This would be an incredibly messy way of killing someone (and yes, the neck is full of muscles and connective tissues which are hard to cut through; hence why the executioner of old used a heavy, wide-bladed axe or scimitar). The best way to kill someone from behind would be a knife into the back of the head, blade horizontal to slide between cervical vertebrae. A shot to the side of the neck or temple is not reliable, and cutting the trachea is (reportedly) very noisy. Intrusion into the kidney is supposed to be paralyzingly painful, and will result in rapid death if the renal artery is severed. The heart is an unreliable target from the rear.
The whole neck snap thing is pure Hollywoodism; the neck is one of the most flexible joints in the body (only the shoulder has more pure rotation) and unless you were very fast, or could hold the body rigid while twisting the head, there is isn’t any way you could sever the spinal cord reliably. Basically, the victim would have to be sitting strapped into a chair and you’d have to be Lou Ferrigno to pull this off. As Blake says, if you have this kind of strength, a blow to the rear of the head or neck is likely to be more effective.
Well, I know this isn’t exactly the question, but there are different kinds of “broken necks.” A friend of mine had a surfing accident and “broke her neck.” She did hear a snap, but she walked away (not knowing how serious it was) and went to the doctor the next day. Needless to say, her spinal cord was not severed as the movies or the media will suggest always happens with a broken neck.
I would think the easiest and best way to render someone dead (ie. unconscious) from behind is to put pressure on the vagus nerve. Of course, getting into a position in which you can perform this feat against an enemy is another question.
I went on a date with the Bobble Head Girl! That was her nickname. She and her then-boyfriend were vacationing in Australia and they got in a serious, single-car accident. After waiting and waiting, and waiting, her boyfriend decided to wander off into the wilderness (looking for some help in the form of wallabies or something), whereas she refused to go and get lost, and stayed put by the side of the road. She got picked up by a trucker and was able to get help.
She was driven to the nearest town, she talked to the police and did all sorts of police related stuff to help them find the car and her wayward boyfriend, and only sought medical help hours later. Turns out, her neck was broken! :eek: Hence she was nicknamed Bobble Head. So broken neck does not always mean instant death.
When you hang someone, that’s actually an orthopedic decapitation (aka “internal decapitation”) and that is almost always fatal. Although I remember there was some little boy in the news last year who survived one.
(I basically repeated what the previous poster said, so I deleted it.)
I’ve x-rayed several people who have made their own way to the Emergency Room who were then found to have broken vertebrae. Nothing at C-1 or C-2 that I remember, though.
Nah, not from Shodan. We disagree profoundly on pretty much any political topic you care to name, but on martial arts in general and Judo in particular he’s completely solid.
My dad once told me that it takes 20 seconds to render someone unconscious that way. (ISTM that 20 seconds is a very long time when you’re in a life-and-death situation.) True, or not?
Not true. If you look around You Tube you can find videos of this. If your opponent isn’t out within 10 seconds you are doing it wrong. If you’re doing it right the eyes start rolling back in under 3 seconds and they’re out cold within 7 or 8 seconds.
Of course 7 seconds is still a long time in a life-and-death situation, which is why I would prefer something a little more crude like blow to the the base of the skull.
Wow, almost the same question. I did do a search beforehand, I promise.
Thanks to everyone for the interesting replies. The motivation for it was kind of weird. I was watching some movie the other day when this maneuver was performed and I thought to myself, for the first time, “Gosh, I hope that bad guy isn’t suffering after that neck snap.” Yes, I get weird thoughts when I watch movies:)
Clearly, experimental observation is called for in the interests of science.
While I will buy that it would be messy (on top of arterial spray, I heard that the victim will often vomit through the slit), I can’t believe that it would be especially difficult to perform with a sufficiently sharp knife, nor that it would be more difficult than inserting between vertebrae.
Are there any good ways of killing a man with your bare hands quickly and quietly?
The aforementioned rear naked choke will kill someone eventually, but probably not as quickly as you’re hoping. A guillotine choke can kill by crushing the trachea (news story), and a neck crank can eventually break the neck, but again, probably not quickly and quietly.
Lt. Col Dave Grossman says in his book On Killing that the proper method of dispatching someone sliently from behind is with a knife into the kidney - apparently the shock and pain makes it impossible to scream. This is an area in which I admit I have little personal knowledge.
There was a case about 2 years ago where a mixed martial artist killed his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend by putting on a choke hold and holding it until the boyfriend died (people I knew peripherally were required to give testimony at the trial). So to answer your question, yes (although apparently it took a couple of minutes of choking after the guy went unconscious).
Also, even though it takes 8 seconds to go unconscious, you start losing strength and focus (i.e., you stop forgetting to fight the choke, and start thinking about bunnies) almost immediately. Very effective hold.
If you want quick & quiet & bare hands, the choke (specifically the rear naked choke) is your best bet.
Pravnik mentioned the guillotine (as an aside–holds that put pressure on the larynx are called strangles, holds that put pressure on the arteries are called chokes), but the chance of crushing the larynx is pretty small, athough police did manage to do it on a semi-regular basis, which is why choke holds were banned by most police departments.
This would have been in the late 1990’s . . . I read about it in the newspaper and at the time the only access I had to newspapers would have been an Army newspaper. In Korea, a female Korean barber accidentally killed a GI after giving him a haircut by twisting his head.
Korean barbers often give shoulder massages and head twists (to get out the kinks) after a haircut. This one ended badly. Sorry, no cite.
