What a way to go : the guillotine, the pendulum, the thousand cuts, the Spanish donkey, and 66 other ways of putting someone to death
"In this wickedly humorous book, Geoffrey Abbott describes the effectiveness of instruments of torture and reveals the macabre origins of familiar phrases such as 'gone west' or 'drawn a blank'. Covering everything from the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body 'What a Way to Go' is everything you ever wanted to know about the ultimate penalty--and a lot you never thought to ask."--Publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2007
1st St. Martin's Griffin ed View all formats and editions
St. Martin's Griffin, New York, N.Y., 2007
Encyclopedia
ix, 338 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm
9780312366568, 0312366566
157011693
Axe
Bastinado
Beaten to death
Boiled alive
Brazen bull
Broken on the wheel
Buried alive
Buried alive upside-down
Burned at the stake
Burned internally
Cannibalism
Cauldron
Cave of roses
Crucifixion
Cyphon
Diele
Drowning
Dry pan
Eaten by animals
Eaten by crocodiles
Electric chair
Firing squad
Flayed alive
Fried to death
Gas chamber
Gibbet
Gridiron
Guillotine
Gunpowder
Halifax gibbet
Hanged alive in chains
Hanged at the yard-arm
Hanged, drawn and quartered
Hanging
Hara-kiri
Impaled by stakes
Iron chair
Iron maiden
Keel-hauling
Lethal injection
Mannaia
Mazzatello
Mill wheel
Nail through the ear
Necklacing
Over a cannon's muzzle
Pendulum
Poison
Pressed to death
Rack
Sawn in half
Scaphismus
Scottish maiden
Sewn in an animal's belly
Shot by arrows
Spanish donkey
Starvation
Stoned to death
Strangulation
Suffocation
Sword
Thousand cuts
Throat slitting
Thrown from a great height
Tied in a sack with animals
Torn apart between two trees
Torn apart by boats
Torn apart by horses
Twenty-four cuts
Miscellaneous
Jargon of the underworld
"First published in the United States under the title: Execution, by St. Martin's Press."--Title page verso
"First published in Great Britain under the title: The book of execution, by Headline Book Publishing."--Title page verso