John Billington (1880 – October 1905) was an English executioner. He was on the Home Office list from 1901 to 1905."The English hangmen 1850 - 1964" . ''capitalpunishmentuk.org''. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
Career
Billington came from a family of hangmen. His father,
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
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* King James (disambiguat ...
, was an executioner from 1884 to 1901, and his two older brothers,
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
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and
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
were employed in the same occupation.
In early 1902, at the age of 21, John attended an execution training course at
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...
. His brother William was England's primary executioner by this time, and the two became partners. They first worked on 18 March. John was the assistant for 10 of William's commissions in 1902. He helped perform the last execution at Newgate and the first one at Pentonville.
Billington continued as an assistant through most of 1903. However, with his experience, he was soon promoted. On 2 December 1903, he carried out his commission as a chief executioner in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, with
John Ellis John Ellis may refer to:
Academics
*John Ellis (scrivener) (1698–1791), English political writer
*John Ellis (naturalist) (1710–1776), English botanical illustrator
*John Ellis (physicist, born 1946), British theoretical physicist at CERN
* Jo ...
as his assistant.Fielding, p. 265. Twenty-nine executions took place in England and Ireland in 1903; the Billington brothers participated in 27 of them, including 15 as a two-man team.
John Billington worked both as his brother's assistant and as a chief executioner for the next two years. On three separate occasions, they carried out executions in different cities on the same day. The last of these was on 17 August 1904, when John executed John Kay at
Armley Prison
HM Prison Leeds is a Category B men's prison, located at Gloucester Terrace in the Armley area of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1847. Leeds Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is still known locally as ...
, and William hanged Samuel Holden at
Winson Green Prison
HM Prison Birmingham is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison, located in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, England. The prison was operated by G4S from 2011, before it was returned to HM Prison and Probat ...
.
Besides Ellis, John Billington also frequently worked with
Henry Pierrepoint
Henry Albert Pierrepoint (30 November 1877 – 14 December 1922) was an English executioner from 1901 until 1910. He was the father of Albert Pierrepoint and brother of Thomas William Pierrepoint. He worked as a hairdresser when not performing executions."The Billington Hangmen" . ''billingtonfamiliesoflancs.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
In August 1905, Billington received a commission to hang
Thomas Tattersall
Thomas George Tattersall (12 July 1874 – 15 August 1905) was an English plasterer who was convicted of murdering his wife.
Tattersall, from Wakefield, was a notorious drunk. He would often threaten his wife, Rebecca, and the police had on ...
in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. While preparing the scaffold, he fell through the open trapdoor and cracked his ribs. He died about two months later due to those injuries; the official cause of death was pleurisy. However, an official death certificate stated the cause of death to be
nephritis
Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy.
Types
* Glomerulonephritis is inflammation of th ...
(inflammation of the kidneys)Official death certificate from UK GRO
Billington was 25 years old at the time. He was survived by his wife and one child.