Talk:John McCaffary

Latest comment: 6 years ago by InternetArchiveBot in topic External links modified

Twenty Minutes? edit

None of the primary sources or cited sources indicate that it took twenty minutes to strangle John McCaffary. Both the Telegraph and the Free Democrat eyewitness accounts agree on five minutes, plus eight minutes to verify death and cut him down. The article is written throughout to emphasize what seems to be an apocryphal lurid telling of a slow strangulation, when none of the aspects of a "botched execution" seem to be present in the contemporary or reputable secondary accounts. "Twenty minutes" should be carefully sourced or the article should be rewritten in a less sensationalist viewpoint. 50.250.153.83 (talk) 20:11, 14 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hmm ... how carefully have you read all of the included sources? I started with "The case of John McCaffary". Wisconsin Magazine of History. At p. 286:

... the prisoner was hoisted into the air. ... He continued to struggle for five minutes. After he had been suspended 8 minutes, the physicians were called upon the stand to examine his pulse, at which time his pulse was slightly reduced, and continued to beat for about ten minutes longer, at which time life was extinct ...

So that's 18 minutes. He didn't struggle for nearly 20 minutes after the hanging, but he was alive for nearly 20 minutes afterwards. If someone lives for 20 minutes after being hanged, it's reasonably fair to say that the hanging was botched, since that is generally not what was intended. Good Ol’factory (talk) 07:37, 15 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

External links modified edit

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