The Hanging of Martha Lyam

The tall oak gallows that served four towns,and which was overseen by the regional executioner was located under a circular grove of tall,old trees in a shaded glade,near the borders of three of the towns.It was painted a flat,dark brown,that contrasted with the somberness of the black uprights and crossbeam of which the gallows itself was comprised..The uprights were ten square-inch oak,each nine feet tall,surmounted by an oak crossbeam of the same thickness,but which was twelve feet in length..A trapdoor that would accommodate the hanging of one prisoner,was located beneath the crossbeam at the mid-point of it's length,but most of the hangings were carried out in the manner of the gibbet ,rather than by use of the trap and drop.The traditional thirteen steps,with a rail on each side that led to the platform,,were also black and were wide enough for the condemned to be brought up the stairs by two assistants of the executioner if the subject was struggling--a common enough occurrence.The space around the gallows was large enough for several hundred onlookers on each side,although the usual total numbers were only three-five hundred, consistent with the size of the population of the area.Executions by hanging,and by beheading on the block,the executioner using a wide axe,were well-attended by both men and women,and were witnessed with enthusiasm.Public whippings and public floggings were also carried out for more minor offenses. Men who beat their wives,petty thieves-men or women-and the like,could expect to be taken to the scaffold,bound to the waiting post,stripped nearly naked,and then lashed well as all looked on.Usually,two dozen lashes were inflicted with a long,wide heavy strap to render the skin and the muscles beneath exquisitely tender and painful,then the knotted cat-o-nine tails was taken from it's leather bag,the tails made wet with salt brine,and the guilty victim well-flogged for his or her crime.The executioner used a nine-tailed cat with three-foot long tails of 1/2 inch width leather.A dozen small,hard knots graced the tails.Two dozen lashes of the strap across the naked back and buttocks,followed by a severe,no-nonsense flogging of two dozen lashes was punishment so excruciating,that many offenders were unable to control their bodily functions as it was being inflicted,this to the applause of the onlookers.There were few second-time offenders at the whipping post.After the flogging had been administered,the bleeding cuts were stanched with raw alcohol,,rinsed with salt brine and salt rubbed in to insure continued suffering for the guilty.The victim was left in shame for a full two hours before being cut down and released. Flogging before execution was also mandatory for the punishment of some crimes such as rape and molestation.

Crimes were well-punished and justice was swift and certain for the guilty.The specter of the scaffold and the public executioner insured that the law was observed by most,and that any and all lawbreakers were justly punished for the public good in a public place.The gathering of the community to see justice done on the high scaffold was a unifying event,drawing it together physically and spiritually,and affirming it's beliefs regarding crime and punishment.The use of the public whipping post,as popular as it was with men,was even more enamored of by women. Women of all ages smiled and laughed openly,and exchanged enthusiastic comments as whippings were being carried out--the grim walk up the steps,the binding to the stout oak post,the reading of the sentence aloud to those assembled,the baring of the flesh of the back and buttocks(the latter causing shrieks and squeals from women in their late teens to elderly women in their 80's.The lowering of the skirt or trousers to bare the cheeks for the singing lash,the flesh jigging uncontrollably as the victim anticipated the excruciating pain while below,the women squealed and the men controlled their grunts with varying success). The shame of suffering public whipping or flogging tied to the post,while two to three hundred men and women looked on with pleasure,was severe psychological punishment that greatly intensified the suffering caused by the well-knotted flogging cat,as it was drawn back and administered by the unsympathetic executioner.

Beheading in the traditional manner,at the high block with the condemned man or woman kneeling obediently at the block,the throat resting on the grooved portion,hands bound behind the back,and the ankles spread wide apart and tied off,drew large numbers of the populace whenever beheadings were carried out, Two years earlier a criminal gang of three men and a woman were executed by beheading at the block,the woman was beheaded third,sobbing and struggling,the leader beheaded last,also struggling desperately.The first head fell at 5:24 PM and by 5:28PM,all four heads had been chopped off and mounted on spikes,one each on the four lonely corners of the scaffold.There they remained for three days and nights. Hangings were also carried out at the pleasure of the sentencing judge and the regional high executioner. Occasionally,the hanging was carried out by the drop method with swift,harsh effect,but most often,the condemned man or woman was gibbetted in some form--twisted off a ladder,or drawn up slowly,or the small platform on which he or she stood was pulled suddenly away.The noose was positioned with great care so that the victim's weight was borne by the jaw and the side of the neck as much as possible and not the windpipe,this to prolong the procedure as long,and as painfully as was possible.The large,life-sustaining arteries and veins in the neck were also largely spared,this also lengthening the time of hanging while fully conscious and suffering severely,both mentally and physically.

