Diary of a Hangman

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First he shot dead his companion, secondly a miller’s man who helped him to attack and plunder a mill by night. An unusual and fascinating classic of crime and punishment, A Hangman's Diary is more than a history lesson; it shows the true anarchy that inhabited our world only a few hundred years ago. Some include extra remarks from Schmidt some personal like "This was my first execution with the sword" (110) while others of a more generic nature like "No one had been executed in the town for 106 years" (186). The diary is a bit frustrating in that you’re never given motivations for the crimes, and in some places I dearly wanted to know more of what went on.

Pierrepoint's brother Thomas, also an executioner, is reported to have said about John Ellis that "it was impossible to work with him". Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). He first participated in an execution in Newcastle in December 1901, as assistant to William Billington. Henssla Humbsen of Lambretzhoffen, alias Adam; Merdta Herdegen of Schwabach, alias Henna and Stürer Merta; George Hiss of Sultzbach, alias Hegelregler or Sultz-Kürchner; three thieves and robbers, who attacked people by night in their houses and in lonely farms, bound them, tortured them and did violence to them, robbing them of money and clothes.

Absolutely incredible book, the book starts with an explanation of the legal system in Nuremberg at the time giving lots of context for the later entries. Lately, consorting with thieves and robbers, formed a band of sixteen, attacked people by night at Mossfühl, at Esterfeld and at the mill near Würzburg, also at Pühel and Hennau and many other places.

The first sets the scene explaining what legal life was like in late medieval/early renaissance Germany and why the legal system worked how it did.Others were more interesting, going into great depth about the criminals, their nicknames, the crimes they committed, and how they went to their deaths. I learned a lot from the extensive introduction about crime and punishment at the time and kept thinking what an interesting premise it would be for a book of short stories, since each execution described is a little micro-story in and of itself. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Some of these remarks are about the criminal's conduct before execution - "Behaved very wantonly at the end" (175), "He was a godless man" (187) and "He sang all the way when he went to his death" (210). The first half is a historical background on execution and torture in medieval Nuremberg and it dispels myths and legends about the era. I was expecting more of a personal diary of the executioner and his thoughts about his job and the accused that he was tasked with punishing or executing.

While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. To clarify, this is less a "diary" in the sense of "a text recording personal thoughts and feelings" but more in the direction of recording what happened. Led out to execution on a tumbril, her body nipped thrice with red-hot tongs, then beheaded with the sword, standing; her head fixed on a pole above and her body buried under the gallows. At the age of 22 he applied to the Home Office to become an executioner and was invited to attend training at Newgate Prison.