One of the most infamous executioners in History is John C Woods, an American hangman whose
work during the Second World War was rather questionable.
Woods was known for being the Nuremberg executioner, in which those former Nazis who were to condemned
to death for crimes against humanity at the end of the conflict were to be executed on
a gallows inside of Nuremberg Prisons’ gymnasium.
But the story of John C Woods’ executions and his status as an executioner is rather
dark, and how he was even allowed to perform the most high profile executions in the immediate
post war aftermath in Europe is rather strange.
Much regarding Woods is surrounded in mystery, including the debate about how many people
he actually executed as some sources say it was as high as almost 350, but others claim
he executed around 60 to 70 people.
But what is the story of the botching executioner of the Nuremberg Executions?
Join us today as we look at this and to support our channel, as always please make sure to
subscribe.
John Clarence Woods was born on the 5th June 1911 in Wichita Kansas, and he would be raised
by his grandmother.
His parents divorced when he was just 2, but he had a rather troubled upbringing and he
would later drop out of high school after only being present for two years.
When he was 18 he would join the US Navy on the 3rd December 1929, but within a few months
he would realise that a career in the military probably wasn’t for him, and because of
this he went AWOL, or absent without leave which was of course a rather serious military
offence.
When he was arrested he was brought before a court martial and was convicted by this,
but he had been assessed by a psychiatric board in April 1930 and what they found was
rather interesting.
Woods was found to have been suffering from what was referred to as psychopathic inferiority
without psychosis.
The doctors report stated that, ‘“This patient, though not intellectually inferior,
gives a history of repeatedly running counter to authority both before and since enlistment.
Stigmata of degeneration are present and the patient frequently bites his fingernails.
He has a benign tumor of the soft palate for which he refuses operation.
His commanding officer and division officers state that he shows inaptitude and does not
respond to instruction.
He is obviously poor service material.
This man has had less than five months service.
His disability is considered to be an inherent defect for which the service is in no way
responsible.
[He] is not considered a menace to himself or others.”
But with this Woods’ was then dishonourably discharged from service, and he would return
to civilian life with this on his record.
He went back to Kansas and performed a number of different jobs completing manual labour
but this would not be the end of his career inside of the military.
As the Second World War waged on across Europe, John C Woods would return to the military,
but in August 1943 he would enlist in the army this time, and he then was assigned to
Company B of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, the 5th Engineer Special Brigade.
Some Historians have claimed that he would be involved in the D-Day landings and possibly
landed on Omaha Beach, the deadliest beach that the Allies would land on, but this has
been debated.
One historian says of this that, ‘He did not get wounded on Omaha Beach, but he saw
a bunch of guys get killed.
I’m sure he thought, I do not want to go through that experience again…
He volunteers to get out of the combat engineers.
He is accepted and promoted from private to master sergeant, and his pay goes from $50
to $138 a month.”
But at the time, the American military executions were being carried out in southern England.
If an American serviceman committed a crime worthy of the death penalty, then in English
prisons executioners such as Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Pierrepoint would hang them back
in Britain.
But the Americans then began to search for their own executioner who could carry out
this sort of work in Europe and in France.
Of course following the D-Day landings, there were some American servicemen who were sentenced
to death for their crimes and with this they turned to John C Woods to carry out the executions.
Lets remember that Woods was a man diagnosed with psychopathy, and he would serve as the
main executioner for the hangings of at least 34 American soldiers in France during 1944
and 1945, and he would also help in the hangings of other soldiers, and it’s believed that
at least 11 of these executioners were performed poorly and that they went wrong.
Woods’ had falsely claimed to the Army authorities that he had experience as an assistant hangman,
executing two people in Texas and two in Oklahoma.
There is no recorded evidence to suggest this is true, and the Army did not bother to check
this either and because of this they just hired woods.
They could very easily have checked if he had this experience, but this was not the
case, in fact it was obvious he was lying as both states used electrocution at the time
and not hanging.
So John C Woods was given the job as an executioner and he had no idea what he was doing.
His first execution in Germany took place on the 29th June 1945, and he would execute
three Germans who had murdered an American leftenant.
