Frank Petrexa
Tribune
I owe you folks something--I don't want to seem a parasite. This story came to me while reading Polly Plummer. I don't enjoy rape, so there isn't any. It's more about anticipation and psychology. I hope some people at least enjoy it. Peter Seller's line in "Being There" comes to mind: "I like to watch". Thanks.
Turnabout for Kim
Kim had been an executioner for six years, specializing in crucifixion. That was the only method her team employed. It wasn’t very enjoyable, but it paid well, and her team was pretty close-knit: five women and five men. The leader, Verna Eberhart, was a great boss, and took great care to see that the workers in this unpleasant but necessary occupation maintained their psychological health. In her apprentice year, Kim had only handled the basic labor: setting up the equipment, keeping records, taking photographs, cleaning up, and sometimes dealing with the corpses. When she had graduated to full-time status, she had to take a more active role in each crucifixion. She helped remove the condemned’s prison clothes (usually shorts, a brief, and a T-shirt, with a bra in addition for women), restrain them, tie them down, administer the palliative, hoist them (screaming) and the crossbar they were nailed to into position on the cross, and secure their legs while the lead executioner nailed their ankles to the post. During that first full-time year, she also trained in mock sessions where she practiced the art of nailing realistic dummies to a cross. There was a surprising amount of detail—one had to be careful in particular to place the nails in the wrists accurately to keep the prisoners from tearing loose once suspended, one had to worry about keeping the wounds benign enough so the prisoner would last for hours once the cross was erected.
Executions were public. The condemned’s family and friends were often hostile to the executioners, the crowd overall was usually raucous and excited. There was always a heavy police presence as a consequence. When the statute allowing this form of punishment had been enacted, it had two clothing options for men and three for women to mollify the concerns of the squeamish: men could wear a brief or nothing at all, while women could wear a (skimpy) bikini, only a bikini bottom, or nothing at all. This was up to the sentencing judge, based on the seriousness of the offense. Within a year, almost all prisoners were crucified stark naked, since only serious offenses carried such an extreme punishment anyway, and re-covering the prisoners after the public stripping was an extra step. Bodies were to remain on the cross for eight hours—if a prisoner hadn’t died by then, a lethal injection finished him or her off--and the corpses were then removed from public view and either turned over to families or cremated by the state. The state reserved the right to do medical evaluations (including autopsies) before disposal, to add to the general medical knowledge. For the eight hours, one member of the execution team was always at the site, and Kim had drawn her share of this duty.
The “lead executioner” nailed the condemned to the cross. Who would take the lead was decided on the spot for each criminal by drawing straws. Kim had been the lead 30 times in four years: 19 men and 11 women. She remembered every one. There was a sexual arousal component, both for the victim and the team. The bodies sweated and writhed under the hammer, chests heaving and muscles tensing, despite the palliative administered by mouth beforehand to dull the pain (the effect was mostly psychological). As professionals, the execution team kept their feelings in check, but the crowd had free reign. The agony on the cross was a real show, as the bodies glistening with sweat struggled to breath and writhed to try to alleviate the torture. This movement was the reason that the nails had to be placed well.
(over limit--more to come)
Turnabout for Kim
Kim had been an executioner for six years, specializing in crucifixion. That was the only method her team employed. It wasn’t very enjoyable, but it paid well, and her team was pretty close-knit: five women and five men. The leader, Verna Eberhart, was a great boss, and took great care to see that the workers in this unpleasant but necessary occupation maintained their psychological health. In her apprentice year, Kim had only handled the basic labor: setting up the equipment, keeping records, taking photographs, cleaning up, and sometimes dealing with the corpses. When she had graduated to full-time status, she had to take a more active role in each crucifixion. She helped remove the condemned’s prison clothes (usually shorts, a brief, and a T-shirt, with a bra in addition for women), restrain them, tie them down, administer the palliative, hoist them (screaming) and the crossbar they were nailed to into position on the cross, and secure their legs while the lead executioner nailed their ankles to the post. During that first full-time year, she also trained in mock sessions where she practiced the art of nailing realistic dummies to a cross. There was a surprising amount of detail—one had to be careful in particular to place the nails in the wrists accurately to keep the prisoners from tearing loose once suspended, one had to worry about keeping the wounds benign enough so the prisoner would last for hours once the cross was erected.
Executions were public. The condemned’s family and friends were often hostile to the executioners, the crowd overall was usually raucous and excited. There was always a heavy police presence as a consequence. When the statute allowing this form of punishment had been enacted, it had two clothing options for men and three for women to mollify the concerns of the squeamish: men could wear a brief or nothing at all, while women could wear a (skimpy) bikini, only a bikini bottom, or nothing at all. This was up to the sentencing judge, based on the seriousness of the offense. Within a year, almost all prisoners were crucified stark naked, since only serious offenses carried such an extreme punishment anyway, and re-covering the prisoners after the public stripping was an extra step. Bodies were to remain on the cross for eight hours—if a prisoner hadn’t died by then, a lethal injection finished him or her off--and the corpses were then removed from public view and either turned over to families or cremated by the state. The state reserved the right to do medical evaluations (including autopsies) before disposal, to add to the general medical knowledge. For the eight hours, one member of the execution team was always at the site, and Kim had drawn her share of this duty.
The “lead executioner” nailed the condemned to the cross. Who would take the lead was decided on the spot for each criminal by drawing straws. Kim had been the lead 30 times in four years: 19 men and 11 women. She remembered every one. There was a sexual arousal component, both for the victim and the team. The bodies sweated and writhed under the hammer, chests heaving and muscles tensing, despite the palliative administered by mouth beforehand to dull the pain (the effect was mostly psychological). As professionals, the execution team kept their feelings in check, but the crowd had free reign. The agony on the cross was a real show, as the bodies glistening with sweat struggled to breath and writhed to try to alleviate the torture. This movement was the reason that the nails had to be placed well.
(over limit--more to come)