Database: John Billingsworth

Date of Birth: 21 March 1844.

John Billingsworth, was born in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a labourer.

Obsessed with death, executions and torture all his life, he was a hangman for the British government until they sacked him due to his 'excessive taste for sadism'.

He would measure the necks of the people he had executed to see how long he could stretch their 'gullets' (the bigger the drop... well, you get the picture). He competed with himself all his life to improve his record.

Mr. Billingsworth found private employ for people in need of his particular talents and that is how he came to be Chief Warder in a private prison in Deptford in 1888, a deep-sea port near London where massive old Navy ships were hulked out and converted to house prisoners in living conditions you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

He answered to 'Mr. Jack' alone, and believed that his work was 'right and necessary' in order to 'rip the filth' from the heart of London.