James Inglis

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James Inglis (1922 – 8 May 1951) was a British man executed for murder at the age of 29 years old.

Having confessed to strangling Alice Morgan, a 50-year-old prostitute in Kingston upon Hull on 1 February 1951 after a quarrel over payment, Inglis opted to plead insanity at his trial. The jury did not believe his version of events, and on 20 April he was sentenced by Justice Ormerod to be hanged. He was jailed at Strangeways Prison to await execution. Because Inglis did not appeal against his sentence, execution was scheduled to take place only three weeks after the trial ended.

On the morning of 8 May 1951, Albert Pierrepoint and Syd Dernley escorted Inglis from his cell to the gallows immediately outside and hanged him without delay. This was the fastest British hanging on record, taking just seven seconds from the time that Inglis was removed from his cell to the moment that the trapdoor opened. Dernley later related that Inglis practically ran to his execution, following the prison guard's advice to go quickly and "without fuss".

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

[edit] References

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