Hanging: From a Business Point of View.
I have stated in Chapter II. the reasons which led me to take the
office of executioner. The reader will remember that I then claimed
no higher motive than a desire to obtain a living for my family, by
an honest trade. I am not ashamed of my calling, because I consider
that if it is right for men to be executed (which I believe it is, in
murder cases) it is right that the office of executioner should be held
respectable. Therefore, I look at hanging from a business point of view.
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| James Berry, |
| _Executioner_. |
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| _Bradford,_ |
| _Yorkshire._ |
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When I first took up the work I was in the habit of applying to the
Sheriff of the County whenever a murderer was condemned to death. I no
longer consider it necessary to apply for work in England, because I am
now well known, but I still send a simple address card, as above, when
an execution in Ireland is announced.
In the earlier days I made application on a regular printed form, which
gave the terms and left no opening for mistake or misunderstanding.
Of this form I give a reduced reproduction on opposite page. I still
use this circular when a sheriff from whom I have had no previous
commission writes for terms. The travelling expenses are understood
to include second-class railway fare from Bradford to the place of
execution and back, and cab fare from railway station to gaol. If I
am not lodged in the gaol, hotel expenses are also allowed. As a rule
the expenses are not closely reckoned, but the sheriffs vote a lump
sum which they think will cover it; and if the execution has been
satisfactory the sum granted is generally more than enough to cover
what I have spent.
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|Quote | _Bradford, ........ 189_
|_No._ ........| YORKS.
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_Sir_
_I beg leave to state in reply to your letter
of the .................................... that I
am prepared to undertake the execution you name of
....................................................
at .................. on the .......................
I also beg leave to state that my terms are as
follows: £10 for the execution, £5 if the condemned
is reprieved, together with all travelling expenses.
Awaiting your reply,
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
James Berry.
The High Sheriff,
for the County of ............................._
There are, on an average, some twenty executions annually, so that
the reader can calculate pretty nearly what is my remuneration for a
work which carries with it a great deal of popular odium, which is in
many ways disagreeable, and which may be accompanied, as it has been
in my own experience, by serious danger, resulting in permanent bodily
injury. It will be seen that the net commission is not by any means an
exorbitant annual sum, considering all the circumstances of the office;
and that it does not approach the amount which some people have stated
that I was able to earn.
Of course, my earnings are entirely uncertain, since they wholly depend
upon the number of executions, and this arrangement, by which my
livelihood depends upon the number of poor fellows condemned to die,
is, to me, the most repugnant feature of my work. It seems a horrible
thing that I should have to peruse newspaper reports in the hope that a
fellow-creature may be condemned to death, whenever I wish to feel sure
that "business is not falling off;" and that I should have to regard as
evil days and hard times those periods when there seem to be lulls in
the annals of crime, and when one might reasonably hope that a better
state of things was dawning in the land.
These considerations, and the more selfish but still perfectly natural
wish to be certain of my income and of my ability to give my children a
fair start in life, have led me to strongly approve of the suggestion
that the executioner's office should be a Government appointment, with
a fixed salary instead of an uncertain commission. When the Lords'
Committee on Capital Punishment was sitting, early in 1887, I expressed
my views on this matter in a letter addressed to the President of the
Committee, Lord Aberdare. I am not without hope that a change in the
arrangements for regulating the office of executioner will ere long be
made, and the lines on which I think that it might be most reasonably
and satisfactorily done, are set forth in the letter to Lord Aberdare,
which I append.
1, Bilton Place,
City Road, Bradford.
_February, 1887._
My Lord,
I have been for some time past in correspondence with Mr. Howard
Vincent, M.P. for Sheffield, with reference to alteration in the
mode of remunerating my services, in carrying into effect the
Sentence of the Law upon Criminals convicted of Capital Crimes. Mr.
Howard Vincent has suggested that I should address myself to the
Honourable Committee on Capital Punishment, through your Lordship
as their President.
I would therefore respectfully point out to your Lordship and
your Honourable Committee that the present mode of payment for my
services is unsatisfactory and undesirable, and that a change is
needed.
As your Lordship is doubtless aware, under the existing
arrangements I am paid the sum of £10 together with travelling and
other incidental expenses for each Execution conducted by me. There
are, on an average, roughly speaking, 25 Executions yearly. What
I would respectfully suggest is, that, instead of this payment by
Commission, I should receive a fixed salary from the Government of
£350 per annum. I may say that since accepting the Appointment I
have never received less than £270 in any one year. I am informed
that in determining a fixed Salary, or Compensation in lieu of a
payment by Commission, the average annual amount received is made
the basis for the calculation.
