Usually, the survivor of the execution of the offender is not subjected to a second procedure. It is not for nothing that the key word in the sentence is “mortal,” which means the inevitability of the onset of reckoning and the inevitability of the execution of the sentenced punishment.
In the past, the very fact that the offender managed to survive after the execution of capital punishment was considered nothing more than God's providence, that is, it was considered a proof of innocence sent from above. Below are six real life stories of people who were able to survive against the law, even if only for a short time.
1. Man Franks
This is a photo of another execution, 1896. This guy is probably much less fortunate than Franks.
One of the Australian newspapers published a note in 1872 about how the killer named "Man Franks" survived his own execution thanks to the monstrous incompetence of the performers.
At first, the execution itself was delayed by several hours, as the sheriff found the scheduled time inconvenient. During the waiting time, it rained and the wet rope prepared for execution was taken to dry over the fire.
This caused the rope to stop sliding. Before putting the noose around the convict's neck, the executioner had to stick his leg into the noose and pull with all his might in order to move the tightly stuck knot. Then the would-be executioner tried to fix the stranglehold on Frank's neck, but despite all his efforts, he could not do it as tightly as the rules require.
In the end, a support was knocked out from under Frank, but after three minutes of unsuccessfully trying to suffocate, he began to twitch, asking to end his suffering and finish him off at last. And since his hands were as “tightly” tied as his neck, it was not difficult for him to pull himself up and, moving the rope from his throat, curse the organizers of the execution for their “hack”. Finally, one of the officers cut the rope, and the long-suffering victim of justice met the hard ground with a thud, as no one thought to spread something soft on him.
Needless to say, after everything they saw, no one wanted to see the case through to the end, and Franks had the sentence commuted, replacing him with imprisonment, and the executive power of the new monarchical elite of Fiji became the subject of ridicule all over the world.
2. Anna Green
In 1650, twenty-two-year-old Anne Green was a servant in the home of Sir Thomas Reid. She became pregnant with his grandson, but did not know that she was carrying a child in her womb. After 18 weeks, when Anna was grinding malt, she suddenly became ill. She had a miscarriage in the toilet. In horror, the girl hid the corpse.
At that time, there was a law that any unmarried woman who hid a pregnancy or a newborn was considered an infanticide. Despite the fact that the midwives' fetus was declared stillborn, Green was sentenced to death by hanging in the courtyard of Oxford castle.
During her last words, she asked to condemn “debauchery in the family in which she lived”. She asked her friends to hang on her body in order to hasten the demise, and they did not refuse.
After the execution, the supposedly lifeless body was removed and taken to the anatomical theater for training students. But when the coffin was opened, the doctors discovered that the chest of the “corpse” was making subtle breathing movements. They forgot their original purpose and began to perform resuscitation actions using bloodletting, stimulation of respiratory reflexes and applying warm heating pads.
The public saw this as a sign from above and Green was pardoned. Taking the coffin with her as a souvenir, she settled in another town, got married and gave birth to a child.
3. Half-hanged Maggie
Cover of Alison Butler's "The Hanging of Margaret Dixon"
Maggie Dixon became pregnant while she was waiting for the return of her sailor husband, which was not at all a rosy situation for a woman in 1724. She, of course, tried to hide the pregnancy (concealment was punishable by law), but she failed and she was sentenced to death by hanging.
After the execution, her family managed to take the body without giving it to the butchers from medicine for dissection. While they were seeing off Maggie on her last journey to the cemetery, they heard a knock from inside the closed coffin. The resurrection of Maggie was perceived only as the will of God. So she became a celebrity and acquired the nickname "Half-Hanging Maggie". She lived for another 40 years and to this day, not far from the place of her execution, there is a tavern named in her honor.
4. Inetta de Balsham
For harboring thieves, she was sentenced to death in August 1264. Sources say she was hanged at 9 am on Monday 16 August and left hanging out until the next morning. When the rope was cut, it turned out that she was still alive. Her windpipe was deformed in such a way that the knot was unable to completely restrict air access. Intta's miraculous rescue attracted the attention of King Henry III, who bestowed her monarch's favor.
