A Handbook on Hanging [New ed] 0940322676, 9780940322677

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A HANDBOOK

ON HANGING CHARLES DUFF INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

5 Q LIBRARs OF DEPARTMENT MIDSTATE REGIONAL LIBRARY 578 PAINE TPKt N \

IZ

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

A

CHARLES DUFF (1894-1966), who also went by his Gaelic name Cathal 6 Dubh, was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in what is now Northern Ireland. He served in the Merchant Navy, fought

British

in

World War

I,

and subse-

quently entered the British Foreign Service. Duff was a gifted linguist, fluent in

worked

seven languages, and in his later years he

as a freelance writer

and

translator.

His

own

writing

included plays, travel essays, and an introduction to James Joyce,-

among

his

many

translations were

works by Quevedo,

Zola, B. Traven, Gorky, and Arnold Zweig.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS ton, D.C.

He

is a

columnist

His many books include

is

a journalist living in

for

Washing-

Vanity Fair and The Nation.

No One Left

to Lie To:

The Triangulations

of William Jefferson Clinton and The Missionary Position:

Mother Teresa

in

Theory and Practice.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2016 with funding from

Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/handbookonhanginOOduff

A

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

Being

a

much

useful Information on Neck-breaking, Throttling, Strangling,

short Introduction to the fine Art of Execution, containing

Asphyxiation, Decapitation, and Electrocution; Data and Wrinkles on

Hangmanship; with the

late Mr.

Hangman

pioneering List of Drops; to which

Nuremberg Hangings;

a

is

Method and

added an Account

Ready Reckoner

other items of interest including the

Berry's

for

Anatomy

of the

his

Great

Hangmen; and many of

Murder by

CHARLES DUFF of

Gray's Inn, Barrister-at-Law

FINALLY DEFINITIVE EDITION DILIGENTLY COMPARED AND REVISED IN

ACCORDANCE WITH THE MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND WITH

A

NEW INTRODUCTION

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

All very Proper to be read in every

and kept

Family

NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS

New

York

BY

IN

THE ART

NEW YORK REVIEW BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

THIS

IS

A

Introduction Copyright

© 2001

by Christopher Hitchens

All rights reserved.

First

published in 1928 and revised and enlarged in 1934, 1938, 1948,

1954, 1955, and 1961.

This edition published in the United States of America by The New York Review of Books, 1755 Broadway, New York,

NY

10019

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Duff, Charles, 1894-

A handbook on

hanging

execution, containing

:

being a short introduction to the fine art of

much

useful information on neck-breaking,

throttling, strangling, asphyxiation, decapitation

data and wrinkles on

hangmanship

method and his pioneering list the great Nuremberg hangings,

:

with the

;

p.

Hangman

a ready reckoner for

hangmen, and many

of

murder

/

cm.

ISBN 0-940322-67-6 Hanging.

2.

London

:

Putnam, 1961.

|acid-free paper)

Capital punishment.

I.

Title.

HV8694 ,D8 2001 364.66—dc21 00-011088

ISBN 0-940322-67-6 Book design by

Lizzie Scott

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

1098765432

January 2001

www.nybooks.com

1

Berry's

added an account of

which

introduction by Christopher Hitchens,

Originally published:

1.

Mr.

late

is

of drops, to

other items of interest including the anatomy

Duff

and electrocution,

by Charles

.

.

.

DEDICATED RESPECTFULLY to

THE HANGMEN OF ENGLAND and

to similar

CONSTITUTIONAL BULWARKS everywhere

much a part of British history that it is for many excellent people to think of the

"Executions are so

al-

most impossible

fu-

ture without them."

—VISCOUNT TEMPLEWOOD, In the

"

Dislocation of the Neck

"A hangman

is

is

Shadow of the Gallows

the ideal to be

aimed

(1951)

at."

an officer of the law charged with duties of the

highest dignity and utmost gravity.

— AMBROSE "By practice the is

no part

manner

of the

art (of

hanging]

is

BIERCE

much improved and

there

world where villains are hanged in so neat

a

.

— Gentleman’s Magazine “The awesome shudder Even though by

it

is

man’s

the world

finest attribute:

makes consciousness

cost

more

—GOETHE,

.

Faust

II

7

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

xv

PREFACE TO THE

FASHIONS

IN

961 EDITION

1

xxv

EXECUTION

3

ENGLISH NECK-BREAKING THE BEST

4

HANGMEN

5

PRAISE FOR

A CALM CONSIDERATION OF HANGING

6

HANGING ASA

7

HANGMAN AN

FINE

ART

ARTIST

g

SHEER BEAUTY OF HANGING BRITISH

9

HANGMEN POOR BUT HONEST

HANGMAN A MAN

OF

MANY

PARTS

10 12

HANGMAN A BRAVE MAN

13

HANGMEN MAKE

14

JOHN

LEE

TO ERR

IS

MISTAKES: JOHN LEE

SAVED BY RAIN!

15

HUMAN...

1

6

OPEN COMPETITION AND EXAMINATION FOR THE POST

1

CHARMING PERSONALITY OF HANGMEN

19

A UNIFORM FOR HANGMEN

20

FAMOUS CASE QUOTED

21

CONDITIONING FOR HANGING

23

NO

24

ILL-WILL IN

HANGING

BUNGLED HANGINGS FARCICAL INQUESTS

AND

25 OFFICIAL SECRETS

28

JURYMEN MUST DEMAND EVIDENCE

29

FASHIONS

30

IS

IN

EVIDENCE

AMERICA MORE

CIVILIZED

THAN ENGLAND?

31

BROADCASTING THE NECK-BREAKING

33

MURDERS KNOWN TO THE

36

POLICE: STATISTICS

ANATOMY OF ENGLISH MURDERS

36

A GENERAL PICTURE AND THE DILEMMA

37

HOUSE OF LORDS A SURE PREVENTIVE OF ABOLITION

39

A HISTORY OF THE ANTI-HANGING CRUSADE

40

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ABOLISHED/

40

NO INCREASE

IN

THE NUMBER OF MURDERS AFTER ABOLITION

ENGLISH HANGING "DONE

WHY NOT HANG

IN

ON THE

SLY"

IN

INCREASE

LAW: DECREASE

VESTED INTERESTS

IN

IN

VIRTUE

HANGING

MERCY A DANGEROUS THING CONSULT THE

46 47

HANGING

IN

45 45

PUBLIC?

MAKE HANGINGS MORE IMPRESSIVE DECLINE

42

HANGMAN

48

49 50 51

DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

52

CHANCE OF ERRORS REDUCED TO A MINIMUM

53

HANGING A "RITUAL SACRIFICE"

54

HANGING AND RITUALISM

55

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF DEREK BENTLEY

56

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

57

AND HANGING

58

MORE MISTAKES OF HANGMEN

59

PARTY POLITICS

FUN FOR THE

HANGMAN

60

WOMEN

61

ALWAYS HANG

ROMANCE

IN

A BUTCHER'S SHOP

62

A HYPOTHETICAL MURDER

63

THE END OF A DREAM

63

POPULARITY OF MURDER TRIALS

64

PLAN TO LOWER THE INCOME TAX

65

HANGED FOR SHEER

67

STUPIDITY

A BOOK AGAINST HANGING!

68

DEPRESSING SIDE OF HANGING

69

A FAMOUS MODERN HANGMAN

70

THE GREAT

HANGMAN

PRIDE IN PROFESSION

INTERVIEWED

71

73

5

LOVE VERSUS CAREER

74

MORE

74

DIFFICULT TO

HANG ONE WOMAN THAN TWO MEN!

A NEW ORIENTATION

IN

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

75

EXECUTIONERS ARE GOOD CHRISTIANS DIGRESSION

ON THE

76

NAZIS

77

GREAT ERA OF EXECUTION

78

ROYAL EXECUTIONERS AND ARISTOCRATIC

HANGMEN

79

EXECUTIONERS RISK THEIR LIVES

81

DRINKING THE PRISONER'S DOPE

83

IMPORTED HANGMEN

83

SPORTING INSTINCT OF THE GREEKS

84

HANGMAN WHO HANGED

85

ON

HIS

HIS

BROTHER

MAJESTY'S SERVICE

THE PRESS

87

AND CRIME

87

HINTS FOR EDITORS

88

MAKING CRIME PAY

91

MEMOIRS OF THE HANGED

91

THE "HANGMAN'S RECORD" QUOTED

92

HANGMAN'S MAGAZINE

93

THE PIERREPOINT PAPERS QUOTED

95

THE

CONDEMNED MAN

97

NOTE ON THE LITERATURE OF HANGING

HANGING ON STAGE AND SCREEN STILL

MORE MISTAKES OF HANGMEN

98 100 101

MAKE MISTAKES— EVEN EXPERTS

103

HANGMEN NOT CONCERNED WITH ERRORS OF COURTS

104

HANGING

105

ALL SORTS

THE SIX

IN

THE

U.S.A.

