Legends 35: A Clean Death (ad-free)

Some of the most terrifying legends in history come from one place: beneath the shadow of an executioner.

Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Alex Robinson and research by Sam Alberty.

Sources:

• Abbott, Geoffrey. Lords of the Scaffold: A History of the Executioner. London: Robert Hale, 1991. 

• “Assassination Attempt on King Louis XV By Damiens, 1757”. Chateau de Versailles. 

• Brigden, James. “Hang ‘Em High: 7 of History’s Most Famous Executioners”. History. https://www.history.co.uk/articles/hang-em-high-7-of-history-s-most-famous-executioners

• Brown, Stephen E., Finn-Aage Esbensen, and Gilbert Geis. Criminology: Explaining Crime and Its Context. 9th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2015. 

• Cale, Jessica. “Executioner, Death, or the Devil Himself? The Legend of Jack Ketch.” Dirty Sexy History. 9/25/2016. https://dirtysexyhistory.com/2016/09/25/executioner-death-or-the-devil-himself-the-legend-of-jack-ketch

• Cale, Jessica. “Executions at Tyburn: Ritual and Reality.” Dirty Sexy History. 7/10/2016. https://dirtysexyhistory.com/2016/07/10/executions-at-tyburn-ritual-and-reality

• “Damiens’s Testimony to Parlement.” https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/item/610

• Davies, Own and Francesca Matteoni. “‘A Virtue Beyond All Medicine’: The Hanged Man’s Hand, Gallows Tradition and Healing in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century England.” Social History of Medicine. 5/2/2015. P. 1-20. 

• Farrell, Brendan. “Roscommon’s Lady Betty–Their, Murderer, and Executioner”. Irish Central. 1/1/2024. https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/lady-betty-thief-murderer-executioner

• Harrington, Joel F. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013. Kindle Edition. 

• Headsman. “1683: Lord Russell, Whig Martyr.” Executed Today. 7/21/2014. https://www.executedtoday.com/2014/07/21/1683-lord-russell-whig-martyr

• Headsman, “1757: Robert-Francois Damiens, Disciplined and Punished.” Executed Today. 3/28/2008. https://www.executedtoday.com/2008/03/28/1757-robert-francois-damiens-discipline-and-punish

• “How Ireland’s Only Female Executioner Got the Job.” Irish Examiner. 4/18/2019. https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30918685.html. Accessed 4/3/2024. 

• Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006.

• Johnston, Raymond. “Prague Uncovered: One of the Darkest Chapters of the City’s History Took Place 400 Years Ago Today.” Expats CZ. 6/21/2021. https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/one-of-prague-s-darkest-chapters-happened-400-years-ago-with-27-executions-on-old-town-square

• Lenoir, Andrew. “Charles-Henri Sanson: The Royal Executioner of 18th-Century France.” All That Is Interesting. Edited by John Kuroski. https://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-henri-sanson

• London Historians. “The Gruesome Reason Why Newgate Prison Used to be Known as ‘Jack Ketch’s Kitchen’”. Londonist. https://londonist.com/london/history/jack-ketch-dodgy-axeman

• Naillon, Erin. “27 Noblemen Executed”. Private Prague Guide. https://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/27-noblemen-executed

• “Robert-Francois Damiens.” Britannica. Updated 3/24/2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Francois-Damiens

• Rule, Fiona. London Labyrinth: The World Beneath the City’s Streets. Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2012.

• Sakar, Vladimir. “Old Town Square Executions in 1621.” Veritas, R.A. http://veritas.evangnet.cz/en/executions-1621

• Schwoerer, Lois G. “William, Lord Russell: The Making of a Martyr, 1683-1983.” Journal of British Studies 24, n. 1 (Jan 1985), pp. 41-71. 

• Seaver, Carl. “Jack Ketch: One of History’s Bloodiest Executioners”. History Defined. 1/27/2023. https://www.historydefined.net/jack-ketch-one-of-historys-bloodiest-executioners

• Sedgwick, Icy. “Just Hanging Around: The Gallows in English Folklore”. Icy Sedgwick. 10/15/2022. https://www.icysedgwick.com/the-gallows-in-folklore

• “The Sentence against Damiens [1757].” World History Commons. https://worldhistorycommons.org/sentence-against-damiens-1757#doc_transcription

• Stuart, Kathy. Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts: Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

• Sugg, Richard. Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 2016.

• Wade, Stephen. Britain’s Most Notorious Hangmen. Barnsley: Wharncliffe Local History, 2009. 

• Walsh, Robert. “France’s Prolific Executioner: The Life and Death of Charles-Henri Sanson.” The Lineup. 8/29/2016. https://the-line-up.com/charles-henri-sanson

• Welch, Michael. “Torture and Torment: Transform the Body”. In The Bastille Effect: Transforming Sites of Political Prisoners. University of California Press, 2022.