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07 - My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry · My Experiences as an Executioner

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six of My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane, Chapter six Other methods of execution. From time
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  Speaker 1: to time people raise an outcry against the English mode
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  Speaker 1: of putting criminals to death, and there are many Englishmen
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  Speaker 1: who have a firm conviction that hanging is the very
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  Speaker 1: worst and most unscientific form of capital punishment. The prejudices
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  Speaker 1: of these people seem to be based on an utterly
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  Speaker 1: wrong idea of how an English execution is conducted, and
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  Speaker 1: I hope that the chapter dealing with my method will
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  Speaker 1: form the basis for a truer judgment of methods of
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  Speaker 1: execution that have been suggested as substitutes for hanging. There
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  Speaker 1: are some which hardly deserve consideration because there is no
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  Speaker 1: considerable number of people who would approve of them. The
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  Speaker 1: various methods of beheading are hardly likely to be ever
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  Speaker 1: in favour with english Men generally, for they want executions
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  Speaker 1: to be as free as possible from revolting details. The
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  Speaker 1: old Headsman's Acts and block, which are still to be
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  Speaker 1: seen in the tower, are in themselves sufficient argument against
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  Speaker 1: a revival of their use. Apart from the fact that
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  Speaker 1: beheading under the best conditions is revolting, we may further
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  Speaker 1: consider that, from the very nature of the office, the
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  Speaker 1: executioner who has to hack off his victim's head must
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  Speaker 1: be a brutal and degraded man, and the chances are
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  Speaker 1: that he will not be so skillful or so careful
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  Speaker 1: as he ought to be for the performance of such
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  Speaker 1: a task. Even amongst races which are not so highly
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  Speaker 1: civilized as the English, and where it is easier to
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  Speaker 1: tin headsmen of proportionately better standing, we occasionally hear of
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  Speaker 1: more than one blow being required to cause death, and
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  Speaker 1: such a state of things is very horrible. In China,
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  Speaker 1: decapitation has been reduced to almost a science, and the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese executioners are probably the most skillful headsmen in the world.
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  Speaker 1: I have in my possession a Chinese executioner's knife with
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  Speaker 1: which the heads of nine pirates were severed in nine
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  Speaker 1: successive blows, and a terrible knife it is and well
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  Speaker 1: fitted for its purpose. Yet even with such a weapon,
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  Speaker 1: and with the skill and experience which Chinese execution has
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  Speaker 1: attained from frequent practice, the blow sometimes fails, as was
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  Speaker 1: the case in one of the last batch of Chinese
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  Speaker 1: executions reported in the English newspapers. Even the guillotine, which
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  Speaker 1: is often spoke of as the only perfect and certain
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  Speaker 1: lines method, has been known to fail, and we have
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  Speaker 1: cases in which the knife has been raised and dropped
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  Speaker 1: a second time before causing death. In any case, whether
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  Speaker 1: the guillotine, the axe, or the Chinese knife is used,
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  Speaker 1: and whatever care may be taken to render the death
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  Speaker 1: painless and instantaneous, there is a horrible mutilation of the
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  Speaker 1: sufferer that must be revolting to all sensitive people. The
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  Speaker 1: Spanish and Spanish American method of execution by means of
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  Speaker 1: the grot has been much praised by some advocates of reform.
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  Speaker 1: The prisoner to be grotted is placed in a chair
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  Speaker 1: to the back of which an iron collar is attached
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  Speaker 1: in such a manner that it can be drawn partly
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  Speaker 1: through the chair back by means of a heavily weighted lever.
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  Speaker 1: When the lever and weight are raised, the head can
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  Speaker 1: be passed through the collar, and by dropping the weight,
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  Speaker 1: the collar is drawn tight and causes strangulation. This method
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  Speaker 1: is certain, but I do not consider it so good
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  Speaker 1: as the present English system of hanging, because death by
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  Speaker 1: strangulation is much slower and more painful than death by dislocation.
