In the period when legal punishment was hanging, has there ever been any reports of people surviving the ordeal?

mk2norwich

I found this article about a man named Micajah McPherson who, according to the story, survived being hanged from a tree. http://www.thetimesnews.com/2001/01-01/01-01-27/region-2.html Jun 16 02, 2:47 PM

Tiresias

The famous case in Britain was that of John Lee who in 1884 was convicted of murdering a wealthy spinster for whom he worked as a footman. The hangman placed the hood and the noose over his head and pulled the lever. Nothing happened. The executioner tried several times and even stamped on the trap door. Lee was removed and the mechanism tested with weights. It worked perfectly and Lee was again put on the scaffold and the lever pulled. The trap door refused to budge and Lee was returned to his cell and reprieved within hours. It is thought that rain had swollen the wood so that when a heavy weight was put upon it the edges of the trap became firmly fixed. Lee spent 22 in prison and was released in 1907. He married and emigrated to the US where he died in 1933. Source: The Murderer's Who's Who Jun 16 02, 3:55 PM

Friar Tuck

Maggie Dickson, an Edinburgh fishwife, was a young woman of good character who had reached a stage where she felt she needed to start a new life. Accordingly she set off for Newcastle where she had relatives but on the way stopped at Kelso in the Scottish Borders. She stayed the night at an inn run by a Mrs Bell and her son, William, and was made so welcome that she accepted an offer of employment. Before long she was seduced by William and became pregnant. Terrified of the scandal and anxious to retain her job, Maggie hid her pregnancy as best she could from prying eyes. Eventually the child was stillborn and Maggie saw no need to register the {birth;} instead consigning the dead baby to the waters of the River Tweed. Unfortunately the body was discovered and, after enquiries were made, Maggie was arrested and transported back to Edinburgh. There she was tried for the crime of concealing the birth and sentenced to death. On the 2nd September 1723 she was taken to the Grassmarket gibbet where the execution took place. At her request, friends had agreed to transport her body to Inveresk, Musselburgh for interment. On the way the party stopped for refreshment and, to the amazement of all, noises from the coffin indicated that Maggie had somehow revived. The joy of her friends soon evaporated when Maggie was taken back to the Tolbooth. Magistrates and lawyers were confounded and there was talk of taking Maggie back to the gallows. Common sense prevailed, however, and it was decreed that Maggie had been saved by Divine Providence and was released. Thereafter, for the rest of her long life, she was known as 'half-hangit Maggie'. Jun 16 02, 5:33 PM

Tiresias

A word of explanation about hanging in the UK. Until around 1870 hanging meant that the condemned criminal was suffocated by the rope around his/her neck. So in theory if someone had been suffocated but was not clinically dead it was possible to revive them. If too long a drop was used the prisoner was decapitated, too short and he or she suffocated. But from the 1870s onwards the principle of the long drop came into being, designed to break the neck and cuase instantaneous death. A standard table of drops was devised in 1888. The length of the recommended drop was worked out as 1200 foot pounds divided by the weight of the prisoner. No one could be revived after suffering the long drop. Jun 16 02, 7:18 PM

PhotoMem

Jupiter, Just FYI - I live in Washington State, and hanging is still one of our two forms of capital punishment. This is despite a huge controversy 4 years ago when a man who weighed 350lbs sued the state for cruel and unusual punnishment, to delay his execution. His case was based on the grounds that he would be decapitated by hanging, so he requested a new trial. He proceded to gain additional weight through the procedings. He was hanged, but the papers were not allowed to say if he was decapitated. PhotoMem Jun 16 02, 8:48 PM

Tabby Tom

Thgere was also the case of 'Half-Hanged Smith' in 1705. The Newgate Calendar version of his story can be found at www.exclassics.org/newgate/ng104.htm and other sites. Jun 18 02, 10:17 AM

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