Top 10 Amazing Execution Survival Stories

Blogball December 18, 2008

I thought it would be interesting to make a list to go along with Top 10 gruesome methods of execution and Top 10 modern methods of execution. This list includes individuals that came face to face with death and their execution devices and because of fate or just plain luck were able to survive and live another day.

10

Elizabeth Proctor

circa 1652

In 1692 Elizabeth Proctor and her husband John were accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials. After their arrest the court met in Salem to discuss the fate of John and Elizabeth and several others. In spite of the petitions and testimonies from friends, both John and Elizabeth were found guilty, and were sentenced to death. Elizabeth, who was pregnant at the time, was granted a stay of execution until after the birth of the baby. John tried to postpone his execution, but failed. On August 19, 1692, her husband was executed. In January 1693 while still in prison, Elizabeth gave birth to a son whom she named John after his father. For some reason, Elizabeth was not executed as the court had ordered and then in 1693 the Governor, believing that people were being wrongly convicted without hard evidence, ordered 153 people set free. Elizabeth was among this general release of prisoners.
Interesting Fact: Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned during the Salam Witch Trials. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused (fourteen women and five men) were hanged. One man who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least five more of the accused died in prison.

9

John Henry George Lee

1864 – circa 1945

In 1884 at her home at Torquay England, Miss Emma Keyse was bludgeoned to death with an axe, her throat slashed with a knife and her house set on fire. John Lee, who was one of the servants at the house was arrested and convicted of her murder and sentenced to death by hanging. The date for the hanging was set for February 23rd 1885 at the Exeter Prison. When Lee was standing at the gallows waiting to die the trap door release malfunctioned. Not just once, not twice, but three times! Amid the confusion of these botched attempts Lee was returned to his cell and at some later time the Home Secretary reduced his sentence to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released.
Interesting Fact: After some 23 years in prison Lee (now aged 41) due to constant pressure to review his case, was released in December 1907. Ironically it was suggested that this was not because the merits of the case justified a review but because of the infamous bungle which was made in attempting to hang him.

8

William Duell

1724

In 1740, 16 year old William Duell was convicted of raping and murdering a girl in the village of Tyburn, London. Duell was sentenced to death by hanged along with 4 others. During this time period bodies of criminals were regularly provided to medical training colleges so after the execution Duell’s body was brought to Surgeons’ Hall to be anatomized. After he was stripped and laid on the board one of the servants noticed he was breathing. After Duell’s breath became quicker and quicker the surgeon took some blood from him and in two hours he was able to sit up in his chair. That evening the authorities decided to reprieve him and his sentence was commuted to transportation.
Interesting Fact: Tyburn was commonly invoked in euphemisms for capital punishment – for instance, “to take a ride to Tyburn” was to go to one’s hanging.

7

Zoleykhah Kadkhoda

born 1977

In 1997 20-year-old Zoleykhah Kadkhoda was arrested and charged with engaging in sexual relations outside marriage. She was immediately sentenced to death by stoning. Kadkhoda was then buried up to her waist in preparation for her execution but soon after the stoning began it prompted great reaction among most of the village inhabitants which caused the stoning to stop. It was first thought that the woman had died and was taken to the morgue but then began to breath again and was taken to the hospital. Her condition improved and an appeal for amnesty was submitted to the court on her behalf.
Interesting Fact: The Iranian authorities informed Amnesty International that the death sentence against Zoleykhah Kadkhoda has been lifted and that she was released on 26 November 1997.

6

Wenseslao Moguel

circa 1880

On March 18, 1915 Wenseslao Moguel was captured while fighting in the Mexican revolution. Without trial he was sentenced to be executed by firing squad. Moguel was shot 9 times including a final bullet through his head at close range by an officer to insure death. Moguel somehow survived and managed to escape. Wenseslao went on to live a full life after his “execution”. The above photo shows Moguel in 1937 on the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not radio show pointing to his scar from the bullet that was shot at close range.
Interesting Fact: A popular song was written about Wenseslao Moguel. You can listen to it here.

