The blood-stained guillotine operated by Johann Reichhart, reputedly the fastest executioner on record, taking only seconds to kill prisoners,
That actual process of death was indeed pretty quick.
Reichhart later executed Nazi war criminals sentenced by the Allies.
According to the stories that wasn’t. The American executioners, so it is said, deliberately organised – perhaps through misreading the tables so it is said – short drop hangings.
The Yanks were vengeful amateurs. Albert Pierrepoint had the right idea: ending a man’s life is a solemn and fearful duty,.
It’s not right to transform justice into mere revenge. Cruelty is cheap and pointless. We have no need of more examples of human suffering.
We are not cruel. We take no delight in what we do, except in doing it well, which means doing it quickly and doing neither more nor less than the law instructs us. We obey the judges, who hold their offices because the people consent to it. Some individuals tell us we should do nothing of what we do, and that no one should do it. They say that punishment inflicted with cold blood is a greater crime than any crime our clients could have committed. ‘There may be justice in that, but it is a justice that would destroy the whole Commonwealth. No one could feel safe and no one could be safe, and in the end the people would rise up – at first against the thieves and the murderers, and then against anyone who offended the popular ideas of propriety, and at last against mere strangers and outcasts. Then they would be back to the old horrors of stoning and burning, in which every man seeks to outdo his neighbor for fear he will be thought tomorrow to hold some sympathy for the wretch dying today. – Severian the Torturer
@ Steve
Yes its hard to beat Albert Pierpoint. His aim from entering the condemned mans cell to dropping him in the room next door was 15 seconds. Accompanied by his assistant and a familiar prison guard this included securing the prisoners hands behind his back with a leather strap. Moving a small wardrobe to reveal the hidden door behind it connecting the death cell to the execution chamber. After marching the “surprised” prisoner through this door to the gallows Pierpoint then fitted the hood and the noose around the mans neck with the assistant securing the feet and jumping clear before Pierpoint pulled the lever.
Would it have been better just to shoot the bastards when they were caught rather than go through a travesty of a trial? Or pursue some other alternative? God knows.
Andy – Albert was a touch of class, the sort of executioner Harrods would sell you.
dearime,
“ Would it have been better just to shoot the bastards when they were caught rather”
Isn’t that what Churchill is reported to have advocated when asked: “What shall we do with Hitler if we catch him?” ?
With typical German zeal, Reichart tried to find the most efficent means to execute prisoners. He did this by removing the little trolley on the guillotine and simply throwing the victims onto the table and pushing them up to the headguard.
His notoriety is amplified by having executed the Scholl siblings.
To my horror, I recently discovered that for a long time, the guillotine was only in use in southern Germany. In the north, well into the 1920s, prisoners were beheaded with an axe.
The American executioners, so it is said, deliberately organised – perhaps through misreading the tables so it is said – short drop hangings.
I wasn’t there but I did read (or was it a video? both?) that the American hangman had no prior experience and lied to get the job. He gave some GIs a grim death too, apparently.
PJF:
John Clarence Woods, a Sergeant with a past history of serious psychiatric illness who lied about having performed executions before. Nobody checked. He accidentally offed himself when working as a lighting engineer about five years later.
Considering that 2 prisoners – Gœring and Himmler – managed to commit suicide while in custody and the trials of Hess, Gœring and Ribbentrop turned the proceedings into farce, surely it would have been better just to shoot them. Actually, Hess would probably still be in Spandau now if he hadn’t committed suicide in 1987.
Ah but was it really Hess ?
Anyway he’d be about 130 by now.
To be fair on Himmler, he did top himself soon after his arrest. He took advantage of having a doctor’s finger in his gob to bite down on his cyanide capsule.
Ottokring – the axe beheading was shown quite explicitly on Babylon Berlin. Series 2 I think.
So it was correct history. I did wonder.
To my horror, I recently discovered that for a long time, the guillotine was only in use in southern Germany. In the north, well into the 1920s, prisoners were beheaded with an axe.
Don’t worry, Ottokring. If you’d been clever enough to time travel to N Germany in 1920 I’m sure you’d be clever enough to get away with it. Whatever it was.
The trials were pretty shameful really, retrospective victors justice. I’m not arguing they didn’t deserve hanging, just that there was no legally legitimate method to achieve that.
Also, that fact they let that cunt Speer off just adds insult to moral injury.
@Ottokring
Yes it was Hess. I knew the ex-military detective who was present at the autopsy and brought the tissue samples back to the UK for analysis. They were in his hand luggage. He took delight declaring them to the customs.
AndyF. LOL
Funnily enuff, my late uncle did a stint in his National Service guarding Hess. This would have been 1952 or 3.
Philip – I’m a lot older than you realise ! Mwahahahaa !