Jack Ketch

Originally Aired: September 22, 1952

Suspense #479, "Jack Ketch," presents the dark world of John Price, a man whose very name has become synonymous with death itself. As London's public hangman, Price finds himself shunned and despised by everyone around him. At the Blue Ball tavern, patrons fall silent or mock him cruelly, calling him "Jack Ketch," the infamous nickname for executioners. Even the keeper barely tolerates his presence. Price desperately craves friendship and respect, insisting his work is just a job like any other, but the cruel reality of his profession isolates him completely. When he tries to borrow money from his underling William Hartley to pay mounting debts and avoid debtor's prison, he's met with transparent lies and barely concealed contempt.

The humiliation follows Price home, where his wife Betty delivers the most devastating rejection of all. She refuses to give him their meager savings, openly expressing her shame at being married to a hangman. In front of their child, she screams the truth he tries to deny, calling him a murderer and condemning him as "the groom of the ladder." As Price's world crumbles around him, he faces not only financial ruin but complete social and personal isolation, trapped in a profession that marks him as untouchable in the eyes of all society.