Free Houses of Death (True Crime) by Gordon Kerr Page A

for prisoners arriving at the Model Prison, in the 19th century, was that the system for controlling them was borrowed from the harsh regime in operation at America’s Eastern State Penitentiary, sometimes known as the ‘separate system’. Inmates were forbidden from communicating with each other and when exercising or being taken anywhere in the prison grounds, had to march rapidly, in straight lines, close to each other, wearing masks of brown cloth on their faces. This dehumanizing effect was carried through to their daily attendance at chapel, when each man sat in a tiny cubicle, his head visible to the warder, but not to his fellow inmates. The result, as in Eastern State, was mental illness. One study found that for every 60,000 prisoners at Pentonville 220 went mad, 210 became delusional and 40 committed suicide.
    The day was hard. Work began at 6am and continued until 7pm. Prisoners would weave or make rope and they enjoyed only paltry rations. For breakfast there was 284g (10 oz) of bread and 355ml (0.75 pints) of cocoa. Dinner was a 237ml (0.5 pints) of soup or 114g (4oz) of meat, 142g (5oz) of bread and 454g (1lb) of potatoes. Then, for supper they would have 473ml (1 pint) of gruel – oatmeal boiled in water –and 142g (5oz) of bread. In the 1840s, it cost around 15 shillings (75 pence or $1.50) a week to feed and house a prisoner in Pentonville. However, it was a system much admired for its effectiveness and its cost. A further 54 prisons were constructed in the UK based on the Pentonville model, and many throughout the British Empire.
    Pentonville was a hanging prison, and successful applicants for the job of hangman were trained there. They attended a one-week course that included lessons such as how to calculate and set the drop, using tables of measurement provided by the Home Office, how to pinion the condemned man and, critically, how to expedite the entire process. Everything was practiced using a dummy called ‘Old Bill’.
    Apprentice hangmen met Old Bill on the second day of the course, the first being taken up with a medical, an interview with the governor and a tour of the execution shed. Using Old Bill, they learned how to put the white hood on and how to get the eyelet of the noose in exactly the right place. This was essential for what was termed the system of ‘humane hanging’. They repeated the process over and over until it was second nature – putting on the hood, adjusting the noose, pulling out the safety pin, pushing the lever and watching the prisoner drop. They were also shown how to manage double executions.
    Every eventuality was catered for – prisoners with only one leg or arm and a prisoner who had attempted suicide by cutting his throat, for example.
    The last two hangmen to be trained in this way were Samuel Plant and John Underhill, who took the course in 1960, remaining on the list of hangmen until they were rendered redundant by the abolition of the death penalty in the UK in 1965. The most prolific hangman in Pentonville’s history was Albert Pierrepoint, the third man in his family to be a hangman. Of the total of 433 men and 17 women he hanged between 1932 and 1955, 43 were carried out at Pentonville.
    In the 20th century, more hangings were carried out at Pentonville than at any other British prison. There were 120 hangings altogether there between 1902 and 1961 – 112 for murder, two for treason and six for spying during wartime.
    The first man to be hanged there was John Macdonald, who stabbed another man to death over five shillings (25 pence or 50 cents). But it had its share of famous executions over the years.
    Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was perhaps one of the most sensational murderers in English criminal history. Crippen murdered his wife, Belle, and fled with his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, to Canada on the SS Montrose. On board, he was recognized by the ship’s captain from a newspaper photograph and a telegraph message was sent, informing the ship’s