An Uncommon Hangman

by Rachel Franks

This is the story of Robert Rice Howard (1832–1906), the man known as Nosey Bob. It is also an important chapter in the story of the changing attitudes towards capital punishment in Australia, as the country transformed from generally enthusiastic spectators at executions into campaigners for the abolition of the death penalty. These interconnected stories are told through the men, and the one woman, who met Nosey Bob under the worst possible circumstances between his first employment by the Department of Justice in 1876 and his retirement as the executioner for New South Wales in 1904.
Once a household name, Nosey Bob was the most infamous public servant in Sydney: a noseless hangman who sparked fear and fascination everywhere he went. Howard has only ever been cast as an extra in someone else’s play, making frightening appearances in a felon’s final scene on the gallows. Here, for the first time, he has taken the lead.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Death, Australia, Crime, Victorian, Biography

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2022

Reviews

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Executioners were once a critical component of the justice system in New South Wales.’

I was browsing in one of my favourite bookstores when the cover of this book caught my attention. A few years ago, I read ‘Solomon’s Noose’ by Steve Harris, about Solomon Blay (a hangman in Van Diemen’s Land between 1840 and 1891) and my curiosity about his colleague in New South Wales had me buying this book.

In this book, Ms Franks tells the story of Robert Rice Howard (1832-1906) through the sixty- two people (sixty-one men and one woman) he executed between 1876 and his retirement in 1904.

Why was he called ‘Nosey Bob’? He had lost his nose. How? We don’t actually know. There are a few possible explanations included in the book. Ms Franks writes of a family man, who lived in Paddington and then at Bondi. Mr Howard was a cabdriver before he became a hangman, but we have few other details about his life separate from his employment. While not all his executions resulted in clean deaths (yes, the details are included) it seems that unlike some other hangmen, Mr Howard was conscientious when carrying out his difficult job.

As I read, I was reminded that while Mr Howard was shunned by many in society for his role, the same society mostly condoned capital punishment. But over the twenty-eight years Mr Howard was hangman, opposition to the death penalty grew. While the death penalty was not abolished in New South Wales until 1985, the last person was hanged in 1939.

I found this book interesting because it required me to focus on the person required to carry out the hanging, instead of the legal system and those convicted.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Franks provides a compassionate view of Robert Howard highlighting his love of his family and of gardening and his diligence as a public servant. There was much discrimination with Howard at times being refused transport and accomodation because of his job. This book made me realise that executions were carried out across NSW. For some reason I had thought they would be centralised, but it has made me look at familiar places differently knowing that there were executions in those towns.

I have never been in favour of capital punishment. This book highlights the challenges of having capital punishment, including that you have to be sure the right person is executed, that is it done in a way which does not cause suffering and someone has to carry out the execution. This book highlights that even in skilled hands there could be a lot of suffering for the prisoners, and that there is a big impact on the person required to enact the court decision. Earlier people in this role in NSW coped by excessive use of alcohol.

As well as being a biography of Robert Howard, this book brings us close to all the people who were executed, differing amounts of information being available because of record keeping, but also racism. This book is important to read as it challenges assumptions, and brings us close to these people from the past. It is also an important book for local studies collections in NSW as there were crimes and executions across the state.

I know the author but that is not influencing my star rating. I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to think about this.

[Lewis Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was going fine until Franks discusses the murder victim “Ah Fook”. Like come on, that’s just a bit too on the nose. Speaking of noses, this is the biography of a one Nosey Bob, potentially the most infamous Australian without a nose (Peter Dutton notwithstanding) and potentially the only man who can give Tycho Brahe a run for money in the proboscis department. Plus, how does Franks know all these things? She wasn't there, it's not like there's a colonial history archives of Australia available from many libraries around Australia. Does she not know that the world actually began last Tuesday, and everything that supposedly came before is just a shared hallucination by big pharma, and more importantly, big history? If the Catholic Church can make up the Dark Ages, then those involved with promoting a white side of history can make up all this!

In all seriousness, despite years of badgering (and having been spruiked this novel by my eventual manager at the SLNSW bookstore following my job interview (she didn't conduct the interview bcs public service) and thought she was genuinely promoting it), following the cessation of my master's (without Franks I would not have survived), I've finally gotten around to reading about the noseless one. For all intents and purposes, I did receive the author's preferred corrected copy, so feel free to mail in to Franks for your own copy!

[Pippa Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of An Uncommon Hangman by Rachel Franks.

Like the author, Rachel Franks, I have mixed feelings about Nosey Bob, who was the executioner in NSW between 1876 and 1904. His nickname was Nosey because he didn’t have a nose.
Rachel Franks is against the death penalty, which was abolished in all jurisdictions in Australia in 1985, so choosing to write a biography of a hangman seems strange, especially when, in many ways, she admires the man. He had a difficult job but performed his duties with great care.
The executioner’s victim was called the patient and the executioner saw himself as the finisher. It was not his responsibility to judge.
Rachel Franks tells this story chronologically and covers both the events in Robert “Nosey Bob” Howard’s life and the crimes committed by his patients. Her research is meticulous and she tells the stories well. It is not always grim, though she does describe in some detail the goriest aspects of hanging. For example, Nosey preferred, in calculating the drop (based on the weight, age, neck size of his patient) to err in favour of decapitation rather than strangulation. Decapitation is horrific for the witnesses but kinder for the patient. Strangulation means the patient doesn’t die instantly and may take up to ten minutes to die – ten minutes of unimaginable pain.
Like Rachel Franks, I don’t approve of the death penalty. While it has been abolished in Australia it is still commonly practised in other parts of the world. It doesn’t serve as a deterrent and is often described as state sanctioned murder.
Hanging was the punishment for murder, attempted murder and rape in the early days of the colony. Mercy was sometimes granted which meant a life spent behind bars for the criminal. Some may have preferred a quick death but others protested their innocence and hanging was not something that could be undone if the judge and jury got it wrong.
Another reason for my mixed feelings about this book is because I wonder why so many are fascinated with crime and the gory details. I’m not alone. Crime fiction and true crime are popular genres and I suspect it is because we like stories about good versus evil and feel some satisfaction when the good guys win.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of crime fiction and non-fiction as well as history buffs.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Franks' politics sink this one for me. Like her, I am against the death penalty in this country. But in furtherance of her axe-grinding, she ignores, downplays or downright excuses some horrific crimes, especially where race is involved.


One case was the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl, which Franks depicts as something that just sort of happened. The Mount Rennie outrage, in which a 16-year-old girl was pack-raped by a dozen men and teenage boys for SIX HOURS, is a footnote in her outrage that three of the four hanged didn't die instantly.


Saint Jimmy Governor, who murdered nine people (including smashing an eleven-year-old girl with a tomahawk) is excused because two of those nine people were racists who had dissed his marriage. This marriage is depicted as some sort of interracial love story. Ethel Governor was a pregnant 16-year-old.


You can argue against the death penalty without downplaying or defending the rape and murder of children.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I attended a RAHS seminar with the author speaking, and her talk highlighted the passion and ‘love’ she has for Nosey Bob. I was not disappointed in this sometime humorous, but very well researched social and crime history. From a librarian to a librarian thank you Rachel for giving me more information about Sydney and NSW unknown history!

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read. I learnt many things about the judicial system and death penalty in the early Australian colonial days. The narrative was cleverly constructed surrounding Australia's longest serving hangman - Nosey Bob - and his physical notoriety for having no nose.

[Merlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and wittily written. An Uncommon Hangman follows Howard’s life through his executions.

[Natalie Lappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous read, loved every minute sad to finish!!