Throughout the centuries, thousands of people were sent to the gallows for their executions.
During the Second World War, the remaining members of Hitler’s government who had been
condemned to death were taken into the gymnasium of Nuremberg Prison where they were hanged
and executed on the gallows by notorious American executioner John C Woods.
Some executions on the gallows did not go well throughout history, for example a number
of those that happened in Nuremberg were botched with the nazi war criminals smashing their
heads against the trapdoor as they fell through.
But the first mention of hanging dates back to Homer’s Odyssey and it was an execution
method which has been used for millennia, but there have been different variations of
this throughout the centuries.
Join us today as we look at the gallows as one of history’s most brutal execution methods.
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There are a number of specific methods in which hanging for executions was used.
One of the most common which has been used is the short drop, which is where a prisoner
would stand on a raised platform.
This could be a stool, ladder, or other platform and then this is then taken away and someone
is left dangling from the rope and the noose.
They are suspended by the neck and the weight of the victim tightens the noose and mostly
people die through strangulation, and it can take around 10 or 20 minutes for someone to
then be pronounced dead.
Throughout history this has been used for the executions of many, and was part of the
execution method hanged, drawn and quartered as following a number of minutes in which
a condemned person was hanged using the short drop, when they were almost dead they were
cut down for their execution ordeal to continue.
One man who did escape this was Guy Fawkes who whilst he was being led up the ladder
to be hanged by the short drop, he jumped off the scaffold and actually broke his neck,
but then his body was still subjected to the execution anyway.
It was the most common method used on the gallows before the 1850s, but then executioners
looked for other methods as they wanted to make the execution method quicker, as the
short drop could take some time and was considered less humane.
Another variant of the gallows was actually used in Austro-Hungary and in the two countries
following their separation, and independence.
But inside of Hungary following the Second World War, outside the Academy of Music in
Budapest a number of condemned war criminals who supported the Nazis would be executed
using the pole method.
The gallows with this was replaced by a stake and someone would be executed on this.
It had a number of steps and was more complicated.
First the condemned would be stood on the 3 metre high pillar or pole, and a rope was
then tied around their feet and through a pulley at the bottom of the stake, then the
condemned was hoisted to the top of the pole through a sling across their chest.
Then a noose was looped around their neck, and was secured to a hook at the top of a
pole, and when the chest sling was released the victim then plunged down and the executioner
would put his hand beneath the jaw of the prisoner to increase the force on the neck
and would dislocate the neck of the condemned.
One famous case of this being used was on Nazi War Criminal Karl Hermann Frank who it’s
believed executed 1,000 people using this during his time in control during the Second
World War.
Another method used was the standard drop, which is where a victim would drop between
4 and 6 feet and this was developed by an Irish doctor named Samuel Haughton.
It was devised as a way of speeding up executions and was considered more humane as the drop
was supposed to be enough to break the victims’ neck causing quicker death.
This was used following the Second World War to execute those nazi war criminals mentioned
earlier following the Nuremberg Trials, such as Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hans Frank and
Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
The account of Ribbentrop’s execution alludes to the executioner’s mistakes as it says,
‘"The hangman botched the execution and the rope throttled the former foreign minister
for 20 minutes before he expired.’
Another account said, ‘"The trap fell open and with a sound midway between a rumble and
a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared.
The rope quivered for a time, then stood tautly straight.”
We know that those executions at Nuremberg in their most extreme did not go right due
to problems with the rope, the drops which were calculated being incorrect or with the
fact they did not achieve the velocity and speed when dropped to snap their necks.
This has led to John C Woods getting a notorious reputation for being a botching executioner,
who at one point it’s believed even had to pull down on one of the bodies to finish
off the execution behind a curtain.
But what is considered possibly the most successful execution method on the gallows was developed
in Britain and was known as the long drop.
William Marwood is the executioner who developed this, and instead of everyone falling the
same distance through a trapdoor, the height and weight of the condemned were used to determine
how much slack in the rope would be used, to ensure that the distance dropped would
be enough to snap the neck.
But the worry with this was that the head could come off If calculated poorly, and there
needed to be a careful placement of the knot of the noose.
This went wrong with Black Jack Ketchum’s execution, as the outlaw would lose his head
when he plunged through the trapdoor.
This also happened when the murderess Eva Dugan in 1930 had a botched execution in Arizona.
One man who was considered incredibly skilled in this practice was Albert Pierrepoint, the
British executioner who would execute hundreds of Nazis under British jurisdiction and he
would it’s believed execute some in a matter of seconds, with the record being 7 seconds
from entering the execution chamber until the drop being plunged.
The British were keen on speed with executions to avoid the mental stress of the impending
execution.
Throughout History some added pain has been added on the gallows, as some countries would
whilst someone was on the gallows cut and they would inflict other wounds.
Of course it is still used as an execution method today, but in England the process dates
back from the Anglo-Saxon period.
There were many hangmen who would work across Britain, and the last British executions using
hanging took place in 1964.
Hangings were often performed in public, and this only changed in 1868 when they occurred
inside of special execution chambers set up inside of prisons.
There were a number during the Second World War who were executed in this manner, including
traitors such as John Amery and William Joyce Lord Haw Haw.
As time went on the amount of capital offences diminished, and the last woman to be hanged
was Ruth Ellis who’s execution took place on the 13th July 1955, with the last hangings
being carried out as mentioned altogether in 1964.
In America, hanging was brought over by the Puritans and capital punishment does vary
from state to state.
But the largest mass execution saw 38 Sioux Indians executed on the gallows, and some
of the most infamous executions using this method saw one woman and 3 men executed for
their involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Shockingly also it has been used for lynchings in the states, and throughout history there
have been many people strung up in trees for the colour of their skin, and these horrifically
would gather a large crowd.
There is a case also where throughout the years someone has been hanged on the gallows
upside down.
This was used mostly as a form of torture and was used in medieval Germany against Jewish
thieves.
The Gallows is considered one of history’s most common execution methods but it was also
a rather horrific one as throughout the years executions took some time, and the ordeal
for the condemned could last a long time.
Efforts were made to speed this up, but things also could go wrong often.
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