The Web Show

 

 

The Executioner's Notebook aims to entertain and educate viewers by discussing a different topic on the subject of legal execution every week.  The show explores the executioners, methods, devices, laws, judges, criminals, art, literature, and the general atmosphere associated with the death penalty throughout history.

Keeping with a long by-gone tradition, every six weeks the show does a special episode in honor of the Tyburn Fair, the infamous regular event in England during which public executions were carried out in a carnival-like atmosphere.

 

THE EXECUTIONERS

Many episodes will focus on an individual man (or woman) who was appointed specifically to the office of being the executioner for a city, state, region, or country.  You may be surprised at how diverse hangmen were, how they came to gain the job, and even the type of hobbies they indulged in.

 

THE METHODS & DEVICES

Some episodes will explore the various means in which criminals were dispatched. Some were put into practice to achieve maximum suffering while others were invented with a far more humane approach in mind.  Although often grisly, the imaginations that birthed some of these methods can be quite interesting.

 

 

THE PROTOCOL & CUSTOMS

 

How were people prepared for the guillotine? Why did criminals pay the hangman? How is having "one for the road" possibly associated with execution?

These and many other questions will be answered in episodes that dive into the various customs and procedures of execution.

 

 

 

THE CONDEMNED

While the show tries not to spend too much time glorifying the criminals that suffered the ultimate punishment, it cannot be denied that some of them had a hand in molding the very history of execution. From the only member of Tudor royalty to be beheaded by a sword to a woman who put a specific fabric out of fashion by the dress she was hanged in, the show will occasionally discuss celebrated victims of the scaffold.

EXECUTION IN FILM

Sometimes the show will take a look at how execution is depicted in modern film. Some movies have managed to show viewers very accurate re-enactments of a victim's last moments while others take many creative liberties to create a dramatic scene.

BOOK REVIEWS

For those who are interested in learning more about the subject, the show will occasionally offer reviews on books. While most are well-researched offerings by various authors, some have mis-leading titles that end up being little more than regurgitated lists of methods and victims.