WHO WERE HANGED

107

DEATH NEVER INSTANTANEOUS

1

10

SAVING "L'HONNEUR DE LA BELLE FRANCE"

1

12

DISGRACEFUL PLAGIARISM EXPOSED

1

13

ELECTROCUTION

1 1

IS

TORTURE

A NEEDLE THROUGH THE HEAD

118

THE ROSENBERGS

119

U.S.A.:

ABOLITION

AND CARYL CHESSMAN

121

WIDER MORAL OF THE CHESSMAN CASE

122

THE DEATH OF CHESSMAN

123

UGLY STAIN ON CIVILIZATION

124

HONORS FOR HANGMEN

124

WHO OUGHT TO

125

HANGED?

BE

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW QUOTED

126

PROFESSOR DR. JOAD, WIT AND PHILOSOPHER

127

THE GREAT NUREMBERG HANGINGS

129

DEFENSE OF A CHOICE THE EXECUTIONER

131

HANGMAN

WHO WORKS FROM A

DESK

133

ANTI-HANGING CAMPAIGNS

135

LORD TEMPLEWOOD ON HANGING

137

APRIL 1948: HOUSE OF

COMMONS AGAINST HANGING!

138

HOUSE OF LORDS TO THE RESCUE

139

PSYCHOLOGY

141

SUSPENSE

143

JUDICIAL

HANGING

IN

POST-WAR CRIMES—THE CAUSE

144

U.S.S.R.— DEATH PENALTY ABOLISHED!

145

SOVIET DECREE OF

ROMAN

MAY

CATHOLICS

1961

AND

STATE KILLING

147 149

NOTE ON HANGING, DRAWING, AND QUARTERING

151

BULWARKS OF THE CONSTITUTION

153

HANGING

ETC.,

ENGLAND'S OFFICIAL CHURCH FAVORS HANGING

154

ENGLAND'S PUBLIC HANGINGS

155

THE BOLD FENIAN MEN OF OUL' IRELAND

156

ACCOUNT OF ENGLAND'S LAST PUBLIC HANGING

157

HANGMEN

BORN, NOT

MADE

HANGMAN'S VERSES FOR THE SCIENZA

HIS CLIENT

NUOVA

A WICKED CALUMNY REFUTED SPILSBURY

ON THE DROP

159 161

162 163 166

HAND-IN-HAND WITH SCIENCE

167

HANGING, FLOGGING, WAR, AND SADISM

168

THE LATE MR. BERRY ON HANGING

170

VITAL

IMPORTANCE OF THE DROP

170

MR.

MARWOOD— PIONEER

A ROUGH WORKING

OF THE

NEW

SCIENCE

OF DROPS

LIST

171

172

DOCTOR'S ADVICE ON HANGING

1

73

THE GOODALE MESS EXPLAINED

1

73

DOCTOR

WHO

ERRED

174

A HANGMAN'S DIPLOMA

175

HOW HANGING

177

KILLS

NOTE ON PINIONING

177

NOTE ON SCAFFOLDS

178

HANGMAN

DESCRIBES HANGING

1

78

AN "ORDER TO HANG"

179

THE HOLY PROCESSION

180

LAST SCENE OF ALL

181

THOSE LAST FLEETING HOURS

182

HANGMAN SHAKES HANDS AND

GETS BUSY

FABULOUS SPEED OF ENGLISH HANGINGS

183 183

SCAFFOLD UNAFFECTED BY PROGRESS, REVOLUTIONS, OR SELECT

COMMITTEES

184

BRITAIN STANDS BY HER

HANGMEN

186

THE LAST CERTIFICATE THE

NEW HOMICIDE ACT

186 OF 1957

NO HANGINGS: NO INCREASE THE

IN

187

MURDERS!

NEW SEXUAL OFFENSES ACT

CAMPAIGN FOR MORE HANGING:

188

190 1960'S

191

ENGLAND'S DEFEAT NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY

192

HOMOSEXUALITY

193

IN

ENGLAND AND FRANCE

CONCLUSION APPENDIX: A READY RECKONER FOR

194

HANGMEN

197

INTRODUCTION

"THEY'RE SELLING POSTCARDS Bob Dylan intones

of the hanging,"

opening stave

flatly in the

of his long

and

who have had

haunting lament, "Desolation Row." Those

the opportunity to read James Allen's extraordinary book

Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography need no further illustration of what

is

in

America

will

intended: for several

generations (and well into the fourth decade of the twentieth century), public

immolation

The

sion for Saturnalia.

of outcasts furnished

lurid photographs

cheaply reproduced for sale and salacity and "collectibles" (which

came

how

is

still

the event,

counted as

Mr. Allen, an antique dealer,

across them), were often the least of

ears, or pieces of

of

an occa-

it.

Fingers, toes,

and

the rope, or even private parts in the special

instance of alleged rapists, were given and taken as souvenirs, trophies, or talismans.

Generally speaking, the hanging was just the beginning of the treat; a treat for

which

run and special editions run

would be the prelude ment. for the

An

off

the presses.

to mutilation, burning,

early society of the spectacle

execution of justice to be swift.

tacle

became considered

was

finally

were

special excursion trains

as too turbulent

A

semi-garotting

and dismember-

had no special wish

And when

the spec-

and outlandish, and

domesticated and moved inside

official

doors

and gates, the element of prurient lavishness was not entirely discarded. There

were

still

rituals

by which the victim could

be kept endlessly uncertain of his excited descriptions by radio and still

ways

in

which

— as

the

fate,

and there were

newsmen, and

name "Old Sparky" XV

still

there were in Florida

Introduction

continues to remind us

could be burned

— the

object of

the excitement

all

alive.

Many playwrights and novelists have expended on the occult ways

in

which these practices

lier

gratifica-

body

parts, the

—recall the witch

elaborate and lascivious attention to detail trials

—the

of souvenir

mob, the amputation

tion of the

themselves

and grands perns and libidinous repressions

America. However, what

really illustrate

of

an

ear-

these habits and routines

all

another even more obvious line of descent:

is

the lineage of the American penal system from the English one.

you

Look

at the history of capital

punishment

a half-strangled convict alive,

is

— the procedure whereby

cut down, eviscerated, and castrated

and then dismembered and burned

tion at

what

Hyde

is

now Marble Arch on

— was the big attrac-

the northeastern corner

Park, then called Tyburn. Grisly keepsakes

commonplace. Favorable vantage points were ters of religion (usually Protestant)

were

ers

and

will find all the ancestors of the pornography of lynching.

"Hanging, drawing, and quartering"

of

in Britain

loose

celebrities.

women, and

The

for sale.

were

Minis-

were on hand. Execution-

free availability of strong drink,

a generalized

atmosphere

of fiesta

were

of

the essence.

An

awareness of this history, and a strong revulsion

against English tradition, form the underlay of this potent

book. Charles his Gaelic

St.

Lawrence Duff, who occasionally employed

synonym Cathal

managh in 1894 and, War, became in turn

6

Dubh, was born

after suffering injuries in

a diplomat, a translator,

language and linguistics. Little enough life,

yet his

name

alone

makes

it

is

County Ferthe First World in

and

a teacher of

known about

a certainty that he

into a Catholic or nationalist family, in

what

is

his

was born

now

North-

ern Ireland, but several years before Ireland was partitioned.

When

the

first of

was published

A Handbook

in 1928

it

was

on Hanging's seven editions

subtitled

"A

Satire":

one need

not be too fanciful in imagining the young Duff, having wit-

XVI

Introduction

nessed

many hangings and

shootings of Irish rebels, modeling

himself in part on Swift and

was

public hanging in Britain

May

Barrett in

of 1868;

A Modest

Proposal.

last

named Michael

of a Fenian

Duff mentions

The

with particular

it

scorn. (His next book, published in the rather early, not to say

advanced, year of 1932, was entitled James Joyce and the Plain

He refers, who order our

Reader.)

Struldbrugs

in

closing

affairs,"

book,

this

"the

to

which witnesses

at

any

rate to a close reading of Gulliver.

Duff might, indeed, have made room

for a substantially

wider range of literary allusion than he

did, since English

literature has not exactly declined the challenge presented

by the gibbet and the scaffold: Blake wrote imperishably about the execution of children in Songs of Innocence and Experience Thackeray noted mordantly the congregation of ;

criminals and the outbreaks of vicious crime at public hangings;

Dickens

in

Barnaby Rudge gave us

unrelievedly hateful Mr. Dennis reminisce, as

if

patching young

—whose

a

hangman

— the

chief delight

is

to

over sexual conquests, about his part in dis-

women, and

infants,

and sometimes mother-

and-child combinations. In an obscene piece of vernacular,

Dennis describes sion for

this exercise as "working-off":

which Duff

an expres-

also finds sarcastic use. (The portrait of

Dennis, Dickens insisted, was taken from

life

and

reality.)

Wilde found the hanging day the most onerous and terrifying of his entire sentence.

day, noted,

George Orwell, writing

in Duff's

own

primly but grimly, that there was one aspect of

the hanging process that

was known and whispered by every-

body but never mentioned

in print or polite society.

