Methods Of Execution: The Garrote

Methods Of Execution: The Garrote

These-photographs-show-favorite-Spain-its-colonies-above-circa-garrotting-Philippine-Islands-another-colony-photograph-below-

These-photographs-show-favorite-Spain-its-colonies-above-circa-garrotting-Philippine-Islands-another-colony-photograph-below-

These photographs show the favorite execution method of Spain and its colonies: garrotting. The above photograph [circa 1898] shows a garrotting in the Philippine Islands, another Spanish colony. The photograph [below] shows a prison yard execution in Cuba, about 1895. Both countries came under United States control after the Spanish American War, "America's Splendid War" of 1898.

The method is simple: the condemned is strapped into a chair and a metal band, heavy leather strap, or other type of band is placed around the neck; the executioner stands behind the condemned and twists the cord or strap around a rod, tightening the band and strangling the person to death. 

During the Inquisition, the Catholic clergy used garroting when interrogating a victim as it could make the unfortunate prisoner confess to just about anything. The torturer would twist the cord until the accused would almost pass out, then release it. Unfortunately, once the victim admitted his crime or exposed his friends, he was declared guilty and the strangulation completed.

In more modern times, garrotting was made more humane: an adjustable seat positioned the neck at an appropriate level, and as the garrote was tightened, a spike or sharp thin knife, placed in the wooden stake, was forced into the neck, severing the spinal cord and causing death. 

In April 1828, garrotting was declared the only civilian execution method in Spain. The last public execution in Spain was 1897. In March 1974, the last criminals actually garrotted in Spain were George Michael Weizel and Salvador Puig Antich, who had killed a police officer. Garrotting remained the official method of execution until 1978, when both the method and capital punishment were abolished. 

In the 19th century the Principality of Andorra, a small country in the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border, sanctioned garrotting as a method of execution, but never used it. The only execution in the country, in the 20th century, occurred in 1943, by firing squad, because a garrote executioner could not be found. Garrotting was officially abolished in Andorra in 1990, the last country to abandon this style of execution.

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