In the November of the same year, he was called up again to execute many condemned people
at once, as he would on the 10th November 1945 hang 5 Germans who massacred American
airmen.
But he then became known for being a butcher and an executioner who attracted negative
publicity, as one journalist wrote ‘“John Woods was a short, muscular sort of a man,
and I would describe him as kind of the world’s flotsam.
He talked the language of the hobos and flotsams and the people who do these kinds of jobs.”
He would serve as the American Army hangman in Germany throughout 1946, and he would also
execute 14 men who were convicted of crimes at Dachau concentration camp.
There were so many that needed executing, that in May 1946 he would take two days to
complete the jobs.
He worked at other German prisons such as Landsberg and would hang a German policeman
for murdering an American airman, but then came John C Woods’ biggest and most infamous
job.
After the war had come to an end, the remaining members of Hitler’s Nazi hierarchy including
Hermann Goring, Rudolf Hess and many other senior figures in government were brought
to the Nuremberg Trials.
Many leaders were brought in front of the world’s cameras to answer for the crimes
of the nazi party, and crimes against humanity and war crimes.
There were 12 men who were sentenced to death, although one Martin Bormann was sentenced
in absentia, and Hermann Goring would take his own life the day before the executions
were scheduled to take place.
So those 10 remaining defendants were executed by John C woods, and he would use the standard
drop method which was considered the least reliable when compared to the long drop method.
The worry with this was that if the drop didn’t go well, then the head of the condemned could
come off.
But the executions of the Nuremberg defendants would be botched by John C Woods, and very
few of them went correctly.
It was in the earl hours of the 16th October 1946 that these were carried out, and one
by one the 10 men were brought into the execution chamber, nuremberg prisons gymnasium where
the gallows had been made.
Some of the men would die slow deaths as they were strangled and their necks did not snap.
Wilhelm Keitel, the Military Field Marshal’s death took 28 minutes when he plunged through
the trapdoor, and he would slowly strangle to death.
One of the problems with the executions was that there was not enough room for the trapdoor,
and that the men would not have sufficient room to plunge through at the right velocity
leading to their necks not being snapped, and the majority died from slow strangulation
which was not intended.
Others were hit by the trapdoor on their way through, and they would be bloodied as they
were kicking and struggling.
Julius Streicher, a horrific nazi journalist also suffered a very botched execution.
He was a man who was virulent until the moment he plunged through the trapdoor, and it was
said of his execution that, ‘When the rope snapped taut with the body swinging wildly,
groans could be heard from within the concealed interior of the scaffold.
Finally the hangman, Woods, who had descended from the gallows platform lifted the black
canvas curtain and went inside.
Something happened that put a stop to the groans and brought the rope to a standstill.
After it was over, I was not in the mood to ask what he did, but I assume that he grabbed
the swinging body and pulled down on it.’
This means that Woods himself pretty much finished him off, pulling down on his body
to make him die quicker.
But the executions took around 2 hours to complete and John C Woods would say of his
work that morning, ‘Ten men in 103 minutes, That’s fast work,’ and he was allegedly
proud of the work he had done that day.
He said, ‘I hanged those ten Nazis and I am proud of it, I wasn’t nervous.
A fellow can’t afford to have nerves in this buiness, and I want to put in a good
word for those GI’s who helped me.
They did swell, I am trying to get them a promotion.
The way I look at the hanging job is that somebody has to do it.
I got into it by accident years ago in the states.’
But he did attract some criticism and he continued to lie about his previous experience.
Following the end of the war in Europe, he was drafted across to the pacific, and he
would die in the Pacific in a rather bizarre accident.
John C Woods whilst changing a lightbulb was electrocuted as he was stood in a puddle of
water whilst this happened, and what is rather apt is the fact this would have killed him
a lot quicker than the executions of those defendants at Nuremberg that he hanged.
But John C Woods was a strange executioner, who had lied about his credentials so he could
in a sense legally kill.
He was diagnosed before with psychopathic tendencies, and he was able to get a job where
he could kill people which was strange and the American Army turned a blind eye to his
previous experience.
The fact he would take a job to kill without any knowledge of how to do so, shows you what
sort of man he was.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe
Once again thanks for watching