Hanging in the UK
A brief history of Hanging in Britain
Hanging is still the second most widely used method
of execution in the
world. (shooting is the most common due to the fact
that China executes
more people than the rest of the world put together).
Hanging was first used as a method of execution in
Persia (now Iran) about
2500 years ago for male criminals only, (women were
strangled at the stake
for the sake of decency!) It was considered ideal
as it produced a highly
visible deterrent without the blood and gore of beheading,
being simple and
cheap to perform and not requiring a skilled executioner.
In England, hanging was the principal form of execution
from Anglo-Saxon
times up to abolition in 1964. In early times the
prisoner was either
hanged from a branch of a convenient tree or from
a simple gallows where he
was turned off using the back of a cart or from a
ladder. There were
hundreds of executions a year in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries
with the greatest number being carried out at Tyburn
near what is now
Marble Arch, in London.
Between 1830 and 1964, around 1500 people suffered
death by hanging in
Britain. Executions were carried out in public until
1868 and from then on
within the walls of County prisons. A few witnesses,
including reporters
were admitted up to about 1900 but thereafter executions
were carried out
in complete secrecy. The last hangings were two carried
out simultaneously
at 8.00 a.m. the 13th August 1964 in Walton and Strangeways
prisons. =
As in early Persia, hanging apparently met the needs
of justice well,
attracting large crowds who were at least supposed
to be deterred by it,
but who more probably went for the general excitement
and a day out. (The
modern expression Gala Day is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
word for gallows
day.)
Hanging was also the main form of execution in most
other countries up to
the end of the nineteenth century when there was
a general trend to
abolition or to more humane methods of execution
than the form of hanging
used at that time. It continues to be used in many
countries to the present
day notably Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea,
India, Pakistan,
Japan, some African countries, Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Jordan, Kuwait and Libya,
most of the Caribbean states and in three States
of America (although
Washington & Delaware are the only States to
have actually carried out any
hangings since the re-introduction of capital punishment
in America in
1976.
In the nineteenth century there was a general move
towards less use of
capital punishment in Britain and the number of executions
began to
decline. In 1820 there were 43, 17 in 1825 and only
6 in 1830. After that
they seldom exceeded ten a year and it was often
far fewer, except in times
of war.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there
were an amazing two
hundred and twenty-five capital crimes including
such terrible offenses as
impersonating a Chelsea pensioner and damaging London
Bridge. By 1850 these
had been reduced to just four (High Treason, murder,
piracy and arson in
Royal Dockyards) largely by the efforts of Sir Robert
Peel and a growing
tide of public opinion educated by the emergence
of the Press and notable
figures of the day such as Charles Dickens and John
Howard. Dickens also
campaigned strongly against public executions and
finally succeeded in 1868
when Michael Barrett (a Fenian - the old name for
the I.R.A.) became the
last man to be publicly hanged before a huge crowd
outside Newgate prison
on May the 26th. for a bomb attack at Clerkenwell
in London. Barrett was
hanged by Calcraft, who was noted for his short drops;
but was said to have
died without a struggle unlike so many of Calcraft's
other victims.
Calcraft retired in 1874 and was replaced by William
Marwood.
The Gallows.
A tree was the earliest form of gallows with prisoner
being either hauled
up manually by the hangman or turned off from a ladder
or a cart. There are
still some hanging trees in existence - there is
one at Weeping Cross in
Stafford. Two trees with a beam between them formed
the gallows for Mary
Blandy's execution at Oxford in 1752 when she uttered
the famous words "for
the sake of decency, gentlemen, don't hang me high".
In other places more conventional gallows were built,
having either a
single upright with a projecting beam cross braced
to it or two uprights
and a cross beam where more than one person was to
be hanged at a time.
Both types still required the use of a ladder or
the cart to get the
criminal suspended. In many case these gallows were
not permanent and were
dismantled after each execution.
