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12 - My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry · My Experiences as an Executioner

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane, Chapter eleven. Hanging from a business point of view.
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  Speaker 1: I have stated in chapter two the reasons which led
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  Speaker 1: me to take the office as executioner. The reader will
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  Speaker 1: remember that I then claimed no higher motive than a
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  Speaker 1: desire to obtain a living for my family by an
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  Speaker 1: honest trade. I'm not ashamed of my calling because I
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  Speaker 1: consider that if it is right for men to be executed,
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  Speaker 1: which I believe it is in murder cases, it is
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  Speaker 1: right that the office of executioner should be held respectable. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: I look at hanging from a business point of view.
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  Speaker 1: When I first took up the work, I was in
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  Speaker 1: the habit of applying to the sheriff of the county
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  Speaker 1: whenever a murderer was condemned to death. I no longer
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  Speaker 1: consider it necess to apply for work in England because
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  Speaker 1: I am well known, but I still send a simple
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  Speaker 1: address card as above when an execution in Ireland is announced.
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  Speaker 1: In the earlier days, I made application on a regular
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  Speaker 1: printed form which gave the terms and left no opening
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  Speaker 1: for mistake or misunderstanding of this form, I give a
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  Speaker 1: reduced reproduction on opposite page. I still use this circular
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  Speaker 1: when a sheriff from whom I have had no previous
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  Speaker 1: commission writes the terms. The traveling expenses are understood to
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  Speaker 1: include second class railway fare from Bradford to the place
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  Speaker 1: of execution and back, and cab fare from railway station
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  Speaker 1: to jail. If I am not lodged in the jail.
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  Speaker 1: Hotel expenses are also allowed. As a rule, the expenses
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  Speaker 1: are not closely reckoned, but the sheriff's frote a lump
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  Speaker 1: sum which they will cover it, and if the execution
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  Speaker 1: has been satisfactory, the sum granted is generally more than
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  Speaker 1: enough to cover what I spent. There are, on an average,
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  Speaker 1: some twenty executions annually, so the reader can calculate pretty
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  Speaker 1: nearly what my renuneration for a work which carries with
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  Speaker 1: it a great deal of popular odium, which is in
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  Speaker 1: many ways disagreeable, and which may be accompanied, as it
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  Speaker 1: has been in my own experience, by serious danger resulting
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  Speaker 1: in permanent bodily injury. It will be seen that the
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  Speaker 1: net commission is not, by any means an exorbitent annual
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  Speaker 1: sum considering all the circumstances of the office, and that
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  Speaker 1: it does not approach the amount which some people have
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  Speaker 1: stated that I was able to earn. Of course, my
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  Speaker 1: earnings are entirely uncertain, since they wholly depend upon the
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  Speaker 1: number of executions, and this arrangement by which my livelihood
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  Speaker 1: depends upon the number of poor fellows condemned to die,
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  Speaker 1: is to me the most repugnant feature of my work.
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  Speaker 1: It seems a horrible thing that I should have to
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  Speaker 1: peruse newspaper reports in the hope that a fellow creature
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  Speaker 1: may be condemned to death whenever I wish to feel
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  Speaker 1: sure that business is not falling off, and that I
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  Speaker 1: should have to regard as evil days and hard times
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  Speaker 1: those periods where there seems to be laws in the
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  Speaker 1: annals of crime, and when one might reasonably hope that
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  Speaker 1: a better state of things was dawning in the land.
