Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ons/index.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A journalist who saw videotape of the Monday hangings of Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the dictator's former chief judge has described how one of the men was decapitated.
New York Times reporter John F. Burns told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Monday evening that Barzan Hassan al-Tikriti's head "just snapped off," because he was apparently given too much rope and fell too far -- about eight feet -- for a man of his medium build and weight.
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In the golden days of chopping off heads in Europe, with large family-oriented crowds cheering enthusiastically, there would have been a gaggle of scientists immediately rushing forward to grab the head, wanting to determine how long the head retained consciousness after being separated from the body. The scientists would even try to get the head to talk to them.
At one time there were roughly 38 hanging offenses in Britain, including "writing on Westminster Bridge."
A good link on hanging, including the formula for determining the "long drop" which would cause fairly instant death without decapitation.
http://www.richard.clark32.btinterne.../hanging1.html
Cowperson