In 1571 the famous "Triple Tree" was set up at Tyburn
to replace previous
smaller structures and was, at least once, used to
hang twenty five
prisoners simultaneously. It remained in use for
just over two hundred
years and consisted of three large uprights joined
at the top with beams in
a triangular form to provide a triple gallows under
which three carts could
be backed.
In 1795 the "New Drop" replaced the triple tree,
being first used to
execute the Earl of Ferrers. It was erected specially
for each hanging and
introduced the trap for the first time in the form
of a small box like
stage upon which the prisoner stood and which could
be released leaving
them suspended. =
Prior to 1884 each County was responsible for providing
it's own gallows
for carrying out the death sentences passed in that
county. This led to all
sorts of designs being used.
At Newgate in London, which had the largest number
of executions, the
gallows originally consisted of two parallel beams
set over the trap on
which a dozen criminals could be hanged at once.
Later this was replaced
with a single beam pattern which could still accommodate
six prisoners. In
other parts of the Country there were some with steps
up to the platform
and some of the balcony type where the prisoner was
brought directly onto
the platform from a first or second floor window
or door. Other counties
used a conventional pattern with the single or double
trap doors set over a
pit. The trap doors were released mostly from underneath
by withdrawing
bolts and latterly from above by pulling a lever.
In 1885 the Home Office commissioned Lieutenant Colonel
Alton Beamish to
design a standard pattern for use throughout the
Country. This consisted of
two uprights with a cross beam in 8 inch section
oak. The beam was long
enough to execute three prisoners side by side and
was set over a two leaf
trap of three inch thick oak which was operated by
a lever on the top and
had the platform set level with the surrounding floor.
This was a great
improvement over some of the designs outlined above
and considerably
speeded up the process. The beam had one or more
iron bands attached to it
from which hung lengths of chain for attachment of
the rope using "D"
shackles and accurate setting of the drop. In the
thoughtful way of the
Home Office at least some of these gallows had the
Royal Coat of Arms
displayed on the beam which must have been a great
comfort to the
condemned. This pattern remained in use in most British
prisons until after
the second world war.
When the lever is operated the drawbar moves until
the "slots" line up with
the ends of the hinged supports allowing them to
fall and thus open the
trap.
Later the single beam was replaced by two parallel
beams of about 8" x 3"
section in the center of which were two heavy gauge
metal brackets each
drilled with holes offset at ½" centers through
which a metal pin was
inserted and to which a length of chain was attached.
This allowed very
accurate adjustment of the drop. Britain still has
one working gallows in
Wandsworth prison, should the need ever arise to
hang somebody for high
treason, piracy or certain offenses against armed
forces law. It was last
used on September 8th 1961 and is apparently tested
every six months and
kept in full working order. There is no actual beam
but instead the rope is
suspended from a chain, itself suspended from a hook
above the ceiling
which is accessed through a removable panel. The
trap doors are lever
operated and there is a cell below into which the
prisoner drops.
The gallows in Washington's Walla Walla prison looks
most unlike the
traditionally imagined pattern, consisting simply
of two massive iron eye
bolts each set over a single leaf trap operated by
an electromagnetic
release mechanism.
Other countries have there own ideas - some use metal
uprights and beams,
some have single and some have double trap doors,
some still expect the
prisoner to climb steps up to the platform - there
are endless variations.
The Noose.
The noose, that other vital piece of equipment, is
also available in
several patterns, being at it's simplest a slip knot
of any sort fashioned
on a length of rope.
We have all seen pictures of the coiled nooses used
in Cowboy films which
have from six to thirteen coils which slide down
the rope delivering a
heavy blow to the side of the neck. This pattern
is still used in America
and countries such as Iran and Iraq. It was never
favored in Britain as it
tended strangle the prisoner rather than break their
neck.
Britain and most Commonwealth and ex- Commonwealth
countries use(d) a
simple noose consisting of a loop worked into one
end of the rope with the
other end passed through it.
