Home / Browse / Philosophy & History of Ideas / The Reluctant Hangman. The Story of James Berry, Executioner 1884-1892.
(BERRY, James) ATHOLL, Justin.
The Reluctant Hangman. The Story of James Berry, Executioner 1884-1892.
First edition. Detailed biography of the first truly literate hangman, who had recorded his own experiences in an autobiography published in 1892. Berry carried out 131 hangings in his 7 years in office, and was responsible for refining the long-drop method first employed by William Marwood. Berry is probably best remembered as the hangman who failed to hang John Babbacombe Lee. A variant dust jacket, blue on black rather than green on black, is printed, inverted, on the verso of the jacket.
Octavo. Original black cloth, title gilt to spine. With the dust jacket. Portrait frontispiece and 6 other plates. A little light chafing at the edges of the jacket, but an excellent copy.