(He

meant the stupendous erection that results from dislocation of the neck, and that is a commonplace in sadomasochistic literature

from Genet onwards.)

most penetrating of all, in my view, was Thomas Hardy in his 1888 story "The Withered Arm." Here, Sternest and

it is

the stark

arm

of the gallows tree that spreads a

XVII

minatory

Introduction

and superstitious shadow across the entire countryside. Gertrude Lodge, already a bucolic sexual victim

who would

have been recognized by Faulkner in an instant, seeks every

nostrum and quackery

shaman

ing the sinister local

"There

for her

own

diseased limb before visit-

Trendle:

only one chance of doing

is

known

it

has never failed in kindred afflictions clare.

But

it

is

— that

to I

me.

It

can de-

hard to carry out, and especially for a

woman." "Tell

me!" said

she.

"You must touch with the limb the neck

of a

man

who's been hanged." She started

a little at the

"Before he's cold

image he had

raised.

— just after he's cut down," contin-

ued the conjuror impassively.

"How

can that do good?"

"It will

But, as

I

wait for

turn the blood and change the constitution.

say, to

do

it is

him when

have done

it,

hard.

You must

get into

jail,

and

he's brought off the gallows. Lots

though perhaps not such pretty

women

as

you. ..."

Mr. Duff,

who

for his satire

adopted the tone and style and

address of an English barrister, does not

prurience and fetishism.

He

make

too

much

of

seeks to lampoon the judicious, is

no doubt about

it is

the ineffaceable

the forensic, and the detached. But there the source of his outrage and contempt:

indecency of the death penalty, most especially in and-trapdoor manifestation, perhaps, but in

all

its

rope-

the other per-

mutations, too:

They do things

better in those efficient United States.

Take, for example, the efficiency of the publicity given to the electrocution of Mrs. Creighton, romantically

xviii

Introduction

called

"New

York's Borgia Killer," in July 1936. Cables

were hot conveying to the four points the

news

compass

of the

days before her execution in

that, for three

Sing Sing, she had been so paralyzed with fear that she

was "unable even to feel needles thrust into her body and was unconscious when lifted from a bath-chair into the electric chair." Sing Sing certainly cellent publicity service

Americans cannot read not think for a piece of

— not much happens in

in their fine

moment

morning

that this pamphlet

American or other propaganda;

advocate American methods. But

where

we

it is

let

papers. is

Do

a subtle

or an attempt to

honor be given

is

bitter

and unre-

though in his eagerness to reprove British hypocrisy

Salem continued

to flourish in the

the chief virtue of his book

of hypocrisy,

vice anglaise.

which many believe Having resolved

about

trick: surely the detail

the needles thrust into the female body

Still,

that

are not respected for our hole-and-corner hangings.

he could be said to have missed a

of

it

ex-

due, and let us also frankly recognize that

Here, as throughout the book, Duff's irony lenting,

must have an

shows us

that the spirit

modern U.S.A. is

precisely

its

exposure

to be the characteristic

to "go straight," as

were,

it

and to have done with the vulgar populist spectacle

of the

public execution, the British Establishment decided to be-

come demure to the point more like anonymous civil

of obsession.

Hangmen became

servants; secrecy and discretion

veiled the proceedings; pious little notes posted

on the

front

gates of prisons were the only public notification that a

"working-off" had taken place at porter or attorney could compile a ity

all.

Yet an assiduous

whole anthology

and indecency, lurking shadily behind

The hangman who took

a little too

much

this

re-

of atroc-

pretense.

drink to steady his

hand; the plastic underwear proffered to female victims; the rope that slipped and caused slow strangulation; the rope

XIX

Introduction

was poorly judged and caused

that

decapitation; the rope that

broke; the second and even third attempts to

who

creants

On

didn't expire the first time

.

.

off" mis-

Duff has them

all.

not a few occasions, a clergyman or other official witness

would

resign from the prison service after

piece of bungling or cruelty: will

.

"work

when

filthy matters are

They do well done ..." it.

word leaked

some macabre

out, as

it

always

whispered about. As Wilde put

to hide their hell / For in

it

things are

.

In the past

few years there have been, to

my

certain

knowledge, three belated public admissions by the British authorities that they committed the ultimate profanity of

hanging an innocent man. These cases—of Derek Bentley, Timothy Evans, and fames Hanratty were subjects of tem-

—

pestuous controversy

time they occurred; in each case the identity of the actual murderer was also known or at least at the

The most appalling such case, and the one which began the long campaign in and out of Parliament for abolition, was that of Derek Bentley in 1953. Bentley, who had conjectured.

gone on

a stupid thieving expedition

named Christopher

with an accomplice

had actually been arrested when his younger friend discharged a shot and slew a policeman. Craig,

Since Craig was only sixteen

hang him

it

was

legally impossible to

pause here to note that seventeen Americans have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in (I

1976 for crimes they committed while they were still minors), and thus Bentley was awarded the death penalty because somebody had to pay for the crime. Duff was prescient in his treatment of the hanging of the innocent, and also in his summary of this landmark case,

where

he

deployed

his

Republicanism) to the best

icy

sarcasm

effect. It is

(and

his

Irish

important to bear in

mind, here, that the jury had made a strong recommendation of mercy and that therefore only the Queen could save Bentley from being dropped through the trapdoor: XX

Introduction

When

it

was announced

must be

that the sentence

carried out, all sorts and conditions of people, includ-

ing

many Members

utmost

was ple a

to

of Parliament, set to

have the decision

and did their

Not

altered.

discovered— greatly to the surprise

it

until then

of

most peo-

— that even the House of Commons could not find

way

Prerogative

For the

to

time in their lives Members

first

and the public had

of Parliament

home

which involved the Royal

to alter a decision

them

it

strikingly brought

that the inflexibilities surrounding and

guarding the Royal Prerogative were acting in a silence even the

House

of

resentatives of the people!

Commons— the

— when

way

to

elected rep-

the matter

was the

A Member

important one of to hang or not to hang.

asked whether the House must wait until Bentley was

dead before

was

it

entitled to say that he should not die.

That arresting question was in point

of

answered

fact

by the Speaker in the affirmative, and Derek Bentley was duly hanged. In characterizing this

gruesome and

Duff uses the unironic words

arbitrary

" authoritarian

episode,

totalitarianism,"

"blood sacrifice," and "ritual hanging." These

may

appear ex-

treme but, coupled with his angry reflection on the role

make whole dispute. The

played by the Monarchy, they help

the case that contin-

ues to underlie this

right of the State or

the or

Crown

symbol

— to exact this penalty as an example power — a survival or hangover from the

to take life of its

is

days of Divine Right, of feudalism, of the ownership of hu-

man

beings,

and the propitiation

of evil spirits.

It

deserves

its

association with slavery and racism in the Americas, and

with capricious hereditary power in Europe. The arguments that support

it

would (and once

taining an official torturer.

the death penalty

was

did)

make

To look up the

a case for

main-

dates on

which

either abolished or restored in the

XXI

Introduction

twentieth century

to consult a palimpsest of

is

modern

reac-

tion (abolished by

instated in Italy

Weimar, restored by the Third Reich; reby Mussolini). Thus when the Mitterrand

government abolished the guillotine

in France as its first leg-

islative act in 1981, its Minister of Justice

made

Robert Badinter

the usual patient points about the failure of the guil-

lotine to deter crime, but told the National

Assembly

that

punishment was fundamentally abhorrent because

capital

it

expressed a totalitarian conception of the relationship between the citizen and the State.

Such

a conception, Duff points out,

was

reflected in the

vast expansion of the death penalty, specifically to punish

crimes against property and the social order, that occurred in Georgian and Victorian England; it continues to be in the

American expansion

of recent years. U.S. authorities, the bet-

execution and to

ter to sanitize

make

it

resemble a clinical

event rather than a state killing, have adopted the

new

tech-

nology of "lethal injection," but in doing so they have not been able to disguise the absolutist, and pitiless, character of the act.

When

I

attended the execution of Mr.

in Potosi prison, Missouri, in 1997,

I

Sam McDonald

was forced

as a "states'

witness" to see the entire thing through a thick glass window. Mr. McDonald was speaking volubly as the chemical cocktail silenced and then extinguished him, but nothing could be heard, and then the "attendants" lowered the blinds. I later first

asked the prison authorities to

tell

been: they solemnly instructed

me

me what that he

his last

had

words had

said, "Tell

my

He had been speaking for much longer medieval times the doomed man was permitted

brothers to be strong."

than that. In his last

words on the

scaffold;

white-coated efficiency

nies even this grace-note (presumably because scripted). All the

it

now

de-

cannot be

same, the element of obscene Saturnalia can-

not be entirely repressed. As the guards began to shepherd the witnesses from the room, I heard someone exclaim cheerily,

"Sam McDonald bought

the farm. Ee-eye-ee-eye-O."

