Morbid - Episode 49: Public Executions & The Psychology of Watching Pain Mini Morbid

Episode Date: March 2, 2019

So, Alaina isn't great at brevity. Her Mini Morbid covers the history of public executions and explores why people have always loved them. Have we evolved as a species away from gathering to watch someone be hanged in the town square? This is a long Mini that will have you thinking about a lot of things. Hold on to your butts....and maybe your heads. As a ***WARNING*** this episode contains a short history of lynching in the United States. This subject is horrifying and can be triggering to some. Just be aware and use your judgement but we announce the topic before we delve into it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's ANGI, order download the app today. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Mini Morbid. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, morbid. Mini, morbid, mini, morbid, mini, morbid. BUDD! It's probably not gonna be a Mini Morbid, but we're gonna call it a Mini Morbid. It's gonna be called a Mini Morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid. Baaaad. It's probably not gonna be a mini morbid,

but we're gonna call it a mini morbid. It's gonna be called a mini morbid, but it's gonna actually, I mean, like a full size morbid. Because this is an Elena episode. Yeah, what about it? And I tend to have trouble confining myself to like 30 minutes. You do.

I went a little over 30 last time as well. You did, I was proud of you. It's like when you're researching something that's like super fun. Well, well. You did, I was proud of you. It's like when you're researching something that's super fun. Well, well, I mean this is not super fun. I will say that then. It's not what I meant. I just was super interesting to you.

Yeah, this is fascinating. It becomes fun to research. It does. And you know what, I might be overshooting it, maybe it looks like a lot. And I'm going to get through it quick. Who knows? I don't see. You might get a full length episode right now. I know plans so if you could just like move it along

Whoa That'd be great. My plans are to go downstairs and eat the dinner my husband is cooking for me Right now mine are to go out and cry with one of my best friends because I'm going through a breakup right now I'm sorry. It's okay. I'll live Everybody said Ash virtual hugs. She can use it. I want them. And that kind of leads nicely into my topic. Did you pick a breakup topic? No. Oh! No, my topic is public executions. Oh, okay. So kind of the same thing. Well, you know, essentially. Pretty much. I think last, my last episode that I did on the Paris Morgue, I like kind of started to go into why we're fascinated with deaths, why we can deal, why we can look

at that stuff, why we can look at gruesome shit. You're so creepy right now. You're like, why we can talk about shit. I'm like, I'm like so deeply. I'm like, I'm like a gruesome shit. You're so creepy right now. Do they? You're like, why we can talk about shit? And you're like, I'm like so deeply in my soul. I'm narrowed my eyes and I'm looking at her like, why do we look at weird shit Ash? It's so creepy because the light of your iPad is like lighting up the bottom of your face. That's so creepy.

Can you stop? I'm gonna stop. Can you open your eyes? I'm gonna stop now. I'm opening my eyes. That was so weird. Sorry, I'm really intense. What is happening? This is gonna get intense. So just so everybody knows like strapping. So this is where basically I'm gonna touch upon

why you know how it how this kind of all started? I'm gonna start us way back in ancient Rome. Okay. And I'm going to come all the way to now. So we're going to cover, you know, pretty big chunk of time. We're going to cover a minute or two. So we're going to talk about all the basically all the kinds of public executions and the crowd reaction to them. Okay.

And then at the end, I'm gonna try to come up with reasons why we do this, but to be honest, I think we're all just sick, fucks. We're all still trying to figure out why we do this, but there's various reasons. So, let's start off. So why, so the whole thing is why are humans and seemingly normal humans fascinated by traumatic death?

I don't know, tell me. I'm talking like public executions, car accidents, murder scenes, we're like drawn to them. And why, and the thing is why have we always been drawn to them? Like this is not new by any stretch of them. In fact, we've only, I mean, we very slightly evolved from our Roman brethren, brother in, cheering everybody on in the Colosseum.

Like we are very, we're not that far removed from them. The Coliseum is a club that I once went to. There you go. It's pretty fun there. Wow. I was cheering my friend out. Wow, everybody. Everybody dance now.

In case you can't tell which one's Ash or which one's Lina. Now you know. There you go. So what's interesting to me is that we never truly evolved out of that. Like you would think we would evolve. And people like to think we have. Because people like, oh no, we would never watch someone be drawn in quarter.

That's insane. That's crazy. But I'll totally get into a car accident trying to watch another car accident. Or I'll totally sit in the seclusion of my room and watch somebody be beheaded. I wouldn't do that. I don't, but I'm saying, I was like millions of people do. Really? We are not judging here. No, I'm just saying really.

Neither one of us are judging. Neither one of us are saying any of this is right or wrong, by the way. I'm going to repeat this several times because it can get murky. Because I myself have looked at weird fucked-up shit on the internet. I still do it. I can't handle beheadings. I will put that out there right now. But I totally, I understand why people seek them out. I understand why people feel the need to watch them because I've caught myself several times being like, do I want to see it? I'm curious and then I'm like no no no no I don't. Yeah. So I get it. I get it. It's like it's... everyone has it deep within

them. It's just whether or not you go there. I don't get it but I respect it. Yeah. Because I've never had to do that. Like I've never... You get it though. Because you will look at a car accident. Yeah no no. And what are you looking for in that car accident? The drama. Do you want look at a car accident and yeah, no, no, and what are you looking for in that car accident the drama? Do you want to see a mangle body on the side of the road like I don't but like you kind of do and that's the thing So somewhere in you you do get why people seek out this awful awful event because they don't even know if they want to see what they About to see yeah, it's just like it's the same thing You don't even like think about it, you just do it. Exactly. It's like involuntary.

It is, it's just, it's base or instincts. So it's actually, because a lot of people will say, like, I don't get it, I don't understand why people look at that. No, you do. Everybody does, you just don't realize that you do. Cause I don't know anybody who drives by a car accident is like, oh no, I don't wanna look at that. Yeah. And they don't wanna look at it, but they do. And they're not looking at it to see

with the damage to the car. They're looking at it to see if there's a body on the side of the road. And they might not even want to see that body. Right. I don't even know if I want to see that body. But I'm looking for it. So it's like somewhere in there, we all get it. And that's what this is about. Is these people who are like, you a sick. Oh if you look at that I'm not saying you I'm saying I was gonna say I don't think no I'm saying other people will be like you're a sicko if you look at these like murder things and you're sick Oh if you look at this and that no like we're not we're all sickos

Like some of us just let it fly more than other people do we are the weirdos weirdos. We are the weirdos We are all weirdos. I literally just got so excited. She did. She did. She did. She did. She's pierced her lips. It was like, let's do this. We are the weirdest. Hi, I got to tell you something. I got to tell you. We are the worst. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. So basically, we're not unlike the crowds in 17th century England who gathered to cheerfully watch a person hang by their neck from the gallows or have their limbs pulled off in an extended show of torture. In fact, we are still these crowds. We just have a more secretive and safe way to view these things

because da da da the internet. I would like to explore the various phases of human gathering to watch other humans suffer. From ancient Roman times to to England, be heading videos on the internet where we're gonna start is way back in Roman times. So get in your time machine. Okay, I'm there. So the purpose of these events is always pretty much the same.

They allow the convicted person, the condemned person, the opportunity to make a final speech. They give the state or whatever this entity is that's doing this, the chance to display its power in front of its people. And it grants the public a show, a spectacle. It's a people love theater. And they'll eat it up. Public executions also let the state or the entity again show its superiority over political opponents, which happened a lot. Like, for example, Charles, the first of England,

was beheaded, but the block that they beheaded him on was reduced in height. So it meant that he wouldn't assume the normal kneeling pose He would have to lie basically down and look really awkward and weird and it was supposed to be super humiliating Oh, that's fucked up. To show power, like to opponents, like look what we'll do Shhh And that's like a normal thing. It's to show like look what and it's I mean, it's what

These Islamic state is doing right now trying to show political power over you know, it's awful Starting in Rome way back in the day. We all know people loved watching gladiators Battle to the death, but that everybody kind of knows about that right Let's begin with a pretty brutal public execution that was known to occur in ancient Rome. Now these were solely for the purpose of entertaining the masses. There was really no- Like nobody did anything wrong?