5

John Smith

circa 1690

John Smith, from England was convicted of robbery and was sentenced to death by hanging at Tyburn. On Christmas Eve 1705, having been turned off the back of the cart, he dangled for 15 minutes until the crowd began to shout “reprieve” and was then cut down and taken to a nearby house where he soon recovered. When Smith was asked what it had felt like to be hanged this is what he told his rescuers: “When I was turned off I was, for some time, sensible of very great pain occasioned by the weight of my body and felt my spirits in strange commotion, violently pressing upwards. Having forced their way to my head I saw a great blaze or glaring light that seemed to go out of my eyes in a flash and then I lost all sense of pain. After I was cut down, I began to come to myself and the blood and spirits forcing themselves into their former channels put me by a prickling or shooting into such intolerable pain that I could have wished those hanged who had cut me down”.
Interesting Fact: The 1747 drawing above by William Hogarth shows the condemned travelling in carts with their coffins to Tyburn infamous “Triple Tree” tripod-shaped gallows. The grandstands which were named “Mother Procter’s Pews” were erected for the hundreds of spectators that would come out to see a public hanging.

4

Anne Green

circa 1630

Anne Green was a 22 year old woman from England who was most likely seduced by the grandson of her employer. When Green became pregnant she hid her pregnancy and gave birth to a premature baby boy who died soon after he was born. After trying unsuccessfully to hide the child’s body Green was accused of the murder and was sentenced to death by hanging. During the execution Anne Green had to climb the ladder up to the gallows where the rope was laid around her neck and then was pushed off the ladder. After about half an hour her body was cut down and placed in a coffin and taken to a local doctor who gave anatomy lectures at the university. When the doctors and others assembled for the dissection and opened the coffin they noticed that the ”corpse ”took a breathe and they heard sounds coming from her throat.” After giving her hot drinks she opened her eyes. The treatment continued with bloodletting and twelve hours after the execution Anne Green was able to say a few words. After her unique rescue the court usher attending the execution and the prison director of Oxford agreed that Anne Green should be reprieved. Green later married, had three children and lived for fifteen years after her famous execution.
Interesting Fact: During this time period it was common for people to grab onto the legs of the condemned with all their weight causing a forceful downward jerk so that the hanged person would die as quickly as possible. It was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that hanging in England was done with a fall to break the neck.

3

Joseph Samuel

circa 1780

Joseph Samuel was born in England and later transported to Australia after committing a robbery in 1801. Samuel then became involved in a gang in Sydney and robbed the home of a wealthy woman. A policeman who had been sent to protect her home was murdered. The gang was soon caught and at the trial Joseph Samuel confessed to stealing the goods but denied being part of the murder. The leader of the gang was released due to lack of evidence and Joseph Samuel was sentenced to death by hanging. In 1803, Samuel and another criminal were driven in a cart to Parramatta where hundreds of people came to watch the hanging. After praying, the cart on which they were standing drove off, but instead of being hanged, the rope around Samuel’s neck snapped! The executioner tried again. This time, the rope slipped and his legs touched the ground. With the crowd in an uproar, the executioner tried for the third time and the rope snapped again. This time, an officer galloped off to tell the Governor what had happened and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The Governor and others believed that it was a sign from God that Samuel should not be hanged.
Interesting Fact: Samuel was one of Australia’s earliest Jewish settlers and became known as the man they could not hang.

2

Maggie Dickson

circa 1700

Maggie Dickson lived in Edinburgh Scotland in the early eighteenth century. Her story is remarkably similar to Anne Green’s.(#4) After her husband deserted her in 1723 she was forced to move further south to Kelso near the Scottish Borders. She worked for an innkeeper in return for basic lodgings and started an affair with the Innkeeper’s son which led to her becoming pregnant. Not wanting the innkeeper to discover this because it would surely lead to her dismissal she concealed her pregnancy as long as possible. The baby was born prematurely and died within a few days of being born. She then planned to put the baby into the River Tweed but couldn’t bring herself to and finally left it on the riverbank. The same day the baby was discovered and traced to Maggie and in 1724 she was charged under the contravention of the Concealment of Pregnancy. Maggie was taken back to Grasssmarket for her public execution by hanging. After the hanging she was pronounced dead and her body was bound for Musselburgh where she was to be buried, however the journey was interrupted by a knocking and banging from within the wooden coffin. The lid was lifted to find Maggie alive and well. The law saw it as God’s will and she was freed to live for another forty years.
Interesting Fact: Maggie became something of a local celebrity and the locals gave her the nickname ‘Half Hangit’ Maggie.’ The pub pictured above is a well-established and popular macabre themed watering hole in Edinburgh and is named after Maggie Dickson.

