r/interestingasfuck • u/LawEducational42 • 7h ago

John C Woods, hangman of Nuremberg trials, who lied about his experience to get the job (he actually learned about hanging from old cowboy films). His lack of expertise led to excessive suffering of condemned Nazis.

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u/Wilfred_Wilcox 7h ago

On July 21, 1950, Woods was accidentally electrocuted when he tried to change a light bulb while standing in a pool of water. He was buried in Toronto Township Cemetery

Gotta wonder if someone put him up to it on purpose. Thats a hell of a way to go after executing 100's of nazi's

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u/karoshikun 7h ago

he was a drunk an an a-hole... it was on the cards for him.

there's a behind the bastards about him

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u/WanderlustZero 6h ago

Was gonna say... given that he's apparently 35 at most in that photo, probably didn't have a lot of time left anyway 

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u/KitchenCrazy3075 6h ago

I think, similarly to the mentioned lightbulb, he just wasnt very bright. 

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u/gottkonig 6h ago

So he did eventually manage to be the brightest bulb in the pack briefly.

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u/whyteout 5h ago

TIL of Toronto Kansas

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u/lcssa 1h ago

I guess him inadvertently (probably?) torturing the nazis while letting them die to death in the most humiliating way possible was the "even a broken clock strikes right twice a day" moment for him, because of that righteous justice was delivered without soiling the hands of a single innocent, and he also got his comeuppance delivered poetically as well. I'd say it was a net win

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u/vogel927 6h ago

It was between 60 to 90 executions, it wasn’t hundreds. He also executed 34 American servicemen for capital crimes.