Sharp County record., 1882-08-03
EXPERIENCES IN HANGING.

IL
Historical Records of Phenomena Con
nected with the Hangman's Moose
Schemes of Culprits to Save Their Necks
There are many instances on RECORD
in which the punishment of hanging by
the neck, has failed, either through
some peculiarly in the neck of the in
dividual, or want of tact in the hang
man. More than six centuries ago-iI
old records are truthful-Juetta dc
Balsham, convicted of harborin9
thieves, was sentenced to be executed
She hung for three days, revived, and
was pardoned, as phenomenon who
had somehow or other overmastered
the gallows. There is the authority ol
Obadiah Walker, Master of New College,
Oxford, for story that Swiss was
hanged thirteen times over, every at
tempt being frustrated by q peculiarly
in the wind-pipe which prevented
strangulation. We are not told whether
the thirteenth experiment was success
full, or whether justice was merciful
at last. Ann Green was hanged at
Oxford for infantcide in 1850; nay, her
legs were pulled, and her body struck
with soldiers muskets, in accordance
with barbarous custom sometimes
adopted of making assurance double
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 an
atomzing her, 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
deep sleep. The Crown pardoned
her.
Other examples of a more or less
analogous kind are the following: A
woman-nameu unrecorded was hanged
in 1903. She came to herself after a
suspension for the prescribed period,
not by slow degrees, but suddenly.
John Green experienced an ordeal some
thing like that of Ann Green. After
being hanged at Tyburn his body was
taken to Sir William Blizzard, the cele-
brated surgeon; and while laid out on a
table in the dissecting-room he dis
played signs of life, and eventually re-
covered A female servant of Mrs.
Cope, of Oxford, convicted of some pc
nal offense, was executed in 1850. After
hanging an unusual long time she was
cut down and fell heavily to the ground.
The shock revived her, but the unfort-
unate wretch was efectually hanged
the next day. Margaret Dickson, a
century and half ago, was convicted
of concealment of birth, and was sub
jected to the last penalty of the law.
Her body, after hanging on the gibbet
at Edinburg, was cut down and given
to her friends. They put it into cof-
fin, and drove off with it in cart six
miles to Musselburg. Some apprentices
rudely stopped the cart and loosened
the lid of the coffin. This let in the air,
and the air and the jolting together re-
vived her. She was carried indoors
alive, but faint and barely conscious; a
minister came to pray with her, and she
eflectually recovered. No mention of
collusion occurs in this narrative, al
though some Of the incidents would
seem to point that way.
Instances are known in which a re-
bound after the fall has enabled the feet
OF the victim to touch the platform, and
with what ultimate result has to be de-
termined by a conflict between mercy
and sternness on the part OF the authori-
ties. A disgraceful scene took place at
Edinburgh in 1918. The rope with
which man was hanged being too
loose, his toes touched the platform; the
assembled mob got up riot on some
pretext, the half-hanged man was
carried off, recaptured, and finally
hanged on the following day. A scene
of a similar deplorable nature had been
witnessed at Jersey few years pre-
viously.
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 Ro-
precht, the robber, believed in Germany
to have had some foundation in fact
ins0PTUCnt, VINO had long been a terror
to the inhabitants Of Cologne, was at
length caught, tried, sentenced and
executed. On the next morning, to the
surprise of the early passers-by, the
gibbet was found to be empty. One
week later Roprecht was seen hanging
there again, but wearing boots and
spurs instead of shoes. What
this could all mean was left