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Uncle Gallows-wallah! Singapores Hangman

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  • Uncle Gallows-wallah! Singapores Hangman

    http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/002483.html


    Uncle Gallows-wallah

    Singapore’s hangman is a semi-retired 73 year old desi named Darshan Singh. This man, who looks like any other jolly uncle on the street, has executed over 850 prisoners in his 46 years at the job.

    Darshan Singh holds the world’s record for executions: 18 men in one day, three at a time. He takes real pride in his work, bragging that he has never botched an execution. The government pays him $312 for each execution and he gets to dress casually at his job, “often just a T-shirt, shorts, sports shoes and knee-length socks.” [Link]

    His next execution is likely to be that of convicted Australian drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen.

    Nguyen will meet Mr Singh a few days before he is executed and will be asked if he would like to donate his organs.


    On the day before his execution, Mr Singh will lead him to a set of scales close to his death-row cell to weigh him.

    Mr Singh will use the Official Table of Drops, published by the British Home Office in 1913, to calculate the correct length of rope for the hanging. “I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.”

    On the day of Nguyen’s execution, Mr Singh will be picked up by a government vehicle and driven to the prison, arriving at 2am local time (0400 AEST) to prepare the gallows.

    Shortly before 6am, he will handcuff Nguyen’s hands behind his back and lead him on his final short walk to the gallows, just a few metres from the cell.

    … Darshan Singh will place a rope around the 25-year-old’s neck and say the words he has spoken to more than 850 condemned prisoners during his 46 years as Singapore’s chief executioner.

    “I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.”

    [According to his colleague:] “Death has always come instantaneously and painlessly. In that split second, at precisely 6am, it’s all over.” [Link]


    He’s still working because the government is having a hard time finding somebody to replace him: “Mr Singh tries to comfort them if they are completely alone in the world at such a horrible time.”

    “He tried to train two would-be hangmen to replace him, a Malaysian and a Chinese, both in the prison service,” the colleague said.

    “But when it came to pulling the lever for the real thing, they both froze and could not do it.

    “The Chinese guy, a prison officer, became so distraught he walked out immediately and resigned from the prison service altogether…” [Link]
    Darshan Singh acquired his trade by accident rather than by design:

    Mr Singh joined the British colonial prison service in the mid-1950s after arriving from Malaysia. When the long-established British hangman Mr Seymour retired, Singh, then 27, volunteered for the job. He was attracted by the bonus payment for executions. “It’s all I know. It has become my bread and butter.”
    “He also used to cane convicted criminals after training in this field,” the colleague said.

    “The pay then was 50cents per stroke. He could wield a cane as well as he could wield a cricket bat.”

    Mr Singh lives happily with his second wife and is close to their three adult adopted children.

    His first wife left him years earlier because she could not accept what he did. He had kept it a secret from her for years.

    When his colleague asked him why he had stayed so long in such a gruesome job, he replied: “It’s all I know. It has become my bread and butter.” [Link]

    The article makes him out to be a caring sort, not a sadist:

    Mr Singh reportedly spends time getting to know the condemned prisoners, especially those who do not receive visitors or religious support.

    “He is a very kindly man and although it’s his job to end their lives he does feel for them,” his friend said. “Mr Singh tries to comfort them if they are completely alone in the world at such a horrible time.” [Link]

    Up till now, his identity has been a closely held secret but he was outed by the Australian press because of the interest in the Nguyen case. Even now he can’t comment directly on the case, so most of the information about him was given by a friend. [Via BoingBoing]


    __________________________________________________ _______________Did you see his picture!
    He does not need to take the prisoner to the gallows, just reveal himself, and the prisoner will die of sheer horror. I very nearly did!

    A crime against humanity, that picture.
    "Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality." ~ George William Russell
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