The regional executioner performed his office over a forty by fifty mile area,and was always busy,either going to conduct an execution or travelling from one.He was sixty-eight years old and had officiated as the high executioner at more than three-hundred and fifty public executions over nearly thirty years..Seventy-three were of women,and of those,fifteen were beheaded,all but two with a single stroke of the axe,and fifty-eight were hanged,only four by the drop method.The rest were gibbetted and their hangings painfully prolonged. Many danced on the scaffold for twenty-two minutes or longer.The longest was that of a twenty-seven year old woman who kicked for twenty-nine minutes,then spasmed and twitched violently for several more.Of the two-hundred-eighty men,forty-one were beheaded,thirty-two with one stroke,the rest with two strokes.Two hundred-thirty-nine were hanged,only nineteen by the drop method,the rest by slow gibbetting,the longest was a forty-three year-old man who danced for just less than thirty-one minutes,then twitched badly for two or three more.His execution was still spoken of years later as the cruelest hanging in the region in thirty-eight years,but at the same time,very richly deserved.Those present enjoyed the hanging thoroughly and it was spoken of frequently for years after he danced.

The condemned prisoner who would next mount the thirteen steps to face him was a woman of forty-nine,a murderess who was going to die on the gallows the following evening to pay for her crime.Two women from several towns away would assist the executioner in carrying out his office.All three would wear hoods to conceal their faces as tradition allowed,indeed dictated.All three now stood upon the gallows platform,and the assistants were given their final instructions by the executioner.Both women,one twenty-nine,and the other fifty-five,had assisted him numerous times before. The consensus was that the condemned woman,genteel and well-educated as she was,who admitted her guilt and who accepted her sentence,would go bravely at the end. lf she faltered,the assistants would be sure she complied.No one thought she would struggle badly,but until the terrible moment of her judgement was upon her,no one would know with certainty.The following afternoon,the assistants would enter her cell and prepare her for the ordeal of judicial hanging as punishment for her heinous crime--the crude cropping of her hair,the donning of a long,dowdy-white ankle-length dress,long-sleeved,and with a modest yoke,revealing the upper half of her beautifully-shaped breasts.Her hands would be bound behind her with her wrists crossed,first with a wet ,narrow cloth strip,and then a narrow leather strap wound crossways around and over. A heavy leather strap would then be placed on one upper arm,across her back,and bound tightly to the other arm.,her bound hands first pushed up ,to hold them tightly to her body.Her ankles would then be tethered,allowing only 18-20 inches of play as she danced high and pretty to pay her debt.The hangman would make it a point for her suffering to be maximized.Her height was five feet-seven inches,and her weight only one-hundered and ten pounds,with a fairly stout neck-not masculine,but better developed than most women-the executioner knew she could be made to do an awful dance with so little weight pulling on the neck..Hundreds would watch the beautiful woman swing before them,thrashing,gurgling and kicking with violent abandon,as the knot tightened,and her neck was stretched and torn,fiber by fiber,with agonizing slowness,in retribution for her crime.

After a time,the executioner nodded to the assistants.They departed the gallows,each aware of the details of Martha Lyam's well-deserved hanging.The woman would swing for her sins in twenty-five hours.Four to five hundred onlookers were expected to attend to watch her dance-a passionately delivered solo dance, done with her whole body as it swung from the stout hemp rope. The day ended and the stars rose in the night sky and a new day began. It would be the shortest day of Martha Lyam's life and it would end at 6pm on the regional gallows,witnessed by half a thousand men and women.