5. Romel Broome
Lethal injection was created as a humane, quick, painless and guaranteed means of taking a person's life. However, Romel Broome proved that this is not entirely true.
In 2009, Romel was convicted of kidnapping, rape, murder and became the first criminal to survive a lethal injection.
The performers spent two hours trying to find a suitable vein for the IV. Having searched Brum's entire body, they never found a vein, which is why the effect of the drug was not guaranteed. In the end, he was sent back to his cell with a death sentence suspended for a week.
During this time, Romel's lawyers began to argue that their ward experienced cruel and unusual treatment for prisoners during an unsuccessful execution. They managed to initiate a major movement aimed at changing the US lethal injection law, and Romel in this case is the main witness who cannot be executed. Broome is still alive and awaiting amnesty.
6. Evan MacDonald
In 1752, Evan MacDonald had a falling out with Robert Parker and cut his throat, causing the latter to die. MacDonald was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging on a city wall in the English city of Newcastle.
His "corpse" was sent to the same place as the bodies of the rest of the tortured criminals - to the anatomical theater of a local medical institution. In those days, doctors almost specifically hunted for such corpses, since they were the only practical "manuals" by which it was possible to legally study human anatomy.
This is probably why MacDonald was not destined to survive: when the surgeon who entered saw the dumbfounded convict sitting on the operating table, he, without thinking twice, grabbed a surgical hammer and completed the executioner's work, cutting the skull open to the criminal. They say that divine punishment overtook this doctor when his own horse mortally wounded him in the head with a hoof.
Interesting overview of history
1. Elizabeth Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor was unlucky enough to be considered a witch and arrested in 1692. Despite the testimony of her friends, she was sentenced to death. Elizabeth was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a child in prison. When they threw a rope around her neck and opened the scaffold hatch, she fell through the hatch, but did not die.
2. John Henry George Lee
John Henry George Lee was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of a woman named Emma Casey. John was sentenced to be hanged, he was thrown into the hatch with a rope around his neck three times, but he survived all three times.
3. William Duell
4. Zoleikhad Kadhoda
Zoleikhad Kadhoda, a married woman, was arrested on charges of treason and love affair with a man. As is customary in the east, such a woman was sentenced to death by stoning. It looks like this, a person is buried to the waist in the ground, and stones are thrown at his head. Zoleihad was quickly stoned, but after being taken to the morgue, she was found alive. Vincelao Miguel was arrested during the revolution in Mexico. He was sentenced to death by firing squad. After 9 shots, Miguel managed to survive. He escaped and lived a long life.
5. Vinselao Miguel
Vinselao Miguel was arrested during the Mexican revolution. He was sentenced to death by firing squad. After 9 shots, Miguel managed to survive. He escaped and lived a long life.
6. John Smith
John Smith was arrested after robbing several houses and banks. He was hanged by being dropped with a rope through the hatch, but he survived and lived a full life for some time.
7. Anna Green
Anna Green became pregnant by her employer, whom she is believed to have seduced. After the due date, she had a child, but the baby died immediately after birth. Anna tried to hide the body, and was charged with murder, for which she was sentenced to death. Anna Green was hanged, thrown down the stairs with a rope around her neck, but during the funeral her coffin was opened and signs of breathing were found, after which she was sent to the hospital.
8. Joseph Samuel
Joseph Samuel committed several robberies and murders in 1801. He was part of a gang, all of whose members were sentenced to death. On the day of the execution, Joseph was hanged three times, and three times he managed to survive, first his rope broke, then the rope fell off. Joseph Samuel was pardoned and sentenced to life imprisonment.
9. Maggie Dixon
Maggie Dixon cohabited with the innkeeper after the death of her husband and gave birth to his child, who died shortly after giving birth. She threw the child's body into the river, but it was found, and she was sentenced to death. After the execution, the coffin with her body was transferred to the cemetery, but there was a knock on the way. Maggie survived and lived for another 40 years.
