Around 1850 in the US, opposition to the use of hanging began to grow. Newspaper reports began printing details of the victim’s suffering at the end of the rope. They described the prisoner’s body convulsing and twitching, legs twisting and kicking, throat gurgling, eyes bulging, face turning purple. What, however, was the press too delicate to note?
Answer: That most hanged men also urinated, defecated and ejaculated.
Source: Edison & The Electric Chair – A Story of Light and Death by Mark Essig