This was later improved by passing the free end of
the rope through a brass
eyelet instead of a loop of rope which made it more
free running. This type
of noose has been shown to cause a quicker death.
It was usually made from
a 13 foot length of ¾" diameter Italian silk
hemp rope often bound with
Chamois leather to avoid marking the skin and was
carefully stretched
before use by dropping a sandbag of approximately
the same weight as the
prisoner through the trap and leaving it suspended
overnight. This reduced
the diameter of the rope to about 5/8 inch. Hemp
has always been the
preferred material as it is both soft and strong
with a smooth surface.
Modern materials such as Nylon have been tried but
found to be too elastic.
The positioning of the eyelet under the angle of
the jaw is very important
as it is vital that the head is thrown backwards
by the rope so that the
force is transmitted into the neck vertebrae rather
than being thrown
forward and the force taken on the throat which tends
to cause
strangulation.
The American coiled noose is prepared in accordance
with a procedure laid
down in a US army manual. from 30 feet of ¾"
- 1" diameter manila hemp
rope, boiled to take out stretch and any tendency
to coil. It is formed
into six coils and then waxed, soaped or greased
to assure that the knot
slides easily.
The "Short Drop" method.
Up to 1871 all hangings in Britain used the "short
drop" where the prisoner
only dropped a few inches and usually died by slow
strangulation that could
typically take up to fifteen minutes. The more fortunate,
died due to Vagal
Reflex (pressure on the Vagal nerve) which causes
death very quickly.
Occasionally the prisoner was later revived even
after hanging for half an
hour and there are several recorded cases of this
where people lived for
many years afterwards. As a result of these incidents
a slightly longer
drop, of about 12 - 18 inches became normal to ensure
that prisoners did
not survive, however this extra drop tended to cause
them to suffer a more
agonizing death as it was not long enough to break
the neck but the force
of it tore the neck muscles and sometimes the skin.
Hanging using a short
drop is still used by some Middle Eastern countries
notably Iran, Iraq and
Libya.
The "Long Drop" method.
In 1871 hangman William Marwood introduced the "long
drop" method which it
is thought had been invented by doctors in Ireland.
It removed most of the
prisoner's physical suffering and made the whole
process far less traumatic
for the officials who now had to witness it in the
confines of the
execution cell instead of in the open air. The long
drop method was
designed to break the prisoners' neck by allowing
them to fall a
pre-determined distance and then be brought up with
a sharp jerk by the
rope. At the end of the drop the body is still accelerating
under the force
of gravity but the head is constrained by the noose
which delivers a
massive blow to the back and one side of the neck
which combined with the
downward momentum of the body breaks the neck and
ruptures the spinal cord
and is thought to cause instant unconsciousness and
rapid death.
The drop given was usually between 4 & 10 feet
depending on the weight and
strength of the prisoner. The actual amount being
calculated to provide a
final "striking" force of approximately 2240 lbs
force (one ton) which
combined with the positioning of the eyelet of the
noose normally under the
left angle of the jaw (the submental position) causes
fracture and
dislocation of the neck usually at the 2nd and 3rd
or 4th and 5th Cervical
vertebrae.
In the early days there was a considerable amount
of experimentation to
determine the exact amount of drop and James Berry,
who succeeded Calcraft,
had an unfortunate experience when hanging a murderer
called Goodale who
was decapitated by the force of the drop.
The Home Office was eventually able to issue executioners
with a table of
drops and there were no more decapitations. Berry
had another unfortunate
incident when he made three attempts to hang a young
man called John Lee at
Exeter due to the failure of the trap doors to open.
Hanging continued in
this form up to 1964 with occasional minor refinements
designed to speed it
up and make it less of an ordeal for the prisoner
and staff. It is reported
that executions, in this century, rarely took more
than 15 seconds from the
time the hangman entered the condemned cell to the
prisoner being
unconscious. The quickest ever, being carried out
in just 8 seconds by
Albert Pierrepoint and Sid Dernley in the 1950's.
