Most gruesome form of execution, hanging or beheading

I think beheading would be the most gruesome form of execution to watch (very bloody, maybe the job wouldn't be done right), but hanging would be the most gruesome to experience.  Beheading by guillotine is supposedly very effective and relatively humane compared to swinging and kicking for several minutes while slowly suffocating.   

Everyone, relax!! Now there's a way to have 2 executions in one!! I work for the Indianapolis Star, so that is the source that I will draw my exerpt from... in case you haven't heard about this already:

Hussein's half brother decapitated by hanging

Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com. All rights reserved

....Um, I'm guessing they knew what they were doing when the hangman determined the weight, and length of rope....

Sleep tight everyone


(edited by mod. due to copyright)

Oh, you can bet this was done on purpose. When I heard about it, I almost got physically ill.

LOL!  Or watch ANY Roger Davis scenes!   

I hear ya Buzz! His voice grates on my nerves especially when he's agitated.

Alondra

I do believe that it was Anne Boleyn who requested that a swordsman, rather than an axeman, give her her final wash and set, shall we say for delicated purposes.  She knew that it was common for an ax to take several whacks, whereas a sharp sword yielded by a talented swinger was quicker.  Her request was granted.

Gerard

If a hanging is done correctly then it is fast.  I certainly do not hope this happens to anyone I know.

Lori.

LOL!  Or watch ANY Roger Davis scenes!  

Yes, Jeff Clark, the Max von Sydow of Dark Shadows!

Now hold on Bob, I *like* Max von Sydow!  LOL! 

His voice grates on my nerves

It's even more grating in person! 

Did you see him at a festival?? Would like to go to one if one is ever up my way.

Lori

Did you see him at a festival?? Would like to go to one if one is ever up my way.

We've gone off topic, but Roger Davis stopped attending DS Festivals for personal reasons that I won't get into here.  He was a no show at the Vista Halloween Party last year, but who knows if he had actually confirmed with the organizers.  But he makes appearances at autograph shows that occasionally reunite him with Alias Smith and Jones co-star Ben Murphy.  Often, announcements for them are posted on the Calendar board.

As for the question about beheading Quentin publicly, I believe the rationale for that was that they were reverting to laws upheld in the 1600s. It's kind of flimsy, yes, but it kind or explains how they would even have a witchcraft trial in the first place, let alone a judgment of public beheading!

And at least in Ep #1131 Barnabas does remark with reference to Judah Zachery that "decapitation is an unusual form of execution." 

I'm fuzzy on details here (being I've been fuzzy brained from too many hours at work anyway) but I DO remember some show on History channel, PROBABLY on witchcraft, that said that beheading was a common form of execution for witchcraft in Europe in I believe 1500s-1600s.

Anyone else see this particular show and have a clearer memory of the details?

One question is: How many fleeting moments of physical consciousness a decapitated person experiences before slipping away into eternity?  A friend seemed to think that decapitated people actually do have a quick moment of consciousness after being beheaded -- NO, MY FRIEND HAS NOT BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT, LOL.

A recent news article said that judicial hangings are actually intended to snap the neck and cause immediate paralysis and unconsciousness, and that some hangings do literally decapitate the victims.

This brings to mind a show I saw on History Channel's Wild West Tech.  The show was on executions and had a lot on hanging.  What you mention was covered, there is apparently a science to where to put the knot and a formula to calculate victim weight to length of rope and number of turns.  The desired result is immediate breakage of neck, which to the best of their knowledge causes quick painless death.

However if they get it wrong you get a result like one I just read about in a bio of Teddy Roosevelt. Apparently in the hanging of a murderess, they got it very wrong and she dangled and strangled for about 25 min, crying and sobbing the whole time.  Don't recall if that was a PUBLIC hanging or not.

Public hangings were common till turn of the century depending on locale, and people turned out for them like they were parties, complete with picnic lunches.

I could really see Edward Collins dragging kid Carl and kid Quentin to one of those, to teach the scamps what happened to kids who, in the parlance of the time, were "born to be hung."

Personally, I'd rather be beheaded. Otherwise, I'd be spinning in my grave every time someone said hung instead of hanged in reference to my execution. Umm, yeah, my degree is in English. 

  From a fellow English major.

 You made me think of I think Tarrytown at a HODS panel, where LP kept talking about Angelique being HUNG, and the tag team of Karlen and Selby kept ragging her about Hanged, hung and well hung.....

 

Then again, speaking of executions that are especially "cruel" and "unusual," you might be strapped to a chair and forced to watch Schuyler Rumson as he blowdrys and coifs his absolutely perfect head of hair in front of an oversized vanity mirror for the rest of your (and more disturbingly, HIS)  natural life! 

 

You made me think of I think Tarrytown at a HODS panel, where LP kept talking about Angelique being HUNG, and the tag team of Karlen and Selby kept ragging her about Hanged, hung and well hung.....

She repeats the mistake in her piece on Salem for the Bloopers & Treasures DVD; therefore, I consider it part of the bloopers and not part of the treasures. 

LP kept talking about Angelique being HUNG

Well, even the NoDS ad campaign says "Hung as a witch"!