Judicial punishment of women through the ages

[thehangingtree]

Through out time, the judicial punishment of women has been a delicate matter to handle. Women by their nature were considered the gentler of the sexes and thus any punishment of them was considered an abhorrent thing that unfortunately had to be done at times. This was not always handled by the sovereign state’s governing body. Often the predominant church would take the lead.

This led to the burning of women accused of witchcraft. It was a brutal way of handling wayward women. There would be a trial of sorts where the accused woman had to prove she was not a witch.



She of course was presumed guilty of such charges and condemned to suffer her execution by being burned at the stake.



A great show was made of chaining her to the stake and a wise senior woman would often relate to the gathered crowd how burning the woman, though fatal to her, would purge the stain on her soul and render her spirit safe for a higher place in the afterlife.



No records exist of how the woman felt about being burned to death.



Such burnings were unanimously fatal.

Over time it was decided that hanging a woman by her neck would be more merciful and make a less ghastly sight.



One cannot fault the method as it too proved quite effective.



The cleaning of her soul had never been proven, but that did not prevent the improvement of the soul-cleansing method of hang women. In the new world it was improved to take care multiple witches women at one time.



It was also determined women accused of witchcraft must have practiced their dark art sans clothing. It was determined the women should be put death naked to insure their bodies would be purged of its sins.



Not only did this method clean the woman of her sins, it drew a good crowd which helped the sales of adult beverages.


It too proved effective as none of the women subjected to such a fate were recorded surviving her hanging.



But this is only the opening of this tale, as we will explore further in detail…

 

[Barbaria1]

She looks vaguely familiar. Must be one of my ancestors. Think I’d better do a little ancestry research. Hope she’s not in our line. A witch. In the family tree would be rather concerning. Those genes have a habit of getting passed down, you know.

 

[montycrusto]

Those genes have a habit of getting passed down, you know.

If the DNA spirals anti-clockwise.. you’re a witch i mean, that’s just Science!

 

[thehangingtree]

Hanging of women, usually accused of being witches, continued for centuries. It was refined over time with the executioner dressing properly for the occasion. There exists no recorded history of the women felt about being hanged but there are noted women who protested their executions that were held in very public places.



There may be some truth in their displeasure. Back then, divorce was frowned upon by the established churches. There was the belief that marriage was undertaken for life and therefore could only be ended with the death of the spouse. Using such logic, the rulers (mostly men back then) would find a reason to put his wife to death.

The king would escort his wife past the invited guests for her execution.



Though highly regarded guests were invited, it was deemed too horrific from a royal woman to be hanged to death. Instead the condemned woman would kneel before a chopping block.



She would lower her dress from her shoulders (or if she was reluctant to do so she was prepared by the king’s guards) and lay her neck on the block to have her head removed.



It is said the removal of the queen’s head was instantaneous death for the woman.



Studies done centuries later do question such claims. But those studies did not occur back then. It was believed the removal of a condemned person’s head was both instantaneous and merciful. In the late 1700s, France adopted the guillotine as the official method of executions. People would be taken by carts to a public square where they would be beheaded.



The condemned prison would be placed on the guillotine.



A rowdy crowd would cheer on the executioner who had little interest in how merciful beheading the prisoner was supposed to be.



There is no recorded correspondence about how the prisoner felt about being beheaded nor are there accounts of anyone surviving the falling blade.

Of course, not every country followed France’s lead and hanging was still a preferred method of execution. Throughout Europe criminals sentenced to death were hanged. It was often done publicly though the condemned criminal was allowed clothing.



One could blame the Age of Enlightenment for the prisoner’s modest clothing.

Hanging was not just a function of governments. On ships the captain could determine such punishment for those on board. Here a pair of ladies are about to be hanged for not sleeping with the captain being stow-aways.



The entire crew and passengers would enjoy watching their last dance as they were hanged.

But this is just the prelude to what happened in the ‘new world’ as we will see…

 

[Loxuru]

She looks vaguely familiar. Must be one of my ancestors. Think I’d better do a little ancestry research. Hope she’s not in our line. A witch. In the family tree would be rather concerning. Those genes have a habit of getting passed down, you know.

Don't worry! There are so called 'Institutes for wayward young women', where brilliant doctors have excellent treatments to completely suppress the working of these genes!