Hanging for murder was abolished in December 1969
(High Treason and Piracy
remaining capital crimes to the present day, although
there have been no
executions for either crime since 1947). =
Efforts to have capital punishment abolished had
been going on since the
1840's, with some success, e.g. limiting the number
of capital crimes and
stopping public executions. The public enjoyed these
far more than was
thought good for them. The Establishment has never
been happy about the
ordinary people enjoying overtly morbid pastimes
such as watching a
murderer struggling on the end of a rope or nowadays
seeing at the results
of a motorway pile up or an air crash and always
does its best to prevent
us from so doing, - no doubt for our own good.
Attitudes in Britain had been changed by the Second
World War, class
barriers came down and people felt sickened by the
holocaust of Nazi
Germany. The Press stimulated public interest in
murder trials and the
eventual fate of those convicted and sentenced to
death. who became far
less de-humanized as a result. Virtually every word
of the more interesting
murder trials used to be reported in the popular
press in the Forties and
Fifties whereas now hardly any detail of most trials
is actually reported.
As the execution date drew near there would be much
speculation as to
whether a particular prisoner would be reprieved
or not.
Executions had also become decidedly unpopular with
the Governors and staff
of the prisons in which they took place. This is
hardly surprising as they
had become a very rare event in most prisons and
tended to upset the normal
running of the whole place. By the 1950's and early
60's a new breed of
prison governor had emerged, no longer the retired
army officer who
believed in harsh punishment and firm discipline
but prison service
professionals who believed in rehabilitation of offenders
and found the
supervising of condemned prisoners and their subsequent
execution, a great
strain and totally against their beliefs and training.
It must have put
great emotional stress on the officers who formed
the death watch and had
to stay with the prisoner for the whole of their
eight hour shift each day.
No doubt they saw a completely different side of
that person to the one
portrayed in the press. How many of us would really
like to stand in a
small room just a few feet from a person we had spoken
to every day for the
last two or three months and watch them be hanged
by the neck until dead?
A typical execution in the 1750's at Tyburn Tree
in London.
Around seven o'clock the prisoners would be led in
fetters (handcuffs and
leg-irons) into the Press Yard in Newgate prison
where the blacksmith would
remove the fetters and the Yeoman of the Halter would
tie the criminals'
hands in front and place the rope (or halter) round
their necks, coiling
the free end round their bodies. They might be typically
seven men, one
convicted of murder one for rape and five for theft
or burglary and perhaps
one woman convicted of theft) When they were all
ready they were placed in
open horse drawn carts sitting on their coffins and
the procession
consisting of the Sheriff, the Ordinary (Newgate's
prison chaplain) the
hangman and his assistants and a troop of soldiers
started out for Tyburn a
mile and a half away. The streets would be lined
with crowds especially if
the criminals were particularly notorious and there
would often be insults
and more solid objects hurled at them and their escorts
on the way. A stop
was made at St. Sepulchre's Church where the criminals
were customarily
given a drink.
On arrival at Tyburn, often some two hours later,
the criminals were
greeted by a large unruly crowd who had come to watch
the spectacle - it
was considered as a day out. The carts were each
backed under one of the
three beams of the gallows and the prisoners were
positioned at the tail of
the cart and tied up to the beam with only a small
amount of slack left in
the rope. The Ordinary would pray with them and when
he had finished the
hangman pulled white night caps over their faces.
When everything was ready the horses were whipped
the away leaving the
prisoners suspended. They would only have a few inches
of drop and thus
most of them would slowly strangle to death. The
hangman, his assistants
and sometimes the prisoners' relatives might pull
on the prisoners' legs to
hasten their end. After half an hour or so the bodies
were cut down and
claimed by friends and relatives or sent for dissection
at Surgeons' Hall.
The majority of those who suffered at Tyburn were
convicted of quite minor
offenses such as theft.
A typical execution in the 1850's at Lancaster Castle.