They did, but not things wrong enough to get what they were getting. Like, in some cases, the people that got these public executions, the part like Collegula for example, didn't even look at the offenses that the people had committed. He just sent them all, he was like all of them to death because we need entertainment. So it could have been somebody like literally like stealing a little from deads. And they'd be like, okay you need to die a brutal death in front of a million people. Let's just have a ball. Yeah.

Instead. They didn't do that. Oh, my. The people putting these things on an ancient room were like the game makers in the Hunger Games. They crafted the experience, they spent the money, and they gave the people the most brutal fucking show they could possibly give them.

And when something wasn't making the crowd go crazy, like if suddenly everybody looked kind of bored or just like just indifferent to what was going on, they would ramp that shit up each time. Every time they would make it worse and worse because they were like, oh, they're bored of this awful thing. Let's make it even more awful. Geez.

And it would happen. People got bored of awful shit. Because you're just subjected to it over and over. Yeah, it's like the theater of human suffering pain and eventual death Got more and more brutal and more and more inventive each time So in 167 BC so like a minute ago Yeah, not that one. Yeah, not too bad. That's army disorders. So these are army disorders. Mm-hmm They were rounded up in the colosseum and they were crushed one by one under an elephant's feet for a cheering crowd

The fuck up. Oh, yeah, I love elephants. How do they make them so these elephants would just be crushing these people to death one by one and Fracture come to because elephants are wick. No, they probably didn't they were just like oh god I'm like I'm colligal is making us do this shit again And then again in 242 BC during the infamous Roman games, which were basically like their Olympics, you know, I mean, I mean, that's how this could that idea kind of all started. And that was where like the chariot races were, the gladiators, you know, all that shit. They had like a half time show to these games, kind of like the Super Bowl.

But it was a little bit different. Well, the only difference was instead of having Adam Levine take a shirt off for no reason, people would be brutally eaten by starved animals for the Coliseum. So, this show was called Demnasio ad Bistias, which literally means condemnation by beasts. What the fuck? Now, what would happen was, the condemned criminals would be placed, this is so weird. Just putting, like, this is so fucked up. They would be placed on huge sea saws in the middle of the Colosseum.

Naked with their hands bound. Oh fuck. These sea saws would shoot them up like 15 feet in the air. Like they were huge sea saws. They all had no idea what the fuck these things were because fucking sea saws were not something that was just hanging around back then. So they would all start like pushing off of them and like testing them, seeing like what the fuck is this?

Like what are we doing? And the crowd would just sit there and laugh because they didn't know what was gonna happen but they were like, oh something fucked up is gonna happen and look at them all bouncing around. That's so fucked up. They kind of know where. Trap doors all around the arena would open, and lions, bears, wild boars, and leopards would rush into the arena.

All of them had been starved for a long period of time to be very hungry. The starved animals would bound towards the terrified criminals who then would attempt to shoot themselves up in the Seasaw to get away from the beast, but that would send the other poor guy down just to get Malds to bits. So all these guys are naked with their hands bound, Seasawing as furiously and aggressively as they possibly can to get away from lions, bears, leopards, and wild boars. Dude, I wish you guys could all see my fucking face today. Or jobs like on the ground. Who, they were all just sitting at round tables like, what do we do today?

Well, enduring all of this, which was brutal, obviously. Because there's just- Oh, yeah, the whole family's here. Oh my god. It was in the crowd would go bonkers. They would literally be laughing hysterically at how funny like the sea saws looked and how scared the people were and like, they would be clapping and yelling.

And then if there's one thing about Romans, Romans will bet on anything. Oh my God. Or they would bet on anything. So they would start placing bets on which criminal would die first Which one would last the longest and this was army deserters? No, these were just like Oh, they're not Desertors were not crushed by elephants. These were just any old any Joe sure

Yeah, this is many as they could line up and There was always like the largest biggest lion in the place just stalking the outside of the arena and the biggest bat would be like what which one is that line going to choose. And they were like psyched to see it. They were there to see that if those animals didn't attack, they would be pissed. Yeah, well, these animals would actually be st- they would be taken from like, you know, they would go like take over a territory or land and they take exotic animals from that land. Holy cow! Yeah. So the people who train these animals would sometimes train them to act out like myths or legends for the crowd? Uh-huh. Like an eagle at one point was trained to pluck out a condemned man's organs one by one a lot per metheous

How do you train an eagle very carefully? Because I guess also these trainers who train the animals were like low on the totem pole and if they didn't deliver Like if those animals because animals by nature don't want to eat humans Even lions are not just going out there being like I want to eat humans. Even lions are not just going out there being like, I want to eat humans. So they would, most of the time, walking into a colosseum with his thousands of people screaming and yelling and just all this chaos, they would end up cowering

and being like, I don't want to do this. So they had to train them ahead of time to make sure they did this and they would even tell the condemned people things they could do to make it quicker for themselves. Like they would do this and you'll die first. What would they watch you do? I don't know what the things were, but it was like certain things that would attract the animals or make it easier for themselves. Because if these trainers didn't provide the entertainment, they would be put in the

calcium. Yeah. So that was just, those were just a couple of little things from ancient Rome. I just read my stomach hurts. So that starts us off with the human condition right there. Oh. Let's pop over to a tutor England around the 1500s. So we'll just like jump it up a little bit. The main methods of execution back then were hanging, beheading, and being hung drawn in quartered.

We discussed that in our torture episode. Now, hanging back then was usually not done from a great height. Like we know it to be, like they wouldn't drop the person to have them, like through a trap door and have their neck broken. So it took longer? Yeah, because so often the condemned were brought to the gallows in a horse strong cart. A noose was then placed around their neck and the horse was just encouraged to walk away. So the person hanging would just fall, and strangle to death. Oh shit! It was always long, it was always brutal, always for like several minutes. Like these were long drawn out situations. I feel like I can't breathe.

It's tough. So in fact, because it would take so damn long to strangle the death, family members of the condemned were encouraged to sometimes pull down on their legs to hasten their death. If it went on for too long. This is actually where the term pulling his leg come from. No way.

Isn't that fun? They're just trying to pull your leg, which means make you laugh or tease you. Like pull it like taunt you a little bit. Yeah. Pulling his leg comes from that. They weren't making him laugh. Yeah. And this was all done sometimes in front of up to like a hundred thousand spectators.

What? And these spectators came for a carnival atmosphere. This was not a solemn occasion. This was not you stand there quietly. You say what's this happen? That's literally what happened. Oh my God. There would be vendors selling food and fucking souvenirs as well. Like what the fuck were the souvenirs? Well, we'll get more into that in a bit. So that was just a gist of hanging. Beheadings in Tudor, England, were

normally saved for the nobility. They didn't just behead anybody. Because beheading is supposed to be a quick way. It's not that entertaining apparently. Except there was a couple of botched ones that provided a lot of entertainment. I believe Mary Queen of Scots, it took three blows to take her head off and one of them just hit her in the head. Not in the movie. Yeah, that's what happened. But and then Thomas Cromwell, I believe his name was, he had the most botched of all of them. He had several blows because it was just a really inexperienced executioner. And one of them hit him in the head and he had to like, they had to like hack at him for a while. Oh.

