# Hanged man's body's after-effects **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486 "2009-10-12T03:09:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/1 "2009-10-12T03:09:06Z")
Hi all, Sorry to be so gruesome, but I, in my wide reading, have come across stories about recently hanged men (still swinging) to have an erection and sometimes ejaculate post-mortem. A lovely story indeed, but a) does anyone know any qualified sources for these facts?; and b) has anyone else ever read about this? Best wishes, LB ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/2 "2009-10-12T04:11:26Z")
can’t add any fact based information, but WS Burroughs mentioned that phenomena several times in his body of work, especially “The Lost Boys” Now you got me curious… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/3 "2009-10-12T05:06:11Z")
Why, yes. One of my favorite quotes: “A similar association between sperm and mandrake is found in the European folk belief that mandrake may grow beneath a gallows from the sperm of a man who was hanged for thievery or some other crime and then emitted his semen into the ground.” (Simoons, _Plants of Live, Plants of Death_, p. 108). Footnote to the Grimms’ _Teutonic Mythology_, but I don’t see the reference in there via the google books preview. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/4 "2009-10-12T07:09:28Z")
The mandrake legend is also repeated in the movie _Flesh & Blood_ with Rutger Hauer. In that movie they use the mandrake as an aphrodisiac, also. ---
**Author:** ![Ikkyu\_Sojun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cdc98d/32.png) [@Ikkyu\_Sojun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ikkyu_Sojun)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/5 "2009-10-12T09:03:34Z")
I know it is a cheap shot, but Wikipedia has answers to both questions: [Death erection - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_erection) ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/6 "2009-10-12T16:12:18Z")
Probably not an authoritative cite but: [QUOTE=Waiting For Godot] VLADIMIR: [. . .] What do we do now? ESTRAGON: Wait. VLADIMIR: Yes, but while waiting. ESTRAGON: What about hanging ourselves? VLADIMIR: Hmm. It’d give us an erection. ESTRAGON: (highly excited). An erection! VLADIMIR: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That’s why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/7 "2009-10-13T18:05:16Z")
There has to be a David Carradine joke in here somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/8 "2009-10-13T19:12:50Z")
I think it depends how well they’re hung. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hanged-mans-bodys-after-effects/513486/9 "2009-10-13T19:56:18Z")
I once read a book about the eruption of Mount Pelée in Martinique, West Indies in 1902 that some of the men killed by the pyroclastic flow in St. Pierre were found in this, er, condition.