R
ropetrick
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Also in the Hanging thread, posted separately here for anyone who wants quick access to the images and descriptions....
The gallows at Pretoria Central Prison, now part of a museum documenting the noble struggle for human rights and against the old apartheid regime in South Africa.
I've read numerous descriptions of executions on this gallows over the years, including eyewitness testimony. So here is a summary of what used to happen, taken from about 30 different sources.
The shout (translated) "Jacket and address" would indicate that an execution was shortly to happen, and meant that condemned prisoners should collect their clothes into a bundle and supply a forwarding address where the clothes should be sent after their hanging.
The gallows could hang up to seven men at a time – hence the seven pairs of painted footprints on the double trapdoor, which also show that prisoners were marched directly onto the trapdoor in a queue and then hanged where they stood.
Condemned prisoners were stripped completely naked in a holding cell and then dressed simply in a white, towelling robe with a hood, with no underwear or other clothes beneath it.
There were 52 steps up to the execution room itself, but this was no indication of the length of the drop, which was often only a few feet, if that, depending on the cruelty of the executioners.
Prisoners were made to walk up the 52 steps, naked beneath their execution gowns. Political prisoners of the long struggle against the racist apartheid regime were reportedly usually calm and brave, but common thieves and other criminals often struggled and some, witness statements say, sometimes defecated or urinated in the execution room as they were led onto the gallows.
This was not a problem. The smooth floor of the execution room could be hosed clean, and immediately beneath the gallows (one floor down) was an enclosed, watertight area, like a small, shallow swimming pool. This was the sluicing room with a water hose, and it was over this that the prisoners hanged.
The gallows, and the prisoners' robes, were designed as they were to deal with the mess – faeces, urine and (on some reported occasions, including testimony from a hangman) semen – from several hanging men. The robes were designed to hide the hanging prisoner's backsides and penises from the executioner, priest and guards during their executions, while allowing any mess to fall away from their bodies as they struggled on the noose, minimising the unpleasant laundry task of washing the robes, which were reused, after execution. (Prisoners used to be hanged in prison uniforms, but the laundry workers complained, unsurprisingly, about having to deal with the aftermath of prisoners having messed themselves while being executed.)
Although the gallows were designed for a long drop, prisoners – usually the political prisoners – often received a drop of only a foot or two, or a metre. There is a photograph of a Pretoria hanging (which I've lost, sadly) showing prisoners hanging in their robes after a drop of only 12-18 inches. In the picture, most of the prisoners' bodies are above the trapdoor, with only their shins – and in one case, a prisoner's feet – actually beneath the drop.
Some prisoners, scared of what it was going to be like to be strangled on the rope would, the night before their execution, reportedly 'practice' being breathless by holding their breath for long periods, or putting their hands around their own necks and squeezing.
After walking up the steps to the gallows in their gowns with their arms strapped behind them, and led, sometimes incontinent, onto the platform, the prisoners were noosed, and then the hood of each of their execution robes was pulled over their head to hide the prisoner's face as he hanged. The double trapdoor, which weighed over a ton, would open beneath them (one door beneath each foot) and the prisoners would drop whatever distance the executioner had prepared for them. Sometimes, their necks would be broken, but many times they would simply be left to hang until they died.
The prisoners would hang, naked beneath their robes, and either during the execution or post mortem, their bladders and bowels would empty – an effect you can see in many pictures of iranian and Kuwaiti hangings – with the mess falling into the sluicing area beneath them. There were powerful extractor fans beneath the gallows to minimise the smell.
Once the prisoners had died, their robes would be removed while they were still hanging on the nooses, leaving them hanging naked and dead on the ropes. Guards would then hose down the naked prisoners, cleaning any mess off their buttocks and legs, after which they would be taken off the ropes.
A testimony from a woman who worked at the prison said that she witnessed the aftermath of a hanging and saw the prisoners' erect members. A hangman interviewed by actor/writer Antony Sher for a novel set in apartheid South Africa, in which a prisoner is hanged, confirms many of these details, including the naked prisoner and the fact that some had erections and would ejaculate. A fictionalised description of a hanging, on this gallows, features in his novel 'Cheap Lives', and includes descriptions of the prisoner's erect penis and the hangman confirming that there is sometimes semen on the floor beneath the gallows.