10. Willie Francis
Willie Francis killed the pharmacy owner when he was 16. He confessed and was sentenced to death in the electric chair. When he was electrocuted, Willie Francis shouted and shuddered, but after the power outage he survived. He was executed again exactly one year later.
TOP 10 - People who survived the death penalty 1. Elizabeth Proctor, who was not lucky enough to be known as a witch. In 1692, a woman was arrested on charges of witchcraft. The court sentenced Elizabeth to death despite all the testimonies of friends and relatives in defense of the accused. By the time the sentence was executed, the woman managed to give birth to a child in prison, as she got there already pregnant. The execution was ordered by hanging. They put a noose around Elizabeth's neck and opened the hatch, but thanks to some miracle, the woman survived. 2. John Henry George Lee went to jail on charges of complicity in the murder of a woman - Emma Casey. For such a crime, criminals are hanged. So John was hanged ... More precisely, they tried to do it three whole times, but the man survived after all three drops into the hatch with a noose around his neck. 3. William Duell and four of his accomplices were executed by hanging for having raped and killed a child in London. According to the rules of that time, all the corpses of criminals were given for medical research. When the turn came to dissect the body of William Duell, the student who was supposed to perform the operation noticed that the man was breathing! 4. Zoleikhad Kadhoda is an eastern married woman who risked having a lover. According to the harsh laws of the East, a woman convicted of adultery is sentenced to death - she must be stoned. It happens as follows: a woman is buried to the waist in the ground and stones are thrown at her head. Zoleikhad did not escape her fate - they threw stones at her, but when the mutilated body was brought to the morgue, it turned out that the woman was alive. 5. Vinselao Miguel, a prisoner during the Mexican Revolution. The prisoner was sentenced to death - by shooting. 9 shots were fired at Miguel, they all reached the goal, but the man survived, managed to escape and lived for many more years. 6. John Smith is a robber. He was captured by the police after robbing several banks and private houses. The verdict that he was sentenced was hanging, by throwing him into a hatch with a noose around his neck. Smith turned out to be incredibly tenacious and having survived this death penalty, he lived for more than one year the usual life of a full-fledged person. 7. Anna Green, conceived a child from her own employer. They say that it was she who seduced him. The child was born on time, but died shortly after birth. While trying to hide the little body, Anna was arrested and accused of killing the baby, and the court sentenced her to death by hanging. A woman with a noose around her neck was thrown down the stairs. At the funeral, when the coffin was opened, it turned out that the woman was still breathing, after which Anna was transported to the hospital. 8. Joseph Samuel, who committed a number of murders and robberies in 1801 as part of a whole gang. All participants in the crimes were sentenced to death. On the day the execution began, Samuel managed to avoid death on the gallows three times - once the rope broke, and the other time it simply jumped off. This turn of events did not go unnoticed by the judges and Joseph Samuel was replaced by the death penalty with life imprisonment. 9. Maggie Dixon is a cohabitant of one innkeeper. From an illegal relationship, a child was born who died immediately after birth. Maggie Dixon couldn't think of anything better than throwing a baby's body into the river. But the child's corpse was found and the woman was arrested on murder charges. The verdict of the court was unequivocal - death. The woman was executed, they were going to bury, but on the way to the cemetery, a knock came from the coffin - Maggie was alive! After the "resurrection" she lived for another forty years! 10. Willie Francis, at the age of 16, killed the owner of the pharmacy. The young man confessed to the crime, but was nevertheless sentenced to death by electric chair. The execution took place traditionally, the criminal screamed and writhed, but after the voltage was turned off, it turned out that the young man survived. However, the incident did not bring Willie a long and happy life - he was executed again, exactly one year later.
This is hardly the worst thing - to hear your death sentence. This means the end, after these words the timer is started, and the count goes sometimes for days, and sometimes for hours. Nobody even thinks of surviving after being shot or hanged or lethal injection. However, miracles do happen. Mathematical probability is sometimes very funny. There is always a tiny fraction of the percentage that the sentenced person will live after the execution.
Today's collection is just about such people. They were literally born in shirts. Or maybe they, like cats, were given not one life, but several, well, or at least two.
