Click on image to enlarge.
|
Execution: A Guide to the Ultimate Penalty [Secure eReader]
eBook by Geoffrey Abbott
eBook Category: History/General Nonfiction
eBook Description: Execution is a gruesomely fascinating account of methods of judicial Execution from around the world and through the ages, and includes such hair-raising categories as death by cannibalism, being sewn into an animal's belly and a thousand cuts. In his own darkly humorous style, Geoffrey Abbott describes the instruments used and their effectiveness, and reveals the macabre origins of familiar phrases such as "gone west" or "drawn a blank," as well as the jargon of the underworld. From the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body, Execution answers all the questions you are ever likely to ask, and some you would never want to imagine.
eBook Publisher: Summersdale Publishers Ltd/Summersdale non fiction, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2005
1 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
 
Man learned to tie knots--and so was able to create a hangman's noose; means of making fire were discovered--and heretics were burned at the stake; the wheel was invented--and felons were broken on it; blunt iron became sharpened steel--so decapitation by axe and sword became possible. And even if such knowledge or facilities were not available, local resources always existed with which to dispose of unwanted members of society--they were fed to crocodiles, trampled under elephants? feet, thrown over cliffs, submerged in rivers... It is hardly surprising, therefore, that so many methods of execution have evolved worldwide, all of them devoted to one basic requirement, that of depriving the offender of his or her life. History books, newspapers, television--all include accounts of executions that have taken place over the centuries, but many questions are left unanswered: what methods do other countries use; which method hurts the least; how do people behave when faced with execution; does any method bring instant death; and, anyway, how instant is instant? To those of an inquiring turn of mind, more prosaic yet just as thought-provoking questions arise: how is the victim held down on the guillotine; does everyone who is hanged fall the same distance; in lethal injections, what is injected; what gas is used in the chamber; how much voltage surges through the electric chair; is a single blow of the axe or sword always sufficient? And many more.
|
)