By this time executions had lost a lot of the day
out feel and were
conducted with more ceremony so as to produce a grim
and solemn reminder of
the punishment for the most serious crimes (the majority
of people hanged
by this time were murderers)
The gallows at Lancaster was of the balcony pattern
and was erected for
each hanging outside a second floor French window.
=
Across on the bank of what was originally the Castle
moat would be anything
up to six thousand people who had come to watch,
including organized school
parties!
A little before eight o'clock the criminal would
be led up from the cells
into a preparation room where the Governor, the Sheriff,
the Chaplain, the
hangman (usually Calcraft at this time), his assistant
and several warders
would be waiting for him. Calcraft pinioned the prisoners'
wrists and he
was allowed a few moments to pray with the Chaplain
before the windows were
opened to reveal the gallows onto which he would
now be led by the
assistant and the warders.
Once on the drop Calcraft placed a white hood over
the condemned's head and
the noose around his neck. The warders (standing
on boards positioned
across the drop) held the prisoner whilst Calcraft
went down stairs and
withdraw the bolt to release the trap door. Calcraft
used very short drops
and as at Tyburn the prisoner often took several
minutes to die by
strangulation.
A black flag was hoisted over the Castle and the
body left to hang for a
full hour (to ensure that it could not be revived)
before being taken down
and bought in through a first floor window beneath
the trap for burial
within the prison grounds. In some cases a plaster
cast would be made of
the criminal's head for use in phrenological experiments.
A typical execution in the 1950's in a British County
prison.
Executions were carried out at 9 a.m. in London and
8 a.m. in the rest of
the Country and followed a standard set of rules
laid down by the Home
Office. A small number of people were present notably
the Governor of the
prison, the Sheriff or under-Sheriff of the county,
the prison doctor, a
priest, two or more warders and the hangman and his
assistant.
Most prisons did not have a permanent gallows (only
Wandsworth, Stangeways
and Pentonville did) so this would be sent from Pentonville
prison in
London together with the execution bag containing
the rope, a white cotton
hood, pinioning straps, etc. and erected in the execution
room.
The prisoner was weighed every day and the day before
the execution the
hangman would see the prisoner to enable him to calculate
the correct drop
from the weight and physical appearance of the person.
The length of the drop was carefully set up to give
the exact length and
the gallows tested, whilst the prisoner was out of
their cell, using a bag
of sand, of approximately the same weight as them,
which would be left on
the rope overnight to remove any stretch. Around
7 am the executioners
would re-set the trap doors and coil up the rope
so that the noose dangled
at chest level to prevent the prisoner falling over
it.
The prisoner was given his or her own clothes to
wear and would be attended
by a priest and if necessary the prison doctor. If
the condemned person
appeared to need it, the doctor would give them a
glass of brandy to help
them cope but they were not given tranquilizers.
Just before the appointed hour the execution team
formed up outside the
condemned cell and, on the signal from the Governor,
the hangman entered
the cell and strapped the prisoner's hands behind
his back with a leather
strap, before leading him forward through a second
door (normally hidden by
a wardrobe) into the execution cell and straight
onto the trap doors which
had a "T" chalked on them to position the his feet
exactly over the middle
of the trap. The hangman pulled a white cotton hood
over the person's head
and positioned the noose round his neck whilst the
assistant strapped their
ankles. The noose was adjusted so that the eyelet
was tight under the angle
of the left jaw, held in place by a rubber washer
slid down the rope. As
soon as all was ready, the hangman removed the safety
pin from the base of
the operating lever and pulled it to release the
trap doors. The prisoner
dropped through the trap and would be left hanging
motionless in the cell
below, unconscious, and with his or her neck broken.
The whole process
would have occupied about the same length of time
as it has taken you to
read this paragraph - somewhere between 10 and 15
seconds.