Maggie Dixon
In 1724, Maggie of Edinburgh accompanied her fisherman husband on a long voyage. Then such events lasted for years. And, unfortunately for Maggie, she was not faithful. The girl realized that she got pregnant while her husband was swimming. The situation is very bad.
Maggie gave birth to a baby in the forest, who either was dead immediately or died shortly after birth. She could not throw a small corpse into the river and wrapped it in her handkerchief. Soon the little body was found, and by the handkerchief they identified Maggie as a murderous mother. For such was the only punishment - the death penalty by hanging. For some incredible reason, Maggie's vertebrae did not break while she was hanging with a noose around her neck. However, everyone was sure that she was dead.
When the relatives took the girl's corpse to the cemetery, they were horrified, as there was a knock from the coffin. Maggie Dixon survived the death penalty. Since then, she has been dubbed "the semi-hanged Maggie." Today Edinburgh even has a pub named after Maggie Dixon.
Shimon Srebrnik
In 1945, Shimon was a 15-year-old Jewish boy of Polish origin, who had already had a lot to go through. He had to see how his father was killed in the Lodz ghetto. He had to live with the thought that his mother was killed in the gas chamber. He had to go through the Holocaust.
Shimon was imprisoned in one of the death camps called "Chelmno", which was located in occupied Poland. There Shimon was forced to work at the crematorium, where the bodies of the killed people were destroyed around the clock.
On January 18, 1945, Soviet troops fought for the territory where Chelmno was located. The camp leadership decided to get rid of the witnesses of their atrocities and crimes. All prisoners were sentenced to death, they began to be shot. Shimon, saying goodbye to life, received his bullet in the back of the head. He fell on other prisoners. The Nazis continued to shoot. Shimon discovered that his mouth was bleeding, he was in pain, he could move, which means that he is quite alive. The bullet somehow miraculously passed without hitting either the spinal cord or the brain; it came out through the mouth, even there was not much blood.
Srebrnik lived until 2006, he testified a lot against the Nazis, his testimony became almost the main one against the leadership of the Chelmno camp.
Today, few people know these first and last names, even in the territories of the post-Soviet space. And in honor of Constantine, one of the craters is named on the Moon, however, on its reverse side, but still. Feoktistov was an astronaut and an outstanding space engineer. At the age of 16, he fought with the Nazis as part of the Soviet troops.
During the Nazi occupation of Voronezh, Kostya carried out reconnaissance missions for the Voronezh Front. Unfortunately, the guy was grabbed by a Waffen-SS army patrol. The conversation with the young intelligence officer was short - the death penalty on the spot through execution. A Wehrmacht soldier aimed at the head and fired. The bullet hit where it should, and the guy fell on his back. There was no time to check whether the scout was dead or not, and it was clear from everything that he was dead. However, Kostya realized almost immediately that they don't die like that. Death should be dark and nonexistent. But she is hot, angry and gushing right out of her throat, because this is not death - this is blood, this is life. Kostya crawled to his own.
As it turned out later, the bullet passed through the neck and chin, but did not touch the brain and large arteries. Constantine was destined to leave a significant mark in the history of mankind. He lived until 2009 and died at the age of 83.
Another "bulletproof" survivor of his own execution. The sentence was carried out during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. Some of the nine shots he received severely disfigured the guy's face. But he survived, left the place of his execution on his own, and found people who helped him. There were a lot of memories, and Miguel was forced to look like a World War I veteran all his life, to whom part of his face was blown off by a splinter.
Willie Francis
Willie Francis's case is very resonant, because he became the first person to survive after being electrocuted. Willie was 16 years old when he was sentenced to capital punishment for the murder of his employer, the owner of the pharmacy. In May 1946, Willie sat down in the electric chair. But when it started working, he shouted: "I am not dying, I am frying, turn it off." The chair was turned off, and then it turned out that it was defective.
Willie Francis in his cell on the eve of the execution
The incident gave Willie another year of life. Lawyers fought for him as best they could, they asked to replace the execution with life imprisonment. However, their efforts were in vain, and the guy was executed in May 1947 in the electric chair.