1

Willie Francis

1929 – 1947

In 1945 Willie Francis at age 16 was charged with murder of a drugstore owner in St. Martinville Louisiana. The murder went unsolved for nine months until Francis was detained due to an unrelated crime. Police claimed he was carrying the wallet of the drugstore owner in his pocket. A short time later, Francis confessed to the murder in writing after he was interrogated. He later directed the police to where he’d disposed of the holster used to carry the murder weapon. Despite two separate written confessions, Francis pleaded not guilty. The state-appointed defense attorneys offered no objections, called no witnesses and put up no defense. Two days after the trial began; Francis was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death by the electric chair. On May 3, 1946 during the execution as the lethal surge of electricity was being applied witnesses reported hearing the teenager scream “Take it off! Take it off! Let me breathe! “. Another report states that he said “I’m n-not dying!” The electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis. It turned out that the portable electric chair had been improperly set up by an intoxicated prison guard.
Interesting Fact: After the botched execution, Francis appealed to the Supreme Court citing various violations of his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The appeal was rejected and Willie Francis was executed on May 9, 1947 over a year after his first execution.

Top Ten Weirdest Stories of 2012

Posted by Christine Dell'Amore of National Geographic News on December 17, 2012

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From a genitalia-headed fish to a two-faced cat—it’s been a weird and wild year at National Geographic. And for our weird fans, we’ve rounded up our editor’s picks for the ten oddest stories of 2012. 
Coming in as tenth weirdest is the housefly-size frog Paedophryne amauensis (below), the world’s smallest known vertebrate.
10. World’s Smallest Frog Found

Photograph courtesy Christopher Austin, Louisiana State University

At an average of 7.7 millimeters long, the frog is a hair smaller than the previous record holder, the Southeast Asian fish species Paedocypris progenetica, whose females measure about 7.9 millimeters, scientists said in January. Full story>>

9.  Slime Has Memory But No Brain

Photograph courtesy Audrey Dussutour

The living slime that may have been the muse for the 1958 science-fiction film The Blob just got creepier: In October, scientists reported that slime mold, a brainless single-celled organism, has a form of memory. Full story>>

8. Two-Faced Cat a Mystery

Photograph courtesy TODAY Show/NBC

In August, Venus the two-faced cat became a feline hit: The three-year-old tortoiseshell debuted her own Facebook page, was featured in a YouTube video, and appeared on the Today Show. (Watch National Geographic cat videos.)
One look at this cat and you can understand why: One half is solid black with a green eye, and the other half has typical orange tabby stripes and a blue eye. The coloration may be a genetic mashup that one scientist called “absolute luck.” Full story>>

7. White Killer Whale Spotted

Photograph courtesy E. Lazareva, Far East Russia Orca Project

An white adult killer whale spotted off Russia in April may be the only one in the world.
Nicknamed Iceberg, the 22-foot-long (7-meter-long) whale is probably not a true albino, since he has color on his saddle—the area behind his dorsal fin, scientists say. (See pictures of albino animals.) The male appeared healthy and accepted by his pod, suggesting his odd coloration doesn’t affect him. Full story>>

6. World’s Leggiest Animal Found

Photograph by Paul Marek

The leggiest creature on Earth lives in California, but it’s not a movie star or a model—it’s a 3-centimeter-long (1.2-inch) millipede with 750 legs, scientists said in November.
First seen by government scientists in 1928, Illacme plenipes—”the acme of plentiful legs”—keeps such a low profile that for the rest of the 20th century the species was thought to be extinct. Then University of Arizona entomologist Paul Marek spied one near Silicon Valley. Full story>>

5. Turtles Urinate Via Their Mouths—a First

Photograph from FLPA/Alamy

When a species of soft-shelled turtle in China piddles in puddles, it does so through its mouth—the first evidence of an animal doing so, scientists reported in October.
The findings could also have stomach-churning implications for humans with kidney failure, scientists say. Full story>>

