Category: Murder

As a child, I remember large, ancient trees being called “hangman’s trees.” It was unlikely that anyone was actually hung on these particular trees, but…

People did not survive a quick drop of the blade under the guillotine, but plenty of people did survive their hanging. This was mostly because…

Before the electric chair gained preference in the United States, hanging was the most common way to get rid of society’s undesirables. Newspapers were full…

The garrote was used in Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines during the 1800s and early 1900s. It was a slow, torturous way to…

This original report, made by a reporter who witnessed the guillotine execution of Danvers, is the first mention I have found on the bloodiness and…

There is no denying that the guillotine made fast work of executions and that Deibler and his assistants made the executions run smoothly, with little…

Parties and celebrations often began before the execution of a criminal in France, but sometimes, especially when the criminal was a murderer, the parties went…

Anatole Deibler, France’s former high executioner who oversaw the use of the guillotine on hundreds of condemned criminals, was asked whether or not it hurt…

After someone made his appointment with the National Razor (guillotine), he was whisked away from the scene and taken to a burial ground where family…

I have written about decapitated heads that bite, but I have not touched on the eyes of decapitated heads moving. There is a lot of…