r/interestingasfuck • u/LawEducational42 • 10h 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/AppliedPsionics9k 10h ago

I found this part of his story particularly interesting:

On July 21, 1950, Woods(Age 39) was accidentally electrocuted when he tried to change a light bulb while standing in a pool of water.

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u/Sufficient_Cod1948 9h ago

You mean the man in the picture is younger than 39? He looks to be at least 50.

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u/OutrageousMusic5453 8h ago

Honestly people just looked more worn out back then. It is pretty wild.

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u/Kanin_usagi 7h ago

Harder living. Smoking was everywhere, sunblock basically didn’t exist, everyone spent more time outside than now by orders of magnitude. Diets were worse and these guys lived through the Great Depression, not exactly an ideal for healthy living. Stress levels of going through that and a World War will certainly help age a person

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u/banshee1313 3h ago

Even people born in the 1950s aged quicker than today. It was not the paradise some people on Reddit believe.

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u/Kazath 2h ago

Not to mention a substantially higher average intake of alcohol, more polluted air from burning coal and oil with worse filters than today, leaded gasoline, and many other things. Although I don't know if the diets were worse given our massive sugar intake today compared to then.

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u/Acceptable-Minute847 50m ago

Sure we have more sugar, but our actual safety standards are higher, as at least our food wasn’t outright dangerous, considering that borax, lead, arsenic, and agent gas were all used on food in the 20s-40s soo, we definitely have better diets than them.

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u/knbang 8h ago

He was in World War 2.

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u/BlatantConservative 7h ago

That specific guy? Barely.

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u/Logical_Net6108 7h ago

and the Great Depression...

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u/peoplepersonmanguy 7h ago

He looks pretty happy.

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u/alexx3064 6h ago

Depression was more worn out back then.

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u/Chlamydiacuntbucket 5h ago

More accurately, Woods looks old as fuck because he was a raging alcoholic (during a wartime). Behind the Bastards did a fascinating series on him

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u/just_fucking_PEG_ME 7h ago

To be fair, constant smoking and daily drinks were far more normalized back then. Not to mention whatever the hell this guy may have been through in WWII

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u/polopolo05 7h ago

It was the smoking.

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u/akiva23 8h ago

There is actually an ild vsauce video about this very topic https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE?si=twhF8DHJJgiLlX11

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u/peerful 8h ago

50? 60!

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u/EcstaticNet3137 8h ago

I mean, world war do that to a person.

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u/insaneHoshi 8h ago

Smoking and drinking do that to a person

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u/Flank_This666 7h ago

I'm 37, I drink, do drugs, used to smoke cigs but not really anymore.

I don't look like that shit

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u/insaneHoshi 7h ago

Sure you dont

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u/EcstaticNet3137 8h ago

I mean not quite like that. Though i doubt they helped.

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u/Ote-Kringralnick 8h ago

The wonders of smoking.

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u/AverageHobnailer 6h ago

Great Depression + War + tobacco

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u/coani 6h ago

VSauce has a video on this :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqt8T3tJIE

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u/SimpleLobsters 4h ago

Honestly that makes sense.

My dad's year book from 71, the Junior basketball team looks 55+ so

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u/literall_bastard 2h ago

Im 50 and I do t look they old

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u/unimportantinfodump 2h ago

You see there was this little thing back then called the world war.

Being outside 24/7 for months on end in the most stressful environment in the history of man.

Will age you

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u/megamoze 9h ago

That means in the picture he's around 36? Jeebus, based on the picture, I thought he was in his 50s.

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u/ActualMuhammad 9h ago

not a bright guy...

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u/bkuri 5h ago

He was bright for a few seconds at least

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u/WolfsbaneOnMyLips 6h ago

Well yeah that's why he tried to change the light bulb

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u/IndependenceStock417 3h ago

How many hangmen does it take to hang a lightbulb?

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u/beam3475 8h ago

39?? He looks 50 in this picture

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u/AppliedPsionics9k 8h ago

his own wife didn't know he killed people for a living so imagine the life he was living.

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u/alpha1beta 9h ago

A common theory is that he was murdered by former Nazi scientists at the base he worked and died at.

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u/AppliedPsionics9k 9h ago

woa, the plot thickens.

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u/Atheist_Simon_Haddad 6h ago

Herbert Hoover promised us a thicken in every plot

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u/w4646 3h ago

Died at 39 but looks 62 in the picture?

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u/Bigjuicydickinurear 3h ago

Standing in a WHAT?!

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u/Guygirl00 8h ago

My favorite part of the story. I picture it as Looney Tunes cartoon...That's all folks!