Today's Article - Albert Pierrepoint

This article is for quizzes on Tuesday August 2nd...

Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was a long-serving hangman in England. He executed at least 400 people, including William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") and John Amery. In Germany and Austria after the war, he executed some 200 people who had been convicted of war crimes. Some individuals convicted of murder whom he hanged were later exonerated.

Pierrepoint was often dubbed the Official Executioner, despite there being no such job or title. In England, executions were the responsibility of the local sheriff; however, instead of officiating themselves, sheriffs used to delegate the job to a person of suitable character who was employed and paid only when required. Pierrepoint continued to work for years in a grocery near Bradford after qualifying as an Assistant Executioner in 1932 and a Chief Executioner in 1941, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle.

Following his resignation in 1956, the Home Office acknowledged Pierrepoint as the most efficient executioner in British history. He subsequently became a pub owner in Lancashire and wrote his memoirs, in which he concluded that capital punishment was not a deterrent.

There is no official count of the number of people he executed, which some have estimated at more than 600; the most commonly accepted figure is 435.