James Billington executed some of Britain’s most notorious killers including the serial killer Dr Cream, and Mrs Dyer, the baby farmer, but I quickly discovered that the little-known cases were equally macabre; like the man who attempted to boil away the body, and the woman who played loudly on the piano to conceal the murder taking place in the upstairs room. For me, this book was not just about the extreme personalities, but the people who were driven to commit their crimes, and, of course, the man whose choice of employment was one of the most disturbing imaginable.
The large number of criminals James Billington executed, 151 in total, meant that there was a great opportunity to look at cases that have not previously received much attention. The research generated a huge volume of information and as I worked through, the gripping story of the executioner and his career emerged.
After researching some of the cases, I chose not to concentrate only on the most famous examples. Gaining the best insight into the challenges Billington faced would only be possible by looking at a representative cross-section of the crimes and by picturing both the people he executed, and the families and communities that confronted him at each appointment.
In addition, there was at least one murder victim in connection with each of these executions, and I did not feel it right to automatically skip over any cases. Homing in on only the cases shrouded in mystery, notoriety or bizarre circumstance gives Victorian crime a kind of dark glamour and an air of fiction. In contrast, showing the long-forgotten killers and the desperate plight of their victims paints a more rounded picture, not only of crime at that time, but of Victorian society as a whole.
Capital punishment is also an emotive subject and it is far easier to justify the use of the death penalty in those extreme cases where the perpetrator can be described as evil, than when the criminal act is more the product of society’s failings than of individual weakness.
Something that has always interested me about executioners is their motivation for applying to the post and the long-term impact this role has on their personal lives and psychological health.
Some of the biographical information has been drawn from family accounts and using rare copies of other executioners’ memoirs, making this a unique account of James Billington and his days as England’s number one hangman.
This has been a fascinating book to research and write, and I think that it provides a huge insight into the issues facing Victorian hangmen and the people who struggled to live in Briatin during this era.
From boiling cauldrons to tinkling pianos, it certainly dispells the myth that it was a more moral and law abiding age.
Alison Bruce, 2009