Summit Gist

EXECUTION OF JOACHIM MURAT Joachim Murat, the French cavalry leader who was a key military strategist in Napoleon's rise to power in France and his subsequent creation of an empire in continental Europe, was executed in 1815 in Pizzo in Calabria. When the fatal moment arrived, Murat walked with a firm step to the place of execution, as calm, as unmoved, as if he had been going to an ordinary review. He would not accept a chair, nor suffer his eyes to be bound. Before his death, he said; "I have braved death too often to fear it." He stood upright, proudly and undauntedly, with his countenance towards the soldiers; and when all was ready, he kissed a cameo on which the head of his wife was engraved, and gave the word — thus: "Soldiers! Do your duty! Straight to the heart but spare the face. Fire!" CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO .

GUILLOTINE In 1791, the French physician Jean Guillotine proposed to reform the process of execution.  The goal of this proposition consisted of making beheadings not only a privilege of the nobles, in addition to also carrying out the process as quickly as possible in order to cause the least amount of suffering. After all, in those days, death sentences involved the cruelest of methods: burning at the stake, hanging and quartering. Therefore, there in lay the guillotine. A special feature of the guillotine comes in the form of sharpening the blade at an angle with weights weighing 40-100kg, enabling it to move unhindered down its vertical runners. Executions were carried out as follows: the convict’s neck was pinned between two boards equipped with access holes, the body laid upon a wooden bench. After this, the latch holding back the knife is opened via lever mechanism, and the blade falls rapidly toward the victim’s neck from a height of about 2 – 3 meters. The severed h...

TITUS OATES STANDING IN PILLORY Titus Oates (1649-1705) was the fabricator of the so-called Popish Plot, which was to overshadow religious and political life in Britain from 1678 until the end of Charles II's reign. At the height of his influence, Oates was provided with the power to order the arrest of whomsoever he accused: at least 22 men were executed on his perjured evidence. His lies finally caught up with him on 10 May 1684, when he was himself arrested after calling the Duke of York a traitor. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1685, and his punishment included being placed in the pillory five times a year It is likely that this print records his first public humiliation, on 19 May 1685. Despite his blatant and murderous lies, Oates was released from prison in 1689 by William III, and had his pension reinstated. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO .

5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE ELECTRIC CHAIR 1. Once, an unknown citizen of the state of New York saw a drunk man accidentally touch the contact of an electric generator, he died of electric shock. The man told this to his friend, Senator David Macmillan. The senator thought that this would be a good way to execute criminals. He voiced this proposal to Congress. It was accepted and passed into law. 2. The first person who was executed in the electric chair (August 6, 1890) was William Kemmler, who had hacked his wife with an ax. 3. Criminals had many names for the Electric Chair: Old Sparky, Yellow Mama, Gruesome Gertie, Sizzling Sally or Hot Seat. 4. The United States eventually stopped production of electric chairs. The old ones often fail during the execution, prolonging the torment of a person. 5. There were two cases when death by electric chair was replaced with life imprisonment, but an electric shock still found the sentenced person. In both accidents the cause of death was the...

THE REVENANT John Bartendeil was a robber. He was sentenced to death and hanged on March 27, 1634 in York (England). He hung on the noose for 45 minutes, and  after that he was pronounced dead and buried in the wasteland beyond the city limits. After some time, the executed person came to life and tried to dig  himself out of the ground. A nobleman passing by noticed a stirring of the earth and helped Bartendeil. The district sheriff found out about this and began to seek the re-execution of Bartendeil. However, the impossibility of an unambiguous identification of the rescued put the court at a standstill. The nobleman who saved Bartendeil, refused to testify about the place and circumstances of salvation, referring to the lack of knowledge of the area, and Bartendeil took advantage of the old English right to be called by any name. In the end, the court closed the case. Bartendeil lived a long life and, by the way, did not return to the criminal path. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE...

Bruno Hauptmann, convicted of kidnapping Lindbergh’s son, executed Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted in the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles A. Lindbergh, is executed by electrocution. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted in the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh, is executed by electrocution. On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., the son of the famous American aviator who made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927, was kidnapped from the nursery of the Lindbergh home in Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom note was found on the scene of the crime demanding $50,000 in payment for the return of Charles Jr. Three days later, the Lindberghs involved the authorities against the kidnapper’s advice, and the ransom was increased to $70,000. On April 2, at New Jersey’s St. Raymond’s Cemetery, John F. Condon, a friend of the Lindberghs, handed over the $70,000. The Lindbergh baby was not returned, however, and nearly six weeks l...

In 1979, Larry da Silva was executed for the rape and murder of an 84-year-old woman - his execution was shown in the documentary Faces of Death. The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has advised the Guyana Police Force to charge Larry Da Silva for the murder of Dwayne Williams commonly known as ‘Levi’ or ‘Sweetie Man.’ Da Silva is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday, December 7, 2020. Williams, a 54-year-old resident of Linden, was found dead behind a shack on the Wismar shore. His 33-year-old nephew of One Mile Wismar, Linden, had told investigators, that about 21:00 hours on November 26, Williams visited his mother, who also resides at the One Mile residence. Williams spent some time there, then left for his Wismar Housing Scheme home. The man’s nephew further informed the police that about 05:45hrs on Friday, November 27, 2020 he received information from persons in the area that the man was seen lying behind a shack. The police were subsequently summoned to th...