Martha woke with the rising of the sun,which was heavily obscured by dark clouds.She swallowed and stared through the high bars of her cell at the patch of sky that was visible there.She knew she would pay in only a matter of hours for what she had done.She had witnessed executions carried out on the same scaffold where she would receive her punishment for committing murder.She knew it to be a good high scaffold with a good gallows from which the condemned were hanged.Her hand went to feel her neck without her realizing her own movement,when she imagined the heavy,black,oak crossbeam from which she would kick for her sins.She brought her hand down from her neck in a flinging motion when she thought of the noose being put around it and made snug and tight by the hangman.She had seen the executioner perform his office numerous times before.She knew him to be competent and dedicated. She never imagined she would suffer by his harsh hand.It was his duty to punish the wicked,and he was known far and wide as a severe executioner.She had righteously enjoyed the hangings of numerous women,going nearly limp with arousal as they swung and the crowd applauded the executioner. She knew she would swing for a very long time,and the thought made her dizzy.She lurched onto her cot,and tried to catch her breath.She began sweating profusely and her legs trembled. Her chest heaved in brief jerks.She truly feared the hangman and the gallows,but knew that her hanging was a righteous act of the society she had sinned against. She was truly guilty,and would be truly punished.She dreaded the noose,but admitted to herself that she needed it to pay her debt,and to rid her soul of guilt.She wept quietly knowing she was doomed,and that she must put herself in the hands of her hangman so that he would use the hemp noose to make possible her atonement.Only her gruesome death would give her release--she had unwittingly made that the only possibility. She wept bitterly.She was trapped,and she was going to hang--high and long and horrible and with all dignity abandoned.She shook open a large floral handkerchief and blew her nose again and again.

At a little before five o'clock,she was limp with fear and worry.Outside,she could hear people going by her cell in the direction of the scaffold. She cried again as she imagined being marched up the gallows steps in front of so many,who were there for the sole purpose of watching her being hanged in utter shame,unable to stop thrashing and unable to control her most private functions.She could hear their voices as they walked past,one older woman saying how much she hoped it would be a slow,slow hanging,and a chorus of younger women laughed and agreed. Martha began trembling anew as the awful events continued unfolding,almost as if everything was happening beyond herself and she was an observer,rather than a participant.She waited for the hangman to enter her cell.,but was not surprised when his two assistants arrived instead,both women with forbidding black hoods over their heads.She fairly leapt to her feet when they entered,but a moment later her legs wouldn't hold her upright and she fell back on her cot,trembling,her voice unable to be summoned.One of the women came and held her shoulders steady while the other helped her remove her blouse and skirt,then her shoes and panties.She was quite naked as one took a crude shears in her hand and cut off her hair down to a stubbly patchwork.She put down the shears and slipped a dark burgundy mob cap onto her head,pulling it down snugly to cover her ears. A dull,white penitent's gown was drawn over her head quickly,and pulled down to her ankles,first fitting her arms through the long sleeves.She asked for a few moments in private,that she might put on a diaper to avoid the intense embarrassment that would occur when she couldn't control her bodily functions any longer as she dangled. The women ignored her,and one took her by the shoulders and pinioned her arms by gripping the upper arms firmly and keeping them that way as the other assistant seized her wrists,crossed them,one over the other,the palms facing outward,then wrapped them tightly together with a long strip of narrow cloth,wet to make the tying stronger.She next took a long narrow strip of leather and wrapped it around her bound wrists,first crossways,then around and around.A heavy leather strap was then affixed to her left upper arm, passed across her back to the other arm and pulled tight and double-buckled in place.She took the shears and slit the back of her gown,behind,at the neck,but only for a couple inches.On the scaffold,the high executioner would stand behind her,and unceremoniously tear the slit longer and then pull the top down,off her shoulders,and bare most or all of her breasts.She would swing smartly for the hangman,and she would swing as a woman. She pleaded,almost tearfully for a diaper,thinking that another woman would understand and show mercy.The cloth of the gown was not gauzelike,but it was thin,and would not conceal the awful soiling she would do. "It happens to everyone who hangs",the younger of the two women informed her,"lf you ask again,l'll tie your hands high to the bars of this cell and flog your bare buttocks thirty lashes before you go to the scaffold.Martha swallowed;it was going to be awful,and she turned plum purple with humiliation and embarrassment as she was told.She fell to her knees,sobbing and pleading tearfully for the mercy of the diaper.The assistant who had warned her of the consequence of asking again,drew back her hand and slapped her hard across the face,,then,she and the older woman took the sobbing woman,now struggling to the bars of the cell.Her ankles were immobilized as she stood on a footstool,and her hands untied and rebound high above her head. Her gown was raised to her shoulder blades as she cried quietly.The older woman took her own soiled handkerchief from her sleeve,and stuffed it into Martha's mouth to quiet her while the lash fell.,then yanked away the footstool,leaving the suffering woman on the tips of her toes.She then took the knotted flogging cat from it's leather bag in front of Martha,now wide-eyed and pale with fear at the sight of the cat--a superb flogging cat,well-knotted,and with thin tails,so that the guilty prisoner would be truly punished for her sins.The younger woman,who was about to flog her,draped the cat over her own shoulder,drew a large black hood from the same bag in which the cat was kept,and slipped it over her head.The older woman put her hand on Martha's shoulder,and squeezed it in comfort,but a moment later,she counted the first awful stroke.The punisher drew back the cat,holding it out high behind her at arm's length, and then brought it down and across Martha's buttocks,lashing both her writhing cheeks with such severity that the other woman turned away.Both squirming buttocks were welted each time the lash fell,and by the fifteenth lash,the skin was covered with small,blleeding cuts,which increased in number as the flogging continued.Martha could not control her bladder and wet herself late in the flogging.The hood was snatched off Martha's head,and she was made to see the small table on which were the items used to do the post-flogging care of the well-flogged buttocks-- a jar of raw alcohol to stanch the bleeding,salt,salt brine,and several small instruments,scissors and small and large pincers to seize and cut off any small pieces and shreds of tattered skin,which were left hanging after the last lash was administered.Both assistants used the alcohol liberally,and roughly snipped away the many small pieces of bloody skin as Martha hung by her hands suffering terribly,crying with pain throughout the cleaning up,as pieces of skin were seized crudely in the pincers and pulled to tear away the shreds and tatters and the scissors used to cut off the edges when the pincers pulled the skin in a strip.Martha howled in agony as the procedure was carried out,finally ending with a red-hot iron to stanch the bloody drippings from 15-18 different spot.A final rinse with raw alcohol was done,sending a horrible rasping sound from the guilty woman's throat that went on for a long time. She hung limply by her hands,her buttocks well-flogged for her remark,and twitching uncontrollably,as the indescribable pain continued."If you ask for a diaper again,madam",said her punisher,"l will have the pleasure of flogging you again on the scaffold,over the horse,and 450 men and women will watch it done before you do your rope dance.--your decision".



