Morbid Fact Du Jour For December 4, 2011
Today’s Superstitious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Nooses, Woody Guthrie’s song notwithstanding, do not usually have thirteen loops, nor do scaffolds necessarily have thirteen steps. The morbid tradition may have originated in 19th century England, where hangman William Marwood used a thirteen-foot length of Italian silk-hemp rope bound with chamois leather. The use of the number thirteen was reinforced in American lore by the scaffold in the Western District of Arkansas, to which the “Hangin’ Judge,” Isaac Charles Parker, sent some eighty-eight men. Parker’s executioner, George Maledon, the “Prince of Hangmen,” used thirteen loops on his knots, though there were only twelve steps up the gallows. Before the electric chair was introduced to Huntsville, Alabama, the condemned were hanged in the basement below death row, which was reached by a staircase of thirteen steps. The same was true in San Quentin.
Culled from: The Last Face You’ll Ever See