 

[thehangingtree]

A little back history is in order here. Back in the early 1700s, progressives in England fought hard for equality among the sexes. For the most part their arguments fell on deaf ears. However, the was an attentive judge who heard their calls and he oversaw Penelope Knotbright’s trial.

At that time, women were hanged for their crimes but they were usually considered the ‘low life’ of women.



This was not the case of Penelope Knotbright. She was a woman of great wealth with a powerful husband.

It seems Penelope discovered her husband was fooling around with their chambermaid. Then divorce was still out of the question and killing her husband (though much deserved) was out of the question. Penelope took the third option and slipped enough arsenic into the maid’s tea to terminate her life. It was a bawdy trial, well covered by the newspapers of the day. Mrs. Knotbright was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in the square the first Saturday of the following month.

Due to the heavy coverage by the press a large crowd turned out for Penelope’s hanging- so many that the king’s army had to be dispatched to safely escort her to her execution. Penelope wore a white dress and, despite her hands bound behind her back, gracefully marched to the gallows waiting for her.



She looked stately as she marched to her execution despite the crowd that lined the way and were not shy about their scorn for her. It wasn’t until Penelope saw they noose dangling over twelve feet above the street did she show any sign of fear of what awaited her.



The London police did their job both keeping the crowd at bay and directing Penelope to the gallows’ stairs. She harshly snapped “I know how to climb steps. I don’t need your help.”

She climbed the thirteen steps to the platform feeling the coarse wood of the steps grate against her feet. As she reached the top, the hangman extended his hand to help Penelope onto the platform.



Her heart raced as she stepped up to the noose. In a few minutes the lifeless loop of hemp would be around her neck and she would be hanged by her neck. Penelope felt the terrible urge to pee. She was thankful the hangman grabbed her shoulders and steadied her.



The official from the court read what she had been found guilty of doing and rambled on that Penelope would pay for her crime with her life. By orders of the court, she would be hanged by her neck until she expired. She wished he would shut up and get the show over with.



The hangman placed the noose around Penelope’s neck and tightened the rope so there is no escape from her fate.

Penelope wiggled her head. The coarse rope scratched the skin of her neck. With the irons around her wrists there was nothing she could do about it. She looked up at her husband and cursed him.

‘You son of a bitch! The maid is dead and soon I will be. All because you couldn’t keep your dick where it belonged!’



The court official loudly shouted “Hangman, do your job!”

Penelope closed her eyes and took her last breath as the lever was pulled.



The trapdoor fell from beneath her feet. Penelope dropped only a foot before the noose broke her fall.



It would take her several minutes to choke to death as she hanged by her neck. An hour later when the crowds were gone, Penelope’s lifeless body still hanged above the street.



Her husband looked up at her from the street below and thought the dowry he got for marrying her meant he wouldn’t have to work for a while…

 

[thehangingtree]

So this brings our story to the ‘new world’, the then relatively new country of the United States. The new world was discovered in the 1400s by the Europeans. Never mind they found ‘Indians’ there already, it is only said they discovered the continent. They did bring their knowledge and traditions with them, one being their penal codes. One thing they brought was their ultimate penalty, the execution of criminals and other less desirable people. This led to a formidable deterrent to crimes but was also misused, leading to such aberrations such as the Salem witch-hunts. But that is for another story. Let us move out west to the small town of Hangem, capital of the Brampton Territory.

It is the late 1800s and Hangem was where criminals were hanged for their crimes. It was an effective way to deal with the rowdy elements and did not hurt the saloons’ businesses either. There is an old saying a good hanging deserves a bottle of booze.



The territory of Brampton was run by a wealthy man known as ‘Trailhead’ Tree who made his wealth homesteading vast amounts of land and selling parcels to settlers (at an exorbitant price). He also supplied the liquor to the area and did not get poor doing that, either.



But life wasn’t perfect for Mr. Tree. He was quite enamored by Miss Delia Lovelace who ran a house of ill repute just outside of Hangem’s city limits. It was known Delia did not service customers herself (or at least she didn’t admit to it) and certainly held the robber-baron Tree in great distain.



To keep this story a reasonable length, Tree managed to have her arrested and tried for evading paying her business taxes. It was only a small detail that Delia’s business was outside the city limits and she was not subjected to such taxes. Tree paid off the judge and jury and Miss Lovelace was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in the town square.

The idea of hanging Miss Lovelace was not a popular decision as she had serviced many of the men in and around Hangem. The day of her hanging, the sheriff came to her cell and told her to get ready for her hanging.



