James Corbitt

James Henry "Tish" Corbitt (* around 1913; † November 28, 1950 in Manchester ) was an English murderer who was hanged in Strangeways Prison in Manchester by Albert Pierrepoint .

Corbitt knew his executioner before the crime. At the time of the murder he was a frequent guest in the pub "Help The Poor Struggler" run by Pierrepoint , sang with him on the piano and called him "Tosh", while Pierrepoint called him "Tish". Corbitt knew of his host's official sideline . Corbitt was separated from his wife and then 11-year-old son at the time of the murder and had a mistress, Eliza Woods. He strangled her in a hotel room in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Pierrepoint learned - according to his memoir "Executioner: Pierrepoint" - on the evening before the execution from a prison guard that the death row inmate was a guest at his pub, whom he had only known by his nickname. Tishs “Request that Pierrepoint call him by his nickname on the morning of the execution, which the hangman did.

The film Pierrepoint suggests that the fact that he had to hang his "friend" Corbitt was decisive for Pierrepoint's resignation as an executioner as well as for his later opposition to the death penalty .

It is true that Pierrepoint wrote in his memoirs of his feelings on returning from this execution to the pub: “If ever a man had the deterrent of murder right under his nose, it was this singer I named Tish. Not only did he know the strand existed - he had the man handling it next to him and sang a duet with it. The deterrent hadn't worked. "

Web links

• Interview with Corbitt's son in the "Sunday Telegraph"