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  Speaker 1: These considerations, and the more selfish but still perfectly natural
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  Speaker 1: wish to be certain of my income and have my
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  Speaker 1: ability to give my children a fair start in life,
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  Speaker 1: have led me to strongly approve of the suggestion that
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  Speaker 1: the executioner's office should be a government appointment with a
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  Speaker 1: fixed salary instead of an uncertain commission. When the Lord's
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  Speaker 1: Committee on Capital Punishment was sitting early in eighteen eighty seven,
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  Speaker 1: I expressed my views on this matter in a letter
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  Speaker 1: addressed to the President of the Committee, Lord Abadair. I
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  Speaker 1: am not without hope that a change in the arrangements
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  Speaker 1: for regulating the office of Executioner will ere long be made,
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  Speaker 1: and the lines on which I think that it might
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  Speaker 1: be most reasonably and satisfactorily done are set forth in
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  Speaker 1: the letter to Lord Abadair, which I append one built
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  Speaker 1: and Place City Road, Bradford, February eighteen eighty seven. My Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I have been for some time past in correspondence with
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  Speaker 1: mister Howard Vincent, MP for Sheffield, with reference to alteration
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  Speaker 1: in the mode of remunerating my services in carrying into
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  Speaker 1: effect the sentence of the law upon criminals convicted of
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  Speaker 1: capital crimes. Mister Howard Vincent has suggested that I should
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  Speaker 1: address myself to the Honorable Committee on Capital Punishment, through
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  Speaker 1: your Lordship as their president. I would therefore respectfully point
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  Speaker 1: out to your Lordship and your Honorable Committee that the
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  Speaker 1: present mode of payment for my services is unsatisfactory and undesirable,
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  Speaker 1: and that a change is needed, as your Lordship is
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  Speaker 1: doubtless unaware. Under the existing arrangements, I am paid the
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  Speaker 1: sum of ten pounds, together with traveling and other incidental expenses,
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  Speaker 1: for each execution conducted by me. There are, on an
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  Speaker 1: average roughly speaking, twenty five executions yearly. What I had
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  Speaker 1: respectfully suggest is that instead of this payment by commission
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  Speaker 1: I should receive the fixed salary from the government of
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty pounds per annum. I may say
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  Speaker 1: that since accepting the appointment, I have never received less
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  Speaker 1: than two hundred seventy in any one year. I am
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  Speaker 1: informed that in determining a fixed salary or compensation in
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  Speaker 1: lieu of a payment by commission, the average annual amount
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  Speaker 1: received is made the basis for the calculation. It will
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  Speaker 1: be apparent to your Lordship that an offer of a
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  Speaker 1: less sum than the former average would not be sufficiently
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  Speaker 1: advantageous to induce me to exchange the old system for
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  Speaker 1: the new. I may, further, with your Lordship's permission, draw
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  Speaker 1: attention to the peculiar social position in which I am
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  Speaker 1: placed by reason of holding the office before referred to.
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  Speaker 1: I am to great extent alone in the world as
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  Speaker 1: a certain social ostracism is attendant upon such office, and
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  Speaker 1: extends not to myself alone, but also includes the members
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  Speaker 1: of my family. It therefore becomes extremely desirable that my
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  Speaker 1: children should, for their own sakes, be sent to a
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  Speaker 1: school away from this town. To do this, of course,
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  Speaker 1: would entail serious expenditure, only to be incurred in the
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  Speaker 1: event of my being able to rely on a fixed
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  Speaker 1: source of income less liable to variation than the present
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  Speaker 1: remuneration by commission alone. I am also unable, for obvious
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  Speaker 1: reasons to obtain any other employment. My situation as boot
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  Speaker 1: salesmen held by me previous to my acceptance of the
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  Speaker 1: office of executioner had to be given up on that
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  Speaker 1: account alone, my employer having no fault to find with me,
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  Speaker 1: but giving that as the sole reason for dispensing with
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  Speaker 1: my services. My late employer will give me a good
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  Speaker 1: reference as to general character, and the governors of jails
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  Speaker 1: in which I have conducted executions will be ready to
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  Speaker 1: speak as to my steadiness and also my ability and
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  Speaker 1: skill on performing the duties devolving upon me. In conclusion,
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  Speaker 1: I should be ready to give and call evidence on
