The Pierrepoint family had three generations of executioners in its ranks and Albert was the last of these, retiring in the mid 50s.A master of speed, efficiency, compassion and neutrality, it was perhaps a little unsurprising that he found some later difficulties with the death penalty after executing an acquaintance named James Corbitt. Interestingly, this man's son, also called James, has recently stated that his father's premeditated and calculated murder of his mistress had merited no less a penalty.
[If I knew the day on which I was appointed to die, a Pierrepoint would be a true blessing.]
Naturally enough, the film makers decided to make a big deal of the Corbitt issue and for dramatic reasons turned this murderer into Albert's greatest chum. [This did not ring very true when Pierrepoint was shown not to have even known the man's name - only his nickname, Tish - up to the very point of the execution.]
In his autobiography in 1974, Pierrepoint made a short statement doubting the deterrent effect of the rope.
The recent film called Pierrepoint starring the excellent Tim Spall uses the words written by Albert to end the film on an abolitionist note.
Typically, this is a total, abolitionist misrepresentation because subsequent to 1974 I clearly recall having read at least one lengthy, newspaper interview with the man himself which acknowledged this earlier point and distanced himself from it. He had considered the vast increase in murders and clearly stated that the death penalty should be restored.
I cannot believe that the film makers were in ignorance of this point and I feel that being so ruthlessly selective and ignoring the full context of the matter is both devious and grossly misleading. This was clearly deliberate.
When have the liberal left ever been otherwise on this topic?
If the death penalty demonstrably saved 1,000 lives a year they would still oppose it on so-called principle! To the left, dogma always matters more than people.