The gallows at Pretoria Central Prison, now part of a museum documenting the noble struggle for human rights and against the old apartheid regime in South Africa.
I've read numerous descriptions of executions on this gallows over the years, including eyewitness testimony. So here is a summary of what used to happen, taken from about 30 different sources.
The shout (translated) "Jacket and address" would indicate that an execution was shortly to happen, and meant that condemned prisoners should collect their clothes into a bundle and supply a forwarding address where the clothes should be sent after their hanging.
The gallows could hang up to seven men at a time – hence the seven pairs of painted footprints on the double trapdoor, which also show that prisoners were marched directly onto the trapdoor in a queue and then hanged where they stood.
Condemned prisoners were stripped completely naked in a holding cell and then dressed simply in a white, towelling robe with a hood, with no underwear or other clothes beneath it.
There were 52 steps up to the execution room itself, but this was no indication of the length of the drop, which was often only a few feet, if that, depending on the cruelty of the executioners.
Prisoners were made to walk up the 52 steps, naked beneath their execution gowns. Political prisoners of the long struggle against the racist apartheid regime were reportedly usually calm and brave, but common thieves and other criminals often struggled and some, witness statements say, sometimes defecated or urinated in the execution room as they were led onto the gallows.
This was not a problem. The smooth floor of the execution room could be hosed clean, and immediately beneath the gallows (one floor down) was an enclosed, watertight area, like a small, shallow swimming pool. This was the sluicing room with a water hose, and it was over this that the prisoners hanged.
The gallows, and the prisoners' robes, were designed as they were to deal with the mess – faeces, urine and (on some reported occasions, including testimony from a hangman) semen – from several hanging men. The robes were designed to hide the hanging prisoner's backsides and penises from the executioner, priest and guards during their executions, while allowing any mess to fall away from their bodies as they struggled on the noose, minimising the unpleasant laundry task of washing the robes, which were reused, after execution. (Prisoners used to be hanged in prison uniforms, but the laundry workers complained, unsurprisingly, about having to deal with the aftermath of prisoners having messed themselves while being executed.)
Although the gallows were designed for a long drop, prisoners – usually the political prisoners – often received a drop of only a foot or two, or a metre. There is a photograph of a Pretoria hanging (which I've lost, sadly) showing prisoners hanging in their robes after a drop of only 12-18 inches. In the picture, most of the prisoners' bodies are above the trapdoor, with only their shins – and in one case, a prisoner's feet – actually beneath the drop.
Some prisoners, scared of what it was going to be like to be strangled on the rope would, the night before their execution, reportedly 'practice' being breathless by holding their breath for long periods, or putting their hands around their own necks and squeezing.
After walking up the steps to the gallows in their gowns with their arms strapped behind them, and led, sometimes incontinent, onto the platform, the prisoners were noosed, and then the hood of each of their execution robes was pulled over their head to hide the prisoner's face as he hanged. The double trapdoor, which weighed over a ton, would open beneath them (one door beneath each foot) and the prisoners would drop whatever distance the executioner had prepared for them. Sometimes, their necks would be broken, but many times they would simply be left to hang until they died.
The prisoners would hang, naked beneath their robes, and either during the execution or post mortem, their bladders and bowels would empty – an effect you can see in many pictures of iranian and Kuwaiti hangings – with the mess falling into the sluicing area beneath them. There were powerful extractor fans beneath the gallows to minimise the smell.
Once the prisoners had died, their robes would be removed while they were still hanging on the nooses, leaving them hanging naked and dead on the ropes. Guards would then hose down the naked prisoners, cleaning any mess off their buttocks and legs, after which they would be taken off the ropes.
A testimony from a woman who worked at the prison said that she witnessed the aftermath of a hanging and saw the prisoners' erect members. A hangman interviewed by actor/writer Antony Sher for a novel set in apartheid South Africa, in which a prisoner is hanged, confirms many of these details, including the naked prisoner and the fact that some had erections and would ejaculate. A fictionalised description of a hanging, on this gallows, features in his novel 'Cheap Lives', and includes descriptions of the prisoner's erect penis and the hangman confirming that there is sometimes semen on the floor beneath the gallows.