The prison doctor listened to their chest and would
expect to hear a weak
heartbeat for a few minutes. When he was satisfied
that the person was dead
the execution cell was locked up for an hour before
the executioners
returned to remove the body and prepare it for the
autopsy and inquest that
was required by law following a hanging.
The body would show marks of suspension, elongation
of the neck and
occasionally traces of urine and faeces. A formal
inquest normally took
place during the morning and afterwards the prisoner
was buried within the
walls of the prison in an unmarked grave. The normal
cause of death being
given as comatose asphyxia consequent upon judicial
hanging.
Everything was done to make the execution as speedy
and humane as possible
so as to spare both the prisoner and the staff, who
had to witness it, from
any unnecessary distress.
An American hanging in 1993.
Westley Alan Dodd became the first man to be hanged
in America for 28 years
when he went to the gallows in the Washington State
Penitentiary at Walla
Walla for triple child murder on 5th January 1993.
Dodd had chosen to be
hanged and had fought a strenuous battle to be allowed
to die.
According to eye witness accounts Dodd appeared at
the top window of the
execution room at 12.02 a.m., with his hands pinioned
in front of him by a
strap around his wrists and wearing an orange boiler
suit style prison
uniform. He was asked if he wished to say anything
and made a short speech
to the witnesses through a public address system
in which he told of
finding Jesus and peace. At 12.04 a.m. a blind was
then drawn down over the
top window. Against it, the witnesses saw the silhouettes
of one of the
executioners strapping his legs and placing the black
hood over Dodd's
head, while the other put the noose around his neck,
adjusting it tight
under the left ear.
At 12.05 a.m., a red button was pushed, operating
the electromagnetic
release mechanism so springing open the trap-door
on which Dodd stood. He
dropped seven feet into the room below and his hooded
body spun slowly
anti-clockwise at the end of the rope. At 12.06 a.m.
a curtain was then
drawn across the lower window and at 12.09, Dodd's
death was confirmed by a
physician..(In America this means that there were
now vital signs present
at all and that the prisoner is clinically dead)
.
The execution procedure is detailed in a 12 page
manual issued by
Department of Corrections with extracts from the
American Military Manual.
The traditional hangman's' noose having six coils
of = ¾ inch diameter hemp
rope is still used in Washington state. This type
of noose tends to cause
death by strangulation having hopefully first rendered
the prisoner
unconscious by the force of the blow delivered to
the side of the neck. The
rope is attached to a large metal eye in the ceiling
of the execution room
over the trap. The prisoner stands on a small rectangular
area marked out
on the trap which when released causes him to drop
into the room below.
There are windows for the witnesses to view the execution
in both upper and
lower rooms. =
The autopsy, carried out by Donald Reay, King County
medical examiner, was
published and reported that Dodd died from separation
of his cervical
vertebrae and strangulation but that no bones were
broken, contrary to his
prediction. Dodd probably suffered pain for no more
than a moment and died
within two to three minutes, Reay said.
The cause of death.
The Short Drop.
Hanging with little or no drop produces death by
slow strangulation
(asphyxia) due to the weight of the person's body
pulling down on the
noose, causing it to tighten, so constricting the
trachea (air passage) and
applying pressure to the large blood vessels in the
neck. The condemned
usually struggle for some time after suspension due
to the physical pain
caused by the noose.
It can take several minutes for the prisoner to lapse
into unconsciousness
in this form of hanging as the rope only occludes
the jugular veins and
carotid arteries but the vertebrae protect the vertebral
and spinal
arteries which also supply blood to the brain. Pressure
on the jugular vein
is the normal cause of unconsciousness and if the
knot is correctly
positioned causes it much sooner.
After suspension the face becomes engorged and then
cyanosed (turned blue
through lack of oxygen). The tongue protrudes and
rippling movements of the
body and limbs may occur which are usually attributed
to nervous and
muscular reflexes. Male prisoners can sometimes have
penile erections and
even orgasms on the rope.
After death the body would typically show marks of
suspension, e.g.
bruising and abrasion of the neck together with traces
of urine, semen and
faeces.