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  Speaker 1: the points herein before referred, if it should seem fit
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  Speaker 1: to your Lordship and your Honorable Committee on receiving a
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  Speaker 1: notification to that effect. Under these circumstances, I trust that
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  Speaker 1: your Lordship will be able to see the way clear
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  Speaker 1: to embody in your Honorable Committee's report a recommendation to
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  Speaker 1: the effect that a fixed annual sum of three hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty pounds should be paid me for my services
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  Speaker 1: rendered in the Office of Executioner. I have the honor
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  Speaker 1: to be your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, James Berry to
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  Speaker 1: the right Honorable Lord Abadair President, Capital Punishment Committee, Whitehall, London,
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  Speaker 1: s w PS. If your Honorable Committee has an alternative
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  Speaker 1: to the foregoing proposal, I would respectfully suggest that I'm
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  Speaker 1: permanently retained by the Home Office at a nominal sum
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  Speaker 1: of one hundred pounds a year, exclusive of fees at
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  Speaker 1: present paid to me by sheriffs of different counties and
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  Speaker 1: the usual expenses. In connection with this subject, I should
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  Speaker 1: like to point out that in asking for the office
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  Speaker 1: of Executioner to be made a recognized and permanent appointment,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting any new thing, but merely a return
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  Speaker 1: to the conditions in force not much more than fifteen
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Up to eighteen seventy four. The executioner was
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  Speaker 1: a permanently established and recognized official. Mister Callcraft, the last
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  Speaker 1: who have occupied this position, was retained by the Sheriffs
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  Speaker 1: of the City of London with a fee of one
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  Speaker 1: pound one shilling zero pence per week, and also had
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  Speaker 1: a retainer from Horsemonger Lane in jail. In addition to
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  Speaker 1: his fees, he had various perquisites which made these two
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  Speaker 1: appointments alone sufficient for his decent maintenance. And he also
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  Speaker 1: undertook executions all over the country, for which he was
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  Speaker 1: paid at about the same rate as I am at present,
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  Speaker 1: but with perquisites in all case. In eighteen seventy four
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  Speaker 1: he retired and the City of London allowed him a
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  Speaker 1: pension of twenty five shillings a week for life. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Calcraft's successor was mister William Marwood, who had no official status.
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  Speaker 1: He had a retaining fee of twenty pounds a year
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  Speaker 1: from the Sheriffs of the City of London, but beyond
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  Speaker 1: that he had to depend upon the fees for individual
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  Speaker 1: executions and reprieves. In his time, also there were considerable perquisites,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, a clothing and personal property possessed by the
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  Speaker 1: criminal at the time of his execution became the property
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  Speaker 1: of the executioner. These relics were often sold for really
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  Speaker 1: fancy prices and formed no mean item in the annual takings.
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  Speaker 1: But the sale and exhibition of such curiosities were only
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  Speaker 1: pandering too a morbid taste on the part of some
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  Speaker 1: sections of the public, and it was ordered by the
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  Speaker 1: government very rightly from a public point of view, but
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  Speaker 1: very unfortunately for the executioner, that personal property left by
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  Speaker 1: the criminals should be burned. In many other countries, the
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  Speaker 1: post of executioner is permanent. In some cases it is hereditary,
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  Speaker 1: as in France, where it has remained in the Diebler family,
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  Speaker 1: passing from sire to son for a great length of time.
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  Speaker 1: Even in British territory at the present time, a permanent
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  Speaker 1: official hangsman is not entirely unknown. For in Malta the
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  Speaker 1: post is a definite appointment to which a salary of
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  Speaker 1: thirty pounds is attached. In England, the sheriff is the
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  Speaker 1: officer appointed to carry out the exit executions, and though
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  Speaker 1: he is allowed to employ a substitute if he can
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  Speaker 1: find one, it would face him to personally conduct the
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  Speaker 1: execution if no substitute could be obtained. In certain cases,
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  Speaker 1: in days gone by, there has been great difficulty in
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  Speaker 1: securing anyone who would undertake the unpleasant duty, though I
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  Speaker 1: do not remember any recorded instance of the sheriff being
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  Speaker 1: absolutely unable to engage in executioner end of Chapter eleven,
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  Speaker 1: recording by Ashley Jane