James Inglis

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James Inglis (1922 – May 8, 1951) was a British 29-year-old man executed for murder.

Having confessed to strangling Alice Morgan, a 50-year-old prostitute in Kingston upon Hull on February 1, 1951 after a quarrel over payment, Inglis opted to plead insanity at his trial – but the jury did not believe his version of events, and on April 20 he was sentenced by Justice Ormerod to be hanged. He was jailed at Strangeways Prison to await execution; as he did not appeal his sentence, a date was fixed for this in only three weeks' time from the end of his trial.

On May 8, Albert Pierrepoint and Syd Dernley escorted Inglis from his cell to the gallows immediately outside and hanged him without delay – the fastest hanging on record, taking only seven seconds from the time he was removed from his cell until the trapdoor opened to send him on his fatal drop. Dernley later related that he practically ran to his execution, following the prison guard's earnest advice to go quickly and "without fuss".

His execution is featured in the 2006 film Pierrepoint. It has also inspired the execution scene from Pennies from Heaven, starring Bob Hoskins.

[edit] Reference

Dernley & Newman, The Hangman's Tale: Memoirs of a Public Executioner, Trans-Atlantic Pubns, 1990 ISBN 0-330-31633-8