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  Speaker 1: In one form of the garrotting chair, this fact has
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  Speaker 1: been recognized, and an iron spike is placed immediately behind
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  Speaker 1: the neck, so that when the pressure is applied, the
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  Speaker 1: spike enters between two of the vertebrae and severs the
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  Speaker 1: spinal cord. This I consider worse than our own system,
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  Speaker 1: because the iron spike must cause a certain amount of bleeding,
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  Speaker 1: which the English method avoids. The American system of hanging,
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  Speaker 1: which has been recently superseded by electrocution, was but a
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  Speaker 1: slight modification of the ancient system of jack ketch or
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  Speaker 1: the time honored method of judge lynch. In these older systems,
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  Speaker 1: the conv it stood upon the ground while the rope
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  Speaker 1: was placed around his neck and the other end passed
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  Speaker 1: over the arm of the gallows or the limb of
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  Speaker 1: a tree. Then the executioner and his assistance hauled on
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  Speaker 1: the other end of the rope until the victim was
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  Speaker 1: swung clear off the ground and was gradually strangled. In
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  Speaker 1: the improved American method, the place of the executioner was
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  Speaker 1: taken by a heavy weight which was attached to the
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  Speaker 1: rope and which rapidly ran up the convict to a
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  Speaker 1: height of some feet. In some few very extreme cases
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  Speaker 1: of heavy bodies with frail necks, this may have caused dislocation,
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  Speaker 1: but as a rule, strangulation would be the cause of death.
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  Speaker 1: When the use of electricity for executions began to be
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  Speaker 1: talked of as a practical possibility, I naturally took much
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  Speaker 1: interest in the subject. As the resort of all the
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  Speaker 1: inquiries I was able to make, I concluded that although electricscution,
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  Speaker 1: as the Americans call it, is theoretically perfect, it presents
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  Speaker 1: many practical difficulties. The experience of the authorities in the
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  Speaker 1: case of the wretched man Kremler, who was executed by
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  Speaker 1: electricity in New York, fully proves that as yet we
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  Speaker 1: do not know enough about the conditions under which electricity
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  Speaker 1: will cause painless and sudden death. When the particulars of
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  Speaker 1: the method that was to be adopted for executions in
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  Speaker 1: New York were first published, I was with a small
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  Speaker 1: committee of gentlemen in Manchester who were investigating the subject.
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  Speaker 1: They made all arrangements for experiments to test the reliability
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  Speaker 1: of the method. Two animals were obtained that had to
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  Speaker 1: be killed in any case, namely a calf and an
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  Speaker 1: old dog of a large breed. In the case of
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  Speaker 1: the calf, the connections were made in the manner prescribed,
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  Speaker 1: and the current was turned on. This was repeated to twice,
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  Speaker 1: but the only result was to cause the calf to
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  Speaker 1: drop on its knees and bellow with fear and pain,
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  Speaker 1: and the butcher at once killed it in the ordinary
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  Speaker 1: way with his pole axe. When the shock was applied
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  Speaker 1: to the dog, he fell down and seemed to be paralyzed,
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  Speaker 1: but it was some time before life was extinct. The
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  Speaker 1: latest reports of American executioners say that the deaths were
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  Speaker 1: instantaneous and painless, but the value of such statements is
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  Speaker 1: lessened by the fact of reporters being excluded. The total
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  Speaker 1: exclusion of the press at any rate seems like an
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  Speaker 1: admission of the authorities that they had no confidence in
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  Speaker 1: the certainty of the method they were using. Altogether, after
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  Speaker 1: a careful consideration of all the principal modes of execution,
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  Speaker 1: I am convinced that our English method, as at present
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  Speaker 1: in use, is the best yet known, because it is
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  Speaker 1: absolutely certain, instantaneous and painless. It may be interesting to
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  Speaker 1: close this chapter with a list of the principal methods
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  Speaker 1: of execution in use in foreign countries. Austria hanging public, Bavaria,
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  Speaker 1: guillotine private, Belgium guillotine public, Brunswick axe private, China, sword
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  Speaker 1: or bowstring public, Denmark guillotine public. France guillotine nominally public,
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  Speaker 1: but really so surrounded by cordons of gens de arms, etc.
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  Speaker 1: As to be virtually private. Germany, sword or hanging private,
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  Speaker 1: Hanover guillotine private, Italy, no capital punishment, Netherlands hanging public, Portugal,
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  Speaker 1: hanging public, Prussia, sor private. Russia rifle shot, hanging or
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  Speaker 1: sword public, but capital punishment is practically abolished, except for
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  Speaker 1: political offenses. Spain, garat public, Switzerland fifteen cantons, sword public,
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  Speaker 1: two cantons, guillotine public, two cantons guillotine private. United States,
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  Speaker 1: New York state, electric shock private, Other states hanging private.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter six recording by Ashley Jane