Well, okay, DEATH, you wiseguys. However, I’m not sure what the actual cause of death is supposed to be when someone is hanged “correctly.”
Near as I can figure, there are three ways to die from being dropped while one’s neck is in a noose:
Suffocation and/or restriction of blood to the brain
Snapping the neck
I’ve heard that in some cases the head just popped off the neck if the fall was too great (or is this just an urban legend?)
Naturally, if one were to hang oneself, you’d want the most painless way possible. Not having ever tried it (nor having the inclination to), I’d guess that #2 is that method, since it’s the quickest. However, if a posse of Wild West lawmen were stringin’ up a horse thief, would they go for the quick death, or make the varmint suffer by choking him on the end of a rope? How about when using the gallows? Which one was the preferred method by your more discerning executioner?
In other words, have we been fooled by cowboy movies that the victims always dangle on the ropes and twitch?
On preview, this strikes me as a little morbid, but what the heck, I’ve already typed it out. I just had an image of two guys in black hoods going over the proceedings: “Ah, Smith got sloppy there. His guy’s getting spit all over the front row. Shame he didn’t use ‘Earp’s Hemp Rope[sup]tm[/sup]’, a quick clean kill every time. Back to you, Bob.”
It depends on what era you’re talking about. I believe modern gallows (the “drop 'em” apparatus) was meant to snap the neck, and perhaps lynching mobs tried to follow suit. The older procedure was just to haul 'em up and let 'em strangle. It’s still a pretty mild punishment, compared to some of the medieval faves.
The usual judgement, “hanged by the neck until dead,” doesn’t offer much insight.
It is my understanding that “professional” hangings, i.e. those done by qualified hangmen or executioners, were carefully designed and even tested to insure the “snap of the neck” death. The primary adjustment available was the length of the hanging rope, which could be adjusted according to some empirical scale to accomodate hangees of differing body weights.
Calculating the right drop for a hanging is a critical part of the job. Too short, and the jerk when the rope runs out is inadequate to break the victim’s neck; too long, and other damage to the body is possible (the head coming off, or the abdominal wall rupturing to release the viscera - remember that bit in Hannibal?) The former is inhumane, the latter is … messy.
I happened across an old table of drop heights used for hangings once, whose salient features I reproduce herewith.
Weight Drop Height
------ -----------
120 or under 8'1"
125 7'10"
130 7'7"
135 7'4"
140 7'1"
145 6'9"
150 6'7"
155 6'6"
160 6'4"
165 6'2"
170 6'0"
175 5'11"
180 5'9"
185 5'7"
190 5'6"
195 5'5"
200 5'4"
205 5'2"
210 5'1"
220 or over 5'0"
I think the table comes from colonial-era South Africa; both the British Empire and the Boers had a certain amount of experience in hanging people. Need I say that you probably shouldn’t try this out at home?
For those of you who don’t feel like looking it up, a death sentence in the past sometimes consisted of:
Being hung but not to the point of death
Then being cut open and having some of your guts taken out
Then having each limb tied to a different horse and sending those horses galloping off in different directions.
I can’t provide a cite, but I saw a show on televison a while back, and the concensus was, when done correctly, hanging was the best way to be executed because death came very, very quickly as opposed to electricution or the gas chamber. There were even some defense attorneys who said that when given the choice of execution, they would advise their client to take hanging.
Of course, when done incorrectly it’s a horrible way to die!
