AN AMATEUR HANGMAN.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 243, 20 March 1875, Page 3

AN AMATEUR HANGMAN.

The hangman in the three Liverpool executions was the "gentleman amateur" who, preferring to be designated as "Calcraft's assistant," executed the notorious Thomas Corrigan in a very scientific manner, and by his subsequent handling of his " subject," proved conclusively to those who witnessed his cool and careful examination of the body that he had studied in a school of medicine. On his first appearance at a Kirkdale execution with Calcraft (who, by-the-byc, is lying on a bed of sickness in London, and may be said to have retired from the "profession"), it will be remembered that he was believed to be a farmer from South Wales, so enthusiastic in the pleasant operation of depriving other persons of their lives that he willingly followed the veteran executioner through the country and rendered him gratuitous service. Evans was then the name assigned to him ; but on a siibsequent occasion he was known as " Mr Anderson," and at the present execn tion he particularly requested the prison officials not to divulge his name to the representatives of the press. Who he is or what he is may be for ever shrouded in mystery, but that he is a man possessing peculiar " talent" for the repulsive office he undertakes is undeniable. The systematic fixing of the rope and the excellent terms upon which he appeared to be with himself after the event justify any one who saw a man well attired, wearing a semi-clerical wide-a-wake, with a white cambric handerchief protruding from his left breast pocket, in believing that he was no common hangman, and that the duties that he undertakes in decreasing the population of this realm have a fascination beyond mere pecuniary remuneration. Upon the occasion of his last visit to Kirkdale gaol in an official capacity it was understood that his services would no longer be called into requisition in consequence of the tone adopted by him towards the prison officials, but he seems to have conquered the antipathy to him and he is regarded as the legitimate successor of the veteran Calcraft.