James Inglis (c. 1922 – 8 May 1951) was a Scottish man executed for murder, at the age of 29. Having confessed to strangling Alice Morgan, a 50-year-old woman who was working as a prostitute in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

on 1 February 1951 after a quarrel over payment, Inglis opted to plead insanity at his trial. The jury did not believe his version of events, and on 20 April he was sentenced by Justice Ormerod to be

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

. He was gaoled at

Strangeways Prison HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...

to await execution. Because Inglis did not appeal against his sentence, execution was scheduled to take place only three weeks after the trial ended (according to law, after the passage of three Sundays). On the morning of 8 May 1951, the executioner,

Albert Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint (; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoin ...

and his assistant, Syd Dernley, escorted Inglis from his cell to the gallows immediately adjacent, and hanged him without delay. This was the fastest British hanging on record, taking just seven seconds from the time that Inglis was removed from his cell to the moment that the trapdoor opened. Dernley later related that Inglis practically ran to his execution, following the prison guard's advice to go quickly and "without fuss". Inglis's execution is featured in the 2006 film ''Pierrepoint''; although Inglis's name is not mentioned, the character "Markovsky" was supposed to represent him.

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