# Odd beheading incident -- possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049 "2010-01-07T18:31:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/41 "2010-01-08T02:26:19Z")
First, I viewed these and they both involve dead animals, for anyone wondering. > [@yoyodyne](#): > > [Here’s one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4j3mvrDyQ), but it isn’t as impressive as it sounds. > > One of cleanly cutting off a deer’s head in [one stroke](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCq9pIB0sc). Holy fucking shit. :eek: After watching these I cannot understand why a professional executioner would ever have to take more than a single stroke. (Doesn’t prove you can sever a person’s head without moving it out of place, but still.) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/42 "2010-01-08T02:48:42Z")
I heard this identical story maybe 35 years ago, about a Gurkha using his [kukri](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukri) on a German soldier in the trenches in North Africa. It was to me clearly a UL even then, when I’d never heard of them. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/43 "2010-01-08T04:47:56Z")
The fountain of blood spurting up through the neck would tend to destabilize the head, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/44 "2010-01-08T05:37:03Z")
What about a blade that is 1 atom thin? Thats as sharp as it gets. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/45 "2010-01-08T06:51:32Z")
> [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > What about a blade that is 1 atom thin? Thats as sharp as it gets. And completely incapable of resisting any shearing effects. Short of some scienmagical ‘statis field’ or whatnot, this isn’t a viable material. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/46 "2010-01-08T10:47:03Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > After watching these I cannot understand why a professional executioner would ever have to take more than a single stroke. Inexperience, incompetence, drunkenness and nerves – usually in combination. Beheadings in England were relatively uncommon, and were performed as **Marley23** describes – with the victim kneeling with his neck on a block – by the common hangman (or, in some cases, whoever could be bullied or bribed into doing the job) using an axe. It was often the first time the executioner had beheaded anyone, and in front of a potentially hostile crowd at that. In continental Europe, particularly France and Germany, beheadings were more common, and there were skilled professional executioners who used a sword specially designed for the purpose. The victim would kneel, but upright rather than bowed down, and the executioner would use a stroke very similar to that used in the video to bisect the deer carcass. This is why Anne Boleyn famously requested a French executioner for her date on the scaffold – he could be relied upon to do the job quickly and cleanly. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/47 "2010-01-08T11:22:00Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > [Here’s one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4j3mvrDyQ), but it isn’t as impressive as it sounds. > > One of cleanly cutting off a deer’s head in [one stroke](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCq9pIB0sc). Worth watching if only to learn the excellent new word ‘diangular’. I think we should adopt this and use it wherever possible from now on. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049/48 "2010-01-08T11:42:45Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Inexperience, incompetence, drunkenness and nerves – usually in combination. Beheadings in England were relatively uncommon, and were performed as **Marley23** describes – with the victim kneeling with his neck on a block – by the common hangman (or, in some cases, whoever could be bullied or bribed into doing the job) using an axe. It was often the first time the executioner had beheaded anyone, and in front of a potentially hostile crowd at that. The results could be very ugly. If you have an executioner, you want his nickname to be Death or Mr. Accurate or One Chop or something… not [“Bungling Jack.”](http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/tower-of-london/features/a-place-of-execution-in-progress) > [@](#): > > The most badly botched execution was that of James, Duke of Monmouth, in 1685. […] his first blow only grazed the back of the duke’s head. Monmouth, who had refused the blindfold, turned his head around and gazed directly at Ketch, further unnerving him. When two more blows failed to sever the head, Ketch threw the axe down and offered 40 guineas to anyone in the crowd who could do better. At this the Sheriff of Middlesex, who was in charge of the execution, threatened to have him killed if he did not finish his job. When two more blows failed, Ketch had to use his knife, butchering the Duke like a pig. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-beheading-incident-possible/524049.md?page=2)