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Examples from Crime - The Hangers

Hangman, Hangman, wait a little while - Led Zeppelin - Hangman, Led Zeppelin III (1971)

Index

The Hangers' background

What makes The Hangers such a great example?

The Hangers' background

Capital Punishment was abolished [for murder], in the United Kingdom, on the 8th November 1965. Despite numerous attempts by Conservatives to reintroduce this barbaric practice, Parliament has kept the ban. Being such an extreme practice, it had frequently thrown up notorious cases, and many of these, being so unusual, make outstanding examples of Astrology in practice.

Albert Pierrepoint, Lord Chief Justice Goddard, and Christmas Humphreys make a seemingly unlikely triumvirate, mostly because although all three were involved in hanging a great number of people, Christmas Humphreys was also the leading light of Buddhism in Britain, in the middle of the Twentieth Century. Together, the three of them carried out one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice, when they hanged Derek Bentley for the murder of PC Sidney Miles, who was actually shot by the underage Christopher Craig.

Albert Pierrepoint was the most well known of British hangmen, working from 1932 to 1956, and executing William Joyce [Lord Haw-Haw] for treason, in 1946. Also, John Christie, Timothy Evans, Ruth Ellis, and Derek Bentley, among many others. After the war, as a main occupation, he ran a pub, the Help the Poor Struggler, on Manchester Road, Oldham, in which he met a regular customer, James Corbitt, whom he hanged in 1950.

Lord Chief Justice Goddard, referred to as 'Lord God-damn' by Churchill, was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1946 to 1958, and the first to hold a law degree. He presided over the Derek Bentley case, imposing the death penalty - apparently with unnatural enjoyment. In July 1998 Bentley's conviction was quashed, with the appeal trial judge, Lord Bingham, noting that Lord Goddard had denied the defendant 'the fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen.'

Christmas Humphreys acted for the Crown in prosecutions including the cases of Craig & Bentley, and of Ruth Ellis. He also obtained the conviction of Timothy Evans for a murder later found to have been carried out by John Christie. But, astonishngly, in light of his legal profession, Humphreys was also a leading authority on Buddhism, writing several books on the subject.

What makes The Hangers such a great example?

The saying is that 'Hard cases make bad law', but good astrological examples come from exceptional cases, exactly because they stand at the extreme, well outside the run of the mill norm. It is not that a person's occupation is extreme, rather that the events that they take part in are so. The Bentley case became the most influential in changing public opinion, because everyone knew that Craig was the one who shot Sidney Miles, yet Bentley was hanged.

Albert Pierrepoint's birthchart

Albert Pierrepoint's father, Henry Pierrepoint, and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, were both official hangmen before him. Henry and his brother Thomas were executioners before Albert was even born. There are two important dates in this respect; the date of Henry's birth, and the date Henry applied to become a hangman. Both of these are reflected in Albert's birthchart, notably in association with points that are particularly connected with Albert's career.

The first of these dates, Henry's birth, was generally given as 'one month after 11 February 1878', not too exact, but close enough to see something, however, applying to the record office for his birth registration showed that he was actually born on 30 November 1877 [it is so much better to have proper data, and don't always believe sources]:

Pluto for Henry is opposite Albert's Mars

Uranus for Henry is square Albert's Mars

Venus for Henry is also square Albert's Mars

Neptune for Henry is conjunct Albert's Jupiter

Henry Pierrepoint was trained in how to be a hangman by James Billington. James, who on 7 July 1896 hanged Charles Wooldridge, the subject of Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Goal, trained a number of other hangmen, including three of his own children, Albert's father Henry, and uncle Thomas. This chain of connection, and occupation weren't the only similarities between James and Albert. Being a hangman was only a part time role, and both James and Albert ran pubs as their main occupation: James ran the Derby Arms in Bolton, while Albert ran the Help the Poor Struggler in Oldham. Not only did they run pubs, but they each had occasion to hang one of their regulars! James was ill with bronchitis when he hanged his customer Patrick McKenna on 3 December 1901, and ten days later he died himself, at home.

