the last occupant of this room was now lying below the neatly cut lawn across from the execution shed; at 8 a.m. on the following morning, the man in the cell next door would occupy an adjacent grave.

As he nosed around the cell he noticed a small peephole allowing him to spy into the condemned cell and he was greeted with a remarkable sight. The young Frenchman was walking up and down in the cell, smoking continuously. Harry watched, unnoticed, for almost an hour and was just about to retire to bed when the chimes from the church across the road caused the condemned man to point up to the sky and count off using his fingers until he reached eight, indicating that he was to die at 8 a.m.. Several times Harry watched as the hour loomed and each time as the chimes rang out, Faugeron repeated the ritual.

At seven the next morning the hangmen returned to the execution chamber. Billington pulled up the rope from the trap and adjusted his drop to account for the stretch while Pierrepoint went into the drop and pushed the heavy oak doors up; they were secured and the lever set. As the hangmen finished their preparations, the condemned man ate a hearty breakfast and was granted a last walk in the open air. Once
he had taken the allowed ten-minute stroll in the exercise yard he was returned to the cell, where he sat in the company of two guards and a priest and waited.

At two minutes to eight, Harry stood beside Billington outside the condemned cell door. Beside them stood Millman, the governor; the Under-Sheriff of London, Mr Kymaston Metcalfe; Dr Scott, the prison medical officer; and a number of wardens. On the stroke of eight the door opened. Faugeron showed little sign of fear as his arms were pinioned behind his back and with a warder either side he walked slowly out of the cell, into the corridor and out into the yard towards the execution chamber. When the party came into view, the guard outside the chamber flung open the door and the procession entered. As Billington placed the noose around the Frenchman’s neck, Harry swiftly slipped a leather strap around the prisoner’s ankles and leapt off the trap door as Billington darted to his left and pushed the lever. The drop opened and the prisoner plunged to his death. Harry looked down into the pit and was relieved that he felt both calm and free from nerves. The body was left to hang for the obligatory hour, and they retired for breakfast. No sooner had they sat down to eat than they were approached by Dr Scott. He grasped Harry’s wrist and felt for his pulse. Smiling, he told the hangman, ‘You will do.’

The two executioners completed their duties, which included removing the body from the rope and placing it, wrapped in a shirt, into a thin wooden coffin. They then dismantled the ropes and chains and replaced everything into a padlocked trunk. By 10 a.m. they were at Euston Station, from where they travelled back to Manchester together. A week or so later, Harry received a letter to say that his name was now added to the list of approved executioners and reminded him that he must not discuss the appointment with any members of the press or public.

The year 1901 had been average for executions, with approximately one taking place every five or six weeks. Up until Harry’s first engagement there had been eight executions in England and three in Ireland. Billington had carried out each of those, with the exception of one in Belfast and one in Dublin, which had been officiated by Huddersfield-born Thomas Henry Scott, a former assistant of Berry’s who carried out one or two executions a year, usually across the water in Ireland. So far this year Billington had performed his duties as far afield as Bodmin, Maidstone, Stafford and Norwich. The latter was probably the most famous case he officiated at that year: Herbert Bennett was hanged for the murder of his sweetheart on a beach at Yarmouth. There was much disquiet at the verdict, and when the flagpole used to hoist the black flag snapped as the signal of execution was being hoisted, it was taken by many as a sign of a miscarriage of justice.

When Harry returned to Manchester he was pleased to find another letter waiting for him. This time the job was much closer to home and was scheduled to take place at Manchester’s Strangeways Gaol on 3 December. Again, he was to act as assistant to James Billington.

Patrick McKenna had been sentenced to death on 13 November for the murder of his wife in Bolton. The crime had been made all the more remarkable by the fact that the victim was attended as she lay dying by William Billington, son of the chief executioner, who was passing the street when the incident took place. William’s father was also acquainted with the killer. McKenna, who was a regular drinker in the Derby Arms – of which James Billington was the landlord – was immediately taken into custody, and although his guilt was never in doubt, there was a good deal of sympathy for him locally. His defence at the trial had been insanity, and once sentence had been passed great effort went into obtaining a
reprieve for the condemned man. A local petition gathered over 22,000 signatures and the story filled the local press as the hangmen arrived at the prison on the Monday afternoon.

Although it had only been a fortnight since the two men had last met, there had been a sharp decline in the health of the chief hangman during the interim. For the last few days Billington had been confined to bed with a fever and sickness, and was also suffering badly from bronchitis. As they rigged the gallows in readiness for the morning it was clear to Harry that Billington was a sick man. Billington made a brief observation of the prisoner through the spy hole and easily recognised the tall man with the bushy beard as one of his regulars. The eight weeks’ imprisonment had taken its toll on him and he looked thoroughly miserable and dejected.

After rigging the drop they returned to their quarters, where Billington collapsed on the bed crying, ‘Oh Harry, I wish I’d never have come.’ Harry offered to carry out the execution by himself on the following morning, but Billington was adamant he would be able to carry out his duties. In the company of a number of warders the hangmen played cards and drank a small quantity of beer in the gas-lit cell.

All was in readiness by 7.30 the following morning. Harry noted that the silence in the gaol was almost overwhelming as the chaplain entered the cell to give the prisoner some last grains of comfort before the dreaded hour arrived. On the stroke of eight the execution party entered the cell and, realising his last moments had come, McKenna broke out into loud sobs.

