Science of the Gallows

it's generally assumed that when someone is hung they died by having their neck broken the official terminology for such a death is called the hangman's fracture at the end of the drop the second cervical vertebra or c2 was fractured by the weight of the body and the tightening of the knot this fracture separates the c2 vertebra from the c3 vertebra causing the spinal cord to snap in the process resulting in instant death death by the hangman's fracture is a quick and humane way to die from hanging and in a perfect world it would work every time unfortunately death by the hangman's fracture was fairly uncommon in most hangings in a study published in forensic science international autopsies were performed on 34 individuals who were executed by hanging of the 34 only three died from the hangman's fracture while the remaining 31 were not so lucky if you're looking for a humane way to die hanging is not one of them there is multiple variables that determine a quick clean death and most of them are not in your favor it's the early 19th century at such-and-such time in place you allegedly committed a murder you claimed you were innocent however your lawyer did a shoddy job and you were found guilty your sentence death by the gallows it's the day of your execution the crowd is boisterous for your death the noose is placed around your neck a bag over your head the executioner pulls the lever and pause here's what will determine whether you die quick and painlessly or slow and excruciating the drop height length of rope and placement note the knot first the drop height the height determined to drop the condemned was a tricky one if the height was too high you'd risk decapitating the individual which didn't do well for PR and if it was too short the hanging would take too long which was also bad for PR ideally when dropped from the appropriate height the weight of the body broke the neck but what would happen if the height wasn't high enough the force from the drop wouldn't be strong enough to snap the vertebra however it would be enough to crush rupture and tear arteries in your neck specifically your Cariah arteries which supply blood to the brain tearing a blood vessels results in internal bleeding in the neck and because the noose obstructs blood to drain downward the face and neck would become engorged as fluid so much that the eyes would bulge and tongue stick out of the mouth this is why the heads were often covered to hide the grotesque process though the individual would likely lose consciousness within seconds from blood loss they're alive to feel the acute for and ruptured blood vessels from the drop which would be extremely painful next the Rope length the drop height may be sufficient to cause the hangman's fracture but if the rope length is too long or too short the height won't matter to long means you'll make contact with the ground breaking your ankles getting untied refit and dropped again if it's too short it will lessen the force place on the vertebra when dropped and may not rupture blood vessels meaning you'll die through strangulation by compression of the airway strangulation causes the face to turn blue from lack of oxygen and produces petechiae or small blood marks on the face and eyes caused by bursting capillaries death by strangulation typically occurred after four to five minutes however death wasn't official until the heart stopped beating which would continue minutes after death so it was common to keep the person hanged for up to an hour afterward finally the most important variable in hanging the placement of the noose if the noose is placed in the right position even with a moderate height you can guarantee an instant death traditionally noose is replaced in two positions with the knot either under the ear called his sub-aerial knot or behind the head and called the occipital knot both of these positions were inconsistent in causing instant death and often caused individual to die by strangulation or sometimes decapitation surprisingly the best position to place the knot was under the chin known as the submental knot this placement is the most effective because at the end of the draft that knot forces the individual's head to hyperextend backward placing a strong compressive force from the hyperextension and weight of the body on the vertebrae causing it to break the same fatal injury happens when a driver's chin hits the steering wheel in a high-speed collision the impact compresses the vertebrae thereby fracturing it and snapping the spinal cord in 1913 British anthropologist Frederick Wood Jones published work on his findings that indicated fatal cervical fractures occur best with the long drop and placement of the submental nock which later became standard practice in Britain so yeah there's the science of the gallows not the most humane way to die after all also since it's late October and this is a grotesque topic this technically counts as a Halloween episode so here's a pumpkin thanks for watching and have a happy Halloween you

Channel: Dark Science

Views: 1,569,332

Keywords: questions for science, gallows, science, what happens, the gallows ending scene, death penalty, strangulation, capital punishment, the gallows, death by gallows, execution scene, red dead redemption hanging, hanging scene, hanging suicide, hanging suicide scene, hanging suicide short film, hanging suicide sound effect, hanging suicide news, tmz2016fs11221, gallows halloween, creepy, creepy story, historical, torture, history, historical death, historical torture, gruesome, grusome

Id: 44x4iv8XSj4

Length: 4min 51sec (291 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 27 2019