It will be apparent to your Lordship that an offer of a _less_ sum
than the former average would not be sufficiently advantageous to
induce me to exchange the old system for the new. I may further,
with your Lordship's permission, draw attention to the peculiar
Social position in which I am placed by reason of holding the
office before referred to. I am to a great extent alone in the
world, as a certain social ostracism is attendant upon such
office, and extends, not to myself alone, but also includes the
members of my family. It therefore becomes extremely desirable
that my children should, for their own sakes, be sent to a school
away from this town. To do this of course would entail serious
expenditure, only to be incurred in the event of my being able to
rely on a fixed source of income, less liable to variation than
the present remuneration by Commission alone. I am also unable for
obvious reasons to obtain any other employment. My situation as
boot salesman held by me previous to my acceptance of the Office of
Executioner, had to be given up on that account alone, my employer
having no fault to find with me, but giving that as the sole reason
for dispensing with my services.
My late Employer will give me a good reference as to General
character, and the Governors of Gaols in which I have conducted
Executions will be ready to speak as to my steadiness and also my
ability and skill on performing the duties devolving upon me.
In conclusion I should be ready to give and call Evidence on
the points hereinbefore referred to (if it should seem fit to
your Lordship and your Honourable Committee), on receiving a
notification to that effect.
Under these circumstances I trust that your Lordship will be able
to see the way clear to embody in your Honourable Committee's
report a recommendation to the effect that a fixed annual sum of
£350 should be paid me for my services rendered in the Office of
Executioner.
I have the honour to be
Your Lordship's Obedient humble servant,
JAMES BERRY.
To the Right Honourable Lord Aberdare.
President,
Capital Punishment Committee,
Whitehall, London, S.W.
P.S. If your Honourable Committee has an alternative to the
foregoing proposal I would respectfully suggest that I am
permanently retained by the Home Office at a nominal sum of £100
a year, exclusive of fees at present paid to me by Sheriffs of
different Counties and the usual Expenses.
In connection with this subject I should like to point out that in
asking for the office of executioner to be made a recognised and
permanent appointment, I am not suggesting any new thing, but merely
a return to the conditions in force not much more than fifteen years
ago. Up to 1874 the executioner was a permanently established and
recognised official. Mr. Calcraft, the last who occupied this position,
was retained by the Sheriffs of the City of London, with a fee of £1
1s. 0d. per week, and also had a retainer from Horsemonger Lane Gaol.
In addition to his fees he had various perquisites, which made these
two appointments alone sufficient for his decent maintenance, and he
also undertook executions all over the country, for which he was paid
at about the same rate as I am at present, but with perquisites in all
cases. In 1874 he retired, and the City of London allowed him a pension
of twenty-five shillings a week for life.
Mr. Calcraft's successor was Mr. Wm. Marwood, who had no official
status. He had a retaining fee of £20 a year from the Sheriffs of the
City of London, but beyond that he had to depend upon the fees for
individual executions and reprieves. In his time, also, there were
considerable perquisites, for instance, the clothing and personal
property possessed by the criminal at the time of his execution became
the property of the executioner. These relics were often sold for
really fancy prices and formed no mean item in the annual takings. But
the sale and exhibition of such curiosities were only pandering to a
morbid taste on the part of some sections of the public, and it was
ordered by the Government--very rightly, from a public point of view,
but very unfortunately for the executioner--that personal property left
by the criminals should be burned.
In many other countries the post of executioner is permanent. In some
cases it is hereditary, as in France, where it has remained in the
Deibler family, passing from sire to son, for a great length of time.
Even in British territory at the present time a permanent official
hangsman is not entirely unknown, for in Malta the post is a definite
appointment, to which a salary of £30 is attached.
In England the Sheriff is the officer appointed to carry out the
executions, and though he is allowed to employ a substitute if he can
find one, it would fall to him to personally conduct the execution
if no substitute could be obtained. In certain cases, in days gone
by, there has been very great difficulty in securing anyone who
would undertake the unpleasant duty, though I do not remember any
recorded instance of the Sheriff being absolutely unable to engage an
executioner.