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He wrote up an official ledger later on and no doubt used these very notes. 'This notebook would have been with him when he carried out his work in prisons. If they didn't fall hard enough they would hang there suffocating to death. 'If they fell too hard there was a chance their head would come off. The heavier the person, the shorter the drop. 'Getting the drop height right was a bit of a unique science. 'The notebook offers us a chance to read and understand the intricacies of this most unusual career. 'After the Queen's passing, I decided to sell them as I feel strongly that history could be lost if they are not preserved.'Īdam Inglut, a specialist at SAS, said: 'This is an exceptional piece of British history and a real insight into the career of one of Britain's last executioners. 'There is already a generation that think hanging in this country happened thousands of years ago, rather than relatively recently.

'These items are far too precious and too unique to be left in a drawer,' the seller said. The vendor, who is not being named, knew Pierrepoint as 'Uncle Albert' and recalled him being a 'mildly spoken, kind, calm' man who was 'lots of fun' and 'always keen to play football in the garden.' The historic pocketbook, titled Details of Executions, is being sold along with photos of Pierrepoint and his father. The hangman later said he was against the death penalty in his autobiography Pierrepoint's notebook is expected to fetch £12,000 when it goes under the hammer at SAS Auctions of Newbury, Berkshire on May 11. The executioner was, however, hailed as a hero by many once his identity was his revealed. 'All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder.' It did not deter them then, and it had not deterred them when they committed what they were convicted for. 'I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown. It is I who have faced them last, young men and girls, working men, grandmothers. 'If death were a deterrent, I might be expected to know. There have been murders since the beginning of time, and we shall go on looking for deterrents until the end of time,' Pierrepoint wrote. In his autobiography published in 1974, Pierrepoint later he admitted he did not himself believe in capital punishment. Pierrepoint executed hundreds of Nazi war criminals following the end of the World War II The 'Acid Bath murderer', John Haigh, who killed six people between 19 and disposed of their bodies using sulphuric acid, is also listed in Pierrepoint's book. Joyce was executed by Pierrepoint on Januat Wandsworth Prison in south London. The astonishing discovery gives an insight into some of Britain's most notorious criminals, including infamous traitor William Joyce who, as Lord Haw-Haw, broadcast Nazi propaganda during the war. One particularly gruesome detail included in the notebook is the scrupulous categorisation of his subjects' neck types, which were either 'ordinary, strong or thin'. When called to carry out a hanging, he would simply tell her, 'I shan't be seeing you for a couple of days.'Īfter retiring from the chilling trade, the former executioner ran a pub his wife Annie in Southport, Merseyside, before he died aged 87 in 1992.īut while to many he was their smiling pub landlord, the notebooks which were discovered while doing a clear-out from his goddaughter's loft reveal the grisly details of the business. Pierrepoint's wife is reported to have asked few questions about her husband's job. The hangman's notebook is expected to sell for £12,000 when it's sold at auction in May