Drawing

The Hangman

You’ve already heard of the series Gun for Hire. My book is the next due out on April 15.

In the Old West, for some reason, people hated hangmen. They threw garbage and rocks at them, ran them out of town, sometimes on a rail, and in rare cases, even tarred and feathered them.

The hangman didn’t choose the job. He took it because he had no choice.

It started back in Old England, where they would select a convict from a prison and make him the hangman.

His goal was to cause instant death by breaking the top two vertebrae of the victim’s neck. This did not always cause the quick death hoped for, but usually caused severe damage to the brain or left the victim paralyzed. In rare instances, this particular break caused no damage. I am an example of this. Several years ago, I fell on my sidewalk and broke those top two vertebrae. I also split my nose open. Bleeding badly, I got up and walked into the house. My doctor told me I was a miracle.

A few hangmen stand out in history:

William Marwood invented the “long drop” technique intended to break the prisoner’s neck instantly and cause death by asphyxia. Marwood also created a table of height and weight to determine the length of the rope used for hanging.

William Calcraft performed the last public executions in England in 1868. Calcraft’s methods sometimes caused the condemned to take several minutes to die. To speed matters up, he would pull on their legs or climb on their shoulders to break their neck.

By the 20th century, the role had become almost celebrity status with thousands of applicants after the death of William Calcraft.

Albert Pierrepoint, b. 1905, followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle and was England’s most prolific hangman. His autobiography was made into a movie, Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, starring Timothy Spall. In 1941, Pierrepoint undertook his first execution as lead executioner when he hanged the gangland killer Antonio “Babe” Mancini. He arrived the day before the execution, learned the height and weight of the prisoner, and viewed the condemned man through a “Judas hole” in the door to judge his build, then went to the execution room—typically next door—where he tested the equipment using a sack that weighed about the same as the prisoner; he calculated the length of the drop using the Home Office Table of Drops, making allowances for the man’s physique, if necessary. He left the weighted sack hanging on the rope to ensure it was stretched. He would re-adjust it in the morning if required.

On the day of the execution, Pierrepoint studied an X-ray of a cervical spine with a hangman’s fracture. He secured the man’s arms behind his back with a leather strap and walked him to the execution chamber to a marked spot on the trapdoor. There, Pierrepoint placed a hood over the prisoner’s head and a noose around his neck. He placed the metal eye through which the rope was looped under the left jawbone, which, when the prisoner dropped, forced the head back and broke the spine. A large lever released the trapdoor. All of this took a maximum of 12 seconds.

In my book, Kirk, Gun for Hire, Book 3, Kirk’s younger brother is framed and convicted of bank robbery. Unconvinced of the boy’s guilt, the judge gave him a choice of prison or becoming the county hangman. Kirk saw his brother as too young and weak-willed to face prison life, so he asked the judge to let him take the hangman job for his brother. His request was granted.

And so Kirk became the hangman for Owyhee County, Idaho.

In the opening of my story, Kirk hangs a condemned man and is shot by the convict’s partner. The bullet grazes his skull; he falls off the gallows and lands unconscious, nearly at the feet of my heroine, Adina, a typist at the local newspaper. She rushes to help him and, assisted by the town marshal, gets him to the tinker-type wagon he used to get around, change clothes, and sleep in on the road. When Adina witnesses a murder the following day, the marshal takes her to Kirk. Together, they travel around the county conducting hangings and trying to avoid the men who wish them harm. They don’t always succeed; the tale includes plenty of action and romance.

Have you ever seen the movie about Pierrepoint, or have you known someone who broke their neck?

Charlene Raddon fell in love with the wild west as a child, listening to western music with her dad and sitting in his lap while he read Zane Gray books. She never intended to become a writer. Charlene was an artist. She majored in fine art in college.

In 1971, she moved to Utah, excited for the opportunity to paint landscapes. Then her sister introduced her to romance novels. She never picked up a paintbrush again. One morning she awoke to a vivid dream she knew must go into a book, so she took out a typewriter and began writing. She’s been writing ever since.

Instead of painting pictures with a brush, Charlene uses words.

In 2011, Charlene’s artistic nature prompted her to try a different path and she began designing book covers. Today, she has a long list of clients and her own cover site, silversagebookcovers.com where she specializes in historical romance covers, primarily western.

And I think it’s fair to say she’s a cat lover!

 

Do you prefer history told in a frank manner or would you rather the author gloss it over and leave out details? Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a chance at one of two free copies of KIRK when it comes out. 

 

Kirk – Gun for Hire Series

A man sacrifices his future for his brother and finds danger lurking in the shadows.

Kirk Reddick, a former preacher, is faced with either letting his brother be forced into the job of a hangman or accepting it himself. He chooses to take on the hated work until he finds the man who framed his brother.

Observing a hanging at Red River Crossing, Adina Kinnaird is touched as she overhears the hangman comfort the condemned man. When Kirk is shot, she helps him escape the gunman and the angry mob.

Traveling from town to town, Kirk and Adina search for the man who framed his brother and find themselves falling for each other, but Kirk doesn’t want her living in the danger he faces every day.

In a showdown with the outlaw, Adina is shot. Kirk’s heart stops. He doesn’t want to go on without her. If she lives, will capturing the gunman be enough to clear his brother’s name and give Kirk and Adina the freedom to live outside the shadow of the hangman’s noose?

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