When the Hangman Came to Galway

The paths of a secret paramour, a jilted lover and a reluctant hangman cross in one fateful winter week in Galway, 1885

James Berry was the notorious hangman who ended the lives of over 100 criminals in Victorian Britain and Ireland. Tortured by nightmares as he tried to come to terms with the toll his gruesome work took on him, he played a central role in some of the crimes of the century, including the hanging of William Bury, the man suspected of being Jack the Ripper.

The Hangman Who Came to Galway focuses on a winter week in Irish history where Berry was tasked with bringing to a conclusion the case of two notorious murders in Galway, keeping readers transfixed as they journey with this fascinating character through nineteenth-century Ireland in all its gruesome glory.

Dean Ruxton unravels the complex mind of the notorious hangman James Berry as he sets out to bring to a conclusion the case of two notorious murders in Galway in 1885.