Hacker Cinema
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
2005 · Film · 98 min
Directed by Adrian Shergold
Following in his father's footsteps, Albert Pierrepoint becomes one of Britain's most prolific executioners, hiding his identity as a grocery deliveryman. But when his ambition to be the best inadvertently exposes his gruesome secret, he becomes a minor celebrity & faces a public outcry against the practice of hanging. Based on true events.
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2 comments on Hacker News
Worth checking out the movie Pierrepoint too:
> The film is based on the life of Britain's most prolific hangman, Albert Pierrepoint (played by Timothy Spall), from the time he is first trained for the job and accepted onto the list of the country's official hangmen in 1932 until his resignation in 1956.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrepoint_(film)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pierrepoint
This is one reason why, when the UK had capital punishment, a premium was placed on speed. The condemned cell was set up a few yards from the scaffold and the idea was that the time from the executioner entering the cell to the trap being dropped could be well under one minute.
The movie 'Pierrepoint' shows this pretty well (and has a very good performance by Timothy Spall as the eponymous professional but slightly conflicted hangman).