MY EXPERIENCES AS AN EXECUTIONER With a new Introduction and additional Appendices by Jonathan Goodman

Hardback. Facsimile Reprint of the rare 1892 1st edn. Edited by H. Snowden Ward. With new Introduction by Jonathan Goodman. James Berry, who plied the gallows trade from 1884 to 1892, was the first - and the last - British hangman to write freely about the techniques of execution. He describes not only his personal attitude towards the ultimate punishment but also that of many of the condemned prisoners whose fall he engineered. Britain's Official Secrets Act was extended to forbid executioners' memoirs soon after the book was first published. His book, a collector's item for many years, is uniquely informative. It is a fascinating social document; an indispensable work of reference for criminologists; a contribution to the argument between those who wished to see the return of capital punishment and those who regarded death by hanging as a barbaric anachronism. Includes an Appendix, by Jonathan Goodman, outlining the history of capital punishment. Illus. 144pp. small 8vo. h/back. Foxed edges o/w Nr. F. in Vg+ dw.