XXII

Introduction

Duff updated his polemic every decade from 1928 through 1938 and 1948 and up until 1961, and there can be little doubt that he exerted an influence on the two decisive interventions

made by Arthur

Koestler and Albert

Camus

in, re-

1956 and 1957. The opening lines of Koestler's Reflections on Hanging indeed, partake of some of Duff's spectively,

,

wryness and sarcasm:

Great Britain

is

that peculiar country in Europe

people drive on the

left side of

where

the road, measure in

inches and yards, and hang people by the neck until dead.

While Camus, joint

who wrote

his Reflexions sur la guillotine for a

symposium with Koestler

the following year

many Hungarian

year after the hanging of

he called "the Socialism of the gallows"

for

was

a

weapon

what we now term "human

rights."

belief that abolitionism

—and the

rebels in

what

— made explicit Duff's in the general battle

Koestler lived to see capital punishment abolished in his

adopted country.

Camus and Duff

did not; their victory

was

posthumous (and today the European Union will not even consider admitting a nation which retains the death penalty). All three

men made

especially those

use of lurid or tragic American examples,

where the mass media had acted

or ventriloquist for the

mob

as surrogate

or crowd. Indeed, the second edi-

tion of Koestler's volume, in 1957, carried an "Introduction for

Americans" by Professor Edmond Cahn

University,

of

New

York

which asked the provocative question, "Are we

no worse than the English?" Professor Cahn pointed out that the original manifesto against capital

punishment

— Cesare

On Crimes and Punishments — had found among Enlightenment men like Benjamin

Beccaria's 1764 tract a ready audience

Franklin, John

Elements

Adams, Thomas

of this

American

Jefferson,

and Benjamin Rush.

abolitionist tradition

xxiii

still

survive

Charles Duff

(Michigan, for example, forbids the practice in stitution),

but the

memory

its state

con-

has been overlaid by the toxic

mixture of populism and elitism that sometimes goes by the

name

of

"law and order."

saeva indignatio

may

A new

help people to discern the cultural and

historic roots of the gallows tree

tion that has always obtained

and perhaps

or fresh exposure to Duff's

and the unalterable opposi-

between

it

and the liberty

tree,

assist in tearing out the roots of the first, the

better to nurture and preserve the second.

— Christopher Hitchens

XXIV

PREFACE TO THE 1961 EDITION

IT a

PLEASANT

IS

work

an author, however modest, to see

for

of his appear, after over thirty years of marketing, in a

new, greatly enlarged and enhanced edition such as

now

twice as large and, presumably, twice as good as

on that September morning the world.

The reason

in 1928

when

it

was

first

it

was

given to

for this lies in the perennial interest of

the subject, as well as in the particular merits is

this. It is

which the book

said to have.

The work and

spirit,

of revision has

it is

in these pages

hoped that

much

tertaining) regarding

that

may

it

new

is

generation of readers will find

educative (and perhaps even en-

an English institution which retains

vigor after an existence

Indeed

a

been undertaken in no mawkish

much

which dates from long before 1066.

be claimed without false modesty that here

is

the

only book in the language which presents a comprehensive

and well-focused account ject

of hanging.

have their merits but, in

Other books on the sub-

my opinion,

even

when

they are

better than this one, they do not treat either hanging or hang-

men

with the affection these both deserve. Furthermore, and

this is a telling thought:

land as long as there tual

and Temporal

is

still

a

hanging

House

is

likely to continue in Eng-

of Lords. For the Lords Spiri-

have the power to throw out, mutilate,

or castrate any full-blooded

measure which the House

of

must be expected

to

approves. This has happened; and, unless the

Lords

is

live

up

ment

of recognition,

to its great traditions.

is

The

it

abolition of capital punish-

thus involved in constitutional change.

might be

— in view of

its

Com-

House

mons

reformed out

of

And

well

long and usually steady history. XXV

it

Preface

When

Germanic

the

and Jutes hon-

tribes of Angles, Saxons,

ored Britain in A.D. 449 by invading

it,

with them, which upset the ideals

of the Celtic Britons of

they brought hanging

The gallows was an important element in Germanic culture. The worthy Hengist and Horsa and their colthose days.

leagues used a very rough and out-of-hand

method

of hanging,

one that resembled our clean and tidy modern method in only this respect:

it

worked quite

have worked well enough

markable testimony

for a

well. In fact,

it

millennium and

seems

to

a half: a re-

to its crude efficiency. In the nineteenth

century the mechanics of hanging came under scientific scrutiny

—

was

it

a great age of science

and progress

there had been no public or private

demand

for

—although it.

Certain

suggestions and improvements were adopted (you will read of

them

in their place) after

that the

newly introduced

which sweeping claims were made trick for dislocating the

improvement on the slower method

vast

neck was

a

simple strangula-

of

tion hitherto used. After the end of public hangings in 1868,

the

new

pany

science proved better for the greatly reduced com-

of those present at the

ceremony: though not always

better for the hanged person, even

ceedings. There

a

is

when

simple truth behind

In spite of all the progress

we have

it

speeded the pro-

it all,

time,

gist,

or any other scientist to define the exact

a

Nevertheless, the

one

of

them

duction those

this:

not possible for the greatest physician, biolo-

moment when

hanged person, man, woman, or minor, ceases

old,

it is

witnessed, even in our

own

it is

and

new method

has

many

to feel pain.

advantages over the

of political importance. Ever since its intro-

who commend hanging

as a

method

of capital

punishment have been able to put their hands on their hearts and make pro-hanging propaganda with a set of quite meaningless but very deceptive catch-phrases.

ample,

is

that " death

They make

this

philosophical

by hanging

is

One

of these, for ex-

almost instantaneous."

claim in the sure knowledge that the un-

man

in the street will painlessly

XXVI

swallow the

Preface

word "almost" without ever

little

to hanging,

it

realizing that, in relation

he more than two or three minutes, or

an hour,

or, as

may

can allow for a period of time which

much

has happened,

not

can he a quarter of

it

An

longer.

intelligent

law

takes care of this in the sentence "to be hanged by the neck until dead.”

The operative words

are "until dead."

In recent years a succession of disquieting instances of in-

nocent

men

being hanged have

come

to light: Bentley,

and Evans are among them. These

land,

of murder, are

ment and

now

of those

men were

dead, and the attitude of

who

advocate hanging

found guilty

The

Establish-

that they

is

Row-

must

be considered guilty until they have been proved innocent.

Although many extremely awkward

facts

have emerged in

gard to these cases, final proof of innocence of

is

re-

hardly possible

achievement. Although these victims are out of

sight,

they

cannot so easily be put out of mind. So

that, as these lines are written,

it is

On

against hanging continue.

this subject

divided into two irreconcilable camps. political fact that

party

Lords

is

can be

nature

is

unfortunately a

And

of

Those who favor hanging claim

final.

to the results of polls.

or the other.

is

and

from the obstinacy of the House

that over 70 percent of the public

way

It

human

for

hanging must depend on what political

in power,- apart

— which

campaigns

The

is

with them, and point

subject arouses emotions one

votes are important to the politically

ambitious.

To

my mind

there

is

something much more important

than votes: the difference between right and wrong. portant objection to capital punishment

is

An

im-

that the logic of

State killing of undesirables leads to Eichmann, the conveyor belts,

and the genocidal gas-chambers. Killing

constant familiarity with

it

breeds contempt or an

of feeling for killing. Capital

which on

a parallel plane

is

killing

and

immunity

punishment symbolizes an idea

can logically end in press-button nu-

clear war: to obliterate the undesirable

XXVll

enemy. But, supposing

Preface

that

enemy can

also engage in press-button war,

These things and cial

what then?

their results cannot be separated

from

judi-

hanging.

Meanwhile we go on and hope ;

for the best.

Ours

posi-

is a

tion of tragicomedy, the great tragicomedy of our time.

so regard

it,

this final edition of

A Handbook

many

items which

been expanded to include

I

wish

to

is

I

think of as

my

thank

my

friend L. H.

gratitude to an

an

earlier edition

in

my own

minor

rel-

tragi-

related to the major one.

Hutchinson

ness in having read the proofs of this edition. record

I

on Hanging has

evant, because they are elements around the

comedy which

As

who

for his kind-

And I must

also

anonymous American reviewer

expressed his deep compassion for

of

me

task of writing this Handbook.