4. Rare Maned Lionesses Explained

Photograph courtesy Deon De Villiers

If it looks like a male lion and is perceived as a male lion—well, sometimes it isn’t. That’s the case of Africa’s unusual maned lionesses, which sport a male’s luxurious locks and may even fool competitors.
Though uncommon, maned lionesses have been regularly sighted in the Mombo area of Botswana‘s Okavango Delta (including the individual pictured above), where the lion population may carry a genetic disposition toward the phenomenon, experts say. Full story>>

3. Genitalia-Headed Fish is Evolutionary Mystery

Photograph courtesy Magnolia Press, reproduced with permission

How’s this for a head turner? A tiny new species of fish from Vietnam sports its genitalia on its noggin.
Phallostethus cuulong is only the 22nd known species of its family, Phallostethidae, all of which bear their copulatory organs just behind their mouths. Full story>>

2. World’s Weirdest Penis Studied

Photograph by Lucy Cooke

When National Geographic Emerging Explorer Lucy Cooke headed to Tasmania, Australia, this year, she on the lookout for the echidna, an ancient termite-eating hedgehog-like animal with a four-headed penis. (Read more about Cooke’s National Geographic Channel show Freaks & Creeps.)
As Cooke wrote on her blog in July, “This extraordinary member has four distinct heads and looks like a stumpy hand with no thumb waving at me. Or some sort of weird sea anemone. It definitely doesn’t look like any penis I have ever seen before. Thankfully.”

1. Giant Mysterious Eyeball Found on Florida Beach

Photograph by Carli Segelson/Fla. FWCC

Perhaps reminiscent of the infamous Montauk monster, a softball-size eyeball washed up in Florida in October (as if Florida needed anything else weird). The Internet was buzzing with questions: whose eye is it? What is it? A few days later, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that the “mystery eyeball” appears to belong to a swordfish. Full story>>
For being justifiably weird, gross, and mysterious all at the same time, the giant eyeball is our weirdest story of 2012.
Also read about National Geographic’s new book, Tales of the Weird>>

Top 10 Amazing People Who Cheated Death

“Death -oh- Death”. Everybody sing it now. The last cellphone call will be made to us all some day, regardless. Most of us wont know when or where or in what form. The big D has a way of creeping up and surprising the dumbfounded or snatching the innocent. Death can cause howling and screaming or a calm transition into the mysterious hereafter, and sometimes “The Slayer” just seems to ignore what is most obviously a bulls eye. The following list contains ten unbelievable but amazingly true accounts of human beings that beat death. Some of these “cheaters of death” are still among us (as of this posting). In no particular order, here are some of my favorites.

10

Isidro Mejia

He’s nail free today, but in 2004, Mejia was doing construction work on the roof of a house when he fell. The fall didn’t kill him, but the six 3 1/2 inch nails that accidentally shot into his neck and skull certainly should have. He survived because the nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord.

9

Richard Blass

In 1968, the first mafia attempt against this canadian gangster took place. Two hired gunmen entered a bar where he was enjoying some drinks. Although shot at multiple times, Blass was able to escape unscathed.
Two weeks later, Blass was tracked by the mafia in a motel named “Le Manoir de Plaisance”, in a Montreal suburb. The motel was set on fire and three people died, but Blass escaped the blaze. Police investigation indicated arson as the fire’s cause.
In October, Richard Blass was injured by shots to the head and back after being ambushed with his partner inside a garage. The two were able to save their lives by driving through the garage door. Blass required hospitalization for his wounds.
In January, 1969, a bungled bank robbery and a shot cop, put Blass in jail. Within the first year of serving four consecutive terms of ten years in jail, Blass managed to escape. He was caught, thrown back in the slammer, and escaped a second time. With a spurt of freedom, and blood in his eyes, he set out and killed two co-conspirators in a bar, that had testified against him. Everyone else in the bar was locked in and the place set on fire. Three days later, Blass’ death finally came when he was shot 23 times.
During his life Blass was given the nickname, “The Cat”, because of his luck in evading death.

