Hanging as a method of execution began around 2,500 years ago in Iran
(previously known as Persia), and was brought to the USA originally from the
UK. As a public spectacle, it was
considered by some in early times as entertainment, but at the same time served
as an extremely visible example of the kind of punishment offenders could
expect.
The local sheriff, or other legal representative in the area where the
sentence was passed, usually got the unenviable job of carrying out the grim
task, but most of them had very little idea of how to calculate the optimum
"drop" of the rope to ensure the neck was broken. Consequently many
victims suffered extremely painful deaths from strangulation, choking, and
quite often decapitation if the drop was too far.
The US began hanging at about the same time the "New World"
was being settled, and one of the first was a man named John Billington who met
his end at the hands of a mob of pilgrims in 1630, apparently for murder.
This book refers to a selection of 79 'judicial hangings' in the USA from
1900 to 1996. Most US states have now abolished
it, but prisoners in Washington, Delaware and New Hampshire can still choose
this method instead of lethal injection if they wish.
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79 Hangings tells the stories of criminals who met their violent end
after being sentenced to death by hanging for their crimes. Each short
tale relates the often brutal and ruthless deeds they committed leading
to their final appointment on the gallows. It begins with the execution
of Charles Cross on July 20th 1900 through to the hanging of William
Bailey on Thursday, January 25th, 1996 - to date the last man executed
by hanging in the USA.
*In 1903 Gustave Marx was a third of the "Automatic Trio", America's first shoot-to-kill gangster team. Along with Harvey van Dine and Peter Neidermeier he killed eight men in just five months, two of whom were detectives.
*Johann Hoch, 44, left his wife and children in Germany in hopes of marrying and conning German women in the US out of their money. It is estimated he murdered more than a dozen women before being caught.
*Edward Wheed shot and killed six people during his criminal career. Known as "Ammunition Eddie" Wheed carried out multiple armed robberies as a member of a Chicago gang.
*Eva Dugan, 43, murdered her 65-year-old neighbor, Arthur Mathis. She attacked him with an axe, before burying him in another neighbor's rubbish pile. When Mathis' skull was found, the gag Eva had used either to choke or stifle him was still visible, wedged between the jawbones of his skull.
*Carl Panzram, son of Prussian immigrants, had a violent upbringing. When he visited Africa, Panzram hired six local men for a crocodile hunt. He then sodomized and killed the men, feeding their remains to the crocodiles.
*Rainey Bethea raped and killed a 71-year-old woman. 15,000 people arrived to watch him hanged, not because of Bethea, or the woman he raped, but because his was to be the last public hanging in the United States.
*In 1903 Gustave Marx was a third of the "Automatic Trio", America's first shoot-to-kill gangster team. Along with Harvey van Dine and Peter Neidermeier he killed eight men in just five months, two of whom were detectives.
*Johann Hoch, 44, left his wife and children in Germany in hopes of marrying and conning German women in the US out of their money. It is estimated he murdered more than a dozen women before being caught.
*Edward Wheed shot and killed six people during his criminal career. Known as "Ammunition Eddie" Wheed carried out multiple armed robberies as a member of a Chicago gang.
*Eva Dugan, 43, murdered her 65-year-old neighbor, Arthur Mathis. She attacked him with an axe, before burying him in another neighbor's rubbish pile. When Mathis' skull was found, the gag Eva had used either to choke or stifle him was still visible, wedged between the jawbones of his skull.
*Carl Panzram, son of Prussian immigrants, had a violent upbringing. When he visited Africa, Panzram hired six local men for a crocodile hunt. He then sodomized and killed the men, feeding their remains to the crocodiles.
*Rainey Bethea raped and killed a 71-year-old woman. 15,000 people arrived to watch him hanged, not because of Bethea, or the woman he raped, but because his was to be the last public hanging in the United States.