This is a disgusting person, he kidnapped, raped, and killed. He definitely deserved to die. In 2009, he was sentenced to her, and lethal injection was chosen as an instrument of execution - as a humane means.
Romel became the first and only person to survive after her. The fact is that the executioner could not find a vein on Romel's body for a very long time. And after vain attempts, the injection was injected into the place where the vein should be approximately. This allowed Broome to survive.
This incident saved the man's life. Since he witnessed that the death penalty by injection is actually not humane and terrible. His lawyers managed to initiate a whole movement against this type of execution.
Evan Macdonald
In 1752, in an ordinary scuffle, this man cut a friend's throat. For this he was sentenced to death by hanging. But something went wrong, and Evan did not die completely (hanging in general is some kind of unreliable way). He was sent to the dead, as it seemed from everything that the man was dead.
When, a few hours later, the surgeon entered, who was going to cut and thoroughly examine the body of the criminal, he was dumbfounded. Evan sat on the table and looked around very surprised. The surgeon was a guy not a mistake and decided to stand up for his life in front of the revived dead. He grabbed a hammer for operations and hit MacDonald in the head. This finished off the man completely, and the surgeon began to carry out his plan.
Amerigo Dumini was born in St. Louis, USA to Italian and British immigrants and moved to Italy. In 1913 he joined the military and renounced his US citizenship. During the First World War, he was a stormtrooper, was seriously wounded and awarded. Then he became an ardent supporter of Benito Mussolini, participated in contract political killings. In general, he was a bright figure. During World War II, he served in Derna, Libya, where he was captured by British soldiers. He was quite rightly mistaken for a spy and, according to the laws of wartime, they decided to shoot Amerigo. The 17 bullets fired by the firing squad did not reach their target.
When Dumini returned to Italy, he was surprised to receive and offered a generous pension. He went into business as a carrier and bought a villa in a residential area of Florence. He lived to be 73 years old, having successfully freed himself after life imprisonment for serving the fascist regime, after serving eight years.
Philip Fabritius
These are also the deeds of bygone days. Philip was included in this collection because of the unusual type of execution, to which he was quickly sentenced during the Protestant uprising in Prague on May 23, 1618. He was present in the Chancellery of the Bohemian courtier at Prague Castle, along with the Catholic Regents during the meeting. At that moment, armed Protestant lords burst into the hall and rebelled against the Catholic king. The rebels decided to commit violence on the spot. Those sentenced to death flew from the windows of the palace down from a height of 20 meters (about the seventh floor of a classic panel nine-story building).
Apparently, the fall somewhat softened, and therefore the execution failed. Everyone who was thrown out of the windows escaped with injuries of varying severity, and Philip was generally a couple of bruises and abrasions. Fabrice immediately fled to Vienna and there told about the uprising. There he lived out his life, successfully moving up the career ladder. Philip died 13 years after surviving his own execution.
"Man Franks"
In 1872, an incredible incident occurred in Australia, which was even written about in the newspapers. The killer, known to everyone by the nickname Man Franks, survived his own hanging because he was executed by incompetent simpletons.
At first, the rope on which the condemned was to be hung was soaked by the rain, as it was left on the street. Then the executioners decided to dry it, but quickly, so they lit a fire. The rope was dry, but it stopped sliding completely. It was not even possible to fix it properly on Frank's neck. When this happened at the very least, a support was knocked out from under him, and he began to dangle, trying in vain to suffocate. He wheezed, spat and asked to be finished. Finally he was able to free his hands, which were as badly tied as the noose around his neck. Frank pulled himself onto them, which caused a wave of laughter. He rudely cursed the useless organization of the execution, and the rope on which he was hanging was cut.
No one had a desire to complete what they had begun, and the sentence to the failed gallows was changed to a more benign one.
The information below is drawn from many sources, including pathology textbooks, the Journal of Forensic Medicine, stories of survivors of the hanging, reports from the 17th to 19th centuries, photographs taken in a later era, and reports from an official tasked with monitoring execution of sentences and who, along with many impeccably executed executions, witnessed two cases of "marriage".