Yeah. So I'm sure a lot of people probably know at least like the bare minimum of who Ann Bolin was, possibly the King Henry VIII was not only a fat slob, but also like a true sociopathic asshole of the highest order. Totally. Like people probably know at least the name Ann Bolin. And yeah.

So this King Henry VIII Reigned during the years of 1509 to 1547. During that time an estimated 72,000 people lost to their heads. Oh, that's a lot of heads. One might say too many heads to be removed. So this all kind of began just to give a little bit of a background to why his reign was so fucking bloody. Henry went and married his older brother's widow, Catherine of Ergon. Catherine suffered several miscarriages through their marriage and had still births. After all of it, she in his eyes, she had failed to bore him a son. Now this is funny now, and I mean funny isn't like how that's interesting and not funny like wow idiotic patriarchs with a pension for beheadings are so funny. It's funny now because science has taught us that the

man actually provides the stuff that determines the sex of an area. So it was a legit his fault. Yes exactly. So yes sperm is what carries that wire X chromosome and whatever sperm gets to the egg first gets to determine the sex. This is even a theory to explain why more boys are born each year than girls. The theory says that the Y chromosome is much smaller than the X, so the sperm carrying it are quicker and have a better chance of getting to the waiting egg first. So it's just kind of interesting.

It is interesting. Science. So Henry was just killing wives and everyone in a like a thousand mile radius because he wasn't getting a male heir. And he was his own dumb ass spunk that was failing to produce him that boy that he wanted. The word spunk is so fucking gross. Like the big fucking dumb dumb. So Harry went bonkers after this and declared himself head of the Church of England and that's when shit really went down.

He divorced Catherine and he married his mistress Ann Bolin because apparently she looked like she could attract some Y chromosomes, I don't know. It was this goal of having a male heir that led to Henry beheading a ton of people, very important people, including two of his six wives. Yeah, he likes. Like, you don't want to be one of his wives. That in his desire to make sure no one ever had a legitimate claim to the throne. Like, if you had any blood, that was royal, he was going to fucking kill your ass. So when he eventually had ambulnda headed, there were over a thousand people present, and it was considered a private execution. A thousand people

was considered a private execution. Can thousand people was considered a private execution. Can you imagine a public execution? Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's hundreds of thousands for a public one. Katherine Howard was his other unfortunate wife to be dispatched this way. And her execution was really sad, first of all. Why?

She asked to, because he had her killed, because he claimed to find out that she had had sex before marrying him and that was just not allowed. He was going to deflower you because he was a disgusting pig. And so he said he found that out. So that was it. You get your head chopped off because you had sex before marriage. And she was so concerned with like not looking humiliated and like, you know, ridiculous that she asked for the block to be brought to herself the night before her beheading so that she could figure out how to lay her head.

Oh, yeah. Isn't that sad? Did they let her? They did. They gave it to her. And like, she practiced so she could feel comfortable, which was like, I can't even, how do you, going through all this, you also are thinking not just of the crowd and why we are that way, but you're like, oh shit, what's it like for the person up there? That is just too much to handle.

Thank you. And her execution was witnessed by a shitton of dignitaries and ambassadors. Like it was also a pretty big affair. So the sites where these kinds of events took place back then were Tyburn, the Tower of London, Tower Hill, Smithfield, Charring Cross, and Westminster. They're tourist attractions, but now. But back then, Londoners knew the Galo sites as well as they knew any other landmark. Like Galo of the sites where everybody knew where they were.

Because if it's an execution was happening at one of these, you wanted to get your ass there. It was like Wendy's. That's exactly what it was like. You're welcome. Wendy's, do you want to sponsor us now? It was like, it was just these things would pop up. It's like a pop up shot.

Like when a pop up shot comes up that you like, like cupcakes or something, you're like, I gotta get to that shit. That what public executions where they were like oh shit someone's being beheading that noon we gotta get down there hmm that stresses me out like a lot yeah and like we like I said before you would think these public executions would be like kind of silent and somber right I mean someone's about to die whether they deserve it in your eyes or not but this is way far from the truth.

They were straight up theater mixed with accountable. The crowds were loud, aggressive, boisterous. The locals referred to the events as quote, hanging fair, stretching, or collar day. Ooh, yeah. Stretching. Yeah. Because you're being dropped, you're going to stretch, yeah. The crowds would arrive early to get a place close to the quote stage

It's like a concert literally Descriptions of that time say that people were leaning out of windows hanging out on rooftops and standing on each other's shoulders just to get better views Special stands were set up for the occasion like the Seating yeah literally for the occasion like the insidium seeding yeah literally balconies and houses like houses with balconies that overlook the scaffolding would rent out their balconies for the occasion. Yeah that's a pretty solid idea. People would like you know how people rent out their like driveways for concerts or shit for people to park and they just make money. Totally. These people are renting out balconies so people could watch this the hanging.

Not gonna lie that's pretty business-sat. It is, it's very savvy. Admission prices to these kind of places to vantage points were calculated with how famous or infamous the felon was. So the more infamous, the more money you could get. And the worst, the execution, like if they were doing like, you know,

drawn and quartering, that shit was gonna go for top dollar because people wanna see that shit. I would hope that if I was executed, that mine would go for top dollar because I was so cool, but that it would happen really fast. It would not go for top dollar for that then.

No execution that went really fast was gonna go for You were on the And they're like no the whole point is not the person the point that you're not a person to them The more infamous the person and their crime was you would get more because you knew that they were really gonna Give them the old college try with everything But it was about the suffering. If like in fact, and I'll get into it later, people actively don't like methods that are quick.

All right, then I hope mine would be fine. Because it has to be drawn out. Like that's the whole point of it. It has to be drawn out because they're gathering there. They've been staying there sometimes overnight to get their spot. They don't want the shit over in the middle. It's like black Friday. They want the shit to last for a little while. Because it spot. They don't want the shit over in the middle.

It's like black Friday. They want the shit to last for a little while. Because it's like, you don't want to go to a concert and have them be like, Boston. Thank you, Boston. We'll see you next time. You know, like you don't want to, like you want it to last. You don't want that.

I don't want that. I also, did you like my half air guitar? It was like your guitar was very high and very like wide. Yeah, all right? That's one like a Taurus. It's very high but it's like half of your coffee. To off my back. So like we mentioned before how you were saying like yeah just have a beer, have a hot

duck, vendor set up carts and booths hours before the execution time to sell food, drinks, souvenirs, even porn. Well, what'd you mind as well? Wasn't that like, uh, like frowned upon back then? No, because they were just like, yeah, we're all here. But it's well grabbed some. I'm sure it wasn't like, alneo. It was probably pretty like CD and like shady. Do you think that it was just like- Yeah, to be like wink wink, not turrets. Poor tritz of people like banging in and that's what I'm wondering. Because they said like pornographic materials.

Well, and also minstrels and jugglers would entertain the crowd before the event. Could you gotta be entertained the whole time you're there? Yeah, totally. Pamphlets called broadsheets were printed and distributed, which detailed the, you know, the history, the crime of the person. And a lot of times the people printing them would create last words to print in there as well. Like they would lie.

And these broadsheets sold like fucking hotcakes. It was like a program for the show. The scene almost always dissolved into fucking chaos. I like that. People would be drunk, they'd be fighting in the mud. I mean, pick pockets would be out just to pick pocketing the crowd, which is hilarious because the person up there was probably hanging from being a fucking thief.

And these people are just like, yeah. And even as these victims would like drop from the scaffold, they'd still be out there just partying. Then when the deed was done, barber surgeons in the family of the deceased would sometimes clash and it's like for who gets the corpse. Yeah, so it was like, it was never just like this Mary. You see, barber surgeons. Yeah, barber surgeons.