— C.D. London, 1961

xxviii

A

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

HAS BEEN,

IT if

you wish

and

still is,

a

matter of opinion whether,

your undesirable,

to kill

it is

quietly in a concentration camp, flay

him

better to let

him

die

until he dies, hurl

him over a precipice, burn, drown, or suffocate him; or entomb him alive and leave him to perish slowly in the silence of his grave,- or asphyxiate him agonizingly in a lethal chamber, or press him to death or cut off his head; or produce a sort of coma by means of an electric current that grills him in parts and then, in the name of autopsy, permit the doctors to finish him off as they do in certain of the United States of

—

North America,- or break FASHIONS IN EXECUTION

neck in strangu-

lation by hanging as the English do. a

But one

his

fact

matter of

emerges:

man

taste,

It is all

temperament, and fashion.

has not grown less cruel with the

passage of that illusory thing called time,- though in parts of the world he has

he used to

become

be. In the Ts’in

many

a far greater hypocrite than

Dynasty

in

China the heads

of

undesirables were expeditiously removed by a stroke of the official

tury

sword, whereas in the same country in our

men and women had

fried,

their ears

and

own

cen-

strips of flesh cut off,

and eaten before their eyes before execution,- and

chil-

dren were ordered to behead their parents. The methods of 1

dispatch are without tory of killing

is

number and

of infinite variety.

the history of the world, and

it is

hardly surprising to find that in nothing has

1.

The Observer, February

12, 1928.

3

The

his-

therefore

man shown

Charles Duff

greater ingenuity than in inventing and perfecting

and machines

for killing his fellow

methods

man.

The present work does not pretend to do more than touch the fringe of State killing, of which capital punishment is a less

important aspect. Yet

among

must be accorded

it

first

place

State killings, because both gas-chamber genocide and

the mass-obliteration of up-to-date warfare are the ultimates of its logic.

English

We

an awe-inspiring age,

live in

perhaps the "peak-point" of what

NECK-BREAKING the best

,

Western Civilization: the age greater

bombs,

of

is

called

atomic and

weapons worked by

of rockets,

remote control, wonderful poison-gases; and deadly bacteria

which cost next

to nothing to produce.

What

science

is

de-

voted to these arts of governmental homicide and genocide!

How much hard-earned

of the (or

most innocent and humane taxpayer's

even hard-fiddled) money

is

painfully extracted

from him or her and, quite against his or her

will, officially

dedicated to research into the best forms of slaughter, car-

may

nage, poisoning (quick or slow, as

be required), asphyxia-

tion, suffocation, paralyzation, atomization,

and so forth

in

accordance with the imaginatively envisaged requirements

known as "The Next War." In certain circumstances an individual man or woman is ready to commit suicide: today we see what is euphuistiof that great

question-mark familiarly

cally called our

suicide

—

all

whole

civilization deliberately preparing for

since the happy discovery by the great

science of atomic fission, and

statesmen

who have

minds

of

reasoned utilization by the

its

achieved power ostensibly because their

peoples think that those statesmen are single-mindedly de-

voted to the public welfare. In A.D. 1960 the Americans

claimed to have discovered a gas which with one whiff would paralyze the nervous system and

than three minutes. This killing advances

is

kill

homo

sapiens in less

an age in which the science of

by great jumps.

If

those crude, rudimentary

atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki taught 4

a

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

A

lesson to the multitude

may we

sickened, what perfect

which they

not hope for from the finer and more

weapons which men

of science, subsidized

spired by governments, are preparing? for?

Why,

to

make

areas, erasing

select

of their populations,

and favored few samples

and enjoy the problematical

may

homo

of

which

fruits

trivial aspect of State killing:

tises of

—a

a

and leaving only

what

modern ecology and

wounded and manis

On

my own part,

may

and maturely weighed the several schemes

no people can point

to a

and expeditious, or which

method which is

It

may

trea-

prove to be

of

it

presents,

governments

have reached the conclusion

I

is

more

beautiful

aesthetically superior to the

time-honored British practice hanging.

unwanted

having carefully turned

thoughts upon the complex problem which

for the dispatch of criminals,

a

this smaller aspect

have collected what

I

useful information. For

that

we can

by comparison

the elimination of the

sociology.

a

sapiens to survive

matter which tends to be overlooked in

of the bigger subject

my

in-

preparing what

be able to produce. Pshaw! Here

deal only with a midget portion of

individual

And

and

warfare more humane: by devastating whole

most

poisoned earth

and

killed, mutilated,

breaking their necks by

of

be said that there

is

a fascination about hang-

ing imparting an interest to details connected with

heroes which the best-disposed people in the

it

and

its

community

cannot wholly gainsay.

With the English the hangman of

is

like the dog: the friend

man.

Now

this

is

an important

fact

which has not yet been im-

pressed upon the world with sufficient cogency. fore,

I

do, there-

propose humbly to submit such relevant information as I

have been able to collect in

my

leisure

PRAISE FOR

HANGMEN

hours, and with

it

certain thoughts that have

occurred to others as well as to myself:

all

of

which, being calculated towards the general advancement

of

mankind, cannot be

liable to the least objection.

5

This short

Charles Duff

treatise is offered to a thoughtful public, in the

may

praise

thereby be

won

ation he already has. After

event in the

of

life

man, who

is

death

Toler-

the least important

is

''immortal until his work

knows who

done," as everybody

common hangman.

for the all,

hope that

is

reads about the casualties

caused by motorists on the roads. There

an irony in

is

life

which becomes oppressive when we consider how some quite useless people live to be a hundred, while others are killed or

mutilated in the prime of biles.

When

fell ill

life

by impact with vulgar automo-

the great chief priest of the people of the

and seemed likely

to die, the

man who was

to be his successor entered the pontiff's a club

how

house with

and strangled or clubbed him to death

2 :

destined a rope or

which shows

philosophical a race of savages could be about death.

orange-peel carelessly thrown upon the pavement

from us

in the ear.

On

An

elephant

may

take

perish by a flea-bite

the highroads, "In the midst of

death," which truly

seems

may

An

a great statesman, a great poet, a great painter,- or a

great public nuisance.

it

Congo

to be a

is

life

we

are in

many instances that concern how or when it

fortuitous in so

matter of very small

comes. The evidence shows that hanging

any other form, and certainly

less

messy and

more reasonable than being turned

as effective as

is

less painful

into raspberry

and

jam on the

deadly highways of civilization.

Taking this as

a basis

it is

possible to write calmly on the

general subject of State execution, and especially in

One may

beatifying form.

it

as the

most

consider hanging from various

points of view.

A CALM CONSIDERATION of hanging

its

most

O ne ma y w cigh

One may,

for

example, treat

interesting of the fine arts. its

aesthetics, or consider

as sublime; or ridiculous.

One may even

it

take

hanging as the unit of morality, and delve into the history of hanging. Yet although it is an ancient practice, hallowed by

2.

Frazer's

Golden Bough,

iv,

page

14.

6

its

very antiquity,

not

it is

A

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

my

intention to write an erudite

chronicle of suspension, but rather to deal with

day and to offer suggestions thereby to increase land which

Where

all

hanging

we

its

for

improving

it

as

it

to-

it is

generally,

and

well-deserved popularity in this Eng-

love.

authors have failed hitherto in their treatment of

is

that they have never for a

hangmanship

moment

considered

as a fine art: as, for example, the Japanese

have

when person decapitated. Our

regarded the ceremonial swordmanship they employed conferring a special honor on the writers have not considered a

good job of

it.

and one aspects

all

that goes towards

making

They have omitted to mention a thousand of the subject which are of interest to the

moral philosopher, and also

of interest to all those

who

are in

any way concerned with hanging, from the hemp-picker who collects the

raw material

the grave-digger

who

woman,

the man,

for

making the hangman's rope

prepares the secluded resting-place of

or infant

who

is

hanged.

It is

my

intention

to attempt to

remedy these grave omissions, and indeed

offer a serious

if

on the whole

brief contribution to

mechanical

to

contemporary thought

subject.

Let us begin then by considering hanging as a fine

We may

to

almost assume that trade. Is not a

it is

man

an

a fine art, artist

who

art.

and not

a base

can painlessly

and without brutality dispatch another man? HANGING AS A FINE ART

There eration

working is

brain, cool

a certain delicacy about

is

which needs

a

and calculating, and

ready eye, a swifta clever

only to be found in the realm of the great

tect constructs a great building

from

hangman by one

achieves more than either.

A

great

7

touch which

arts.

The

archi-

a significant series of

outlines; the musician constructs an entire series of tones; but our

the op-

symphony from

a

pull of the lever

American

critic

has stated

Charles Duff

that art of the highest or finest quality involves three things. First, a

reproduction of natural phenomena; second, an expres-

sion of the thoughts and emotions of the artist; and, third, an

embodiment like a

Or

of

both these features in an external product,

symphony,

a hanging,

I

a

poem,

would

a painting, a building, or a statue.

add.

