Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1882 — SENSATIONS IN HANGING. [ARTICLE]

SENSATIONS IN HANGING.

There are many instances on record in which the punishment of sub." per col. has failed, either through some peculiarity in the neck of the individual, or a want of tact in the hangman. More than six centuries ago—if old records are true—Juetta de Balsham, convicted of harboring thieves, was sentenced to be executed. She hung for three days, revived, and was pardoned as a phenomenon who had somehow or other overmastered the gallows. There is the authority of Obadiah Walker, master of New College, Oxford, for a story that a Swiss was hanged thirteen times over, every attempt being frustrated by a peculiarity in the wind-pipe whicn prevented strangulation. We are not told whether the thirteenth time was successful, or whether justice was merciful at last. Ann Green was hanged at Oxford for infanticide in 1650; nay, her legs were pulled, and her body struck with soldiers’ muskets, in accordance with a barbarous custom sometimes adopted of making assurance doubly sure. Nevertheless, she survived after hanging some considerable time. Her body was given up for dissection. The surgeon observed faint signs of animation, tended her instead of anatomizing hex, and in thirteen hours she was able to speak. She remembered nothing distinctly of what had occurred, but seemed to herself to have been in a deep sleep. The ciown pardoned her; she married and became the mother of a family, and her husband forgave her the errors of her past life, possibly for a kind of celebrity which the singular episode had brought to her. Other examples of a more or less analogous kind are the following : A woman —name unrecorded—was hanged in

1808. She came to herself after a suspension for the prescribed period, not by slow d grees, but suddenly. John Green experienced an ordeal something like that of Ann Green. After being hanged at Tyburn, his body was taken to Sir William Blizard, a. celebrated surgeon ; and while out on a table in the dissecting room he displayed signs of life and effectually recovered. A female servant of Mrs. Cope, of Oxford, convicted of some penal offense, was executed in 1650. After hanging an unusually long time she was cut down and fell heavily to the ground. The shook revived her, but the unfortunate wretch was effectually hanged the next day. Margaret Dickson, a century and a half ago, was convicted of concealment of birth, and was subjected to the last penalty of the law. Her body, after hanging on the gibbet a t Edinburgh, was out down and given to her friends. They put it in a eoflin, aud drove off with it in a cart six miles to Musselburg. Some apprentices rudely stopped the cart and loosened the lid of the coffin. This let in tire air, and the air and the jolting revived her. She was carried in doors alive, but faint and scarcely conscious : a minister came to pray with her, and she effectually recovered. No mention of collusion occurs in this narative, although some incidents would seem to point that way. Margaret lived many years, and had other children born to her, and was familiarly known in Edinburgh, where she sold salt, as “Haiflianged Maggie.” Instances are known in which a rebound after the fall lias enabled the feet of the victim to touch the platform, and with what ultimate l'esult has to be determined by a conflict between mercy nnd sternness on the part of the authorities. A disgraceful scene took place at Edinburgh in 18'8. The rope with which a man was banged being too loose, his toes touched the platform, the assembled mob got up a riot on some pretext, the half-hanged man was carried off, recapture!, and finally hanged on the following day. A scene of a similar deplorable nature had been witnessed at Jersey a few years previously. A whimsical legend, made the subject of one of Southey’s ballads, relates to a man who was resuscitated after hanging, and disappeared from the gibbet in a mysterious manner. In ninety-one stanzas Southey tells the story of Boprecht. the robber, believed in Germany to have some foundation in fact. Boprecht, who had long been a terror to the inhabitants of Cologne, was at length caught, tried, sentenced and executed. On the next morning, r to the surprise of the early passers by, the gibbet was found to be empty. One week later Bopi’echt was seen hanging there again, but wearing boots and spfirs instead of shoes. What this could all mean was left to Peter Suoye to tell. He and hia son Piet were driving home late on the night after the execution. Passing near the gibbet they heard a low moan. Looking up they found it to proceed from Boprecht. Bobber and rascal though lie might be, they did not like to leave him in such a pitiable state. They cut him down, put him into their cart, and carried him to their home, revived him, and concealed him from the authorities. Whatever virtues Boprecht may have possessed, gratitude was not one of them, for we are told that one morning early, before the family was astir, he took Peter’s horse and Piet’s boots and spurs and absconded. But Frau Suoye, who had some little suspicion of the man, overheard some of his movements and aroused her husband and son. These two mounted spare horses, galloped after him, kept him in sight, overtook him, seized him after a desperate struggle, dragged him to the gibbet and there hanged him most effectually. His own rope was ready there, To measure the length we took good care; Ard the job which the bungling hangman began. This time, I 'hink, was properly done By me"and Piet Peterzoon, my son. Many instances— how many we are never likely to know— have occurred in which the culprit and his friendß made arrangements beforehand to defeat the hangman’s endeavors. M. Yanderkiste in his “ Six Years’ Mission Among the Dens of London,” mentions a woman who was condemned to death for passing forged bank notes. Her friends, with purgical aid, caused a silver tab* to b#

