For many, the highlight of a guided tour of the Tower of London is Tower Green, the site of the scaffolds on which Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and many others, before and after, met their end. This book, written by a retired Yeoman Warder from the Tower, presents a morbid but entertaining anthology of one hundred of the thousands of men and women who fell victim to the axe or sword (or the Halifax Gibbet or the Scottish Maiden). The entries, arranged chronologically, also look at the victims' alleged crimes, any last words and the disposal of the body and head, often on spikes on London Bridge. A closing index lists each victim, identifying the type of blade that finished them off. The author clearly enjoys uncovering little known facts and anecdotes and this book captures his enthusiasm.

Severed Heads: British Beheadings Through the Ages

History

Abbott, Geoffrey

Europe

Andre Deutsch

A look at 100 diverse historical figures who have met their premature end by being decapitated by a sword, knife or axe.

The Who's Who of British Beheadings

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Andre Deutsch Ltd.

A morbidly fascinating mixture of bungled executions ,strange last requests, and classic final one-liners from medieval times to the present day. Sometimes it's hard to be an executioner, trying to keep someone from popping up to make a quip when they should have spectacularly sunk without a trace. Or to be told that the condemned to the guillotine won't have a last drink for fear of "completely losing his head." The business of death can be absurd, and nothing illustrates this better than these tales of the gruesome and frankly ridiculous ways in which a number of ill-fated unfortunates met (or failed to meet) their maker. Did you know: When Sir Thomas More was ordered to position his head on the block, he said "though you have warrant to cut off my head, you have none to cut off my beard?" When the guillotine took three strokes to sever the neck of Isabeau Herman, the mob attempted to stone the executioner to death for cruelty? After the English hanged the pirate Captain Kidd they chained his body to a stake on the Thames River as a warning to seafarers? From the strange to the gruesome, from the weird to the completely unbelievable, The Executioner Always Chops Twice is popular history at its best: witty, lively, and wonderfully bizarre.

The Executioner Always Chops Twice: Ghastly Blunders on the Scaffold

Americas

St.Martin's Press

In his own darkly humorous style, Geoffrey Abbott describes the instruments used and their effectiveness and reveals the macabre origins of familiar phrases such as “gone west” or “drawn a blank,” as well as the jargon of the underworld. He covers everything from the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body. Execution is everything you ever wanted to know about the ultimate penalty---and a lot you never thought to ask. 
It includes such hair-raising categories as: 
· Cave of Roses: A rare Swedish method of execution in which the victim was confined to a cave full of snakes and poisonous reptiles.
· Bastinado: Involved the victim being caned gently and rhythmically with a lightweight stick on the soles of the feet until the mental collapse and eventual death of the victim.
· Sewn in an Animal’s Belly: A living person is sewn into the belly of an animal and left to die.
· The Spanish Donkey: This method of torture consisted of seating a victim on top of a wall that resembled an inverted “v” with weights attached to the ankles, the weights slowly increased until the victim’s body split in two.
· Iron Chair: The victim is tied to an iron armchair and pushed nearer and nearer to a blazing fire. 
· Sawn in Half: Victims are secured in a standing position, pinned between two wide boards fixed between a stake driven deep into the ground while two executioners (one on each side) would wield a long, two-handled saw downwards through the boards. 
Execution is a unique fascinating look at the grim and gritty history of sanctioned death.

Execution: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death

Historical Study & Educational Resources

A gruesomely, hilarious and fascinating pop-history account of methods of execution from around the world and through the ages 
In this wickedly humorous book, Geoffrey Abbott describes the effectiveness of instruments of torture and reveals the macabre origins of familiar phrases such as 'gone west' or 'drawn a blank'. Covering everything from the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body 'What a Way to Go' is everything you ever wanted to know about the ultimate penalty---and a lot you never thought to ask. 
It includes such hair-raising categories as: - Sewn in an Anima's Belly: A living person is sewn into the belly of an animal and left to die&amp; - The Spanish Donkey: This method of torture consisted of seating a victim on top of a wall that resembled an inverted V with weights attached to the ankles, the weights slowly increased until the victim's body split in two - Iron Chair: The victim is tied to an iron armchair and pushed nearer and nearer to a blazing fire
What a Way to Go is a a unique and fascinating look at the grim and gritty history of sanctioned death

What a Way to Go: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

St. Martin's: Griffin

For more than two centuries the eldest sons of the Sanson family were fated by tradition to inherit the Paris scaffold. Scorned by their superiors, reviled by society, nevertheless they flogged and hanged, burned and branded, beheaded with sword and guillotine, thousands of condemned men and women. Yet these were no blood-crazed psychopaths. On the contrary they were educated and intelligent men with wives and children. In this book, the parts played by Dr Guillotin and Madame Tussaud during the days of the terror are fully covered, as is the evolution, design and operation of the guillotine itself. An appendix deals with the question of whether death by the guillotine is absolutely instantaneous - or does the victim see the basket coming up to meet him, hear the gloating cheers of the mob, before death brings oblivion?

Family of Death

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Robert Hale, Ltd.

Book by Holden, Peter, Abbott, Geoffrey

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife

Science & Math

Holden, Peter

Biological Sciences

A&C Black

From the familiar method of hanging, to being trampled by elephants, Abbott catalogues methods of judicial execution from around the world and through the ages.

Book of Execution: Ency Meth J: an Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution

Headline

"Little Ease" - a cell only four feet square and nine feet high, in which it was impossible to lie down. "The Duke of Exeter's Daughter" and "Skeffington's Gyves" - two of the many excruciating versions of the rack. This text offers an account of instruments of torture through the ages.

Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers: A History of Torture and Its Instruments

Headline Book Pub Ltd

The Book of Execution: An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution

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