What does that mean? Well, barbers used to be surgeons. That's where the pole comes from. The red on the pole is blood. What? Yeah. It's like, barbers used to like moonlight as surgeons. What?

Yeah. If you look it up, that's where the pole, like the vision of that barber pole with the red. Yeah, the red is blue. Yeah. What the fuck? I never knew that. Yeah, the red is blue. Yeah. What the fuck? I never knew that. Yeah.

Interesting. Where? They go look that up. It's interesting to see you. I believe you. Well, no, I'm saying anybody else. It's really interesting. So yeah, people would be fighting for who gets the corpse.

And then Henry VIII decreed that Barbara surgeons were entitled to four cadavers per year for anatomical dissection. So they would use that like the the king said, I get this. I get more. What is happening? Yeah. And they didn't end there. The spectacle was still going.

By law, the executioner was entitled to the victim's clothing. What the fuck, why would you want that? They would take it. Oh, that's a bad idea. They would get it off. it's not like they would like gingerly take his clothing off. They would flog it off him the dead body.

They would just flog that dead body until all the clothes came off. Yeah. Yeah. Can you just take it like piece of it? No, they got a flog it. You got to keep that show going. You can't just end it there. What if like what I can't. And sometimes the Hangman's rope was cut up into sections

and sold for pennies or like shillings to people who wanted to have it. What? Yeah. And it's like a baseball game if you catch the ball. Yeah, it really is. It's a souvenir from the show. Wow.

Yeah, it's like a set list at a concert. Shit. Or like a drumstick. Let's see, you get a drum. Or a guitar pick. Yeah, exactly. And the, I mean, the behavior would change depending, I mean, it was always chaos, but it would change slightly on like who was being executed, because the crowd's reaction would sometimes be like slight sympathy and forgiveness for who was going through this. Like that wouldn't change them wanting to see it and then parting it up. Right. But it wouldn't be, it would mean that they weren't outright abusing the dead person. Right.

But if they didn't like this person and they believe they were guilty, which nine times out of ten they did, they would throw rotten vegetables at the person's stones while they were waiting to die and then after they died. It was like abuse. And the crowd would respond with like a pause if comments, like their last words seemed heartfelt and like, brave. Like they liked brave people who stood up there and were like, I'm ready to die. But if you were, you, if you went up there and were like, I'm innocent and this is bullshit, they would like, fuck off and that's when they'd start throwing

shit at you. So in those people who did that, they would be interrupted by like mocking and for, and people would be like, get on with it, hang him, hang him, like they would scream, like get on with it. Why aren't we doing it yet? I feel like I don't need you probably what I'd like shut the fuck Just do it I think I would just be crying eating a hot dog somewhere It's still eating hot dog But cry me just cry. You're like I do feeling things. I would buy a hot dog for that better So I things, but I would buy a hot dog from that Belier. So, I mean, these crowds didn't just show up for public executions.

Like we talked about in the torture episode, they showed up to watch someone be tortured ruthlessly. That's what they wanted. Now this was Tudor England that I'm talking about in 1500s. We've evolved and grown from that, right? No. No, we have fucking not I guess right you did on august 14th 1936 in oensboro Kentucky the last officially sanctioned public execution took place

was that lynching in 1936 in Kentucky that was the last that the state sanctioned. That was this wasn't a lynch mob. This was state sanctioned. State sanctioned. 1936. That's not seeming as like concerned. No, I just want to know what happened. The condemned the condemned here was a young 26 year old black man named Rainy Bethia. I want to say I'm sorry if I got that wrong. He was convicted of raping and strangling to death and out elderly white woman 70 year old Lee Shedwards. Did he actually do it? We don't know. It doesn't, it looks shaky.

Uh-oh. To be quite honest. In my opinion, it looks shaky. Oh. And during these times, it was very easy to condemn a black man, especially for a crime against a white woman. I fucking hate that. And honestly, how far have we come from that? Right.

Uh, Sheriff Florence Thompson was actually like a new sheriff at this time. She was only on the job for like a little while. And she was a woman, obviously. Oh wow. She was the sheriff? Yeah, she was a sheriff. Shit.

She was actually, so the sheriff is the one who has to do the execution. No. So she was supposed to become the first woman executioner in US history with this. But it kind of became a media spectacle, so she quietly started looking for someone else to actually do the deed. That's what I really don't want to be part of this.

Luckily a former Louisville police officer stepped in to do the job because honestly, it looked like he just wanted to be in the spotlight. He showed up in a white linen suit and a Panama hat. He was just like, let's do this. I was in KFC style. Literally. So he was totally down for this and she was like, cool, you do it. But for this hanging in 1939, the idea that it could be a woman tying the noose and dropping

the trapdoor attracted thousands and thousands of people to Owensboro. But they were disappointed. They were. But spectators came from Indiana, Illinois, like all surrounding places for this. And they camped out. Hotels were booked up completely, and people hosted all night hanging parties for the event. What? Yup. The gallows. Now there's photos of this event.

Oh, I don't want that. And it's interesting to, it's just, it's like, it's a lot. It's like so heavy to see these things. Yeah. The gallows, because gallows always look. They always just give you like that heap. Yeah, I don't like it. I just like, you could just smell the bad, too.

It is, it's just like, oh. The gallows were located on a vacant lot. And hundreds of men, women and children literally slept underneath them that night. The night that had happened. The night before. To get their spot. Children.

The crowd jeered and yelled, hang him as it was happening. They screamed for it to start before it had begun. Like they were like, let's do this, like get it going. Newspapers from that day had headlines like, quote, people eat hot dogs as a man died on the gallows, and quote, children picnic as killer pays. Like those are the literally attacked by the hot dog. Yeah, that was an attack on you. It was recorded that 20,000 people saw the execution that day from

like live, yeah, twenty thousand. And if you see the pictures, it's unbelievable how many people are there. While he was still hanging beneath the trap door after they had done it, the crowd attacked the body. They quote, the crowd surged towards the gallows and people started tearing off pieces of the black cloth for souvenirs because they would put a black cloth over your face. Why? They would start it,

because your eyes sometimes pop out. So they just put it on, just to save the real gruesome shit, because you know. People would probably love to catch an eyeball. They sure would, and they would, they just started ripping apart that black cloth for souvenirs.

And they also booed when a minister gave him his last rights. Now, this was such a frenzy because of a mix of things. The woman hangman that was initially promised was a huge attraction, and it was going to be the dynamic of a white woman hanging a black man. Like that was something people were super into. Remember, this was the 1930s Kentucky. A black man hanging was not uncommon, unfortunately. I hate that.

Racism was a huge part of this, whether he was guilty or not, and to be honest, his trial was nothing short of sketchy. He confessed, but under what circumstances we don't know. Right. And later, he recanted. Oh. But he was advised by shitty people to plead guilty and just beg for mercy. Even though Kentucky law says said that the penalty for rape

was always public hanging. So they advised him to plead guilty. In 1913, yeah. It was still, yep. Whoa. And it was, so they advised him to plead guilty and they were like, yeah, just beg for mercy, knowing he wouldn't get it.

If he pled guilty, he was hanging. It seemed very shaky to me. Where was his lawyer? Yeah, I was gonna say that it was unfortunate that he didn't choose to say any last words, so he wouldn't get his last plea of innocence if that's what he could have done. But then again, it's probably better that he didn't

because the crowd would have loved that. I think it was good that he was like, I'm not giving you what you want. Like I'm not giving you this last show. This also was going to be the last sanctioned public hanging. So people wanted to be sure to catch one last public murder in the United States. Why did they decide that that was going to be the last one? That was just when it became, I think honestly I think it was the frenzies of crowds were starting to become an issue.