inserted in her throat some short time before the rope was plaoed around her neck. This prevented strangulation. Her friends obtained possession of the body and restored her, though with great difficulty, she lived many years afterward. In 1696, Richard Johnson, of Shrewsbury, sentenced to death for some crime, persuaded the Sheriff to agree that his body, after hanging, should be put in a eoffia without being stripped. The Sheriff may have been kind, bat was certainly weak, for cords had been twisted around and under the body, connected with a pair of hooks at the neck, and all concealed under a doable skirt and flowing periwig. But the cunning was frustrated, despite the weakness of the Sheriff, as Johnson showed signs of life, even after hanging half an hoar. An examination was made, the apparatus discovered, and the man successfully and finally hanged on the following day. Whether any tube was inserted we are not told, bat there was evident collusion in the case of the man hanged at Cork in 1767. His body was carried by his friends to a predetermined spet, where a surgeon made an incision in the windpipe and resuscitated the man in six hoars. Let as hope that the rest of the story is not quite true, to the effect that the fellow went to the theater the same evening. The William Dnell who was hanged in 1740, who came to himself again when just about to be dissected at Surgeon’s Hall, may, like Ann Green, have survived through rome peculiarity in the neck or some clumsiness on the part of the executioner, without any collusion or cunning among his friends. In 1787 a man named Kelly was sentenced to execution at Trim, in Ireland. On the early morning of the day intended to be his last he contrived to cut his blanket into strips about four inches wide, join them together with strong woolen threads aDd form a double sling. This he passed under his arms, fastened the ends at his neck and there provided an iron hook to receive the halter. Thus accoutred he proceeded to the place of execution. It is supposed that he found means to bribe the hangman, to whom he made a request to draw up close to the pully and lower him gently when dead. But the crafty maneuver did not succeed. Kelly had not allowed for the stretching of the strips of blanket by his own weight, the point of the hook fastened into his windpipe and gave him such pain that he struggled violently. He was, however, allowed to hang until he was really dead, when the sling apparatus was discovered. A successful attempt to cheat the gallows once brought an under-sheriff into trouble. William Barrett* executed in Tyrone in 1759, contrived to wear some kmd of a concealed collar, which prevented strangulation ; he was At down apparently dead, but afterward recovered. Mr. Aunsley, under-sheriff, as a punishment for allowing Barrett thus to evade the law, was fined £IOO and imprisoned for two years. In former times the mode in which the dismal operations of the gallows were conducted led occasionally to a frustration of the law’s intention. The unhappy culprit, after the halter was adjusted around his neck, was pushed so as to slip or slide from a ladder. Asphyxia was sometimes produced without any dislocation. Under the modern arrangement a trap door opens in a platform on whiqa the culprit stands, occasioning a sudden and considerable fall, from which recovery is much less probable. This change led to the frustration of a plan that might possibly have been successful under the old system. William Brodie was executed in Edinburgh in 1793. His friends had prearranged for his resuscitation, but the fall of the drop was greater than had been expected, and he was quite dead when taken down. There is an old Sootch saying, “ Brodie’s drap was too much for Brodie,” which, we believe, refers to the case of this William Brodie, for the “ drap ” or drop was too great for the vital organism to resist. A reprieve has sometimes arrived too late to save the poor wretch in whose behalf it had been obtained. More fortunate was a burglar who was hanged in 1705, for the reprieve arrived when life was only half extinct. He was quickly cut down, placed under mefljcal care, <nd restored. A reprieve of another kind from the effects of a foolhardy trick came a little too late. In 1806 a youth aged 17, and named Matthew Watson, resolved to make a small attempt at hanging himself, “to see how it felt.” Se went into a cellar, and succeeded more completely than he had intended, for he was found hanging with life quite extinct. A strange mania this, but the examples to illustrate it are more numerous than most of us would suppose. A question arises which very few living persons are in a position to answer, viz.: What are the sensations experienced during hanging? Some of the few who have been able, to give any account of their consciousness at so critical a moment say that, after one instant of pain, the chief sensation is that of a mass of brilliant colors tilling the eyeballs. The Quarterly Review, volume 35, treating on this matter, says : “An acquaintance of Lord Bacon, who meant to hang himself partially, lost his footing, and was cut down at the last extremity, having nearly paid for his curiosity with his life. Ho declared that he felt no pain, and his only sensations were of fire before his eyes, which changed first to black and then to sky blue. These colors are even a source of pleasure. ” A Oapt. Montagnac, who was executed in France during the religious wars, but was rescued from the gibbet at the intercession of Marshal Turrene, complained that, having lost all pain iu an instant, he had been taken from a light of which the charm defied description. Another criminal, who escaped through the breaking of the halter, said after a second or two of suffering a light appeared, and across it a most beautiful avenue of trees. All agree that the uneasiness is quite momentary, that a pleasurable feeling immediately succeeds, that colors of various hues start up before the eyes, and that, these having been gazed at for a limited space, the rest is oblivion. The mind, averted from the reality of the situation, is engaged in scenes the most remote from that which fills the eyes of the spectator. Medicafinen have paid much attention to the anatomy of the neck and throat in regard to the circumstances which bring about asphyxia, suffocation or choking, aad they say that some necks possess a power of resisting these effects to a very remarkable degree.