Executioner Pierrepoint: An Autobiography. Albert Pierrepoint

 Eric Dobby Publishing, 2005.  Very Good+ Hard Cover with Very Good dust jacket.  One small chip to bottom front corner, otherwise as new.

Pierrepoint offers a documentary record of his experiences, which in retrospect he sums up as follows : "I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murders. Capital Punishment in my view achieved nothing except revenge." For the first 56 yrs. of the 20th century the name of Pierrepoint appeared on the short Home Office List of qualified executioners for Great Britain and Ireland. Following in the steps of his father and uncle, Albert Pierrepoint became an executioner in 1931 and held the office of Official Executioner for many years until his resignation in 1956. In those years he carried out over 400 executions, more than any other executioner, and travelled extensively abroad teaching his methods to his colleagues of other nations. In this autobiography, he describes his astonishing career, reveals the secrets of the death-cell and the last moments of some of its famous occupants, and tells how, amazingly, he has changed his mind about capital punishment. Illus. 211 pp.