The hangman is also an internationalist, he would just as soon hang a white man

woman)

(or

as a

black, a foreigner as an Englishman, a Nordic

HANGMAN

ew Furthermore, he is pantheistic: for he would as lief hang a member of the Church member of the Roman Church, a Four-Square as a

an artist of

in the sense that

England as

a

-

J

Gospeller or any other true believer, pagan, agnostic,- or even

One cogent

an atheist.

tiality is that

any

reason for this detachment and impar-

he gets the same professional fee

sort of neck. Fie

is,

in fact, an honest

breaking

for

working man,

a pro-

letarian elevated to be an official, in the fullest Marx-Engels-

Leninist-Stalinist sense.

puzzling to

One must

know whether

it

confess that

would be

under the heading "proletarian,"

it is

a little

correct to classify

him

times he has decidedly

for at

bourgeois and even aristocratic taints. So

we had better, once and for all time, simplify matters by putting him in the nondescript category of artist. Thus, we may avoid hair-splitting political arguments and, at the same time, render some justice to a great

Servant of the State without giving the least

offense to anybody. It is,

of course, true that

hanging

is,

like script-writing for

the films or television, an art in a class by

without the discords are

of other arts. Large

by nature excluded from the sphere

and so

it is

paradise in ficulty in

itself.

But

numbers

it is

one

of people

of action of the artist,

impossible for them to appreciate the aesthetic

which the hangman

lives.

conveying an impression

I

confess

I

find

of this, just as

some I

dif-

should

find difficulty, though in a lesser degree, in conveying an im-

pression of certain of William Blake's poems.

8

The

critic or

com-

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

A

mentator

words

of

is

always

an

art in

disadvantage in a description in mere

at a

another medium. The beauty of hanging

recognized by SHEER

on the mind,

the beauty of a Velazquez painting

BEAUTY OF HANGING

nized in the same way; and tent to leave

Who

art intuition.

it

Hanging has

we must

all

is

an

art,

the characteristics of

need to introduce into

is

have to

what

no need

refer to

mode

conservatism,

art:

of expression, balance,

it

not.

surrealist influences, It

ideas

works admirably without them.

But here

not wealthy, and in which

manner

Plato or Wells

reasons

though

I

men may

—or both — made supreme

is

I

may

should state that the beaux

this clear.)

hanging

in

which

is

not devote their time in

to the pursuit of the beautiful.

why England

—no

Dadaism, Exis-

to labor this point unduly,-

it later.

over-

is it

arts never reveal their full possibilities in a country

a leisurely

be con-

and the executioner an

harmony in effects, rhythm, tone; and effect. Nor grown by modernist fads, fancies and "cranky"

There

recog-

is

Benedetto Croce calls

at that.

the elaboration of an instinctive

tentialism or

just as

amongst us cannot immediately recognize

by intuition that hanging artist?

its effects

is

One is

think

(I

of the chief

because in this

cultured land hanging has always been regarded rather as a

spare-time ian

means

employment of livelihood.

of a cultural nature than as a utilitar-

Many hangmen were

since barber-surgeons were separated into

is,

barbers

two

— that

distinct

quite recent Hangman-in-Chief Mr. Albert Pierre

callings.

Our

point

descendant of the Huguenots?) keeps a public house,-

and

(a

a very pleasant host

sistant at hangings, Mr.

he

is

by

all

accounts. His favorite as-

Harry Allenby,

might be expected, both have not only of the fitness of things, for the rie

3.

hostelry

He has

since

name

was "Help the Poor

moved

to

of

9

also a publican.

a sense of

As

humor but

Mr. Pierrepoint's mer-

Struggler," 3 while that of

“The Rose and Crown,"

Preston road to Southport and Liverpool.

is

at

Much Hoole on

the

mam

Charles Duff

Mr. Allenby

— the

named "The Rope and Anchor"

pleasantly

is

word "Anchor" being used

the 1950s

some

American Army

of the

of

in the symbolist sense. In

more enlightened members

Occupation

in Britain

made

of the

their pilgrim-

ages to these outstanding and friendly hostelries, where libations could be offered to the good-hearted hosts and their

hangmanship. There greatly puzzles

cannot explain

is

one thing which,

I

frankly confess,

still

me and has so far defeated all my researches. why it is that so many of the hangmen of Eng-

I

land have been and are of the Unitarian persuasion, though

have noted that most of these Unitarians show their

humanity towards the about-to-be-hanged by assurance that

won't hurt a that matter,

The

"It

bit."

office of

a last-minute

Could anything be more Christian

hangmen were

"It

or, for

scaffold does unite lost souls.

hangman has never yet

received

its

due either

from the public. Until 1952 our

in praise or in rewards

English

common

won't hurt," sometimes varied thus:

more humane? The

I

paid fifteen guineas

(

guineas

,

not

pounds, proving recognition of their profesBRITISH

HANGMEN POOR BUT HONEST

sional status) for each person killed; and the

perquisites are

now

negligible. In

1952 their

remuneration was increased by an amount

we

not yet disclosed, though

all

hope that

it is

more than the

increase in pensions then awarded to disabled ex-servicemen, for

could hardly be

it

Britain

is

Hence, the hangman's post in

not like the post of Public Executioner in the United

where

States of America,

his million." In the of

less.

a

Mr.

went out "to make

United Kingdom there

about 150 cases of murder

year.

Elliot

Of these only 90-100

known

is

an average

to the police every

are proceeded against,

and

in only

about twenty-five are there actual convictions for murder.

Why, not year!

It

a baker's

dozen of

will be seen

from

human

beings

is

executed every

this that, unless the

hangman were very high, brought with them substantial perquisites, of the English

10

emoluments

or at all events

the public execu-

A

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

tioner could never hope merely by virtue of his office to

become

a rich

Government

dition of the deplorable.

man. Although

Even

if

be in the best

you must agree that

Service,

for

trait is

hangmen have im-

appalling to think

it is

The Times

see in

I

may

pay and conditions

proved in recent years,

once were.

this

how bad

they

30/1/1794 this shocking

of

statement:

A

petition from

Wm.

(commonly

Brunskill

called Jack

Ketch) was presented to the Court of Aldermen stating

was the public executioner and, on could not get any other employment (my that he

that account italics);

that

he was obliged to keep an assistant, though his allowance

was

small, and his

income so

as to be insufficient to

and praying

Very

my

italics),

maintain himself and family;

relief.

and not

terrible,

trifling (again

like

that they can keep a pub.

now when hangmen

are so loved

Our contemporary neckbreakers'

and stranglers' honoraria are based on the usual Treasury gardliness,

which

is

deplorable always

usually political) appointees,

—but ship.

when

It is all

the

cate art of the

—except for special (and

it

particularly deplorable in the

can be really generous

payment

of

hangman-

more deplorable when we compare the

hangman with

nig-

deli-

that of the "electrocutioner" or

the guillotiner, or the garotter of other countries less civilized

than Britain. What

What

skill is

skill

is

required to operate a switch?

required to twist a garotte?

What

skill is re-

quired to decapitate with the aid of an elaborate engine?

not include in the same category as these three the

I

do

German

method of beheading with ax or sword. Thank Heaven there or rather science remaining on the contiis still some art nent of Europe. The Germans used to go even further than we

—

—

do in recognition of their science,

formed

his

ceremony

in

for their

executioner per-

evening dress, like a violinist playing

11

Charles Duff

a

symphony

to

an enraptured audience

any other virtuoso appearing

or

lish

hangman performs

plus-fours.

He

at a public

lounge

in a

Wigmore Hall, function. The Eng-

at the

suit; or, for all

know, in

I

certainly does not function either in evening

dress or even a smoking-jacket, though in Scotland he has before

now worked

and

in kilts,

have taken to wearing trousers just like

a black coat

many

some

hear that

I

of the

moderns

and waistcoat and striped

diplomats, higher Civil Servants,

lawyers, and the smarter undertakers. But mostly public exe-

cutioners wear a bowler hat and a dark suit

— like collectors

of outstanding accounts, writservers, bailiffs (or

are frequently called),

and other modest personalities

times and culture. In private

— which,

bums

of course,

he

life

is

he looks

as they of

our

an average

just like

shows how casually

not. This

the English treat the business.

To return Before a

to the

man

is

vexed question of

art.

hangman has

hanged, the

assume the

to

parts of a mathematician, a scientist, an engineer, and an expert in dynamics.

Combined with

these he

of a philosopher

HANGMAN a MAN OF MANY PARTS

must have the mind

and the soul

of

practices art for art's sake. This

because he

is

one

who

must be

so,'

so inadequately paid that noth-

ing but the subconscious drive

which impels

great artists towards their major achievements could other-

wise account for his choice of this greatly underestimated and deplorably unrespected profession. Here I would dwell for

moment upon this most delicate aspect calling. I mean his pay and social status. a

Owing

to the increased cost of living

of the

hangman's

he has not received

from the public which he serves one-hundredth

of the consid-

which he is worthy. Art is all very well; but the artist must live. Apart altogether from the artistic side of the question, a man must be a brave man to be a hangman. I do eration of

not

mean

physical bravery, but moral.

moral bravery

in the sense that

12

And

I

do not

mean

he need have any qualms or

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

A

pangs of conscience in regard to hanging anybody; but that great deal of moral courage

is:

some people who

a

hero and an

artist.

hangman

as the

image

Absolute; though this

But

I

subject.

is

him

regard

of Sublimity,

probably exaggeration.

must not wander away from the main thread of the Having measured the man to be hanged, taken his

the

hangman who has

see that his apparatus

is

in

pear a simple matter, but later. If

what

with reference to the

weight, examined the contours of his neck (and cles),

as

we are not all move to treat

Fortunately,

depraved, and one was glad to note a recent the

an ignorant

of

and inconsiderate public. Not that there are not

he truly

required to face the loathing,

and even hatred

disrespect,

HANGMAN A BRAVE MAN

is

a

a job of

not

is

mus-

work on hand must next

good working it

felt its

order.