That's how I like to destroy things. Well, they were starting to see that this is like an issue that we're having people come to do this. Like we need to maybe become more civilized. In 1939, I think so. Now, the guillotine, this goes back to you being like, I want it to be quick. Nobody wants it to be quick.

Except for the person that has come in to you. like I wanted to be quick. Nobody wants it to be quick. Except for the person that is coming. I was gonna say. The guillotine was actually in use until like the 80s when it was finally banned. Was it? Not publicly until the 80s, but they were using it until the 80s. In America? No, in France.

Oh. I think I knew that. But it made its debut in April 1792 in France. Now according to a historian Paul Friedland, the people of Paris loved public executions. When it was debuted for a huge excited crowd because they were like, this is the new decapitation machine. Like, let's come and look at it. They were disappointed because it was so quick and relatively goreless compared to what they were used to. I mean, the head gets chopped off. It falls in a basket. You don't really see a lot. It's taken away. It's quick. And there is screaming. And there is screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just screaming. And they're just head chopped off remained pretty narrowly. So they were pretty gruesome. They got

they got more into it later. So don't worry about it. The girl the girl scene doesn't have to worry for long. They even came up with nicknames for it like the National Razor, which I kind of think is funny. It is. The widow, windmill of silence. Wow, that's just poetic. It really is. I'm like whoa I feel things. And Madame de Gilles a teen which I kind of like very French. And being beheaded via this machine was known as quote sneezing in the sack which was a reference to the bag that would sit under the guillotine to catch the head that fell. Like you were going to chew you with it sneezing into the sack.

But really your head just fell off. Funny? But like not. Funny but like super hilarious but not open. No, not at all. Soon they made it even cooler by distributing pamphlets that had beheadings of the day listed. So you can make sure to work at least one in your schedule between grocery shopping and the gym.

I got to go to the beheading. Now the last public execution by Gilles Tien happened June 17th, 1939 in France. The condemned was Eugene Viedmann, who was a German serial killer. Oh, I think I've heard of this. You probably have. Also, he was only 31 when he was executed, which I like blew my mind. Yeah, I was kind of crazy.

He was convicted of killing six people, mostly by shooting them in the nape of the neck and robbing them. It seemed to be that his motive was not murder, but robbing, but he also didn't get a lot from each one, so it's Harry. He was a dick, no matter what. Clearly. But like he's a weird serial killer. On June 17, 1939, he was beheaded by Gillatin outside the prison's scent, I'm going to say to Pierre and Versailles. Unknown to authorities,

someone was filming the execution because like film cameras were relatively new. So, I'm almost filming it from a private apartment just like a Jason to the prison. And to this day you can watch that online. It's not gory. I think they might have played it in one of my psych classes. They played it in one of my psych classes, yeah. Because it's not gory, it's not like you can't really see a thing. The crowd behaved insanely for this one. They used handkerchiefs to dab up his

blood as souvenirs. The crowd that day was described as quote, disgusting, unruly, jostling, clamoring, whistling. The unruly crowd actually delayed the execution beyond the usual twilight hour because they usually did executions at dawn. That was what they did. But they were so crazy that this one got pushed further out and that's why the light started becoming better for pictures. It's almost like they were doing it on purpose. Definitely. Yeah, so they got all these clear photos of it and it's because they pushed it into the hour when the

sun was out. How did they do that? They just kept fucking, they were being so unruly that they couldn't even take him out of the prison yet. Like they just pushed it and pushed it and pushed it. The authorities finally came to believe that, quote, far from serving as a deterrent and base in having salutory effects on the crowds, the public execution promoted baser instincts of human nature and encouraged general routiness and bad behavior.

This hysterical behavior by the crowd was so insane that French President Albert Lebrun immediately banned all public future executions. This was it. Once he saw how fucking nuts people were, he was like, nope, not doing it again. Yeah, bye. And the video and photos, like I said, are still online today. They show them in cycluses. They aren't gruesome.

I definitely sought them out again, because I was like, I feel like I remember seeing that. And it isn't. It's not gruesome. It's not super. No, I think I remember. Black and white. It's pretty clear, but it's like you really just see. It's far away, you see the blade fall, which is kind of like, ooh, his head just got chopped up. I mean, I felt like, ooh, ooh, I was more like,

ooh, ooh, and I was like, ooh. Oh, child. Oh, child. I mean, I'm a human and I accept myself as I am, so deal with it everybody. Just do it. So moving on from that, I want to touch upon, like, I was talking about how in Kentucky in 1939 the last sanctioned public execution was the rainy Bethia one, but that was just

the last sanctioned one. I didn't mean that public executions did not take place in the United States. Oh yeah, like lynching and chit. lynching. lynching. All that awful things. It was not sanctioned officially, but it was certainly one of the most brutal and horrifying forms of public execution that our country should be horrifically shameless. They became widely practiced in the US South from roughly 1877, like the end of post-of-a-war

reconstruction through 1950 damn 1950 Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah It's if you look at I believe it, but it's just so far that almost an episode in itself because it's so horrifying, but it needs to be told because a lot of people are so blind to it Especially I feel like a lot of people in the South don't want to believe that, you know, their family members or like ancestors

could have done these things, but they did. Apparently it happened in Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana. They had the highest rates of lynching in the United States. Now a typical lynching would involve criminal accusations, which were often bullshit. I mean 99.9999% of them were absolute bullshit against a black American. They would then arrest him and then they would assemble a lynch mob, which would want to completely subvert normal constitutional judicial process.

They were not looking for a trial. They were not looking for him to have any rights. They were just, he did this, I decided it. Let's kill him. That was it. That's how all of them happened. And one of the main things that they would always claim, they would always end up being, like a lot of the times would end up being caused to Lynch a black man would be any claim of sexual contact between a black man and a white woman. Oh no. Like you think of um awful lynching and well murder and torture of Emmett Till from this time period. He was like a little boy like like a young kid, and a white woman claimed that he hit on her, like I think she claimed that he either like hit on her, or like touched her in a store, and her husband and his friend literally kidnapped him from his home and literally

tortured him and murdered him and threw him in the water. Oh my God. And I remember learning about this in school, I feel like they don't teach this stuff enough in school anymore because like you're looking at me, like what the water. Oh my god. And I remember learning about this in school. I feel like they don't teach this stuff enough in school anymore because like you're looking at me like what the hell. And I learned about this in school. And I remember we saw the photos because they did an open casket funeral for him and his mother. No, I did. I did learn about his mother. His mother wanted to show like look what happened, look what they did. And later the woman can, like recently, recently, the woman came out and said, it never happened, I lied. What the fuck is wrong with her? And this and it happened all the time.

It's such bullshit. So historian Howard Smeade in blood justice, the lynching of Mac Charles Parker, that's a really insane book. The mob, quote, turned the act into a symbolic right in which the black victim became the representative of his race. And as such, was being disciplined for more than a single crime. The deadly act was a warning to the black population not to challenge the supremacy of the white race. It still blows my mind, like, that won this happened, and too, that, like that like this is not we have not come far from this as we can see and

It bumps me out victims would be seized and then they would be you know I mean they'd be physically Tortured in any number of ways and it would usually end with this person being hung from a tree and set on fire They set the person on fire? Yeah. Oh, and worse things too. I mean that's... What the fuck is worse than that? Honestly, the end was probably necessary at that point because it would do horrible things.