Miss Lovelace felt her hanging was not just but not wanting to appear less than prefect adjusted her dress before accompanying the sheriff to the gallows.



The sheriff was apologetic as he led Delia from her cell. He mentioned it was nothing personal against her, but Tree did sign his paychecks.



Miss Lovelace understood as she had bedded the sheriff as often as he could afford her. She walked with grace from the jail to the gallows but when she saw the tall wood structure she would be hanged from, she tried to jerk away from the sheriff’s grasp.



The sheriff tried to calm her, assuring she would look wonderful as she hanged by her neck.

Miss Lovelace was led up the steps to the gallows’ deck. The hangman began to tie her hands behind her back, but Delia protested “This is not necessary!”



The sheriff finished tying her hands and calmly assured her that it was only because of the protocol that her hands were bound when she was hanged. He assured her “We wouldn’t want you scratching your neck while you try to get out of the noose!”

The sheriff places the noose around Delia’s neck. The coarse rope scratches her skin.



Panic grew in Delia. She whispers “It hurts. The rope rubs my skin!”

The sheriff tightens the loop around her neck.



The sheriff notes “In a few minutes you won’t notice the itch.”

 

[thehangingtree]

Delia stood on the gallows with her hands tied behind her back and the heavy rope of the noose weighing down on her shoulders. She felt incredibly alone though the sheriff, the hangman, and the preacher were not more than an arm’s length from her. The preacher, the Reverend Sparum F. Hell did not open the bible he carried but began preaching to the crowd. Delia could not remember what part of the bible he was quoting but there were lines about forgiving Delia’s sins and sparing her soul from the eternal burning damnation of hell.



The preacher was rather animated as Delia was the first woman he gave the final blessing to. Delia felt her gut tightening and she was ready to pee down her legs. Still she prayed he would keep talking because though she couldn’t remember ever being choked, she still feared the trapdoor opening when the preacher was done.



The preacher was just about done when he turned to Delia. He raised his hand and made something that looked like the sign of cross as her loudly proclaimed “…and may God have mercy on your soul!”



Delia felt the warm stream of her pee run down her thighs as he said “Hangman, do your duty.”



“Don’t do it” Delia screamed.

 

[thehangingtree]

“Don’t do it” Delia screamed. Panic was in her voice as she yelled. She looks wide-eyed at the hangman who calmly tells the sheriff to pull the lever. Delia whips her head to her right and sees the sheriff pulling the release. She screams “NO!” but feels the trapdoor shudder under her feet as the steel pins retract. Delia was still screaming as she fell.



Her fall took less than a second before the noose broke her fall.



The snap of rope breaking her fall drowned out her gasp. For a couple minutes Delia kicked and thrashed as she hanged by her neck.



The drop was only a couple of feet and Delia was too light to for her drop to tighten the noose. After she jerked about for five minutes the hangman said to the sheriff “Put your foot on her shoulder and get this over with.”

The sheriff did so and he heard the noose tighten around Delia’s neck.



Five feet below Delia’s feet her piss splattered on the dry ground. The sheriff and the hangman stared down at her motionless body. The hangman pulled out his watch. Delia had been hanged for a quarter hour. He told the sheriff to check if she was finished. The sheriff couldn’t find a pulse and said “I think she’s dead!”



Delia Lovelace was left hanging for the balance of the hour. Not only was it standard practice to leave a person hanged that long, but it was also good for Tree’s liquor sales. After Delia hanged for an hour, Tree signaled the hangman to take her down. He loosened the noose and Delia’s body dropped to the ground. The people gathered around her body. Most men were sorry Delia was hanged but they all agreed she put on a hell of a show while she hanged.



It should be noted Delia was not cut down. You see, Tree is very frugal and that rope she was hanged with was used before and surely more would meet their maker hanged from the Arkansas hemp as this saga continues…

 

[thehangingtree]

In the 1800s it was called ‘the wild west’ because there weren’t many laws back then and most people ignored them. While today someone ignoring the laws would be given a trial, the people in charge were as guilty as anyone of ignoring such technicalities of things like due process.

This brings us to the case of Fellatio Bouche. It is doubtful that was her real name but she did move to the territory of Brampton and set up a business on the outskirts of Hangem. The business catered to men’s physical urges which in those times weren’t illegal in the territory. She also refused to buy Mr. Tree’s beverages to serve her customers. This greatly displeased Tree that she would have drinks hauled in from back east (which he did not get a cut of the costs).