This

you

really, as

may

ap-

will learn

he omits to see to the oiling of his lever and bolts and

also the hinges of the trap-door

may

stand, he

upon which

easily bungle the

whole

his subject

thing.

And

happened. There was one man, a certain John Lee, could not hang; a sort of sport in the game

succumb

to

this has

whom

who

is

they

refused to

either to art or mechanics; either to argument, per-

suasion or virtuosity.

John Lee

is

a great figure in the

portant that his of Arc, etc.,

film

was

a

life,

annals of hanging

like that of the

King

of Kings,

— so im-

Nero, Joan

proved interesting enough to be filmed. Alas, the

had one, and omitted the most entertaining

pects of the hero's adventures

(I

fancy the censor

as-

may have

cut them).

He

possessed the secret,

He

if

not of eternal

refused to die, and

prolonged

life.

on behalf

of the late

Mr. Berry,

who

it

is

life,

then of

necessary to say

officiated at the long-

drawn-out hanging process, that he was in every way qualified to

perform the task. To judge from a perusal of his highly

instructive

book

of titillating reminiscences,

Mr. Berry ap-

peared to possess something like an ideal mental equipment

13

Charles Duff

for the line of

and

for tone

human

work he entered upon. He had

keen eye

a

a just appreciation of the bearing of his art

He had graduated

conduct.

upon wide

in the university of

practical experience

and had

the tricks

all

HANGMEN MAKE MISTAKES:

of the art at his finger-tips. But the cruel fact

JOHN

remains. Three times he tried to hang John

LEE

Lee

and three times he

;

no record was kept

of

when he found

thought

failed.

Unhappily,

what Mr. Hangman Berry

said or

that John Lee had bested him.

a humiliating position for

was

It

any English executioner and one

can well imagine him saying the words used in Matthew

hope that the hangman was adequately paid

xxvii, 46. Let us for his extra

are

work and

the frustration in this case, for there

few sadder pages in the history

failure.

Neither the

spirit

of the art

than this tragic

nor the flesh of the hangman was

weak; though

it is

were strong.

take this opportunity of vindicating the honor

I

clear that both spirit

of the great State Strangler

the dispatch of John Lee.

whose

and flesh

of

services were retained for

Any man who imputes weakness

either to the executioner or to the governor of the

the warders, or to the priest of erate

the

Government

man

God who was

There was an exaggeration

feet

down.

have to answer to me.

of terseness in

a great excellence.

It

to deal adequately

No

has been suggested to

with John Lee

idence of his innocence. Maybe.

Mr. Berry's style

flaw or hitch could

I

is

me

won

by Prov-

incline rather to attribute

immunity from hanging developed by heredity in dance with Mendel's theory; and I would also submit

it

accorit

as a

prove the correctness or otherwise of the

Darwinian theory

of evolution.

In the U.S.A. great

shown by

the

that the failure

a proof provided

to

fact tending to

or to

paid by a consid-

be discovered in the whole business. John Lee simply

game,

jail

to minister to the last spiritual needs of

to be hanged, will certainly

which was often

John Lee

powers

a Mr. Purvis

of

endurance and survival were

whose survival 14

of a

hanging enabled

A

his friends

and lawyers

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

to produce evidence of his innocence.

This was a terrible thing

for the State to face.

Purvis survived the jurors

who found him

of course,

cannot lose face in such cases,

son that the State

now

is

faceless: a

guilty.

Good Will The State, simple rea-

for the

wonderful convenience

for

The Establishment. Then again there was an interesting Mexican case: Wenceslao Moguel was not only shot thoroughly by a firing-squad but was given the usual what

is

called

coup de grace. He lived

to exhibit himself at the "Oddi-

torium" Fun-Fair on Broadway

for

$75 a week. His public

had good value: his benign countenance was scarred and bullet-ridden. But this for

many men have

is

considered to have proved nothing,

modern

survived a firing-squad in

totali-

tarian conditions.

The

hang John Lee was

failure to

officially

due to rain which had caused the planks

That might well have been the

explained as

of the trap to swell.

case: but,

so, it indicates

if

grave negligence on the part of the responsi-

JOHN LEE SAVED BY RA N!

.

....

.

,

.

.

,

,

chosen either

ble authorities in not having

|

well-seasoned

which would not

more of

wood

easily absorb water, as this did.

careful today. But there are

thought

or at least a good timber

among

experts as to

still

which wood

problem, and unimportant, especially as

and curators

of

made

are

three or four schools best for gal-

is

lows, the better thinkers being in favor of teak.

streamlined gallows

They

It is

a small

we may soon have

a

of plastic. Collectors, antiquarians,

museums may

be interested to

know

that the

actual rope used in the classic failure to hang John Lee, to-

gether with holograph letters written by Mr.

were

in 1948 exhibited for sale in a

Hangman

Berry,

Nottingham junk-shop. up by

shrewd

Whether

or not they have been snapped

vestor,

do not know. Incidentally, John Lee lived to a ripe

I

and contented old

Now hanging

an

art,

in-

age.

the chief object of this illustration is

a

and not

a

mechanical 15

is

to

affair. In a

show

that

mechanical

Charles Duff

business such as guillotining or garotting, or even electrocution, there

to

could be no such

failure;

though

must be admit-

it

.......

ted that the history of electrocution e rr is

without

also

human

case on record in still

is

black pages.

may

that an art

weakness, and this

its

by

fail

not a bad example.

which the

art of

It is

It

hanging

recognized

own

its

not

is

inherent

not the only

is

failed.

One can

pick up in the second-hand bookshops old prints which

show

on occasion, the hangman had to climb upon the gallows and finish off his victim by jumping on his shoulders.

And

that,

have heard of cases in recent years in which the hanghad to descend into the gallows-pit, seize his victim by

I

man

the feet, and, with a sharp and expert tug, break his neck.

only

fair to

It is

the art of hanging to mention these bunglings and

miscalculations, though they

must not

for

one

moment

be

considered as any indication of failure of the art as a whole.

And

they must not be advanced as arguments against

my own mind

have no doubt whatever in

it.

I

that John Lee could

have been brought to a satisfactory end had the authorities permitted the hangman a few further attempts. I should put the limit at thirteen. After

may

be,

he

is

human and bound To err

—a

is

sentiment which,

human,

if

to

to fail

artistic a

sometimes

hangman

:

to forgive divine

rather old-fashioned,

tudinous to be cited here. failed

however

all,

is

not too plati-

have another authentic case of a hanging: that of Ronald Seth, whom the Germans tried

hang

as a spy in

I

German-occupied Talinn in Estonia during

the Second World War. Mr. Seth survived to report:

The

trap

neath

on which

my feet,

shouts, and thither.

Then

fell a

I

was standing suddenly gave

few inches, and then stuck.

saw blurred I

fell

figures

forward.

16

I

be-

heard

running hither and

The rope tightened behind

A

my

ears,

and

my

then darkness.

eyes were filled with bright lights and

It

was

early afternoon

and found myself back

The

was

failure

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

this

I

to the

warm them

Some anti-Germans took advantage

in that

of the alco-

when

ceremony, the trap stuck, the crowd jeered

died.

was

It

it

at the

he himself rescued

officer in charge, and, fearing a rescue,

Ronald Seth before he

to

time due to vodka, of which the

holized state of the guards to "fix" the gallows and,

came

came

in Cell 13. 4

guards drank more than was necessary to cold climate.

when

a near thing.

However,

this

case can be dismissed as one far out of the ordinary, and unlikely to

happen

more modulated This brings

The is

in Britain,

where our alcoholic drinks

are

in manufacture.

me

to the qualifications of a

good hangman.

case of John Lee happened within living

in the nature of proof that not nearly

in the selection of our

memory and

enough care

hangmen. At present they

is

taken

are ap-

pointed by the old and discredited system

OPEN COMPETITION

AND

of patronage,

and

it

seems

to be a specially

"reserved" occupation and no "direction of

EXAMINATION for the post

labor" applies to

it.

In the ordinary British

Civil Service patronage

was abolished very

many years ago. A competitive examination or choice selection now decides who shall be important Civil Servants,- and I

would suggest

that the competitive

method be applied

to

the office of hangman.

That the competition would be keen

I

think there

is

no

doubt. I

submit that

if

a small advertisement

were inserted under

"Public Appointments" in any of the great newspapers or periodicals the Civil Service

whelmed with 4.

A

Spy Has

No

Commissioners would be over-

applications. In his

Friend, by Ronald Seth (1952).

17

own time

the late Mr.

