That's amazing ! Post incredible facts here.

[Rum]

Well that isn't incredible so much as horrible.

However it is an incredible fact that the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666.

[Animavore]

Pfft! Last public guillotine. 1977 (yes, you read that right).

[mistermack]

Pfft! Last public guillotine. 1977 (yes, you read that right).

Just because I read it right, doesn't mean that it IS right. It's wrong. Like the rest of your so-called "facts".

It was 1939.

[pErvinalia]

The last (legal) public hanging in the US.

On Aug. 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky, 20,000 people gathered around a scaffold to witness the public hanging of Rainey Bethea. A media frenzy ensued after some foul-ups in the execution. It would lead to nationwide changes and be the last public hanging in the country.

What kind of sick fuck turns up to watch someone be killed?

[Sean Hayden]

What, your family didn't keep a coffee table book of photos of dead outlaws?





--no wonder you're fucked up

[pErvinalia]

[Tero]

”Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed WW I merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them.”

Q-tips
The cotton swab is a tool invented in the 1920s by Leo Gerstenzang after he watched his wife attach wads of cotton to toothpicks. His product, which he named "Baby Gays", went on to become the most widely sold brand name, "Q-tips", with the Q standing for "quality".

[JimC]

What kind of sick fuck turns up to watch someone be killed?

It was a very common thing in England in the past, and I suspect across most of the world.

At least these days, the zeitgeist has mostly moved on...

[mistermack]

What kind of sick fuck turns up to watch someone be killed?

Nearly all men. Going by the photo.
It's not as bad as you make out. That "someone" was a disgusting piece of shit who was easy to hate. The instinct is revenge, and we've all got it.

Even though I'm anti the death penalty, I can certainly understand why they did it. I'm amazed that they were still doing it in public in 1936 though.

[pErvinalia]

I can understand the reason why we had the death penalty, but not why people actually watched it. I can understand the family or those most affected might choose to watch it, but fuck, there must have been a lack of something better to do.

[Rum]

I can understand the reason why we had the death penalty, but not why people actually watched it. I can understand the family or those most affected might choose to watch it, but fuck, there must have been a lack of something better to do.

I believe it is called 'morbid curiosity' and one of our less attractive traits, which does thankfully seem to be on the wain a bit these days. Most obviously seen on motorways here when traffic slows to a crawl at the site of an accident so people can have a good gawp to see if there are any body parts to be seen.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, it's a bit of a strange one. There's nothing less I'd rather see than someone dying/killed. I nearly saw someone's head chopped off with a chainsaw in a youtube video before it was taken down. Luckily I hit pause just as the chainsaw started to bite into the guy's neck.

[mistermack]

People hate to miss out. They like to say, "I was there" rather than, "yes I heard". It makes them feel more important to be an actual eye witness.
Sounds like it was an excuse to get drunk. The guy who was supposed to pull the lever was too drunk to do it, so a bystander leaned on it eventually to operate it.

The big draw, apparently, was because the place had a real rarity, a woman sheriff, who inherited the post when her husband died. It was her job to hang him. The big crowd was due to curiosity to see if a woman could do it. They didn't know that other people had volunteered to pull the lever.

[Brian Peacock]

I can understand the reason why we had the death penalty, but not why people actually watched it. I can understand the family or those most affected might choose to watch it, but fuck, there must have been a lack of something better to do.

It affirms the authority of the judiciary - and it brings a lot of money into the town.

[laklak]

Public hanging? Pish. When I were lad criminals were hung, drawn, and quartered in the public square after being broken on the wheel. Talk about a party!