Public Executions Quotes

“I was a witness of the execution at Horsemonger-lane this morning. ... I believe that a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the immense crowd collected at that execution this morning could be imagined by no man, and could be presented in no heathen land under the sun. The horrors of the gibbet and of the crime which brought the wretched murderers to it, faded in my mind before the atrocious bearing, looks and language, of the assembled spectators. ... When the two miserable creatures who attracted all this ghastly sight about them were turned quivering into the air, there was no more emotion, no more pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgment, no more restraint in any of the previous obscenities, than if the name of Christ had never been heard in this world, and there were no belief among men but that they perished like beasts.”
― Charles Dickens

“When the condemned man saw the gallows, he knew the hypocrisy of life was over and that lies would serve him no more. He mumbled some defeated truths and left this world. The spectators were aghast and fascinated as the body swung and was still. They went about their business.”
― Stewart Stafford

“What entertainment value is there in executions if not for the occasional surprise? Why does the public attend? For the unexpected! A condemned man who flails about, or launches into a final fiery tirade. But times are changing, indeed they are...”
― Fabien Vehlmann, Isle of 100,000 Graves