‘Hanging must run in the blood,’ Albert Pierrepoint once explained. ‘My father and my uncle were both hangmen. It requires a natural flair. The judgment and timing of a first-rate hangman cannot be simply acquired.’

Short and dapper, with piercing blue eyes and his trademark bowler hat, which he removed for executions, Albert Pierrepoint, the pleasant little man who hanged people with swiftness and dignity had risen through the years to become Britain’s Chief Executioner.

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