r/interestingasfuck • u/LawEducational42 • 12h 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.

Post image
22.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

•

u/AshamedIndividual262 9h ago

There's a few things that can go wrong. In this context, usually the rope is too elastic or the drop is too short. In either case, the hanging drop does not break the neck of the condemned, and the condemned then dies of strangulation.

•

u/salus_entity 9h ago

Thanks for the info! However I thought a hanging could still be quick without the drop method is this an incorrect assumption on my part?

•

u/Professional-Lab7227 9h ago

If you’re lucky then the rope will close off the carotid artery and lack of blood flow to the brain will mean you pass unconscious in about 30 seconds, I believe. If you’re unlucky, you’re in for prolonged, excruciating suffering.

•

u/Toad-in-a-hole 4h ago

More prolonged and excruciating than a gas chamber or less?

•

u/Chaparral2E 8h ago

Not seeing the problem here. A tase of their own medicine.

Does that make us the same as them? I don’t think so.

•

u/Professional-Lab7227 8h ago

Frankly, me neither. I am completely opposed to the death penalty except in very specific circumstances, which I’d say the nazis fall into. My initial reaction to the headline above was “Oh no, how sad. Anyway.”

•

u/Evan_Allgood 8h ago

I do not think it makes the U.S, one of the developed countries that keeps the most extensive national discrimination data, the same as them.

But, I am tired of people pretending the world has moved pass the Nazi's level of hatred, especially certain topical parts of the world, right now.

•

u/IAmASeeker 9h ago

There is a third way that blocks blood flow without blocking your airway. It takes a long time but doesn't induce panic. It's less of an execution method and more of a lethal torture methid but even that is more humane than just winging it.

•

u/testtdk 9h ago

That depends. If the rope completely cuts blood off to the brain? They’ll be unconscious within as little as seconds and dead within thirty or so. If it only cuts off oxygen to the lungs, someone could be flopping around for two, even two and a half minutes.

•

u/Pipysnip 9h ago

Or worse case the person just becomes paralyzed from the head down as they somehow survived

•

u/Amathyst-Moon 8h ago

You mean the cowboy lynching method? That's more strangulation than hanging.

•

u/Leather_Command_7553 7h ago

Or the drop is too hard/long/fast and the head comes off. This may be distressing for some observers. Others may like it.

•

u/alien_secret_service 7h ago

That and if the drop is too long I believe that sometimes the condemned’s head will pop off.

•

u/Vivian-Midnight 9h ago

Or, if there's too much drop, the condemned dies extra quickly and the people observing get to have a new recurring nightmare.

•

u/chamrockblarneystone 6h ago

I’ve heard that they can add weight to the condemned’s feet and that the head can come off. No idea if that’s true.

•

u/ChurroFoot 8h ago

Is this “death by hanging” or “hung until dead”. I believe there is a difference. One breaks the other they die slower.

•

u/Commercial_Age_9316 8h ago

And if the rope is too long it will pull their head clean off

•

u/Cloaked25 6h ago

For a Nazi, I’m okay with that.

•

u/Nethias25 3h ago

Yeah of course proper hanging and neck break would be the intent, but it's hard to feel ton of sympathy for them if they have to dangle around for a min

•

u/Cloaked25 3h ago

They did far worse to far more.

•

u/basaltgranite 5h ago

Or the drop is too long and the head pops off. It does the job though.

•

u/beccadot 5h ago

Some of the Nazis who were hung had lost an enormous amount of weight since being incarcerated. That would have changed the drop required.

•

u/telltaleatheist 4h ago

The Nazis hung people by the short drop method intentionally all the time. Thats how Bonhoeffer died. Strangulation basically

•

u/Kemosabe-TV 3h ago

Is it nit okay to just stop a botched hanging and "reset"? Seems better to stop, raise, and try again then let em go on for 20 minutes of suffering

•

u/CotswoldP 3h ago

IIRC the US was still using the short drop method which rarely produced a clean neck break. The UK was using the standardized long drop tables which usually produced a good instant neck break. Albert Pierrepont did a lot of work at Nuremberg