Traditionally, on the day after Christmas, I watch the film Gangs Of New York. Okay, that’s not true, I was just watching it for the hell of it. There is this scene in the movie where Bill the Butcher meets with Boss Tweed, and the latter informs him that there is too much crime in the Five Points and that something needs to be done about it. Tweed suggests a public hanging. Bill agrees, and the next day, four men are sentenced to be hanged.
What I don’t understand about this is, before the hanging, this guy announces their crimes, which include “sneak thievery,” “lewdness,” and “corruption of the public good.” I did not realize that men could be hanged for these things.
I think if you’re illegally lynching people, you can make up any justification you want. I mean, you can’t just hang people willy-nilly for, say, murder. So if it’s illegal anyway, go nuts!
Well, in England they used to hang pick-pockets.
I’m pretty sure that penalties were much harsher in the time of that film, so hanging for something other than murder was, I’m sure, standard.
In England around 1800, they hanged people who stole property of a value of 40 shillings or more. Often, judges would determine the property was only 30 shillings, so the thief didn’t hand.
Hanging was not just for murder in the 19th century.
That’s true, but it still seems odd, and not just because it wasn’t England in 1800, but America in 1860 (a lot changed in those 60 years). I always figured that they’d convened some sort of Kangaroo Court for these guys, and that it was just vigilantism.
I think the scene before or just after but before the rope dance, has Bill asking for Volunteers to be hung. Supposedly their families would be taken care of ,and the admitted crimes are just scripted for public consumption, we cleaned house now bugger off.