Charles Duff

Berry was one of 1,400 applicants

when

a

vacancy occurred.

Research indicates that States can find executioners even in

circumstances

when one might

think

it

impossible.

The

au-

thorities in the French penal settlement in the lies de Salut

(Salvation Isles in English) found a convict who, in return for

modest

privileges,

would execute

his fellows in tribulation,

although he thereby became the most loathed

man

in the set-

tlement. Pecunia non olet. Imagine the thrill in Kensington

and Hampstead and Mayfair on reading these words:

A

competitive examination will be held between the

1st

and 14th

Hangman

of

August next

for the post of Public

The successful candidate

in England.

will

be expected to undergo two years’ probation before definite appointment.

Commencing

the rate of £900 10s. lOd. per

bonus isters

salary will be at

annum, plus

Civil Service

Canvassing of Cabinet Minor Members of Parliament will disqualify. Forms at the current rate}

of application with Birth Certificate to be sent in before the 31st

May. The standard of education will be

that of Pass B.A.,

Durham

University but a knowledge ;

of arithmetic will be expected.

The successful candi-

date must have a high moral character.

compete

in this examination.

Women may

Only natural-born

British

subjects need apply.

If

there

was

a rush of applicants for the post, the governing

motive would not necessarily be a pathological desire for notoriety, though it might be we have seen many examples

—

of

such

a desire.

But

I

have such

the average Englishman that

shoal of applications. the ardor of

5. If

It

am

I

faith in the patriotism of

certain there

would be

would, indeed, be necessary to

many pathological

enthusiasts;

any.

18

a

damp and no better way

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

A

make

could be found than to possible.

A high

the examination as difficult as

standard would have to he attained in math-

ematics and science, as well as

keen appreciation

a

of art

and

the humanities. Subtle problems could be set on the arith-

metic

of drops.

Here

an example of the type of question

is

I

have in mind:

You have

hang Mr. A. He

to

weighs 12

st.

2

lb.

6 oz.

is

5

ft.

10^ in. in height and

dwt. His neck from the

1

Sternocleidomastoid to the Sternohyoid measures 6f in.

The neck

is

strong

to three places of this

man

and 17

in. in

diameter. Calculate

decimals the drop necessary

to

hang

thoroughly, without risk of giving pain to

and quality of the terms of pounds avoirdupois

onlookers. Also give the diameter

rope you would employ, in of strain.

It is

culture in

hangman should be a person of wide and sympathies. He ought to be able to take his place

essential that a

any grade

of society,

and above

all

things he should not be

too class-conscious. During the Second World War, and

he had to travel as

with other

V.I.P.s.

a

after,

Very Important Person mixing freely

He ought

to be capable of being the guide,

philosopher and friend of whomsoever he must hang for us.

He ought CHARMING PERSONALITY OF HANGMEN

have "personality" in the stage

to

sense of the word; be able to "put It

is difficult

to say

what

a

it

across."

hangman ought

not to be, except callous. That would be un-

pardonable and intolerable from the point of view of the British public, the Queen's gion,

Government, the Christian

and our daily and sabbath

good working knowledge

would do no harm. There

of is

Press.

He ought

anatomy; and

also to

a little

reli-

have a

psychology

no reason why one human neck

should not be as regular as another, but experience has shown that

no two

are the same;

and hence the hangman must move 19

Charles Duff

cautiously. Mostly he

charm whose

He ought

is

person of great discretion and

a

produces a unique and delightful personal-

art

have a good practical knowledge of railway traveling so that he could, without loss of time, keep his apity.

to

pointments in different parts public

hangman ought

Kingdom. At

of the

to be able to drive a

a

pinch the

motorcar or

fly

an

aeroplane, ride a horse or bicycle, and be a good after-dinner speaker. All these things

would add

to the dignity of his

and overcome the ostracism to which it has so unworthily been subjected in the past. Is not the executioner a conceptualise The government department concerned ought to, and does, I think, provide him with a fully printed List of office

Instructions for the performance of his difficult task; and there should always he at least two understudies, fully qualified,

and not

less

than six probationers Henkersknechte (

assist

),

to

him.

Another idea which occurred

me was

to

that a uniform

should be devised for the public hangman in England, as for certain other branches of the State services: the Army, Navy, and Air Force, for example, which are employed for the killing or

a uniform for hangmen as they in

Her

maiming

of foreign

enemies in time

of

.

time the public would grow to love and respect the uniform of the hangman, just w

seemed

supplied to the authori-

where

a scaffold is to be

from the Engineer's Department

Home

a

has since proved to be,

it

is

it

with

Office; and,

at

a slight alter-

been the pattern in general use to the present day. The alteration of which I speak is a little one suggested by myself, and consists of the substitution of a slope, or a level ation, has

gangway, in place of steps.

have found, in some cases, when the criminals were nervous or prostrated, that the steps

formed

a practical difficulty.

proved by the

Home

1890, at Kirkdale It

was

I

a

The

and was

Office,

Jail,

for the

gangway, was ap-

slope, or first

used on April

execution of

simple improvement, but

it

Wm.

15,

Chadwick.

has turned out to be

a very useful one." (Mr. Berry's inborn

modesty will be ob-

served throughout this description of his official duties. Incidentally, it was only in 1937 that modern science was able to improve

on

his machinery.)

"At most

in the country the scaffold is taken to pieces

immediately pool,

after use, but in

of the jails

and

laid

away

Newgate, Wandsworth, Liver-

and Strangeways (Manchester),

it is

kept standing per-

manently. The essential parts of the scaffold are few. There is a heavy crossbeam, into which bolts terminating in hooks are usually fastened. In

on two upright

some

cases this crossbeam stands

posts, but usually its ends are let into the

walls of the scaffold-house. Of course, the hooks fastened to

it

are intended to hold the rope.

uaku-mai. describes

hanging

trap

'

or drop as '

lt is

The

scaffold proper, or

vari °usly called, is the

portion of the structure to which most importance is attached, and of which the Gov-

ernment furnishes

a plan.

It

consists of

two

massive oaken doors, fixed in an oak framework on a level with the floor, and over a deep, bricked pit. The arrangement

178

A

is

HANDBOOK ON HANGING

good one; as both doors must necessarily

a very

exactly the

same moment."

man's engineer

fell

at

(At a recent execution, a hang-

into the pit with the client. At another,

the drop worked but did not

kill

"What do you take me

A

weight

fall

for?

the client,

who

remarked:

Yo-Yo!") "Their great

b

— for they are of three-inch oak — causes them to drop

very suddenly, even without the weight of the criminal, and

they are caught by spring catches to prevent any possibility of rebound.

"The hour

fixed for execution

prisons, except

Wandsworth and

is

8:00 a.m., 52 in

Lincoln, where

it

all

the

9:00

is

a.m. Of course, the scaffold and rope are arranged, and the

drop decided, before-hand.

calculate for three minutes to

I

condemned doomed man,

be occupied from the time of entering the

cell

to the finish of life's great tragedy for the

so

1

enter the cell punctually at three minutes to eight. In order that

my

man may be what is known

action in hanging a

sary that

I

should have

to Hang,'

which

handed

me

to

a

is

drawn up and signed by the

it

form varies is

a

good

Sheriff,

and

the law delights. But usually

it

deal. In

some

cases

full

of the

in

which

'whatsoevers'

simple, official-looking

is a

clerk,

jail

and

of the execution.

wordy document,

long,

'wherefores'

form, engrossed by the

a

neces-

as an 'Authority

few minutes before the time Its

AN "ORDER TO HANG"

legal, it is

and running somewhat

as follows:

I

,

of

To JAMES BERRY in the County ,

Esquire, Sheriff of the said

authorize you to hang

52.

Owing

to public

County

of

of

,

A

B

demonstrations outside prisons likely to obstruct

has been found necessary to vary the hour: 9 a.m.

179

is

now

fashionable.

do hereby

who

traffic, etc.,

it

Charles Duff

now

under Sentence of Death in Her Majesty's Prison

lies

at

Dated

this

day of Sheriff.

" This is

Re

folded in three

A

53 ,

and endorsed

outside,

B

AUTHORITY TO HANG Sheriff

shire

"When we

enter the

condemned

already there, and has been for

some

time.

who have watched

through the convict's

are also present.

my

is

some

Two

last

attendants,

night on earth,

/

to

whom

he generally gives

token or keepsake, and I at once proceed to pinion his arms. As soon as the little

done, a procession

is

formed, and

it

used to be in

the following order:

Chief Warder

Warder

Warder

CHAPLAIN CONVICT EXECUTIONER

Warder

Principal Warder

Sheriff

Bearer

Wand Jail

Note Mr.

Warder

Warder

Governor and

53.

Warder

Principal

Warder

Wand

is

appearance the convict takes leave of

atten

Co Co

1

Q p7 '

to

TO

8

READY

3 a> a P

C-f

•P

o o

36

a

8

t-f-S

Co

39

an 'O

8

a-

nr O °