With the usual slow hanging, suffocation, as a rule, does not come from pressure on the trachea, windpipe. Rather, the pressure of the loop shifts the base of the tongue back up and thus causes the cessation of breathing.
Many pathologists believe that a relatively low pressure is enough to completely shut off the air supply, which means that the hanged person is completely unable to breathe. This may again depend on the position of the buttonhole. If the node is in front, it is possible that the airway is under slight pressure.
Another cause of death is the interruption of the blood supply to the brain due to constriction of the carotid arteries. This alone would have been enough to cause death, a fact proven by several cases of people accidentally hanging themselves to death while the airway lumen was sufficient for breathing.
There is still a small amount of blood flowing into the brain - there are vertebral arteries that, in the place where the loop is usually located, pass inside the spine and are protected from compression - but this is not enough to maintain the vitality of the brain for a long time.
HANGING PROCESS
● Initial stage (15-45 seconds)
The noose rises sharply, causing the mouth to close (a common mistake when staging hanging scenes in films - often showing an open mouth). The tongue rarely falls out of the mouth, because the lower jaw is pressed with considerable force. There are exceptions when the loop was applied low and moves upward, pressing on the tongue before pressing the jaw - in these cases, the tongue is strongly bitten.
Survivors testify to a feeling of pressure in the head and clenched jaws. Feeling weak makes it difficult to grab the rope. It is also said that pain is primarily felt from the pressure of the rope rather than from strangulation. The feeling of suffocation, of course, increases with the passage of time.
Often, the newly hanged victim kicks in panic or tries to reach the ground with his fingertips. These convulsive leg movements are different from the real agony that begins later.
In other cases, the hanged man initially hangs almost motionless, perhaps because the body is numb with pain. If the hands are tied in front, they rise sharply to the middle of the chest, usually clenched into fists.
In most cases, the blood does not flow to the face. The loop cuts off the blood supply to the head, so that the face remains white and turns blue as it suffocates. In some cases, if the blood supply is partially retained, the face turns red.
Bleeding from the mouth and nose is sometimes observed. Most likely, it is actually nosebleeds in cases where blood pressure rises in the head.
Sometimes foam or bloody foam comes out from the mouth - apparently, in cases where the airways are not completely closed and a certain amount of air enters the lungs, despite the loop.
● Loss of consciousness
Generally speaking, the hanged man retains consciousness only for a short time, although it may seem like an eternity. Based on the stories of survivors and pathological studies, loss of consciousness can occur in 8-10 seconds due to the cessation of blood circulation, or maybe in about a minute. Few survivors of execution by hanging report that they were conscious during the period of convulsions, so that they felt suffocated and could feel convulsive movements of the legs and body, but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
The position of the knot is important here. If the loop has not pinched both carotid arteries, the blood supply may continue. If the loop was in front (it was deliberately put on or slipped off when the victim fell), blood circulation and partially breathing can be preserved, and then loss of consciousness and death can occur later.
Victims often lose bladder control. This, apparently, occurs in an unconscious state, or more often just before the very loss of consciousness. Pathologists sometimes use this fact to determine if a victim has been strangled while standing. A long trail of urine on a skirt or trousers indicates that the victim passed out while upright and was then lowered to the floor by the killer. A shorter trail indicates that the victim was lying at that moment. The use of such forensic evidence again suggests that bladder control is lost immediately prior to loss of consciousness.
● Convulsive phase (usually after 45 seconds)
This phase begins approximately 45 seconds after hanging. The real agony begins when what we associate with the pain of suffocation becomes unbearable. A more scientific explanation is that convulsions start when the brain's carbon monoxide detection centers in the blood are overloaded and the brain starts sending out irregular signals.
At this stage, powerful movements of the chest usually begin - the victim unsuccessfully tries to inhale air, and the speed of these movements quickly increases. Eyewitnesses to the hanging of a spy woman during World War I say that her agony was like a fit of hysterical laughter - her shoulders and chest shook so quickly. This stage is quickly replaced by convulsive movements of the whole body. They can take on various forms, and one form can pass into another.
