When William Marwood died on 4 September 1883 after a brief illness, Binns was appointed to the position of Executioner for the City of London and Middlesex.
Before becoming hangman, Binns was employed as foreman platelayer at Dewsbury by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, but after he got the post he no longer worked anywhere.
[2] The last execution Binns carried out was the hanging of 18-year-old Michael McLean in Liverpool at Kirkdale Gaol on 10 March 1884.
[2] Major Leggett, the governor of Kirkdale Gaol, said that he thought "that Binns had no idea how to do his work satisfactorily".
[2] After the formal complaint about this and Binns' drunken behaviour, his employers, the sheriffs and aldermen of London and Middlesex, sacked him a few days later.