Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. Samuel Johnson, re execution of Dr Dodd for forgery 27th June 1777
The gallows in the garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall.
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours – on the wall –
Are drawing a long breath to shout ‘Hurray!’
The strangest whim has seized me ... After all
I think I will not hang myself today. G K Chesterton, 1874-1936, The Ballad of Suicide
A lover forsaken
A new love may get,
But a neck when once broken
Can never be set. William Walsh, The Despairing Lover l17
We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we will hang separately. Benjamin Franklin
What hangs people ... is the unfortunate circumstance of guilt. Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box
Between the possibility of being hanged in all innocence, and the certainty of a public and merited disgrace, no gentleman of spirit could long hesitate. ibid.
‘If it comes to a swinging, swing all, say I.’ Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
What still alive at twenty-two,
A clean, upstanding chap like you?
Sure, if your throat ’tis hard to slit,
Slit your girl’s, and swing for it.
Like enough, you won’t be glad,
When they come to hang you, lad:
But bacon’s not the only thing
That’s cured by hanging from a string.
So, when the spilt ink of the night
Spreads o’er the blotting-pad of light,
Lads whose job is still to do
Shall whet their knives, and think of you. Hugh Kingsmill’s parody of A E Housman [Housman thought the poem the only good parody]
For they’re hangin’ Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play,
The regiment’s in ’ollow square – they’re hangin’ him to-day;
They’ve taken of his buttons off an’ cut his stripes away,
An’ they’re hanging’ Danny Deever in the mornin’. Rudyard Kipling, Danny Deaver, 1892
It grew a gallows and did bear our son.
It bore thy fruit and mine. Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, 1592
Hanging’s too good for him, said Mr Cruelty. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton’s thoughts on scaffold
I think we ought to let him hang there. Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind. John Ehrlichman, presidential assistant to Richard Nixon, when Nixon had withdrawn support for Patrick Gray as director of FBI without telling him
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen. George Savile, 1633-95, ‘Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections’, 1750
I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition. Samuel Pepys, Diary 13th October 1660
And naked to the hangman’s noose
The morning clocks will ring
A neck God made for other use
Than strangling in a string. A E Housman, A Shropshire Lad
And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father. II Samuel 17:23
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified. Esther 7:10
And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.
Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. Esther 9:12-14
I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging. George W Bush
If my Valentine you won’t be,
I’ll hang myself on your Christmas tree. Ernest Hemingway, 88 Poems
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important. Martin Luther King
He had no barrister to represent him ... This was probably his last view of daylight. He was hanged for his crime. John Smith was a boy of just fifteen. The Strange Case of the Law III: The Story of English Justice: Presumed Innocent, BBC 2012
And if that man had been strung up, he would never have come popping up in the court of appeal and causing us all this trouble and anxiety. Rumpole of the Bailey s7e2: Rumpole and the Miscarriage of Justice, Wilfred, ITV 1992
So how did hanging go from being a spectator event to the taboo it is now? 1955 ... The last woman to be hanged in this country – Ruth Ellis. Portillo’s State Secrets 1/10, BBC 2015
Albert Pierrepoint: more than four hundred people. His record being seventeen in a single day. ibid.
‘It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree ... I have not prevented a single murder.’ ibid. Albert Pierrepoint
You realize that suicide’s a criminal offence – In less enlightened times they’d have hung you for it. Peter Cook
Dear Mr Scott ...
Are you, like our Leader Mrs Thatcher, committed to the re-introduction of selective hanging? If you are, I’m afraid I will be unable, as a matter of conscience, to vote for you ...
Was the Battle of Britain won by shooting down Jerry selectively? I should say not! We pranged the buggers willy-nilly! Now that we are engaged in another, and no less desperate, Battle of Britain we can be certain of one thing: we won’t defeat the enemy in our midst – terrorists, weirdos and extremists under the bed – by hanging them selectively. We’ve got to hang the lot! Henry Root, The Henry Root Letters, to Nicholas Scott MP 17th April 1979
‘It was a good hanging,’ said Syme reminiscently. ‘I think it spoils it when they tie their feet together. I like to see them kicking. And above all, at the end, the tongue sticking right out, and blue – a quite bright blue. That’s the detail that appeals to me.’ George Orwell, 1984
You know, sir, some people think that being a hangman is money for old rope. The New Statesman special: Who Shot Alan B’stard? hangman to B’stard
On Monday July 13th [2015: at 8:58 a.m. jailers went to cell 95 and observed Miss Bland hanging from the privacy partition in her cell. Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland ***** HBO/Sky Documentaries 2020
Sandra Bland Rest In Power. Arrested for Traffic Violation: Killed in Police Custody. ibid. protest banner
‘You just slammed me head into the ground. Don’t you even care about that?’ ibid. Bland arrest filmed after rozzers’ assault
Cell 95: ‘Where she was didn’t have cameras … You have a thirty-gallon trash can in the inmates’ cell that gives her access to a plastic bag. If she was in as much pain as she said she was in, I just don’t see how she could have tied that perfect – very perfect – noose.’ ibid. family