Botched hangings

It didn't go so smoothly at Nuremburg, either:

Although Smith discreetly omitted mentioning it, the experienced Army hangman, Master Sgt. John C. Woods, botched the executions. A number of the hanged Nazis died, not quickly from a broken neck as intended, but agonizingly from slow strangulation. Ribbentrop and Sauckel each took 14 minutes to choke to death, while Keitel, whose death was the most painful, struggled for 24 minutes at the end of the rope before expiring.

Though on the other hand, what does it say about a state that it has enough experience to get a hanging "right" every time?

Posted by David on January 17, 2007 11:14 AM