According to a 1930 editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer, quote, whole families came together, mothers and fathers, bringing even their youngest children. It was the show of the countryside, a very popular show. Men joked loudly at the sight of the bleeding body, girls giggled as the flies fed on the blood that dripped from the condemned's nose. Now adding to this whole terrible macabre scene

lynching victims were typically then dismembered into pieces for human trophies for the mob to take home as souvenirs I'm just like blank and like it's like blank blank Because in this was again United States and not that long ago Just everybody sink that in this is giving me a stomachache. Yeah. In his autobiography, W.E.B. Dubois, writes of the 1899 lynching of Sam Hose in Georgia, he said that the knuckles of the victim were on display

at a local store in Atlanta. And that knuckles. His knuckles. And that a piece of the man's heart and liver were presented to the state's governor. Like, bitch, I don't want that. Like, what's happening? Oh, yeah.

In the 1931 Maryville, Missouri, lynching of Raymond Gunn, the crowd estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 people. And it was at least a quarter woman and included hundreds of children. One person, according to Arthur Rape Rapper, I believe it is, in the tragedy of lynching another book, quote, one woman held her little girl up so she could get a better view of the naked body blazing on the roof. What?

Yeah. And after the fire was out, hundreds of people poked at his ashes for souvenirs. Quote, the charred remains of the victim were divided up piece by piece. This was not long ago, everybody. I just... So that, those were crowds of lynchings. Like, people would just show up, because it would happen spontaneously usually. Now we still aren't even close to being over this kind of seemingly barbaric behavior. It's just kind of evolved slightly into different methods and scenarios. So besides the lynching of black men and women across the south, and relatively modern times, think about the executions of people like Ted Bundy.

Well they were not broadcast into the public. Bundy's execution by electric chair was an event. January 24th, 1989, 2,000 people gathered on the lawn outside of Florida State Prison to wait for the news that he was fried. They had signs and t-shirts that said burn, Bundy burn, and toast Ted. One sign actually said quote, roses are red, viol toast, Ted. One sign actually said, quote, roses are red, violets are blue, good morning, Ted, we're going to kill you. Love.

It was like a carnival. Right back to the fucking tutor times, it was a goddamn carnival. People were chanting, singing, drinking beer, waving signs, cheering. There were fireworks. People even sold commemorative, quote, Friday t-shirts. They held effigies of various things hanging from fake nooses, which shows how fucking dumb a lot of this crowd was because it wasn't hanging. but his victim's Bowman and let the, at the Chai Omega House. The Chai Phi fraternities celebrated the execution with a cookout

and they served Bundyburgers and electrified hot dogs. To an extent, I feel like I get that one because it's like the community was safe again. Well, here's the thing. I get all of this. I get all of this. I feel like, no, I just feel like that one made it more clear to me about the other ones. It doesn't now and kind of like make you go, oh, because you're just celebrating your community being safer. Yeah. The only thing with this one

is like you're not watching it. So it's a little, it's a little different. It's a little more remain, but also still not. But when you think about it, and again, I'm going to keep saying it, I am not saying this is right or wrong. Yeah, at all. I'm not saying any of the, I mean lynchings are wrong. That I will stand by and say that's fucked up and wrong and fucking evil. But when it comes to the people who show up to the public executions and like two-ter times, fucking, you know, these kind of things, like not public executions but executions of high profile killers I can't say they're wrong for showing up to it, but it's like I would I wouldn't for this kind of thing But it's like for it, but I don't know the Ted Bundy one if you lived there

You don't know because I don't agree with him being executed anyways I think he should have been studied so it would have been a mournful For me I got up well we can't even argue about that, but like he escaped from prison, what, twice? Yeah, he wasn't going anywhere from this one though. He had been in there for like nine years at that point. Yeah. He wasn't going anywhere. But I, it's like I can't, I can't say they're wrong.

So it's like the Bundy burgers and stuff. I'm like, it's kind of funny. And but it's also on the other side of the coin when you think of it logically, you're like, this is still a person being killed, like you murdered by a state, you know? So it's like, it is weird that we celebrate death, regardless of what it is. I personally understand it. Yeah. But I can see why some people don't, I suppose, or why some people look at it as like this is still a

Pursue, yeah, I get I can see both sides, I guess is what I'm saying. Okay. I find myself more on the side of like I'm not too worried about the morality of it all, but I feel like I'm on such a roller coaster right now. Well, there's very different scenarios here Because like there's public executions of like you know and two or times and all that shit And we're so far removed from that that I think it's easier. It's for us to be like yeah, that's crazy And then we see like lynchings which are totally different. They're not sanctioned executions These people didn't do anything wrong. This is literally just racism. Right. That's terrifying, and that's fucking humanity at its fucking worst. But it's just like you said, it's like political,

and like, it's just, it's all motivated by shit. And it's like, but it still, like, stirs crowds into a ruckus. There's still crowds that will go to these things regardless of how fucking heinous they are. Yeah. And regardless of whether it's justified, or or whether like, and again, some people might not believe that any execution is justified.

That is totally your opinion is valid. I don't know. I stand in a very gray area on the death penalty. I don't, I'm not foreign, I'm not against. I think it's not black and white. I think there's a lot of gray. Right. I think it's a case thing. I can see both sides. I can totally get with both sides. I get it. So it's like this just it's so it's a very odd. It's just so much thought. If you did have to bow on it, what would your vote be?

It's not hard. on it, what would your vote be? Ah, isn't that hard? I probably, here's the thing, I would probably say no, only, because I don't trust the justice system to get it right every time. Because there has been times when people... Do I believe there are certain people who deserve to die? 100% I do. It is not a moral thing. But like, you say like, what if they put Damien Eccles in?

Exactly, exactly. What was the other guy's name? Jesse Miskelli and Jason Baldwin. a moral thing. But like you say like what if they put Damien Eccles in exactly exactly what was the other guy's name? Jesse Miss Kelly and Jason Baldwin. Yeah and what if all of them it died but yeah it came out that they didn't fucking do it. Exactly and it there's no evidence that shows that they were in here. Or like I remember I watched like a 2020 on something like this and like the guys twin brother did it. Yeah but but it was like- Well, DNA testing, DNA testing is getting a lot of these people off. Yeah. Because it's like, hello, they didn't do us. So it's so cool.

And that's the thing, I know some people have a moral issue with it. Like, we shouldn't kill people, that's not, you know. I honestly, I don't have that moral issue with it. I think some people do deserve today. I think petabit files deserve today. Yeah. I would love to be the one to pull the switch for petafiles. I really would.

100%. And if it was my family member, fucking kill them. Or like, when you want not killed the child. Or anyone that kills a child, I want them dead. Yeah. And I get, and it's an emotional reaction. So I understand it's like not a moral thing with me. It's more the idea that they can't get it right 100%

of the time. And that bothers me. Yeah. Because I don't want innocent people dying. Right. So that's where I would stand. Because I don't want innocent people dying. Right. So that's where I would stand if I had, like, gun to my head had to make the decision. You would say no.

I would think I would say no. Okay. Only because of that small margin of... Right. No, that's a very valid point. What would you, I would say no. Oh, okay, cool. So we're both on the same page of that.

Yeah. Yeah. Because of that. Yeah, that's really the only reason. Because I do, and I also just think it's a very case-by-case thing It is I don't think you can say I wouldn't vote yes because I don't think yes in all situations Mm-hmm. I almost believe it should be like up to the victims like family members. Oh I like heard that wrong. I thought you meant the person

Hey, would you like to die? But even that would be case by case. Yeah, it's true. That's the thing. So it's like, that's why it's so gray. Your girl's stressed. So gray. Now again, are we super far away from

Tudor Time Executions? Not at all. For Ted's execution, people arrived well before midnight, just like they did in Tudor times, because they wanted a good vantage point along the prison fence. Of course, there was nothing gruesome to see in this one, because the only real thing they could witness was they waved a scarf from the door to signal that they did it. Yeah.

