Thomas Pierrepoint

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Thomas William Pierrepoint (* 1870; † 1954) was a British executioner.

Pierrepoint worked as an executioner for the British government for 37 years before retiring in 1946 at mid-1970s. He is credited with carrying out more than 300 executions – an exact number is unknown because he also worked in Ireland, Germany, Cyprus and other countries. He was the brother of Henry Pierrepoint and uncle of Albert Pierrepoint.

Thomas Pierrepoint can claim to be one of the longest serving executioners in history; He was still active at the age of 75.

In 1940, a prison doctor expressed the opinion that he seemed unsafe and his visual acuity doubtful. His harsh manner (he ignored the prison clerics) and the speedy executions (he got his assistants into the greatest difficulty because he opened the trap door, whether they were still engaged in shackling their legs or not) were also cause for criticism. Subsequently, special reports were requested about his next executions. Since these reports appeared satisfactory (the extensive correspondence on this was released by the British State Archives in 2006), the matter was not pursued further. However, it is clear from the files that the “shortage of young people” during the Second World War was responsible for the fact that the “Prison Commission” could not or did not want to do without his services.

His reputation was so great that he was also hired by the U.S. Army to execute the death sentences of their courts-martial against U.S. Army soldiers who were stationed in Britain and had committed crimes there. In 13 of the 16 hangings, he acted as the responsible executor (in three of them his nephew Albert Pierrepoint assisted). The executions of the US Army were carried out using the British method of “long drop”, but the protocol was American; Albert Pierrepoint noted in his autobiography that the fact of leaving the delinquents at midnight for up to 5 minutes with the rope around the neck on the scaffold, while official documents were read and prayed, was irritating and burdensome, and he preferred the “quick” British method at 9 a.m.

When he retired in 1946, he sought a small pension at the Prison Commission. Executors in Britain were not state employees, but were paid per execution. The answer from the British Home Office was short and concise: no pension for executioners.

Works
Steve Fielding as Pierrepoint. A family of executors. John Blake Publishing, London, 2006, ISBN 1-84454-192-4, (A book about the three Pierrepoints).

Weblinks
Press article (English)

Executors
British
Born in 1870
Died in 1954
Man