John C Woods, hangman of Nuremberg trials, who lied about his experience to get the job (he actually learned about hanging from old cowboy films). His lack of expertise led to excessive suffering of condemned Nazis.
by PlanetoftheAtheists
John C Woods, hangman of Nuremberg trials, who lied about his experience to get the job (he actually learned about hanging from old cowboy films). His lack of expertise led to excessive suffering of condemned Nazis.
by PlanetoftheAtheists
31 Comments
Not all heroes wear capes
Absolute legend
Oh no
Whoops
After each one: “Well, better luck with the next one”
There are theories he purposely made the trap door too small on the gallows so they’d all hit their heads on the way down. He was remarkably incompetent in all facets of the term, but I do think he botched those on purpose. Behind the Bastards did a podcast on him it’s cool.
John C. Woods did nothing wrong!!!
Although, if you read his wikipedia, you might find several things he did wrong. Probably not a guy I’d want to have over for dinner, despite his Nazi-killing legacy.
But fuck Nazis.
Sounds to me like he was the perfect man for the job.
The amount the Nazi’s suffered is miniscule in comparison to the suffering they caused others.
Who says he doesnt do his job well? Ask some of his clientele, they won’t have a bad word to say!
Plot twist: they chose him because they knew he was a fuck up, not because they didn’t
Died changing a light bulb in pool of water
Any chance he’d be willing to recreate it on the next go round?
He lied about his experience, they probably knew he lied and claimed they didn’t. A little extra suffering for patently terrible people who did, planned, or were compliant with even worse suffering. I can’t say I see the problem.
When it comes to hanging these particular Nazis, I don’t think there’s such a thing as “excessive suffering”.
Watched the movie Nuremberg with my gf recently. Excellent film. When it showed the gallows I said “that’s enough of a drop to break their necks, so they’re not gonna suffer.” She paused the film to give me the info of how the executions were botched. (She’s a WWII buff.) Then we pressed play and sure enough. I’m anti-death penalty but in the case of these guys I’m definitely not broken up about it lol
He didn’t know/care about what the length the rope needed to be in order to properly execute someone by hanging. If the rope isn’t long enough and the scaffold isn’t tall enough, the prisoner would be strangled to death, which is a rather slow death, instead of have their neck snapped from the momentum, which is quick. A lot of people died this way under his watch, but they were all seriously fucked up people so I no one gave a shit.
It’s obvious the officers all knew he was full of shit and gave him the job anyway. The fact that he “lied” gave them an excuse if someone tried to call them out for it. Hangman isn’t exactly a popular job, plus everyone just wanted to go home now that the war ended, so just having someone that wanted to do it was enough for them. Plus, I think they wanted them to suffer for what they did.
This guy hanged US soldiers too, and bungled at least eleven of them.
This wasn’t some sneaky way of getting back at the Nazis. The US Army put a lying, incompetent sociopath in charge of hanging people, allowing him to enrich himself with the money and fame such a position afforded at the cost of so much needless suffering.
Whole lot of people don’t really understand the point of the Nuremberg trials and it shows.
The allied powers could have summarily executed most of the defendants, in fact there was a bit of an outcry that they didn’t. The point of putting them on trial was to show the world that the allies held themselves to their own ideals of justice and righteousness. That there is a way to treat all human beings with respect no matter what their crime, background, etc.
That’s why botching the executions is bad. Saying things like “they deserved to suffer like that” undermines the entire purpose of the trial. Those men were found guilty and they paid for their crimes with their lives. To exacerbate their suffering makes us no better than them.
All human life has to be treated with respect by the justice system, no matter the heinousness of the crime. Otherwise we become exactly like them.
Edit: spelling
So this comes up every so often on Reddit and routinely people are ok with it without understanding the implications.
This guy botching executions undermined the post war denazification efforts, instilled distrust in the US lead administration in west germany and provided critics with valid counterarguments for the establishment of international law. We’ll never know, but we are likely still seeing the aftereffects of his botch job in the impotent UN and international criminal court.
There is no evidence that John C. Woods botched the executions out of a sense of justice, he was bloodthirsty and just an all around incompetent guy who died by standing in water while changing a lightbulb, electrocuting himself. He should not be celebrated. He was an incompetent insubordinate.
Every time he is brought up everyone either says he did the right thing or it was a conspiracy and the us hired him on purpose, this is all bullshit. His action made the nuremburg trials at that time seem like a sham and very much hurt the credibility of a just justice system after the war
“Excessive suffering of condemned Nazis” sounds like a feature, not a bug.
“Excessive suffering” is incredibly subjective given the context. We’re talking about the ends of the kind of people who were convicted of the torture and killing of women and children by the trainload. Is it possible to administer that end in an excessive fashion? I’m thinking he knew exactly what he was doing and reasoned that a snapped neck and near instant passing might just not be just. I’m not sure that I necessarily disagree.
They were condemned for crimes against civilians and humanity, define “excessive.”