Once a Jolly Hangman (6 page)

It was a very busy time inside Changi Prison. When he wasn't preparing a condemned felon or two to be hanged or wielding the rattan cane delivering up to 24 strokes on the bare buttocks on yet another unfortunate, he was keeping other convicts on his block in line. After several prisoners had died from cardiac arrest following a thrashing from the caning team, the British prison governor ordered that a doctor must always be on standby and to stop any excess. If the prisoner could not tolerate the repeated lashes - the rattan canes are constantly soaked in water to keep them more pliable and more painful - the punishment would be stopped and resumed the next day when the recipient had sufficiently recovered. This is still the rule today. But punishment delayed or not, the extra money on top of his monthly salary in those days always came in handy. And there was never a
shortage of bare buttocks to shred.

Darshan Singh was not allowed to show any sympathy for the men he punished so brutally even if he had wanted to. A superviser is always present to make sure the caners do not become lenient or go soft on them. But Darshan Singh believes what he was doing was good not only for the man he was thrashing but for society as a whole. This attitude also extends to the many condemned killers and drugs traffickers that come his way - especially child killers, rapists, brutal murderers and armed robbers. He firmly believes he has done a good job in the service of Singapore. Dangerous criminals have to be removed from society never to be given a chance to commit abominable crimes again. Everyone knows the harsh laws of Singapore which began under British colonial rule, he says, and if they commit the crime they must do the time - either behind bars or the end of the rope. Darshan Singh also learned never to ask questions. He was the right man, in the right place at the right time back then in 1959. He has been hanging condemned men and women non-stop in Changi Prison ever since.

Darshan Singh also proudly declares that with his experience, he can ensure a condemned man or woman is always hanged quickly, efficiently and painlessly. 'An inexperienced hangman could make mistakes and prolong suffering. They don't struggle when I hang them. I know the correct way it should be done. With an inexperienced executioner, who doesn't know what he is doing, they will struggle like chickens, like fish out of the water'. It was the horror reports that emerged when things went wrong that so shocked and dismayed the public and shamed the then ultra-conservative establishment of the 1950s that finally put an end to the death penalty in Britain. Today, the Singapore authorities are just as fearful of this kind of pornography being exposed to the public galvanising them also to demand the end of capital punishment in their pristine clean country.

Darshan Singh, the father of three adopted children, grown up now and some with youngsters of their own, told me he would always support the death penalty in his country. 'It has helped keep Singapore one of the safest places on earth', he often told me. 'These drug traffickers know what will happen to them if they get caught. People who sympathise with them have nothing to say about the thousands who suffer because of drugs. They destroy their lives as well as their
families - and society as a whole suffers'. Under Singapore's tough laws, anyone aged 18 or over who is convicted of carrying more than 15 grams of heroin receives a mandatory death sentence. He believes it was a big mistake for Britain and Australia to abolish the death penalty. 'I have read that some people in England - and also in Australia - would like capital punishment to be brought back. If they do and they ever need a hangman again, I would offer my services'. In fact he revealed that he once travelled secretly to Calcutta, India, to carry out the hanging of a rapist. 'I don't often get these requests', he told me. 'I am always at the service of any government anywhere to carry out an execution by hanging. If the person has been properly tried in court I would do it without hesitation'.

Darshan Singh also revealed to me that the authorities once considered switching to other means of execution such as lethal injection a method used in some American states. This idea was quickly shelved when it was pointed out that many of the condemned often wish to donate their organs for desperately sick people who might have only weeks or months to live. 'If they are executed by lethal injection, their organs will be destroyed and could not be used for transplantation'. A Sikh who converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman, Darshan Singh said the most difficult part of his job was when he had to hang prisoners whom he had befriended. Getting to know some prisoners languishing on death row, Darshan Singh said he developed close relationships with them while still eventually having to carry out the execution. 'In a way, they became my friends and wanted me to hang them when they finally accepted their fate. One of the fellows even asked me to give him his final haircut the day before'. Murderers and drug traffickers deserve to die, he said, and their punishment is a means of 'complete rehabilitation'. He told me he also believes in reincarnation, that the men and women he hanged - if they repented - would return better men or women when 'they are reborn'.