The small number of recorded victims testifies to the success of the deterrent. William Camden's "Descriptions of Britain" (published 1722) records that 'Halifax is becoming famous among the multitude by the reason of a law whereby they behead straightways whosoever are taken stealing'. Its notoriety grew further with the publication of John Taylor's poem of 1622, in which the famous Beggar's Litany 'From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us' referred to the notorious strictness of the law enforcers at Hull, the horrors of Hell, and the formidable Gibbet Law at Halifax. Taylor's poem continues:

"At Halifax, the Law so sharpe doth deale,
That whoso more than thirteen pence doth steale,
They have a jyn [engine] that wondrous quicke and well
Sends Thieves all headless unto Heav'n or Hell".

Between 1541 and 1650, the official records show that some 53 recorded persons (men and women) were executed by the Halifax Gibbet.

REGISTER OF PERSONS GIBBETTED AT HALIFAX
1286 John of Dalton
15th January 1539 Charles Haworth
20th March 1541 Richard Beverley of Sowerby
1st January 1542 Unidentified stranger
16th September 1544 John Brigg of Heptonstall
31st March 1545 John Ecoppe of Elland
5th December 1545 Thomas Waite of Northowram
6th March 1568 Richard Sharpe of Northowram
ditto John Learoyd of Northowram
9th October 1572 Will Cockere
9th January 1572 John Atkinson
ditto Nicholas Frear
ditto Richard Garnet
19th May 1574 Richard Stopforth
12th February 1574 James Smith of Sowerby
3rd November 1576 Henry Hunt
6th February 1576 Robert Bairstow alias Fearnside
6th January 1578 John Dickenson of Bradford
16th March 1578 John Waters
15th October 1580 Bryan Casson
19th February 1581 John Appleyard of Halifax
7th February 1582 John Sladen
17th January 1585 Arthur Firth
4th October 1586 John Duckworth
27th May 1587 Nicholas Hewitt of Northowram
ditto Thomas Mason (Vagrant)
13th July 1588 The wife of Thomas Roberts of Halifax
5th April 1589 Robert Wilson of Halifax
21st December 1591 Peter Crabtree of Sowerby
6th January 1591 Bernard Sutcliffe of Northowram
23rd September 1602 Abraham Stancliffe of Halifax
22nd February 1602 The wife of Peter Harrison of Bradford
29th December 1610 Christopher Cosin
10th April 1611 Thomas Brigg
19th July 1623 [?] Sutcliffe
23rd December 1623 George Fairbank
ditto Anna Fairbank, daughter of George Fairbank
29th January 1623 John Lacy of Halifax (He escaped from the execution, but returned 7 years later where he was caught and executed immediately)
8th April 1624 Edmund Ogden of Lancashire
13th April 1624 Richard Midgley of Midgley
5th July 1627 The wife of John Wilson of Northowram
8th December 1627 Sarah Lum of Halifax
14th May 1629 John Sutcliffe of Skircote
20th October 1629 Richard Hoyle of Heptonstall
28th August 1630 Henry Hudson
ditto The wife of Samuel Ettall
14th April 1632 Jeremy Bowcock of Warley
22nd September 1632 John Crabtree of Sowerby
21st May 1636 Abraham Clegg of Norland
7th October 1641 Isaac Illingworthof Ogden
7th June 1645 Jer. Kaye Taylor of Lancashire
30th December 1648 Jo. Wilkinson of Sowerby
ditto Anthony Mitchell

The only way that a condemned person could escape the Gibbet was to withdraw his or her head before the blade fell, and then escape across the parish boundary over the Hebble Brook (*-mile away). The felon could then go free provided that he or she did not return. At least one culprit escaped this way: a man named Dinnis managed the feat, and on his way out of the area was asked by several people if Dinnis was to be beheaded on that day. To his own humour, and the bemusement of the passers-by, Dinnis is said to have replied "I trow not", an expression that is still used by long-term residents of the area. John Lacy also achieved the feat on 29th January 1623, but foolishly returned to Halifax seven years later believing that having made it across Hebble Brook, he was pardoned of his crime that
in any event would have been forgotten. Unfortunately for Lacy, neither assumption was correct and he was duly executed by the gibbet without further trial. The public house "The Running Man" celebrates Lacy's temporary reprieve.

The last recorded victims were the Sowerby men Anthony Mitchell and John Wilkinson. Both men were found guilty of stealing on 19th April 1650, sixteen yards of russet-coloured Kersey from tenterframes owned by Samuel Colbeck of Warley (valued at one shilling per yard) and for stealing two colt horses from John Cusforth of Durker (in the Sandal parish near Wakefield) on 17th April 1650: their total haul was valued at ?5.8s. John Wilkinson was additionally convicted of stealing a piece of Kersey from tenterframes at Brearley Hall. As they were fond guilty on a Saturday, they were immediately put to death.