1905: Thomas Tattersall, taking the hangman with him
August 15th, 2020 Headsman
Thomas Tattersall was hanged at Armley Prison in Leeds on this date in 1905.
An alcoholic plasterer, Tattersall had a going reputation for home violence already when he got into his cups and fatally slashed his wife’s throat on July 3.
A terrible tragedy for the families involved, this crime at a century’s distance scarcely stands out from the common run of homicides. What attracts our notice is a third fatality, after the murdered victim and the executed killer: the clumsy hangman.
That man, John Billington, came by nooses as a family trade, albeit not of very great vintage: his father, a colorful* Lancashireman called James Billington, had transitioned his amateur personal interest in hanging into a calling as one of the realm’s official executioners after the great William Marwood died in 1883.
This elder Billington passed away in 1901 with 146 hangings under his belt. All three of his sons followed his footsteps into what proved a truly star-crossed vocation.
Eldest son Thomas Billington died of pneumonia at the age of 29, mere days after his father’s passing; he had been only an occasional assistant hangman — never the lead guy.
Second son William Billington was the real maven and succeeded his father as the lead executioner in the realm. He conducted most of the hangings in England between 1902 and his 1905 jailing for failing to pay alimony to his wife.
And that turned out to be the end of a career that appeared to haunt William later in life, because while he was incarcerated his youngest brother John Billington, commissioned to execute our man Thomas Tattersall, plunged through the trap while setting up the gear ahead of time. He was able to perform the execution, but the cracked ribs that he suffered from the fall caused an attack of pleurisy that claimed the hangman’s life that October.
* Apart from treading the scaffolds, James Billington was also a pugilist and wrestler, and other descendants in the Billington family have pursued those trades. Notable exemplars include World Wrestling Federation great Tom Billington, aka the Dynamite Kid and present-day WWE grappler Davey Boy Smith Jr.
On this day..
- 1963: Eddie Lee Mays, the last executed in New York - 2019
- 1293: Capocchio, Inferno-bound - 2018
- 1720: Matthew Tompkins, Daniel Lazenby, and Maurice Fitzgerald - 2017
- 1741: Juan de la Silva, Spanish Negro - 2016
- 1817: Four arsonists in the rain - 2015
- 1714: Constantine Brancoveanu and his sons - 2014
- 1812: William Booth, forger - 2013
- 1941: Josef Jakobs, the last executed in the Tower of London - 2012
- 2010: Two Afghan adulterers stoned - 2011
- 2004: Atefah Rajabi Shalaaleh, schoolgirl - 2010
- 1986: The Stoning of Soraya M - 2009
- 1963: Henry John Burnett, Scotland's last hanging - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,England,Execution,Hanged,History,Murder
Tags: 1900s, 1905, august 15, famous executioners, james billington, john billington, thomas tattersall, wrestling
