John Ketch (died November 1686) was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II.

Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, Satan, and executioners.

Appointment

Ketch took office in 1663, succeeding the late Edward Dun, to whom he had been apprenticed. He is first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 14 January 1676, although no printed notice of the new hangman occurred until 2 December 1678, when a broadside appeared called The Plotters Ballad, being Jack Ketch's incomparable Receipt for the Cure of Traytorous Recusants and Wholesome Physick for a Popish Contagion.

Lord Russell's execution

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On that occasion, Ketch wielded the instrument of death either with such sadistically nuanced skill or with such lack of simple dexterity &ndash; nobody could tell which &ndash; that the victim suffered horrifically under blow after blow, each excruciating but not in itself lethal. Even among the bloodthirsty throngs that habitually attended English beheadings, the gory and agonizing display had created such outrage that Ketch felt moved to write and publish a pamphlet titled Apologie, in which he excused his performance with the claim that Lord Russell had failed to "dispose himself as was most suitable" and that he was therefore distracted while taking aim on his neck.

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Ketch was paid by Russell beforehand, as it was customary for those sentenced to death by beheading (which in those days was "reserved for ... aristocrats") to tip the public executioner in advance. It was hoped this would encourage him to do a swift and efficient job, hopefully despatching the victim in one clean blow." In spite of this, Ketch allegedly "did such a bad job that, after the axe hit the side of Russell's head, Russell looked up at him and said, 'You dog, did I give you ten guineas to use me so inhumanely?'" the claims that Russell had paid him twenty guineas the night before the execution (although he stated it was "true I receav'd 10. Guenies" from him on the scaffold), that Russell had insulted him, and that he had struck Russell's shoulder rather than his head. Although biographer Sidney Lee asserts that the pamphlet was "probably written by Ketch himself", since we have "no accurate notion of who wrote"</blockquote>

== Later life and death ==<!-- needs better name -->

In January 1686, Ketch was committed to Bridewell Prison for "affronting" a sheriff. His assistant, Paskah Rose, formerly a butcher, took his place. However, on 28 May, following his conviction for robbery, Rose himself was hanged at Tyburn, and Ketch was reinstated. Ketch died in November 1686.

Fiction

In 1836, a fictitious autobiography of Ketch, with illustrations from designs by Meadows entitled The autobiography of Jack Ketch, was published. Another book entitled Life of Jack Ketch with Cuts of his own Execution was furnished by Tom Hood for the Duke of Devonshire's library at Chatsworth. and David Copperfield, and in the C. M. Kornbluth science fiction story "The Marching Morons" (1951). More recently, Jack Ketch plays a role in Neal Stephenson's 2003 and 2004 volumes Quicksilver and The System of the World, the first and last volumes, respectively, in his The Baroque Cycle series (though the last volume is set in 1714, well after the death of the historical Jack Ketch). Ketch makes a brief appearance in issue #10 of Bill Willingham's comic book series Fables and in the first book of Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series.

He is mentioned briefly in the 1951 movie of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim, when Mr. Jorkin warns the directors of the Amalgamated Mercantile Society to watch out for Scrooge and Marley, as "They'd skin Jack Ketch alive and he'd never know they'd done it." This scene does not appear in the Dickens source novel.

The long-running radio program Suspense aired an episode titled "Jack Ketch" starring British actor Charles Laughton on 22 September 1952.

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

  • Jack Ketch, Everything2