Some people kill for the sheer thrill of it, others for revenge or for financial gain. Executioners kill because the state employs them to do it - but who chooses to be an executioner ... and why? This book investigates the history of capital punishment across the world, and the fascinating lives and careers of the people who are employed to deliver the ultimate penalty.

1) Early Forms of Execution

2) The Spanish Inquisition

3) The Witch Hunters

4) Impalement

5) Newgate Prison, London

6) Tyburn Gallows, London

7) The Guillotine

8) Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

9) The Electric Chair

10) The Gas Chamber

11) Lethal Injection