Talk:Syd Dernley

I must say that having watched interviews with him he does come across as a rather weird guy.


 * Albert Pierrepoint mentions in his autobiography that one time, when taking down a dead person from the rope, his (unnamed) assistant made rude remarks on the genitalia of the deceased, and that he (Pierrepoint) saw to it that the assistant never again got a job.
 * Some researchers speculate that this might refer to Dernley. However, assistants were hired by a different authority than the executioner, so Pierrepoint's ways to ensure anything of the kind are doubtful.
 * Dernley himself, in his autobiography (published AFTER Pierrepoint's), relates a similar incident but attributes the denunciation, if any, not to Pierrepoint but to an unnamed witness.
 * Dernley writes that he had a collection of rather spicy poems, and relates one incident when he entertained his mates in the hangman's room with one of these, sending them into so loud a laughter that the man awaiting execution could not but hear them.
 * The interview with Dernley (see references) contains the impression of the journalist that Dernley's "gallows humour" was strongly in evidence.
 * All in all, the expression "rather weird guy" does not seem to do him injustice. --Kauko56 08:14, 8 January 2007 (UTC)