James Corbitt

Who was James Corbitt?

James Henry Corbitt was an English murderer hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester by Albert Pierrepoint.

Corbitt knew his hangman even before he committed the crime. At the time of the murder, he was a frequent customer in Pierrepoint’s pub "Help The Poor Struggler", sang with him round the piano and called him "Tosh" while Pierrepoint called him "Tish". Corbitt knew about the official sideline of his publican. At the time of the murder, Corbitt was separated from his wife and his 11-year-old son, and had a mistress, Eliza Woods. In a fit of jealousy, he throttled her in a hotel room in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.

In his memoirs, Pierrepoint wrote about his feelings when returning to the pub after Corbitt’s execution: "I thought if any man had a deterrent to murder poised before him, it was this troubadour whom I called Tish. He was not only aware of the rope, he had the man who handled it beside him singing a duet. The deterrent did not work."