8

Ahad Israfil

“I try to appreciate things a lot more. You never know what moment you won’t be there.” In 1987, an accidental discharge of a gun blew half of 14 year old Israfil’s brains away, yet he survived and later graduated with honors.
Doctors were able to fill the hole with a silicone block, “the flap of skin was pulled over and hair grew back, giving him a fairly normal appearance.” Cranioplast was used to put the “icing on the cake” (Dayton Daily News)

7

Vesna Vulovic

It was 26 days into 1972, when 22 year old flight attendant, Vesna Vulovic found herself at 33,000 feet in the air and quickly descending to the earth without a parachute. JAT Flight JU 367 had been cruising over Srbska-Kamenice (now the Czech Republic) when an explosion occurred (The terrorist group, Croatian National Movement was named as responsible for the deaths of all but one) and as astonishing as it sounds V.V. survived with a “fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, which left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs after surgery and continues to fly sporadically” She holds the Guiness World Record for the highest freefall.

6

Ludger Sylbaris

On the day before the Pelee eruption, Sylbaris was locked in a single-cell, partially-under ground with stone walls, ventilated only through a narrow grating in the door which faced away from Pelee. His prison was the most sheltered building in the city, and it was this fact which saved his life.
On the day of the eruption, it grew very dark. Hot air mixed with fine ashes entered his cell through the door grating, despite his efforts in urinating on his clothing and stuffing it in the door. The heat lasted only a short moment, enough to cause deep burns on his hands, arms, legs, and back, but his clothes did not ignite, and he avoided breathing the searing-hot air.
Superheated steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures reaching over 1000 °C. flattened the buildings in the city and the entire population burned or suffocated to death. When I visited beautiful Martinique in 1989, and saw the jail cell, which still stands, Sylbaris was said to be the only survivor, but in fact there was one other man and possibly two children.

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Shannon Malloy

Shannon Malloy was in a car crash that caused her to be internally decapitated; her spine was separated from her skull and all connecting ligaments and tendons were cut loose. Despite this, she managed to survive. Shannon had to endure several surgeries, one “fusing her skull to her spinal cord; she suffered nerve damage that made her eyes constantly cross and limited her speech ability. Her pelvis and ankle were severely broken, but could not be repaired until swelling in the brain and spinal cord reduced” (Associated Content).

4

Roy C. Sullivan

The chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:
1942 – Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower. The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big toe.
1969 – The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 – The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 – The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with him.
1973 – A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 – Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 – The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.
His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.

3

Ann Hodges

Sylacauga, Alabama 1954. While Hodges was napping on her living room couch, a grapefruit-sized meteoroid crashed through her roof and ricocheted off her large wooden console radio, before it struck her on the arm and hip. She was badly bruised but able to walk. The Air Force arrived and took the meteorite from her. Ann’s husband, Eugene, hired a lawyer to get it back. Then the landlord claimed it, wanting to sell it in order to cover the damage done to the roof. By the time the meteorite was returned to Ann and Eugene (over a year later) public attention had diminished and they were unable to find a buyer willing to pay much for the 8.5 pound alien chondrite rock. Against her husband’s wishes, Ann donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where it can be seen today.

2

Ben Carpenter

When crossing the street in Paw Paw, Ben Carpenter, 21 years old and wheelchair bound, was “picked up” accidentally by a truck. He was pushed by the semi-truck for 4 miles at 50mph, after the arms of his wheelchair got stuck in the grill. The story goes that the driver had stopped at a red light, and couldn’t see Carpenter crossing in front of him. The light changed and Carpenter ended up having the ride of a lifetime. “What I learned is that I never would want to be a Hollywood celebrity,” he said after all the fuss being made by TV and newspapers. “I don’t know how they do it with the TV cameras and people taking their picture all the time. I went through it, and it was OK for a while, but a couple days was enough.” (Kalamazoo Gazette)

1

Phineas Gage

On September 13, 1848, Gage (a railway worker) was packing a hole with gunpowder, adding a fuse and sand, and then packing the charge down with a large tamping iron. The gunpowder ignited and the iron bar shot through his left cheek bone and exited out the top of his head, and was later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident. Within minutes he was up and walking. A few days later he had fungus of the brain. A couple of weeks after, 8 fluid ounces of pus from an abscess under his scalp was released. Damage to Gage’s frontal cortex had resulted in a complete loss of social inhibitions, which often led to inappropriate behavior. He was no longer the same Gage that his friend’s and family knew. Today his skull and the iron bar that shot through it are on display at Boston’s Warren Anatomical Museum.