• player2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      Interesting, but the article does say that it happened with the guillotine.

      When the guillotine was first introduced, some condemned criminals would pay executioners to sharpen the blade, ensuring a quick and relatively merciful end. Prisoners sentenced to beheading in certain eras in England would also pay their executioners, requesting execution in a single blow. In both of these senses, the payment was more like a bribe than a specific fee for services rendered, as it were.

      • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Right, to be clear I wasn’t saying it didn’t happen, just that it wasn’t customary. I don’t think it’s fair to say that the practice was as widespread as the comment implies.

        • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          Idk, your source doesn’t seem to indicate that the practice was rare, either. Seems like, among the criminals that could afford it, it was a pretty regular occurrence. I guess “customary” has a cultural connotation to it, but i wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “myth” given how close @SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz’s comment was to reality.

          • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Blunt axe, sword, and insufficient drop height leading to death by suffocation instead of neck snapping all have absolutely nothing to do with guillotines and instead have to do with beheading/death by axe/sword and hanging. The article very explicitly says that this kind of tipping did not happen (or was extremely rare).

            You are correct that the article talks about people tipping the guillotine operator, in the specific context of “certain eras in England”, which implies it was neither widespread nor applicable to anything outside of that very specific context.