For well over 300 years, the chilling figure of the hangman has fascinated and revolted in turns. Even the sinister shape of the gallows and the noose fade in comparison with the men who carried out the ultimate penalty. From the infamous Jack Ketch to William Marwood, John Price and the Pierrepoints, the state executioners have been gruesome showmen of the macabre - and often greater celebrities than their victims. This book tells the story of the men who put capital punishment into practice. The earliest hangmen - many recruited from the same prisons as their victims - established a brutal and brutalizing tradition which culminated in the sophisticated professional of the 19th and 20th centuries.