Which is creepy. A guy named Craig Warren of Great Gainesville, Florida held up a bedsheet that said, quote, I like my Ted well done. Oh, which I just think is creepy. For those who were hungry during this whole thing, four women from Stark sold coffee and donuts, and a man passed out electric chair lapel pins for souvenirs. Okay. When the scarf was waived, the crowd went bonkers with cheers, and when a white

herse backed up to the prison and drove past the crowd with Bundy's body in it, the crowd wouldn't even craze here. I mean, if anybody deserved it, he did. But it was still a fucking dead body roll in past, too, that you're like cheering about. It's, again, not right or wrong. I'm just saying, the idea when you go logical with it is bonkers. Yeah But it's it's not logic, but I think a lot of people to remove the humanity from the person sure Like you don't think no, I don't think a lot of people think of Ted Bundy as a human

No, a lot of people don't think of any of these people as human right like even back in you know The executions and medieval times and all that shit like that person was a criminal So they removed any humanity and whatever they did and the eyes of the onlooker was probably just so yeah, it Humane heinous that they deserve it right they broke the law so I should do it. Yeah, it was so nuts that they Like one of the new stations asked a waitress down the road from the prison About it and she said quote This is my first one. We're from Texas. They execute a lot of people in Texas But I've never seen a crowd like this before. It says something about humanity. Don't it

First her grammar tells me a lot about humanity straight off the bat But I do agree like we're fucking savages We really are it does tell us a lot about the humanity. And I'll bring it right up to now. We have the internet, a place where we can secretly and intimately watch whatever gore or death scenario we please, seemingly without any judgment or consequences.

All you have to do is erase your history and you never looked at it. You know, it's nobody has to know. So this has just shifted the public execution into a private execution that just happens to occur in front of millions of people at any given time in their own computer areas at their house. It's still very public, but we just don't have the crowd around us to stir us all into a frenzy.

We just do it along with a loan or with a couple of friends maybe. If you have a cool weird group of friends that's like, yeah, let's totally watch this. Which is good for you. I mean, we've mentioned this, I think, in one episode. Remember rodden.com, everybody? I'm sure all my 30-something year olds will remember rodden.com. I'm pretty sure it's still around. Find any death photos you want.

I seem to remember a lot of shock on blast to the face and a lot of people hit by trains and various other things. It was gruesome as fuck. It was gritty as fuck. And it was real as fuck. These were real pictures. How is looking at that different from watching a dead man swing from a noose?

That's not. You can find videos of horrific beheadings of journalists and civilians by these Islamic state anywhere at any time. And people watch these videos by the millions and millions. I'm talking specifically about beheadings like the ones involving innocent civilians like Nickburg, Daniel Pearl, and Paul Johnson. And innocent foreign journalists like James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haynes, Alan Henning, Peter Kasig,

Harunal Yacara and Kenji Yogo. Those were like the ones that I think everybody recognizes those names that they've had in relatively recently. I mean, the Nickburg, Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson ones were a while ago, but I watched a TED talk on this subject by an anthropologist named Francis Larson and it's a really good one. People should go check it out. It's really short, but it's like nice. She pointed out that by watching these particular public executions,

we're actually contributing to them happening in the first place. Well, yeah. This is because when it comes to beheadings like by extremist groups like ISIS and the like, they're putting on a show. Because they do. People are gonna eat it. They know. If they wanted to just kill these prisoners, then they would fucking do it and be done with it.

No, they're putting it on the internet because they know there is a willing audience waiting to gobble up the carnage. They want it to be like theater. And when we click on it and watch it, that's what they want. That makes them do it more. It's like, but we're never gonna stop. A poll taken in the UK in August 2014 estimated that about 1.2 million people in the UK alone watched James Follies beheadings in the first couple of days after it was posted online.

The same kind of poll was taken in the US in November 2014, and it found that 9% of those pulled watched beheading videos online. Like, would watch them, did watch them, do watch them. But interestingly, 23% of people had watched the videos, but stopped right before the death was shown. Which I think counts for a lot of people because I think it's way more than 23% I think people just don't admit it. Right. Because curiosity fucking can get you. And you will start to watch something and then be like, oh no.

Why did I do this? I don't want to do this. Like I've done that. I've gone to watch something and I'm like, what the fuck a lady. I like to turn this off. Like you're gonna ruin yourself from days. And so I like dip my toe in something and I'm like what the fuck a lady like turn this off like you're gonna ruin yourself from days And so I like dip my toe in and then I'm like, I don't know I don't even go as far as dipping my toe in just because I know I personally yeah not handle it. Yeah

well and In fact Nick Bergs beheading became the most I think it was in 2002 I want to say Nick Bergs beheading became the most searched for term on the internet when it happened. That's so... It was so popular that the Al-Kaita link to website that first posted the beheading shut down because it couldn't handle all the traffic. Take that in for a second.

Someone's son had his head carved off for literally no reason. On film, while he screams in pain, and it was the most popular search term in the United States. I thought it was just kind of disturbing. And again, I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, and I'm not judging anyone for what they have watched, or what they do watch, because I've watched Weird Shit, I can't judge anybody. And I don't think people who watch these things are sociopaths or sickos, I really don't.

Because they're not. Like by, I mean, factually, they're not. Yeah. The most normal people sit and watch this shit. Normal people that I know that don't even like gore get drawn into this shit. And I, when I was in high school, watched part of that Nick Berg video when it happened, and that was the last beheading I needed to see in my life. You saw the whole thing. I didn't see the whole thing, I saw part of it,

and it was enough. And I will never, ever, ever again, watch one of those, because I still, it is in my mind for the rest of my life. In fact, my life has seen one too many beheadings and I have only seen that one. It was horrific and it will fucking change you. But I watched some of it and I still find myself curious

to see things like that when they're caught on video. It's not like it's gone away. I just know now what it is and I know I don't want it. I don't want it in my brain. I'm good. But it's still like you get that inkling of like, is it really that bad? Like how bad is it? And I find myself thinking photos are more palatable just for myself. Right. Because photos don't bother me as much. Yeah. But like things caught on video. I feel like I think it's photos separate me from the actual event in some weird way.

But I feel like video makes me too much a part of it. I feel like I'm watching it as it happens, even if it happened a while ago. I feel like I'm too much there. And maybe other people feel that way. Now why? Again, we have not evolved very much in this way. It's just simple.

I can't stress that enough. Humans still maintain a base or instinct to watch pain. We just do it behind closed doors now, which is almost worse. Because at least in these crowd scenarios, there's this element of crowd camaraderie and crowd think, like group think, that can manipulate a regular person into thinking what they're seeing is right and what they're seeing is entertaining. When we're alone in our room staring at a screen and watching someone scream and pain as

their head is carved off, we don't have the excuse of the crowd surrounding us and cheering and that energy and everything, but we do have the excuse of the invisible crowd who is definitely watching along with you. The numbers at the bottom of the videos are all you need to convince yourself that this is okay, and this is something everyone does. You're watching it with the crowd, you're just alone. I think it has to do with the person being executed as well. I think our empathy has a boundary sometimes.

If it's someone that we can't find a common ground with or empathize with, we don't feel that sense of moral obligation to be disgusted by their death. It's if it's a horrible murderer, then we say, fucking burn, Bundy burn. But what about these innocent people that are still watched by millions of people on the internet and pain? Like, why is that someone a lot of people can... Why is that someone, a lot of people can, why is that something that a lot of people can do without fucking wretching?

