Execution: A guide to the Ultimate Penalty by Abbott, Geoffrey (2012) Paperback

by Geoffrey Abbott

From the gruesomely familiar to the grisly and bizarre, this unique encyclopedia provides the most comprehensive history ever published of the "art" of execution -- the ultimate penalty. Details the many ingenious and seemingly incomprehensible means used through history, including the more familiar guillotine, stoning, and crucifixion, such less-known acts as sewing a victim into the belly of a dead animal, and such "modern" methods as lethal injection and the electric chair. Black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Horror

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Geoffrey Abbott served for many years as a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London. Author of nineteen books and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica/, he has made numerous television appearances. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Petros Karamootees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το βρήκα αηδιαστικά ενδιαφέρον.

[Lefki Sarantinou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ανατριχιαστικό πολλές φορές, αλλά σίγουρα το πιο κατατοπιστικό πόνημα που έχει γραφτεί για τους τρόπους που εφηύρε ο άνθρωπος προκειμένου να εκτελέσει τους ομοίους του προξενώντας τους όσο μεγαλύτερο πόνο και βασανισμό είναι δυνατόν. Αηδιαστικά ωραίο!

[Madison Salem]

I'm borrowing my dad's copy to read again. I think I first read this when I was, probably 10 or 11, maybe a little older. I wonder what that says about me psychologically.
On the other hand, I can't wait to see what everyone at school says when I show up with this.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Information is really interesting and well researched, but the organization makes it kind of clumsy. For instance, instead of organizing methods of executions chronologically he organizes them alphabetically, which in some cases leaves you with several millenia worth of whiplash. The chapters, too, have the habit of bouncing back and forth in time and across continents.
The effect of all this bouncing was a decided difficulty in creating a time line of methods, and so also a hard time parsing when the human conscience flipped from dispatching criminals with gleeful sadism and when we wanted badly to pretend we weren't hurting anyone.
Definitely keeping it as a reference book, though.

[Kupie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly sickening. This is our bathroom reader. It's amazing that people can be so cruel. We are a disgusting race. (... What does that say about me that I read about all the disgusting things we do to each other?)

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting if not gruesome account of the various types of execution available, spent most of the time wondering how would you come up with some of the more horrific methods.

[Dan Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man is such a vicious animal, and it's works like this that make you aware of the depths of his unevolved depravity. What we would despise as psychopathic in modern times was a crowd pleasing event in past history. Graphic and brutal, the familiar trope "those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it" comes to mind.

[teleri · Rating 2 out of 5]

[ 2.5 stars ]

a sickening read, yet enjoyable in some places.

i do think the author dragged out some of the chapters, and so i found myself getting bored here and there. i also found myself going a day or two without picking it up, or only reading a few pages at a time.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, creepy look at various means of execution. The long back stories get a little tedious, especially since many of them were written in Olde English. Still, kind of neat, but still creepy.

[Sven Munch-Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you have a wild imagination? does your mind boil with ways, which you want to kill people - then look no futher: The Book of Execution, will give you all the knowledge you need to make you enemies (or friends) scream in terror, beg for mercy and wish they had never been born to experience the day they betrayed you.

This books offers, an insight into the unimaginable cruelty of man, but also hind a slight light from the people who could not stand to see the victims in pain, the executioners who's professionalism that could mean both excruciating and unbearable horror, but also the last moment of mercy.

This book is in all, a great insight to how terrible society has been and for some places in the world, still is and one must have a strong stomach if one desire to read this book.

To quote geoffrey Abbott "There is no end to man's inventiveness, wether in the fields of medicine or mechanics, science or space travel, so, regrettably, his ability to conjure up methods of torture and dath is equally infinite".

PS: I do not recommend this a social reading, or read out loud among friends, unless you are absolutely sure, they can handle the facts of the past and man's insane ability to think up ways to be cruel to one another.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great reference. Cannot believe the human capacity for cruelty. For instance, in AD 117-180, the Christians decided to martyr one woman by sewing her inside a dead donkey with only her head sticking out. "...when this has been sewn up, let us expose them both to the vultures...a living woman will be shut up in a dead ass; then by reason of the heat of the sun will she be roasted within its belly...mortal hunger...her agony, both from the stench of the dead body as it rots, and the swarm of writhing worms..." Jesus Christ, Amen!

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this work of immense interest.
The compilation of historical accounts are of great value for the beginnings of additional research.
Explanations, including historical accounts depicting the material related in this book, are fabulous.
Read for personal research.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.

[a. · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was better than the ghost book, if only because it was more facts and less navel-gazing. a decent utilization of primary sources. and it is exactly what you would expect. an encyclopedia-like treatise on various methods of execution, and prepare to learn things. for example, i had never heard of a cave of roses before. a worthy addition to the death penalty shelf.

[ffluffy]

I heart this book! Love the thought of dying in a boat with honey smeared on my body while millions of flying insects devour me. Yum.

[Nathan Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite an interesting book, though it has a remarkable number of mistakes that should have been caught by the editors (typos). information was remarkably graphic. what we do to each other.