The Greater Manchester hairdresser who killed more than 200 men and women

The last face more than 200 men and women would ever see before they died was that of a Rochdale barber.

It sounds like the premise of Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of Fleet Street.

The fictional Todd killed his victims by dropping them through a revolving trap door as they sat in his barber's chair. He would then polish them off with a cut across the throat with his razor.

John Ellis wasn't a work of fiction, and his reason for killing people was very different. Born in Broad Lane in Buersil, Rochdale, in 1874, he was a high street hairdresser and the town's last-ever hangman between 1901 and 1924.

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It's perhaps unusual to think of a hairdresser moonlighting as an executioner, but many infamous hangmen, including Albert Pierrepoint and Harry Allen, had regular jobs outside of this role. They were both pub landlords.

During his career, Ellis hanged over 200 people and became the country's top executioner.

Before he became a hangman, he worked in a cotton mill. According to a story in the Rochdale Observer in 1932, an earlier accident at the mill left him unable to continue to work as a manual labourer, so he followed his own father and picked up the hairdressing scissors with a shop on Oldham Road. He also opened a newsagent, which he ran with his wife and children.

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Accounts of John Ellis describe him as delicate, with a slight build and pale complexion. It's even been reported that he couldn't bear to wring the necks of chickens in his family smallholding. So when he signed up as a hangman, it was said to have surprised everyone.

In a posthumous interview published in the Rochdale Observer on September 21, 1932, Ellis explained how he decided to become a public executioner.

He told a reporter: "I was working in a textile place in those days. And when there was an execution, I remember saying: 'I wouldn't mind doing that job.' Other people laughed at me and said: 'What, tha hang anybody!'

"I made an application for the job and was fortunate enough to get it. It was not a matter of influence. I must have been lucky, I suppose, or unlucky."

Following an interview with the Governor of Strangeways Prison in Manchester, he underwent a week's instruction on the art of the executioner in London, which resulted in his name being placed on the list of public executioners and assistants.

All prospective hangmen had to undergo a week of instruction, which involved practising on an actual set of gallows with a dummy and learning to calculate the drop needed, taking into account the person's weight and stature.

Assisting in his first execution in May 1901, Ellis would work as a hangman for the next 23 years, assisting in and eventually conducting over 200 executions. Some of the famous criminals he dispatched during his tenure included the infamous Dr Crippen, who was convicted of poisoning and dismembering his wife; George Smith, the 'brides in the bath' murderer; and Sir Roger Casement, who was hanged for being a spy.

But perhaps his most famous hanging, and one that some believed affected him to the point it contributed to his own death, was that of Edith Thompson. Edith had been convicted of the murder of her husband and was the first woman Ellis had hanged.

Mainly convicted on circumstantial evidence, 29-year-old Edith had been found guilty, alongside her lover, Frederick Bywaters, of murdering her husband. The details of the salacious trial made the newspapers for weeks before the pair were convicted.

On the day of her execution on January 9, 1923, Edith was dragged to the scaffold in a state of near-total collapse. She was heavily sedated and semi-conscious but still hysterical and bound by her ankles and wrists and had to be carried to the gallows by four prison warders.

Ellis later admitted he had been deeply affected by the execution of the barely conscious Edith and 12 months later handed in his notice as a hangman in March 1924. He had taken to drinking heavily, and just five months later, he made an attempt on his own life.

He was found at his home with a fractured jaw thought to have been caused by trying to shoot himself with a revolver. He was brought before the courts on a charge of attempted suicide, and, on an undertaking not to repeat the offence (suicide was a criminal act in Britain until 1961), he was discharged.

In another strange twist, in 1927, Ellis appeared in a theatre production in Gravesend, which was about the life of burglar and murderer Charles Peace, playing the part of the hangman.

The show received widespread condemnation. Monte Bayley, secretary of the Variety Artists Federation, said at the time: "We think it is a most deplorable piece of bad taste. No object can be gained by pandering to such morbidness of audiences.

"The public are partly to blame for patronising such a show. Presumably all they wanted to see was the hanging."

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Eventually, the pressure from the critics forced the show to close, leaving Ellis with substantial financial losses. He continued to work as a barber, but during his later years, he also toured fairgrounds with a set of gallows and staged grisly mock executions.

However, he was no longer able to live with his demons; on September 20, 1932, the former hangman was found dead at home in Kitchen Street by his son. He was 57 years of age.

If you need support for your mental health the following resources are available

The NHS Choices website lists the following helplines and support networks for people to talk to.

• Samaritans (116 123 in UK and Ireland) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you're feeling, or if you're worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org.
• Childline (0800 1111) runs a helpline for children and young people in the UK. Calls are free and the number won't show up on your phone bill.
• PAPYRUS (0800 068 41 41) is a voluntary organisation supporting teenagers and young adults who are feeling suicidal.
• Mind (0300 123 3393) is a charity based in England providing advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
• Students Against Depression is a website for students who are depressed, have a low mood or are having suicidal thoughts.
• Bullying UK is a website for both children and adults affected by bullying.
• If U Care Share is a suicide prevention and postvention support charity. For free confidential text support text IUCS to 85258.
• James' Place provide free, life-saving treatment for suicidal men, and those identifying as male. Men can refer themselves or be referred by a professional including those working in health and community services, or by a friend or family

A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was recorded. Ellis' wife, Annie, said he had been in poor health for about 18 months suffering from neuritis, a nervous disease and heart problems.

On the evening of his death, Annie said he had been drinking before he rushed into the kitchen while pulling off his collar and tie. She said he took hold of a razor from a shelf and threatened her with a knife, so she fled with her daughter to her son's house.

Many still believe that the prolonged fits of depression Ellis suffered in his later years, in which he sought relief in alcohol, were the result of him being haunted by his former profession. A cool and efficient hangman who reportedly introduced many improvements to the job that left him incredibly troubled, John Ellis was buried in Rochdale Cemetery, where his headstone remains.

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