On this date in 1948, Arthur George Osborne hanged at Armley Gaol in Leeds for murdering 70-year-old Ernest Westwood in the course of a robbery.

Osborne’s execution date was also his 28th birthday.

Mustachioed assistant executioner Harry Allen kept a handwritten journal of the executions he officiated in his 23-year career — a journal recently sold at auction. From it we have notes on each prisoner’s height (5 feet, 6.5 inches in Osborne’s case), weight (188138 pounds) and the consequent length of the rope’s drop (8 feet).

Very good job? but not expected to be so. Was hung on his 28th birthday at HMP Leeds by S. Wade got highly complimented on the speed of the job.

Harry Allen was eventually promoted to a chief executioner, in which guise he became Britain’s Last Executioner: he carried out one of the two simultaneous last hangings in England, as well as the last in Scotland and the last in Northern Ireland.

On this day..

• 1949: Leander Jacobs and Hector Chavis
• A Day in the Death Penalty Around the Martyrology
• 1066: Joseph ibn Naghrela
• 1873: Elizabeth Woolcock, the only woman hanged in South Australia
• 1757: Father Andreas Faulhaber, seal of the confessional martyr
• 1663: Tempel Anneke, witch
• 2010: Zeng Jinchun, corrupt anti-corruption official
• 2006: Lu Dongming and Lu Kuan, Internet bombers
• 1818: Robert Johnston, under horrific circumstances
• 1957: Václav Mrázek, Czech serial killer
• 1896: Dr. Jose Rizal, father of the independent Philippines
• 2006: Saddam Hussein
• Six Current Heads of State At Risk of Execution