Word: duffs
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...HANDBOOK ON HANGING (179 pp.)-Charles Duff-Regnery...
...been and still is a matter of opinion," writes British Author Charles Duff, "whether, if you wish to kill your undesirable, it is better to...flay him until he dies, or hurl him over a precipice; or burn him or drown or suffocate him; or entomb him alive...or asphyxiate him in a lethal chamber, or press him to death or cut off his head; or produce a sort of coma by means of an electric current... For my own part...I have reached the conclusion - that no people can point to a method which is more beautiful and expeditious...
Philosopher & Friend. Author Duff (who holds a law degree) argues that the public should be admitted to hangings, as it was in England until 1868, so that the people may share once more in Britain's "ancient and symbolical ritual." By selling film rights to hangings, the master executioners could be rewarded with more than their present fee (about $44 a knot). Moreover, says Duff, hangings should be broadcast for their highly dramatic sound effects, such as "the crack like a muffled shot of a small pistol which indicates the official breaking of the criminal's neck...
Hangmen, pleads Author Duff, are widely underrated: they are really artists. The good hangman must not only have a sharp eye and a clever touch; he must have personality and good stage presence, must feel at home with any class of people, and should be "capable of being the guide, philosopher and friend of whomsoever he must hang for us." In particular, Duff sings the praises of 19th century Hangman James Berry, who calculated precisely the length of rope needed to break the prisoner's neck with pulling the head off. Berry expressed this in a brilliant and still...
...Gary Latimer, who had been dubbed the "No. 1 Glamour Deb" by New York society editors, appeared, it was like the arrival of a movie queen on the 20th Century Limited: a murmur ran through the crowd, flashbulbs popped, and Miss Latimer smiled like no one since Brenda Diana Duff Frazier...