• coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgOP
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    1 year ago

    Idk, your source doesn’t seem to indicate that the practice was rare, either. Seems like, among the criminals that could afford it, it was a pretty regular occurrence. I guess “customary” has a cultural connotation to it, but i wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “myth” given how close @[email protected]’s comment was to reality.

    • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Blunt axe, sword, and insufficient drop height leading to death by suffocation instead of neck snapping all have absolutely nothing to do with guillotines and instead have to do with beheading/death by axe/sword and hanging. The article very explicitly says that this kind of tipping did not happen (or was extremely rare).

      You are correct that the article talks about people tipping the guillotine operator, in the specific context of “certain eras in England”, which implies it was neither widespread nor applicable to anything outside of that very specific context.