There were numerous superstitions surrounding the gallows while it was still in active use throughout Europe and the U.S. Everyone feared being hung, although knowing the punishment for the crime, it did not stop people from committing murder and other atrocities.
Stiff Neck
It’s one thing to wake up with a stiff neck, but if that pain in the neck continues, it can only mean one thing: You are going to the gallows to be hung. In times past, people rightly feared being sent to the gallows for the damnedest things, from witchcraft to being falsely accused of committing a crime. The stiff neck omen was probably just an extreme reminder to be extra careful in what you do and say.
Crossroads
When two roads intersect and cross each other, it was commonly called the crossroads. This area was viewed by many to be particularly evil. This may be in part because the gallows were often placed at road intersections and bodies were left to rot their for all travelers to see. Ghosts of criminals and suicides were said to haunt the crossroads. The crossroads also became a place for dark magic and love spells,
Stroked By Dead Man
A report from 1777 details how a woman, attending a hanging, went up to the body after it was hung to help heal the boil or cyst on her face. The executioner untied the hanged man’s hands and helped stroke her face with the dead hand as the body still swung in order to heal her face. Warts were also cured this way and, no doubt, the hanged man was believed to cure (carry down to hell with him) many other ailments.
There are further reports of nurses and mothers bringing children to hangings so that the children could be stroked with the dead hand
Wedding Under the Gallows
According to folk superstition, if you are a criminal and want to avoid being hung in the gallows, you need to find a woman to marry you under a gallows tree or gibbet. Might be kind of fun if you are into role playing.
Walking Under a Ladder
Most people have heard that it is bad luck to walk under a ladder. An earlier version claims that the person who walks under the ladder will soon be hanged in the gallows. This probably comes from the fact that people were once hanged from off a ladder. When without a good hanging tree and no sound structure for hanging a person, a ladder was leaned against a wall and the criminal was forced up the ladder and made to jump off. This “short drop” did not snap the criminal’s neck, causing a long struggle until the criminal finally died from strangulation.
Headache Cure
If you have ever seen the movie Practical Magic, you will remember that the hangman’s rope has magical powers. This superstition was not made up for just the movie. In fact, after a hung body was cut down, people would scramble to get a piece of the rope used to hang the criminal. A strand of the rope, worn about the neck was said to cure even the worst of headaches.
Keep Boots Off the Table
Never put your boots on a chair or on top of the table. Similar to sympathetic magic, by placing a pair of boots on the chair or table symbolized being hung, as the boots would have to come down off either platform and leave the body suspended in midair.
Dark Arts Hanging
Similar to the well known voodoo arts, dark arts practitioners in Europe and the United States would make rag dolls out of their victim’s clothes and hang the dolls up by a noose. This was believed to either bring great misfortune to the victim (because getting hung is sort of the ultimate in bad luck) or bring about the victim’s death.
Pay the Hangman
It was a custom for those about to be hung to pay the hangman in advance. It was believed that by doing so, the hangman was obliged to make your death quicker and less painful. On the other hand, if you were too poor to pay the hangman, you ran the risk of strangling slowly to death.
Cure For Fever
Finally, for the last bit of gruesome, it was once rumored that the gallows tree or any wooden structure used to hang people had healing power. Whenever someone was feeling sick with a fever and body aches, the best cure was to get some wood chips from the gallows, tie the chips up in a small bags, and wear them around the neck until cured. Nothing is said about what to do with the bag of gallows chips afterwards, but burning them altogether was probably the best idea as the chips would have absorbed the fever and could release them again if they were worn by someone else.
Sources:
Brand, J., & Ellis, T. H. (1873). Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain. London: Bell and Daldy.
Oliver, H., & Oliver, H. (2010). Black cats & four-leaf clovers: The origins of old wives’ tales and superstitions in our everyday lives. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Rhodes, C. (2012). Black cats and evil eyes: A book of old-fashioned superstitions. London: Michael O’Mara.
The little giant encyclopedia of superstitions. (1999). New York: Sterling Pub.
