British Hanging
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guitarhero2000 — 17 years ago(July 21, 2008 06:23 AM)
Watch 'Pierrepoint' starring Timothy Spall for a realistic depiction. He's incredibly matter-of-fact about his job and once famously started smoking a cigarette, did the hanging and then returned to the cigarette in a matter of seconds. The job got to him in the end though.
I really wish everyone wouldn't assume that Evans was as depicted in the film. That follows the 'official version' and although there's no definite proof Evans killed anyone either, many people thought he did the murder(s)and official files released in the 90's reveal him to be if not a killer then a violent drinke with a terrifying temper who had previously tried to stranglehis wife, as witnessed by one of his neighbours. -
jurassicmarc — 16 years ago(April 19, 2009 08:56 PM)
The curator at the black museum in Scotland Yard showed us the clip from the movie Pierrepoint as an acurate portrait of the amount of time it took from holding room to gallows. From the books on Pierrepoint and capital punishment in the Uk Ive read I'd say they are pretty much on the money in that movie.
"Its just a ride" -
PhantomHelmsman — 16 years ago(May 14, 2009 07:45 AM)
Pierrepoint was the tech advisor on the film, so you would hope so, wouldn't you! There's only one problem with the sequence and it's a purely cosmetic one: the Condemned Cell is about three times as small as it would be in reality.
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richwicz — 15 years ago(December 22, 2010 08:10 AM)
The UK's government should re-introduce the death penalty for certain crimes imo.There is no proper deterrent nowadays for murder.Even though I felt bad for Evans, the chances are if the crimes were committed in this day & age Christie wouldn't have got away with framing Evans for the killings as he did back then.
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guitarhero2000 — 15 years ago(December 27, 2010 09:55 AM)
Christie apparently complained of an itchy nose as he was about to be hung, to which Pierrepoint replied something along the lines of 'That won't worry you for long, son!', not in a mocking way but more as a statement of fact.
People who study these kind of things believe that most people who know they are about to die gradually become resigned to it and can perhaps make peace with themselves. I wonder what if anything Christie thought to himself as the rain lashed down on his final night (it is fact that it was raining that night, i wasn't being poetic). Did he confront himself with his crimes or could his mind still shield him from the responsibility? -
PhantomHelmsman — 15 years ago(January 25, 2011 03:46 AM)
The historical facts would agree with you, with regards to people coming to terms with their impending death. There were very, very few cases in the 20th century of condemned prisoners struggling or resisting when the moment came.
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franzkabuki — 12 years ago(April 07, 2013 08:47 PM)
"Did he confront himself with his crimes".
I dont know whats there to "confront" when you simply lack conscience althogether. Theyre fully aware and mostly, in fact, proud of their murderous handiwork as well as the ability to avoid detection over long periods of time if thats been the case (it often is). For instance, according to an eyewitness, the nororious serial killer Dennis Rader whod been getting away with his crimes for almost 30 years, behaved & spoke in the courtroom as if he was there to receive an Oscar award.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan -
cythna — 13 years ago(February 28, 2013 04:45 AM)
Guitarhero, I think you are wrong. The film did show that Timothy had a temper, and that he and his wife fought. that does not make him a murderer. The prison officers who sat with him for the three weeks he waited to die all agreed that he was very mild tempered on the whole, and commented that he didn't seem capable of the crime he was accused of.I hope you are not suggesting that people who drink too much and fight with their spouses deserve to be hanged?
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highpriestess32 — 10 years ago(May 16, 2015 03:09 AM)
Watch 'Pierrepoint' starring Timothy Spall for a realistic depiction. He's incredibly matter-of-fact about his job and once famously started smoking a cigarette, did the hanging and then returned to the cigarette in a matter of seconds. The job got to him in the end though.
Interesting you should mention Pierrepoint because I bought 10 Rillington Place and Pierrepoint in the same purchase from Amazon. I think it may have been a suggested addition. I intend to watch the latter later today.
"Has anyone seen my wife?" - Columbo -
jd-276 — 11 years ago(September 14, 2014 05:56 PM)
Presumably, the official idea was to make it quick, and not draw out the suspense for the condemned prisoner, but it seems startling and somehow wrong, to my American way of thinking, that he is not given a chance to say a few last words, and they don't even show him getting to pray with a chaplain first, either.
It seems somehow hypocritical to me that anyone would want to - or be given the opportunity to - pray for salvation on the gallows. Don't get me wrong: if they want to pray, they usually have plenty of time to do it before hand. Let them do it. Once the process starts the hangman's job is to get it over and done as quickly as possible. No time for romantic or sentimental notions. In 1951, Pierrepoint hanged James Inglis in seven seconds.
Interestingly, from the time the hangman enters Evans' cell to the time he drops is almost exactly 30 seconds and no words are spoken. Yes; it's very unsettling. I abhor the idea of capital punishment and this scene, which displays the swiftness with which a person's life can be snuffed out, is a factor in that. -
Rueiro — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 11:15 AM)
That was exactly the point of the whole thing: to make it unexpected and so quick as not to give the condemned person time to realise what was coming to them. In a way it was quite human because -at least when Pierrepoint was the executioner- it used to take only 30 seconds from the moment he walked into the room to the moment the prisoner was certified dead, thus avoiding scenes of hysteria and psychological agony. Now, let us consider the way in which executions used to be held in the previous centuries: a public hanging in the main square, having being announced for days as to attract an audience for their amusement, free admission to everyone,even children
In Spain the last public execution took place in 1890, and the victim was a woman. The killing method was the garrotte, invented in the middle ages and used for centuries. The last time it was used was in 1974 -Spain didn't abolish the death penalty until 1978. The garrotte was one of the most sadistic methods of execution ever conceived by man. If you think hanging was barbarous, you don't know the garrotte. There were cases in which it took as long as twenty minutes for the condemned person to die from a crushed neck in unbearable agony. Even those in authority who attended the executions of some of the most infamous criminals in Spanish history came out of the gallows feeling sick and shocked from what they had witnessed.
The death penalty has always been a very controversial subject, and it will always be. But yet I would be for it in cases of terrorism against civilians. The method:a bullet shot to the head.