[Rear Cover:]" 'I have carried out the execution of more judicial sentences of death than any executioner in any British record or archive'.For the first fifty-six years of this century the name of Pierrepoint appeared on the short Home Office List of qualified executioners for Great Britain and Ireland. Following in the steps of his father and uncle, Albert Pierrepoint became an executioner in 1931 and held the office of Official Executioner for many years until his resignation in 1956. In those years he carried out over four hundred executions, more than any other executioner, and travelled extensively abroad teaching his methods to his colleagues of other nations. Now, after years of silence, in this autobiography, Albert Pierrepoint describes his astonishing career, reveals the secrets of the death-cell and the last moments of some of its famous occupants, and tells how, amazingly, he has changed his mind about capital punishment."George G. Harrap and Company Limited, 1974; Coronet Books / Hodder and Stoughton paperback edition, 1977.Scan from the 1977 paperback edition: 600 dpi (text pages) 300dpi (covers and plates); bookmarked, under-image text layer.