One of the forms is a strong tremor, the muscles alternately quickly spasmodically contract and relax, as if vibrating.
In one "unsuccessful" execution by hanging, the victim was out of sight after the hatch was opened, but witnesses heard the buzz of a rope due to spasmodic body movements. These movements must be very strong and frequent for the rope to make an audible sound.
A clonic spasm is also possible, when the muscles simply contract convulsively. In this case, the legs can tuck under the chin and remain in this position for a while.
A more spectacular form is the well-known "gallows dance", when the legs quickly jerk in different directions, sometimes synchronously, sometimes separately (in a number of executions of the 17th century, musicians really played a jig while the hanged ones twitched on the ropes)
These movements are sometimes compared to cycling, but they appear to be more abrupt. Another form (often the last stage, if there were several) consists in prolonged tension, to an absolutely incredible degree, all the muscles of the body.
Since the muscles on the back of the body are much stronger than the front ones, the victim bends backward (my acquaintance observer of executions testifies that in some cases the hanged man's heels almost reach the back of the head.
There is also a photograph of a man strangled while lying down; the body is not bent so strongly, but it is curved almost along a semicircle.
If the hands are tied in front, during convulsions they usually rise to the middle of the chest and fall only when the convulsions stop.
Often, but not always, people who are hanged lose bladder control. Apparently, this occurs during these convulsive movements, after loss of consciousness, perhaps as a result of contraction of the abdominal muscles, while control over the bladder has already been lost.
A friend of mine who saw the hanged explained that the victim's legs were tied so that feces would not run down the legs and scatter to the sides during convulsive movements.
Convulsions continue until death or near death. Reports of executions by hanging indicate that the duration of convulsions varies widely - in some cases as little as three minutes, in others as much as twenty.
A professional English executioner who watched as American volunteers hanged Nazi war criminals lamented that they did it ineptly, so that some of the hanged were agonized for 14 minutes (he probably followed the clock).
The reasons for this wide range are unknown. Most likely, we are talking about the duration of convulsions, and not about the time of death. Sometimes the hanged man dies without convulsions at all, or the whole agony is reduced to a few movements, so perhaps a short agony does not mean a quick death at all.
Death without a fight is sometimes associated with "excitement of the vagus nerve" - a nerve that runs in the neck and controls the heart. This is difficult to understand because if the loop stops the blood supply to the brain, then it makes a big difference whether the heart beats or not.
● Death
Irreversible changes in the brain begin in about 3-5 minutes, and if they continue, convulsions continue. In the next five minutes or so, these irreversible changes intensify.
Convulsions slow down and gradually stop. Usually, the last convulsive movement is the heaving of the chest after the rest of the body has been motionless. Sometimes convulsions return to the seemingly calmed victim. In the 18th century, the hanged man, who was considered already dead, hit a man who, on duty, was taking off his clothes.
The heart continues to beat for some time after all functions have ceased, until the acidity of the blood due to the increase in carbon dioxide content causes it to stop.
OTHER PHENOMENA
Sometimes two phenomena are reported that cannot be verified.
● Death sounds
Firstly, in the old accounts of executions by hanging there are reports that the victim at the moment of death (that is, when the convulsions stop, the only sign by which the witnesses can judge) makes something like a groan (in Kipling's "Hanging Danny Deaver" soldiers , a witness to the execution, hears a groan over his head; they explain to him that this is the soul of the victim flying off). This seems incredible since the airway is securely closed, but such messages exist.
● Ejaculation in men
This phenomenon is noted often, in almost all cases. Ejaculation, like the often noted erection, can be triggered by the same nervous system responses that cause convulsive movements. This happens at the end of the hanging.
There is a report by an American military policeman and a German overseer who discovered a German prisoner who had hanged himself. The American watched in amazement as the German warden unbuttoned the man who had hanged himself and announced that it was too late to remove him from the noose: ejaculation had already occurred.