This form of death by asphyxia is known medically
as anoxia and is the
normal cause of death in suicide hangings where there
is no proper drop.
The brain becomes starved of oxygen and death results
usually within less
than twenty minutes.
Farzad Bazoft, the British-based journalist executed
in Iraq as a spy, was
hanged using the short drop method on the 16th March
1990. The post-mortem
examination in London carried out by Dr Douglas Chambers,
the St Pancras
coroner, disclosed bruises and abrasions on his neck
"entirely consistent
with movement of the rope and tightening at the time
of suspension,"
according to pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd. Grazes
on his wrists were
caused by his hands having been tied behind him and
there was "no evidence
of other violence or trauma". Dr Shepherd said there
was no significant
bleeding, nor traces of drugs or alcohol in the body.
Two men were hanged in Jordan in May 1995 and an
official who witnessed the
hangings said "Although they fell unconscious in
a matter of minutes, their
hearts stopped 20 minutes later."
It is still possible to revive a person hanged using
a short drop as the
next two cases illustrate.
An Iranian man identified only as Niazali, was hanged
in February 1996 but
survived. He told the Iranian daily newspaper "Kayhan"
what it had felt
like.
"That first second lasted like a thousand years.
I felt my arms and legs
jerking out of control. Up on the gallows in the
dark, I was trying to fill
my lungs with air, but they were crumpled up like
plastic bags," Niazali
said, describing his hanging which lasted 20 minutes.
There are several recorded instances of revival in
Britain during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
One of the most famous is that of John Smith, hanged
at Tyburn on Christmas
Eve 1705. Having been turned off the back of the
cart, he hung for fifteen
minutes until the crowd began to shout "reprieve"
whereupon he was cut down
and taken to a nearby house where he soon recovered.
=
He was also asked what it had felt like to be hanged
and this is what he
told his rescuers:
"When I was turned off I was, for some time, sensible
of very great pain
occasioned by the weight of my body and felt my spirits
in strange
commotion, violently pressing upwards. Having forced
their way to my head I
saw a great blaze or glaring light that seemed to
go out of my eyes in a
flash and then I lost all sense of pain. After I
was cut down, I began to
come to myself and the blood and spirits forcing
themselves into their
former channels put me by a prickling or shooting
into such intolerable
pain that I could have wished those hanged who had
cut me down."
The Long Drop.
Hanging using the "long drop" method should result
in death by comatose
asphyxia .This means that the person still dies by
suffocation but is
unconscious at the time due to dislocation of the
cervical vertebrae and
crushing or separation of the spinal cord.
The force produced by the prisoner's body weight
multiplied by the length
of fall and the force of gravity, coupled with the
position of the noose
should cause a virtually instant fracture-dislocation=
of the neck. Again
the face becomes engorged and then cyanosed and the
tongue may protrude.
Some slight movements of the limbs and body may occur
which again are
usually attributed to spinal reflexes. The prisoner
may urinate and/or
defecate and the heart may continue to beat for up
to 20 minutes after the
drop.
It is always assumed that fracture-dislocation causes
instantaneous loss of
sensation. Certainly sensory pathways from below
the neck are ruptured, but
the sensory signals from the skin above the noose
and from the trigeminal
nerve may continue to reach the brain until hypoxia
blocks them.
According to Harold Hillman, a British physiologist
who has studied
executions, the dangling person probably feels cervical
pain, and suffers
from an acute headache as well, a result of the rope
closing off the veins
of the neck.
In the opinion of Dr. Cornelius Rosse, the chairman
of the Department of
Anatomy at the University of Washington School of
Medicine, the belief that
fracture of the spinal cord causes instantaneous
death is wrong in all but
a small fraction of cases.
If the fracture-dislocation of the neck is not caused,
due to too short a
drop or incorrect positioning of the noose, death
results from slow
strangulation.
[By Richard Clark.]
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