October 10, 1800 - William Calcraft

William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was an English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions.

A cobbler by trade, Calcraft was initially recruited to flog juvenile offenders held in Newgate Prison. While selling meat pies on streets around the prison, Calcraft met the City of London's hangman, John Foxton. After Foxton's death in 1829 the government appointed Calcraft the official Executioner for the City of London and Middlesex. His services were in great demand throughout England.

Nevertheless, some considered Calcraft incompetent, in particular for his controversial use of the short-drop hanging method in which the condemned were slowly strangled to death, instead of having their necks broken. Because with his methods the condemned took several minutes to die, to hasten death Calcraft would sometimes dramatically pull on legs or climb on shoulders in an effort to break the victim's neck.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William Calcraft under CC BY-SA 4.0.