Albert Pierrepoint

Albert Pierrepoint was often called the official Chief Executioner of the United Kingdom. The Home Office called him the most efficient executioner. Despite the US release title of the 2005 movie about him he was not the last hangman, executions continued for over eight years after his resignation.

Portrayed by Clive Revill in Let Him Have It (1991).

Pierrepoint appeared as himself in the 1961 BBC documentary, "The Death Penalty" (ironically, he had come to believe that the death penalty was not a deterrent to crime, as most murders were committed in the heat of the moment rather than premeditated; however, he kept his opinion to himself until the 1974 publication of his autobiography, "Executioner: Pierrepoint").

He resigned in January 1956 over a row about his fees (he was paid a fixed rate per hanging, rather than a salary), and his reputation was such that the government wrote to him to beg him to reconsider his resignation.

Among the more notorious criminals that he executed: Josef Kramer, Irma Grese, Ruth Ellis, and John George Haigh, "The Acid-Bath Killer". Two men he executed - Timothy John Evans (1950), and Derek Bentley (1953) - each received posthumous pardons. It is believed that Pierrepoint executed at least 433 men and 17 women, including six U.S. soldiers, and 200 Nazi war criminals.

Between 1932 and 1955 he conducted or assisted at about 450 hangings, following in the footsteps of his father Henry and uncle Thomas who were also executioners. Albert gained a reputation as a swift and efficient executioner, and he aimed to minimise the length of time the condemned person had to suffer fear - his record for removing the condemned prisoner from his cell until "the drop" was seven and a half seconds.