Assisting James for the first time on 19 November 1901 was Albert's father Henry Pierrepoint. Henry then worked as an assistant to William and John Billington, before becoming the principal executioner of Britain in 1905. Henry then encouraged his brother Thomas into the business, and by this time all three of James' children had either died or left the job. He was active as hangman until a drunken brawl with his assistant John Ellis, at an execution on 13 September 1910, led to his [Henry's] dismissal.

Thomas Pierrepoint, who opined that it was 'impossible to work with John Ellis', remained a hangman until 1946.

Mercury for Henry is exactly conjunct Mercury for James Billington

From the second date, when Henry applied to be a hangman, we see a conjunction of Jupiter with Albert's Uranus

From these we can see clues that Albert was born to follow in his father's footsteps, and to eventually come to some conclusion about their chosen profession.

William Goddard's birthchart

Lord Chief Justice Goddard Or Lord God-damn as Churchill called him, was the judge who sentenced Derek Bentley, also he was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1946 to 1958, known for his strict sentencing and conservative views despite being the first Lord Chief Justice to be appointed by a Labour government, as well as the first to possess a law degree.

It is notable that Goddard's Jupiter is conjunct Pierrepoint's Uranus, which is trine Pierrepoint's Jupiter conjunct Goddard's Neptune - here is a circle almost of the decision of the judge not only giving his own Neptune some emotion, but also giving reason to Pierrepoint's Uranus, which informs his own Jupiter, which then gives reason to Goddard's Neptune. We can conclude from this that Lord Goddard is not impartial when it comes to hanging; he gets an emotional reaction from imparting justice, particularly where Pierrepoint is involved, why else is he still sitting on such cases, where the appeal judges would be his juniors. All very improper, as it suggests at least justice would not be impartial, or even that Goddard obtained a perverse pleasure from delivering the death sentence (as suggested by his clerk). All of these planets are at 3 to 5 degrees of Taurus and Capricorn, reflecting the underlying physicality of this punishment.

Pierrepoint's Uranus was opposite his Neptune, so both were activated by his Jupiter, also his Chiron, which was inconjunct Neptune, and so square Jupiter, and semisextile Uranus. We might think that Albert, who reportedly believed his trade sacred, had a hidden emotional response that was a little at odds with his occupation.

Christmas Humphreys' birthchart

Travers Christmas Humphreys, QC was an English barrister who prosecuted several controversial cases in the 1940s and 1950s, and later became a judge at the Old Bailey. He also wrote a number of works on Mahayana Buddhism and in his day was the best-known British convert to Buddhism. - Wikipedia

Strangely, for a man so involved in the legal system and punishing people, Christmas Humphreys was also a leading light in England's Buddhist and Theosophist communities. This did not occur as if some Pauline conversion in later life, but Buddhism and his legal career ran side by side.

He was prosecutor of Ruth Ellis, Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and astrologically he shares Lord Goddard's position of Jupiter conjunct Albert Pierrepoint's Uranus. Not only this, but his natal Mars is at 5 degrees of Virgo, so trine his and Goddard's Jupiter at 5 Capricorn, and trine Pierrepoint.s Jupiter at 5 Taurus.

How could one person incorporate these two seemingly contradictory threads in one life?

The Blavatsky Trust website has this comment from Muriel Daw regarding Toby as he was known:

He lived his own teaching in his daily life at the Old Bailey. Someone in the dock would be reminded that no person was sending him to prison, no judge, no jury. 'Only your own actions have put you where you are. You knew that what you were doing would bring you here.' When asked how he, as a Buddhist, could be a judge, and how did he feel about it; Toby answered quite simply: 'I am the man in the dock.'

From this I conclude that Buddhist or not, Christmas Humphreys really never did grasp the spirit of Buddhism, so in no way can he be regarded as a reliable authority.