Tree ordered the sheriff to ‘take care of’ Miss Bouche in a way to send a message to anyone else who might have interests such as hers. That Saturday when Miss Bouche came to Hangem for supplies, she was met by the sheriff and his deputies. Fellatia demanded to know what was going on. A deputy said “Just enforcing the laws ‘round here.”



The men proceeded to arrest Miss Bouche…



…and tied her hands behind her back and led her through the town. Miss Bouche called the deputies names that can’t be repeated here. As the group neared the square they came upon Reverend Sparum F. Hell. Miss Bouche beseeched him saying the deputies had no right to detain her. Reverend Hell assured her the matter would be handled swiftly.



“You’ll be given a fair trial where you guilt or innocence will be quickly established” he assured her.

“But will I have to wait in jail for my trial” Fellatia asked.

As one deputy checked the rope binding her wrists, another grabbed her and pulled her breasts into his chest. He said “You won’t spend any time in jail!”



Fellatia’s relief that she would not waste time in jail was momentary as she was hustled up the stairs of the gallows in the square. Standing high above the town a deputy held a noose before her face.



“Fellatia Bouche, you have been accused of bootlegging alcohol into the territory of Brampton. You will be tried by being hanged by your neck for an hour. If you are guilty you will die hanging from these gallows. And if you live… well, no one has” the deputy said.

In a panic, Fellatia begs “Don’t hang me! I will give you anything you want!”

The rough Arkansas rope was pulled over her head and tightened around her neck.



The deputy shakes his head. Solemnly he said “Trying to bribe an officer of the law… I’m afraid you will be hanged the balance of the day.”

“You can’t do this to me” Fellatia cries but the deputy behind her grabs at her clothing.



“If she is gonna hang the whole day, we have to give her a fighting chance” he calmly said.

Fellatia looked down in horror as he exposed her breast. She shouted in both anger and panic “You can’t do that! Everybody can see me!”



This did not stop the deputy as he peeled her naked till she was let wearing only her stockings and boots. The deputy in front of her lifted her chin and asked “What’s the matter, Fellatia? You ain’t making enough money showin’ your tits?”



She spat in his face. It was the only thing she could do…

 

[thehangingtree]

The deputy was not amused by Fellatia’s act of defiance. He wiped her spit from his face as he walked to the gallows’ release lever. There was no doubt about the anger in his voice when he snaps “Let’s see if you can do that once you are hanged!”



Fellatia pleads with him “I’m sorry! There was nothing else I could do! Please don’t move that lever!”

But under Fellatia’s feet the trapdoor quivered as the pins pulled out of their sockets. Her heart raced as her eyes looked down in fear. The thought raced through her head ‘My god, he’s going to hang me!’



It was instantaneous when the scraping sound stopped and the platform fell from beneath her feet. Fellatia let out a shriek.



It was a short cry because the noose stopped her fall with a tenacious jerk of her throat.



Fellatia dropped only a bit more than a foot but her neck stopped her fall and the noose cocked her head over. Stunned by the hit of the noose Fellatia could not even think to breathe.



Her eyes could not focus but if she could see she would have seen the men below the gallows staring up at her hanging body.

Fellatia’s thrashing from the noose sent her spinning as she hanged. Was it courtesy to the crowd below that the deputy would spin her back to face the crowd?



Her struggles as she hanged lasted over five minutes. Her final moments had her stomach convulsing as she fought for whatever air she could gasp. The crowd seemed impressed by her finale.



Seven minutes after she was hanged even her trembles stopped. Fellatia was hanged to death for buying her liquor from someone other than Tree.



An hour later the crowd had wandered off to the surrounding saloons. A fancily dressed woman climbed the gallows and gathered Fellatia’s cloths and stripped her of her boots and stockings.



She climbed down the steps with her new possessions leaving Fellatia’s naked body dangling from the noose.



‘I hope they never do that to me’ Barbara Moore thought as she walked from the gallows…

 

[Wragg]

‘I hope they never do that to me’ Barbara Moore thought as she walked from the gallows…

Perish the thought...

 

[Loxuru]

I hope they never do that to me’ Barbara Moore thought as she walked from the gallows…

In the Far West, as long as you don't behave rebellous, don't complain, stick to the fine print and stay friendly to people called 'Tree', there is no chance that this will ever happen to you!