Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners

Subtitle: The Story of Britain's Infamous Hangmen

Author: Steve Fielding

Narrator: Norman Gilligan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-08-13

Publisher: Prospero Media

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

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 guilty and condemned. The Pierrepoints executed criminals the nation over before travelling to many countries including Egypt and postwar Germany, where they hanged Nazi war criminals, and gained a reputation as the world's most deadly practitioners of the art of hanging."Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners" recounts the intriguing stories of the three men and the effect that their macabre occupation had on their personal lives. This definitive guide is filled with shocking inside tales from the official records and diaries kept by the Pierrepoint family. With revealing insights into the intense rivalry between fellow executioners, new light is shed on the menacing world of years gone by.

Members Reviews:

The Hangmen

This book was written a bit differently than what I was expecting from the blurb about the book. I was expecting a biography type story of the men and their lives, instead it is mainly a chronicle of their more famous executions. The time frame of the book is from 1903 to 1956 when the death penalty was revoked. The opening of the book is what I was originally expected, in that, it tells about Henry's application to be an executioner, the process at the time to be come one, the interviews he went too and the training he took. Once he started working as an executioner the story mostly changed to the person to be executed and their crime. Albeit, I did find it interesting and noted how murder has evolved in society over the years. I found the stories in World War One and World War Two intriguing the execution changed from murder to treason. The part of the story covering post WWII war crimes trials and executions were fascinating, I am well versed in the American Nuremburg trials but was unaware of the British War Crime Trials of the concentration camp commandants and guards. I would like to learn more about the trials by the Allied countries and how they decided which country would try what type of war crimes. The last part of the book covered the controversy of the death penalty and Albert's response to it. Steve Fielding did a lot of research to gather the material for this story. Norman Gilligan did a great job of narrating the story.

A Superb & Accurate Study of a Macabre Subject

The Pierrepoint Family were an interesting bunch as they were known for 'telling a few tales'!

I was brought up in post WWII Great Britain. We still had rationing. Women still cried into their aprons at the mention of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be 'dispatched' courtesy of the Crown on that horrible wet and foggy July morning in 1955.

The Pierrepoint men, two brother and one son were three of the Queen's executioners. I think that many people would think that it would be some kind of macabre 'calling'.