He was born in Epworth, a tiny community located about a 40 minute drive west of Evansville in southern Indiana. His great grandfather was a pioneer of the community and a wealthy landowner. Phil Hanna lived in the house his grandfather built throughout his life on the prime farmland of over 2.000 acres he and his brother had inherited.
Although he was a farmer, he was one of the wealthiest landowners in the county and he was known for his generosity and he was not thought to be selfish with his wealth. He was described as religious in philosophy but not in practice. He was known to drink often.
He had a morbid, irrational fear of pain and while he would himself supervise the hanging of a man, he could not bear to watch someone slaughter a chicken. Supervising the hangings caused him to become a "nervous wreck" for several days each time he returned home.
When Hanna was 22 years old he witnessed his first hanging. Due to inexperience of the hanging officials, the hanging was botched and it was a brutal one. A horrified Hanna decided to learn how to conduct a proper hanging the proper manner to conduct a hanging and become an expert. As a result Hanna quickly developed a reputation for providing quick, clean hangings without ever pulling a gallows lever himself.
He studied ropes, lengths of drop and he made dummies of men and practiced dropping them from the haymow in the barn. He learned how to tie nooses so the criminal's neck would be broken quickly and constructed traps that were designed to make the condemned man's fall smooth and quick.
Although Hanna never requested to pull the lever (he left that responsibility to to the local officials), he was widely known and sheriffs and other officials across the country often requested his assistance prior to an execution. As a consultant, he advised executioners in several States on the art and science of more humane hanging. 
Hanna would arrive the day before an execution to advise and supervise for no pay, his only requirements being a bottle of whiskey and to keep any weapons used by a condemned murderer. He eventually acquired a large collection of weapons.
Hanna's procedure was that when he arrived at the site of an execution, he visited the condemned and told them, "I am here to help you." He sometimes counseled the prisoners, assuring them their death would be painless. He also went to great lengths to see that the condemned man's last request was fulfilled.
Hanna stated, "I am of the opinion that there is no pain at all in a hanging that ls properly done. 1 think my work, therefore, is a type of humane service, although there are many who may have different opinions." He once witnessed an electrocution and concluded that they were less humane than hangings. Although he appeared to enjoy his notoriety, but said he disliked being called the hangman.
Hanna carried all the accouterments needed for a hanging with him such as ropes and the handmade hoods his wife has sewn that were placed over the prisoner's head; the condemned man could choose either white or black as he preferred. Hanna also provided his own rope.
Eventually Hanna concluded that he could better perform his craft using his own equipment and built a portable 15-foot tall scaffold which could be disassembled and re-erected on site. Because Hanna believed that causing a man to wait for the drop was cruel, he had a prearranged signal for the man who pulled the drop lever.
In spite of all his precautions, not all of Hanna's hanging went well. On one occasion the rope broke and the hangee landed on the ground severely injured. After that incident, Hanna always brought two ropes to a hanging and tested their strength.
Shortly before he died Hanna's wife left him and he became quite ill and was admitted to a hospital in Evansville, Indiana. While hospitalized he would shake the railings of his bed in frustration and at times become quite belligerent. He died of hardening of the arteries.
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