Beheading
An amazing 125 people were beheaded in 1997 making it the second
most frequent form of (reported) judicial execution world-wide in that
year. Shooting and probably hanging were more widely used although some
countries do not report all executions, notably China and Iraq.
Beheading with a sword or axe goes back a very long way in history,
John the Baptist was an early victim, and this method was widely used in
Europe and Asia until the 20th century but now is confined to Saudi Arabia,
Qatar and Yemen. It is effective and is probably as humane as any other
modern form if carried out correctly but it is also extremely gruesome.
It typically attracts large crowds in Saudi (which carried out
all the beheadings in 1997)
In Britain beheading was introduced during the reign of William
the Conqueror and was confined to those of noble birth who were convicted
of treason. Charles 1st, Anne Boleyn and Mary Queen of Scots suffered this
fate and the last was that of Simon Lord Lovatt who was beheaded on Tower
Hill on the 9th April 1747. 91 people were beheaded in England between
1388 and 1747. It was considered a less dishonourable form of execution
than hanging and generally a quicker and less cruel death.
The Roman Empire used beheading for its own citizens (with crucifixion
for others) and it was also practised in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France
(up until the coming of the guillotine in 1792) and in Germany which continued
to use beheading in various forms until the end of the second World War.
China also used it widely up until the communists came to power
and replaced it with shooting.
There are two distinct forms of beheading - by the
sword and by the axe.
Where a person is to be decapitated with a sword a block cannot
be used and they are generally made to kneel down although they could,
if short, be executed standing up and in Germany women were sometimes allowed
to sit in a chair. A typical execution sword is up to 48 inches (1200
mm) long and two and a half inches (65-70 mm) wide with the handle
being long enough for the executioner to use both hands to give maximum
leverage. In Saudi a traditional Arab scimitar is used which is 1000
- 1100 mm long. Where an axe was the chosen implement a wooden block,
often shaped to accept the neck, was required. Two patterns of block
were used, the high block (about 18 - 24 inches, 450 - 600 mm high) where
the prisoner kneels in front of it and leans forward so that the
neck rests on the top.
The high block used for Lord Lovatt together with the axe are on
display in the Tower of London.
Some countries used a low block where the person lies full length
and puts there neck over the small wooden block which is just a few
inches high. This arrangement was used for the execution of Charles 1 in
Whitehall in 1649
Two patterns of axe were also used - the traditional pattern, as
used in Britain which has a blade one foot eight inches (500 mm)
high by ten inches (250 mm) wide with a five foot four inch (1625 mm) long
handle with four brass studs. In some parts of Germany the axe was
like a larger version of a butcher's cleaver, again the handle was
long enough for the headsman to use both hands.
A German beheading.
Grete Beier, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the Mayor of Freiburg,
was beheaded in private in the town prison at Freiburg, Saxony, before
dawn on July 22nd 1908 for the murder of her fiancée, a civil engineer
named Proffler, whom she had poisoned for financial gain.
The anonymous executioner arrived at the prison on the previous
night. He carried a long, thin box containing the axe and brought
with him the traditional suit of evening clothes.
About 5.00 a.m. Beier, her hands handcuffed behind her and wearing
a black low neck dress, was led from her cell to the execution room
where the officials and executioner were waiting for her. When she had
finished praying she was made to kneel down with her neck on the
high block placed in the middle of the floor. An assistant held her
in position by her hair whilst the executioner raised the axe and decapitated
her with a single stroke.
The case attracted international attention due to her age, sex,
personality and the elaborate nature of the crime. She was seemingly
a happy and fun-loving girl from a good background.
At her trial she admitted that she visited her fiancé's
house one evening, gave him potassium cyanide in a drink she mixed
for him, and then, to make sure of his death, shot him in the mouth with
his own revolver. She then dropped the weapon at the dead man's side,
placed a forged will in her favour on his desk, together with a note
of farewell, also forged, saying that he feared to lose her love, through
the revelation of a dishonourable intrigue. In addition to these
papers the young girl left behind a package of forged letters purporting
to come from a woman in Italy, accusing Proffler of desertion and
threatening to tell Grete everything. These forgeries were good enough
to initially deceive the police and Coroner. She fell under suspicion about
a month later through a
love letter that she wrote to another man hinting at what she had
done which was found when he was arrested for an unrelated crime.
Two of the last famous beheadings in Germany were carried out on
18th February 1935 when Baroness Benita von Falkenhayn and her friend
Renate von Natzner , who had been convicted of spying were beheaded with
the axe by the executioner Karl Groepler at Berlin's Plötzensee
Prison.
In Berlin beheading remained in force until 1938, when the guillotine
and hanging became the only legal means of execution.
Saudi Arabia - the beheading capital of the world.
Saudi Arabia uses public beheading as the punishment for murder,
rape, drug trafficking and certain other offences. The condemned
of both sexes are taken by a police van to a public square or a car park
after midday prayers and are led from the vehicle in handcuffs to
a suitable point (such as a gutter) where they are made to kneel
facing Mecca and usually blindfolded. The executioner raises a gleaming
scimitar and often swings it two or three times before slicing off
the head. Afterwards a clean up squad remove the head and body and wash
away the blood. The body is then buried in an unmarked grave in the prison
cemetery. Saudi executioners take great pride in their work and the
post tends to be handed down from one generation to the next. Most
executions are carried out in the three major cities of Riyadh, Jeddah
and Dahran.
The cause of death.
It is probable that when a single blow is sufficient to decapitate
the prisoner, they become unconscious within a few seconds. They
die from shock and anoxia due to haemorrhage and loss of blood pressure
within less than 60 seconds. However because the muscles and vertebrae
of the neck are tough decapitation may require more than one blow.
It has often been reported that the eyes and mouths of people beheaded
have shown signs of movement. It has been calculated that the human
brain has enough oxygen stored for metabolism to persist about seven seconds
after the supply is cut off.
The problem with beheading.
Beheading requires a skilled headsman if it is to be at all humane
and not infrequently several blows are
required to sever the head. It took three blows to remove Mary
Queen of Scot's head.
The prisoner is usually blindfolded so that they do not see the
sword or axe coming and move at the crucial moment. Again this is
why in both beheading and guillotining it was not unusual for an assistant
to hold the prisoner's hair to prevent them moving.
In any event the results are gory in the extreme as blood spurts
from the severed arteries and veins of the neck including the aorta
and the jugular vein. No doubt these two factors have lead to its abandonment
by most countries.
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