Well, we may not even, we may not ever have a direct answer to that. But there's an interesting study that was done in 2014. And it compared acute stress levels and people who watched repeated coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings with those that were there and witnessed it firsthand. Okay. Interestingly, they found that the repeated bombing-related media exposure was associated with higher acute stress than the direct exposure. So the people that watched it after the fact were more stressed than the people that were

actually there? Wow. Which is interesting when you bring it into now. Like the people who watched the live executions in two to times and all that would have a less of a stress level than us who are watching these repeated videos. Right. You know, maybe it's because we can pick them apart and dissect them and watch

them as much as we want. And of course morbid curiosity is a real thing. It's just real. Like when you think or read about the absolute atrocities humans can do to each other, you almost sometimes feel like you have to see it for yourself to confirm that it's real. Like you're like what?

No, like people don't do that. Also, we all know what pain is. We have all, like this is how, this is something I was just thinking about. We all know what pain is. We have all, like, this is how, this is something I was just thinking about. We all know what pain is. We've all felt pain, like physical pain. We all know the limits that exist within our bags of flesh that we carry around on our skeletons. I believe that sometimes seeing someone else suffer through, like, the most unimaginable

pain and suffering we could come up with, it's something we feel compelled to see because we can't and don't want to experience that suffering. So seeing someone else's reaction to all these awful things happening to them satisfies some weird curiosity to know what happens when humans suffer through unimaginable pain and get taken to the limits of human trauma.

Like I can experience the blood eagle, but I am damn curious to know what the hell happens when someone else does. Like you know I mean like no I know to break my arm you know in half but I want to know what it is. I want to know what it looks like. I want to know what it like I'm interested. It's even like something as simple as that video. Remember that basketball player like a few years ago and His leg broke through his those are like I'm sure so many people looked that up and that's not like a But it's a similar kind of but it's still one of you

Definitely don't want that to happen to you, but you want to see what it looks like when it does happen to someone Because you're like I have a leg. Yeah, like I need to know what that looks like and look at that shit And I feel like that is part of it. Yeah,, I have a leg. Like, I need to know what that is. I can't even look at that shit. And I feel like that is part of it. Yeah. Like, I have a head. I wanted to attach to my body forever and always. But like, it's weird when someone else gets taken off of their body.

Again, I don't ever want to watch a badding video ever. But again, I get why people do. According to Alexander J. Skolnik, who is a PhD in an assistant psychology professor at St. Joseph's University, quote, the evolution idea is what's functional about about discussed. It keeps us safe. Rotten food has a sour bitter flavor, and that's a cue to us. We spit it out. Right. The weird taste, the nasty smell, it makes you not want to eat things that are going to hurt you and make you sick. So photos and videos of bad

shit happening to people kind of serve the same purpose. Uh-huh. He is really going to know me. Right? So Skolnik often kicks off one of his psychology classes by telling students not to Google image search recluse spider bite. Of course they all do. Yeah course they all do it. Yeah, I'll do it. Because they're like, what the fuck is that? I want to know what that is. Like, you want to know. So you fucking avoid it. Like, you don't want that. He says, he says, quote, sometimes we're disgusted when we see someone with red rashes or welts. We don't want to stand next to them. That disgust keeps us safe from contagious elements.

Mm-hmm. So he also compares Googling, gross, gore, and shit to just watching a scary movie, a horror movie. You know, I was thinking that the whole fucking time, I like almost said it so badly. Exactly. You should have. Because the whole point is you get to scare the shit out

of yourself in a completely controlled, secure environment. You're not the one in danger. But in the internet makes this even More of a safe environment. It's so funny because I was fucking thinking that the whole time I wish I said it you should have because if you see something horrific you just X out of it and boom It's gone. You never have to be there again and No one needs to know you even looked at it But it's like why do we watch scary movies like we want to be scared like the It's like, why do we watch scary movies? Like, we want to be scared.

Like, be a physiological reaction of being scared. Yeah, it's fucking crazy. Yeah. In fact, this is what I was just going to get into. So we like discussed and being scared and all that good stuff when it's not happening to us. Which Clark McColley, PhD, and a psychology professor at Bryn Marr College said, quote, it's similar to why people go on roller coasters.

You feel fear even though you know you're safe. You get a big arousal value out of them. Arousal has a positive component. That's what it is. It's a physiological response that feels good and you are safe. You are not part of it. So the people looking at these executions, they're not being executed.

It's not happening to them. Right. But they're getting that like joltable,, oh, and as a final note to this long discussion, I wonder how long this is going to be. Maybe it's our own mortality and how scared we are of death. I mean, no matter who we are, death is unknown to us, we have not experienced it yet. We don't know what it is. So maybe we need to see it to try to understand it in some way. Like it makes us feel like we're starting, we can understand it. Or seeing someone else die, you feel better about the fact that someday you are going to die. Can I give you my

final thought? Yes. This was way too heavy for you to put me through in the state that I am in. Sorry. You know that I'm going to go home tonight and cry because of the next essential crisis. I'm literally having one right now. I hope I didn't give anyone else the next essential crisis. I think you might have. I thought this was very, I couldn't have gone even further. No, this is, no, I'm half joking because I probably am gonna cry later.

But this is what, no about this too. Yeah. It was so stressful. But no, this was a really good episode. Yeah, this topic, I could have gone so much longer with it. I swear this could have been a four hour ride. I'm glad you didn't, because I am certain things, the headings during King Henry VIII and all that, that could be a whole thing in itself. Oh, he's lynching could be a whole thing in itself, but that would be a very

deadly episode. But it's important to tell it. It is. And yeah, a lot of these things can be their own thing, but I wanted to touch upon as many parts of history as I could without judging a really good job on that. Thank you. Like for real, this was like a like a thesis. A thesis. This was my thesis. Can I take this to fair home with me just you can't? So that was my uh quote, I'm doing air quotes many episodes on public executions. It's over an hour. It was a good job. And you know what I'm just gonna say to you?

If you want to follow us on Instagram because I want this to be over so badly you can do so at morbid podcasts. If you would like to follow us on Twitter you can do so at a morbid podcast. If you want to find us on Facebook and join that group that I don't know how to work. Lauren, Colin, a true crime podcast. And by the way, I'm accepting the members. I forgot I had to do that. So if you're requested to join that group that we've been hammering down your throats for weeks,

I'm going to let you in. Just forgot that I had to. If you would like to send us an email, morbidpodcastethymil.com. We're going to try to email, morbidpodcast.gmail.com. We're gonna try to compile, I just don't know what I'm saying, but we're just gonna try to compile like an episode where we read your stories. I think that would just be so much fun.

Because we've received a ton of stories at least. But keep sending us more, because we wanna make full episodes out of them. And if you want to donate to the Patreon, you can do so at patreon.com slash morbid podcast. All donations are funding my vengiarist thing right now. Thank you. Honestly, your donations are making this podcast able to happen and able to happen multiple times a week. So without you guys doing that, we would not be able to do this. So we truly appreciate it. Thank you.

It is so, I've said it so many times. Still buzz, I mean. It's so overwhelming. It's so overwhelming. Like, thank you for helping us. It's so overwhelming. And being so generous. And in a good way.

Yeah. Like, the, it is no. It's overwhelmingly like humbling. Yeah, no, it really is. 100%. And if you want to, what have I told you to do? Oh, if you want to look at our website that my lovely co-host so greatly designed, you can do so at, heyo, morbidpodcast.com, minus the heyo.

Thank you for listening, and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're really stressed out right now and you don't know where to go with your life and you google some weird shit but like we're not judging you if you do. I don't know how a lot to say at the end of this goodbye. Oh! Bye! I need a nap! Hope everyone's okay, bye! Hey, my.

Hey, prime members. You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times, or fell in love with a vampire, or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed? What would you do?

I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events, told by the people who lived them. From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice, to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer, you'll hear their first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening. Follow this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts.

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