It was only a few short steps across the corridor to the gallows but the silence was broken by the condemned man’s pitiful cries for the Lord to help him. Billington stopped him on the drop and noticed tears were rolling down his cheek; as the hood was placed over his head, McKenna cried out aloud:

‘Lord have mercy on my soul!’ Realising that not a moment was to be wasted, Harry strapped the ankles with great speed and no sooner had Harry cleared the trap than the lever was pushed and McKenna was dead.

The large crowd that had been gathering in the streets outside since dawn were still loitering in the hope of seeing the hangmen depart the prison. Having disposed of the body, and with the crowd still boasting a healthy total, the hangmen chose to leave the prison by crossing an underground passage linking the prison to the assize court where they were able to mingle, unnoticed, into the crowd.

They said their farewells at the railway station and Harry helped the sick man into the carriage. Less than a fortnight later, as a result of his illness, Billington passed away. The Bolton newspapers linked the death to his duties at the execution of McKenna and claimed he had caught a chill on the trip to Manchester that had hastened his demise. It may have been partly true, but Billington was dying anyway and his dedication to his duties would not have prevented him carrying out the execution of his former friend.

There were a number of engagements already in James Billington’s diary and these were carried out by his second son William – although younger in years than Thomas, he had been an assistant for three years longer, had much more experience as an assistant in recent times, and had even pulled the lever once at an execution.

There were no further calls to Harry Pierrepoint that December, and it was to be March 1902 before the next official correspondence arrived. Opening it, he read that Richard Wigley was to hang at Shrewsbury Prison on 18 March. The letter asked if he was available to act as chief executioner. Harry replied that he was.

C
onsidering that the execution of the 54-year-old slaughterman was to be the first time that Harry Pierrepoint was solely responsible for an execution, he made little reference to it in both serialisations of his memoirs. Richard Wigley was convicted of the murder of 28-year-old Mary Eliza Bower at Westbury, Shropshire. They had been going out together for a number of years, since he had parted from his wife, and when they had met she was working as a barmaid. Mary soon left her job and found work at another public house, near Berrington, so they could spend more time together.

Mary suddenly ended the relationship and returned to her old job. Wigley took the split badly and began making frequent visits to her place of work. She told him there was no hope they would get back together and wrote asking him to stay away from her. She also told the other members of staff at the pub that if he called for her again, they were to say she was unavailable.

On the morning of Saturday, 30 November 1901, Wigley arrived in Westbury, some time before 10 a.m. He was wearing his butcher’s apron and carrying two knives in a leather pouch. Inside the pub he ordered a drink, drank it quietly, but on asking for another was told by Mary he had drunk enough and that she refused to serve him any more. He asked again but Mary would not change her mind, merely turning her back on him and walking away briskly. Wigley followed her behind the bar, put his left arm around her neck and with his right, pulled a knife from his apron pouch and drew the blade across her throat, causing an enormous gash. She died almost immediately.

At his trial, Wigley said that he had killed Mary because if he could not have her, no one else would. He had written a letter before setting out to Westbury stating his intention to kill and said he would be ready to die for what he had to do. His only defence was insanity – evidence was presented to show that his mother had been admitted to the Salop County Lunatic Asylum.

When the Sheriff of Shropshire received notification to employ an executioner to carry out the sentence passed on Wigley he wrote to William Billington offering him the engagement. Following James Billington’s death, all engagements in his diary were carried out by his middle son, William, assisted by the eldest son, Thomas. The latter had not been in good health himself and less than a month after his father’s death he too passed away. William, however, was unavailable on that date, having accepted the offer to hang a young lorry driver at Maidstone. The only persons still active on the list of executioners were Harry Pierrepoint and Rochdale barber John Ellis, who so far between them had assisted at just three executions. Nevertheless, both had been fully trained to carry out an execution, and with Harry
claiming seniority, by just a fortnight, it was he who was asked to officiate.

Arriving at the prison on the afternoon before the execution, Harry was introduced to Ellis, the man who was to be his assistant. He received the details of the prisoner: height 5 feet 10½ inches, weight 160 pounds. Discreetly observing Wigley at exercise, he noted he had a strong neck and accordingly worked out a drop of 7 feet 6 inches. Richard Wigley was duly dispatched without incident.

On 29 April 1902, Harry assisted William Billington for the first time: together, they dispatched 56-year-old Charles Earl, a retired baker from Mortlake, who had shot dead a woman out of jealousy. Earl was hanged at Wandsworth Prison, having told the governor on the day before his execution, on hearing that a reprieve had been refused, that it was, ‘a good job too!’

The year 1902 was becoming a busy and profitable one for the young hangman. At the end of July he was at Derby to assist William Billington again. This time the condemned man was a labourer from Chesterfield who had used a poker to beat to death the woman he had been having an affair with after she refused to leave her husband for him. Two weeks later, again assisting William Billington, Pierrepoint was engaged in the execution of George Hibbs, a 40-year-old skilled mechanic from Battersea, who had killed his landlady, and sometime sweetheart, Miriam Tye. They had been out drinking and when they returned to their lodgings Hibbs tried to get her to pawn some items so they could buy more drink. When she refused he stabbed her to death. At the Old Bailey trial Hibbs said he blamed it all on the drink and hoped that his execution would serve as a lesson to others.

At the end of September Billington and Pierrepoint carried out the first execution at Pentonville Prison, using the giant
wooden beams that had previously been in place at Newgate. Twenty-three-year-old John McDonald was hanged on 30 September for the murder of John Groves, whom he stabbed to death after a quarrel over money.