How Our Ancestors Died by Simon Wills

Author:Simon Wills
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783469819
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

It was not until 1868 that public executions were banned, and from that date onwards all hangings were conducted behind prison walls.

The ‘short drop’ method of hanging, used in both the above cases, was replaced by a more humane approach in the late 1860s. The condemned individual fell through a trapdoor with the rope about the neck: when the rope pulled taut the victim’s neck was broken so that death was almost instant. However, this method was made more precise by use of the ‘long drop’ method in the 1870s, with the length of the drop determined by the victim’s body weight. Famous criminals who were hanged by this method include notorious murderer Charles Peace in 1879, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen who poisoned his wife and was hanged in 1910, and Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain in 1955.

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