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The Forgotten Doctors of the Gallows: Actors in Execution

A murder on a warm night in August, 1831, rocked Georgian England to its core

By Rk.kePublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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A murder on a dark night in August 1831 rocked Georgian England.

John Holloway hanged his pregnant wife, Celia, with the aid of Ann, his mistress. In his testimonial, he described how he used the methods of the gallows executioner:

I then tied the cord as tight as I was able…and hung her up to some nails that were placed there before. As I dragged her into the cupboard, I felt the poor dear infant struggle in its mother’s womb, surprisingly strong indeed. Oh, what a shocking sight! I shall never forget it. I did not remove the cord from Celia’s neck, but took an over-handed knot, and made the ends fast to the nails, so that she was hanging by the neck. I proposed then cutting her up; but Ann Kennet told me to wait until the blood was settled

He then went on to attempt dissection. He conceded how “blood went everywhere”. Without the aid of modern surgical equipment, or electric lighting, John discovered how this process was one of extreme difficulty and alarming sights, sounds and smells.

Celia’s head and arms were later discovered by a police officer in the cottage's privy.

Even for professional hangmen, the process of execution was never particularly easy. Being sentenced to death, after all, hinged upon the hangman and the surgeon’s ability to accurately pronounce a man dead. The gallows performance was the easy part of an execution, as the hangman merely had to fulfill the expectation that the murderer ‘looked dead’. The pallor would look clammy; the neck blackened from the noose’s bruising; and the skin drew back from the hair follicles and nails. John remarked upon Celia’s “wild appearance” at his own faux-hanging.

However, the human body would often thwart even the wiliest hangman. Though the goal was to force the criminal to a state of ‘clean’ corpse - that is, perfectly recognisable, just dead - unavoidable biological functions played their roles as the body dropped in the noose.

Short statutes and thick, ‘bull’ necks presented an issue: often, the spine would not cleanly ‘snap’ at the drop of the gallows, and instead the criminal would suffocate. A disquieting process then followed as the torso elongated, legs kicked and the face turned a bruised purplish-black. The unavoidable pathos of execution had some questioning whether this was an execution or torture.

Furthermore, criminal bodies accustomed to a life of physical trauma could often present as dead - though the body may well have kicked into a trauma response, shutting off most processes to retain only the most vital. Cold weather exacerbated this, as extreme hypothermia closely mimicked death.

In 1752, a commentator for the Historical Chronicle reported:

Cases of semi-hanging are not a few, and if those which are unknown, on account of a secret being well-kept, were made public, the list I believe would contain some score of names.

This anxiety around the ‘semi-hanged’ necessitated a medico-judicial shift: criminals were now committed to “hanging…[then] dissection and anatomisation”. These two final actions are often overlooked in the public’s view of capital punishment.

This anatomisation and dismantling of the criminal corpse was the final crescendo in the Murder Act, and the public horror at such dismemberment performed on Celia - an innocent, expecting mother - denotes the sheer cultural significance of the act.

John Holloway was hauled to the gallows on the 16th December. Though John had, in court, claimed that he would be wearing a black cape to make one final dramatic entrance - in reality, he was reported as “grief-worn, pale and cadaver-like”. He trembled excessively as the bag was placed over his head and the three-foot rope was knotted.

Local accounts claim Holloway’s chest heaved and clasped hands quivered. After ‘one hour’, the ‘usual time’, the hangman ascended the scaffolding and gingerly untied the noose: the body fell into the arms of the turnkey, stood below. This was a precarious moment - if still presenting with a pulse, Holloway could revive.

The corpse was brought to a nearby room, and the surgeon took over. Removing the rope, he noted the deep laceration it had left along the left side of the neck. John Holloway’s neck had not broken.

Deftly, the surgeon removed all clothing and laid the body out on the bare ground. Then, with a lance, he made sure to puncture the carotid artery. One local newspaper described the surgeon as:

Like a tempest in the natural world, which although it might inflict a partial evil, is in the end productive of the general good.

Surgeons themselves were well aware of the theatrical component of their role.

The anatomisation process was public and choreographed: firstly, the stripping, shaving and placement of the body onto the ground is a process of ‘othering’ the criminal corpse. A clean confirmation of medical death is hard enough in the current age: in 1831, from a purely external perspective, the task was nigh impossible. The workaround, then, was that the level of death - social, legal and medical - must match the severity of the crime. Only the very worst offenders must go through complete anatomisation, as proof of medical elimination.

Upon the confirmed expiry of a criminal - dissection began. Firstly - with the lance - the torso was cut from navel to neck. The torso was then opened, exposing major organs including the heart. Murderers Chennel and Chalcraft, executed in 1818, were left exposed in this manner upon two tables: ‘the bodies in this state were left to the gaze of thousands, who throughout the day eagerly rushed to see them’. Local newspapers describe the corpses as ‘awful…they may be imagined but not described’.

This ‘post-mortem punishment’ was vital to the Murder Act’s philosophical value as a deterrent. Locals could gather round and participate in the dissection in a similar fashion as they did with the execution; cringing at the dismemberment. Emotions ran high at such events.

The romantic connotations of the bleeding heart are found in tales such as the murderer Anne Castledine: shortly following her anatomisation in Derby, a 'strange gentleman took up the heart, kissed and shed tears upon it, squeezed a drop of blood on a handkerchief and rode off'. Similarly, there was popular belief in the masculinity and sexual allure of the condemned, hairless body lain out upon the table.

The theatrics of dissection struggled with the same issues as the hangman contended with. After all, the weight of post-mortem punishment rested upon the pillar of theatrical gravitas.

Sometimes, biological actions would drastically undermine such thematic importance. For example, it was noted - and duly deliberately ignored - that warm conditions presented a vast array of issues for the serious surgeon. Flatulent decomposition, autoerotic asphyxiation and menstrual discharge would all result in a groaning, stinking body covered in an array of taboo fluids.

This was one reason for the ritualistic shaving and cleaning. Muscular issues could be dealt with - skilled cuts to the major leg muscles to combat rigour mortis, and manual manipulation of the genitalia in the case of prolapse or erection, were both performed - before the corpse was in public view.

Once laid out, the surgeon would often reinforce the hang man's role as executioner by tinkering with medical truth. For example, in 1821, upon one criminal's heart still beating weakly four hours after execution, attending surgeon Blizard announced:

'This motion is not strictly a contraction… [upon examination of the brain]...the vessels of the Pia mater were distended with air. Not a drop of fluid was found in the ventricles.'

This reflects the then-cutting edge understanding of the role of oxygen starvation in brain death. However, it was fundamentally the lack of blood flow used to show 'absolute Death in mind and body'. It is through this careful representation of facts that the medical profession consistently downplayed their role in the execution choreography.

It is no surprise, then that - since the end of capital punishment - the medical profession's role in hanging has been largely forgotten. However, the theatrical, crowd-pleasing function of the physician lay the groundwork for further examination of later doctor-patient relationships. Furthermore, the process of anatomisation lent considerable speed to medical education, hastening the adaptation of new medical theories throughout the Industrial Revolution.

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About the Creator

Rk.ke

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