The history of execution at Pentonville began with the hanging of a Scottish hawker in 1902. Over the next sixty years the names of those who made the short walk to the gallows reads like a who's who of twentieth-century murder. They include the notorious Dr Crippen, Neville Heath, mass murderer John Christie of Rillington Place, as well as scores of forgotten criminals: German spies, Italian gangsters, teenage tearaways, cut-throat killers and many more.Infamous e...

Over the years the high walls of Liverpool's Walton Gaol have contained some of the most infamous criminals from the north of England. Taking over from the fearsome Kirkdale House of Correction as the main centre of execution for Liverpool and other parts of Lancashire and neighbouring counties, a total of sixty-two murderers paid the ultimate penalty here. The history of execution at Walton began with the hanging of an Oldham nurse in 1887, and over the next seventy years...

For decades the high walls of Durham gaol have contained some of the countrys most infamous criminals. Until hanging was abolished in the 1960s it was also the main centre of execution for convicted killers from all over the north east. The history of execution within the walls of Durham Gaol began with the hanging of two labourers side by side in 1869, by the notorious hangman William Calcraft. Over the next ninety years a total of seventy-seven people took the short walk...

Between them, the three men in the fearsome Pierrepoint dynasty executed over 800 people during a career spanning more than half a century. Henry, his brother Thomas, and his son Albert, dispatched some of the most infamous criminals of the 20th century, and in the process earned a public notoriety that followed them throughout their eventful lives.For years, the three men were faced with the task -- prestigious to some, horrific to many others -- of being the last point of contact for the...

A look at the dark side of life in Bolton, this book provides the reader with a collection of true stories based on real murders. Each tale provides a macabre account of these infamous crimes and the events leading up to them. The reader will learn about the case of the despicable Betty Eccles who slowly poisoned her children to death by putting arsenic in their puddings, or ponder upon the mysterious death of James Booth a local business man who suffered a violent death after eating at th...

More Murderous Bolton is a gripping collection of fascinating and true tales of the one crime that still fills people with horror. From the author of Murderous Bolton, this second comprehensive volume continues with further accounts of murder committed through jealousy, greed, revenge, robbery and pure evil in and around the Bolton area. In this thrilling chronicle of spine chilling murders, Steve Fielding takes us through the decades of the twentieth century, recalling stories such as: th...

"The Executioner's Bible" tells the story of these working-class men who carried out this gruesome profession until its abolition in the late 1960's. Despite often being unassuming and quiet professionals, men like Albert Pierrepoint, William Billington and many other Chief and Assistant executioners made a name for themselves in a world hungry for salacious and gruesome news. Read about the bungling hangmen sacked for incompetence; drunken executioners dismissed for brawling; one hangman ...

Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England f...

The bestselling criminal history author provides "compelling insight" into the life and crimes of one of England's most notorious serial killers ( Buckinghamshire Life).Sixty years ago, the discovery of bodies at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London, led to one of the most sensational, shocking, and controversial serial murder cases in British criminal history: the case of John Christie. Much has been written about the Christie kil...

By dusty decree, the county judges sent em down . . . and the city sheriffs strung em up.From Norman times to the late 19th century, Cheshire had its own unique way of disposing of the criminals condemned at its assizes. For more than 500 years the countys rulers simply handed the miscreants over to the Chester city fathers who, due to an obscure medieval tradition, were duty bound to execute them.Ever since the Emperor Vespasians Second Legion encamped beside the River Dee, Chester h...

New York Times 'Could hardly be a more timely parable for our day' Evening Standard 'An engrossing and vivid impression of those terrible days' Sunday Express 'Absorbing. . .an excellent account of the two most fantastic years in London's history' This book chronicles the horror and human suffering of two of the most terrible years in London's long and vivid history. 1665 brought the plague and cries of "Bring Out Your Dead" echoed the city. A year later, the ...

Strangeways Gaol opened in 1868, and replaced the New Bailey Gaol, where public executions had taken place before their abolition that same year. Strangeways was to be a major location of execution for murders commited in the Northwest of England, for the next 100 years. Between 1869 and 1962 exactly 100 people were hanged, several women included in this number.