Bartholomew Binns

Who was Bartholomew Binns?

Bartholomew Binns was an English executioner from November 1883 to March 1884. He had previously assisted William Marwood at executions, and when Marwood died on September 4, 1883 after a brief illness, Binns was appointed to the position of Executioner for the City of London and Middlesex. Before becoming hangman, Binns was employed as foreman platelayer at Dewsbury by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, but after he got the post he no longer worked anywhere.

Like many hangmen of his day, Binns had no formal training and carried out executions according to his own methods and concepts. He was perhaps England's least successful hangman, responsible for the deaths of nine men and two women; his short career was "littered with complaints of drunkenness and incompetence". His first "solo" execution was that of Henry Powell on 6 November 1883 at Wandsworth Prison.

One of the executions Binns seriously botched was that of Henry Dutton on 3 December 1883. The 22-year old Dutton was to die for the murder of his wife's grandmother. Dutton weighed just 128 pounds and was given a drop of 7'6" using an over-thick rope with the eyelet positioned at the back of his neck. Death resulted from strangulation. The doctor at the prison was dissatisfied with the way Binns had conducted the hanging, and there was a strong suspicion that Binns had been drinking beforehand.