The older woman produced a length of hemp rope and re-tethered her ankles,so that she could take only limited steps,then she went to Martha's clothing chest and took out two large handkerchieves,and returned to the woman as she hung fearful,and bound to the bars.She shook one of them open and held it against Martha's nose to blow,first pinching off the left nostril,then the right,as the suffering prisoner soaked the handkerchief.When she was done,the handkerchief was placed in the assistant's cleavage.Martha would have no further use for her handkerchieves.She shook open the second one-a large burgundy print with black roses and a black crocheted border.She put it in her hands to hold.It would give her something to do with her hands for the severe anxiety she was going to experience. The older woman went back to the chest and put the rest of Martha's handkerchieves-about a dozen and a half,in her personal bag to keep and use as her own.She came over to Martha and said that she would use them often in remembrance. Martha nodded,tearful,and again with a full nose.Her hands were cut down from the bars and retied behind her back as they had been before.Her gown was lowered to her ankles.The back was bloodied,and stuck to her buttocks.The mood suddenly became quiet and somber.Outside,the clouds had darkened ominously and a breeze had sprung up.Martha swallowed,her eyes wide,but downcast so that she would not see what happened next,whatever it was.She moaned long and painfully.Her handkerchief fluttered rapidly in her sweating hands.Her knees wobbled,but she was determined to walk by herself.The pain across her buttocks,still severe,provoked a steady stream of tears. The women took her,one on each side to steady her,and began the first grim steps that would terminate in front of the noose,she nodding at her hangman,as he reached out and positioned her for the rope.She was walked outside,going past a few officials associated with her execution--the district magistrate,an assistant lawyer and the judges assistant--the only people between her cell and the horsedrawn cart in which she was to be transported. She was sweating profusely and her gown had begun to cling to her in several places.Outside,the breeze had carried with it,a brief drizzle,and as she stepped into the cart,it began to lay a film of wetness on her gown,that quickly soaked in,causing it to cling all over.She was suddenly the incarnation of Charlotte Corday being brought to the guillotine,her clinging crimson gown,and white mob cap,cutting a figure that no man could resist,or many women.Martha stood,facing forward as the younger assistant took the reins and set a pace of a slow canter,to begin the fifteen minute trip to the scaffold.Tears streaked Martha's cheeks,and she desperately needed to blow her nose.She remained standing,ready to face her executioner when they had arrived at the scaffold. She knew that in only ten minutes,she would be marched up the steps and given over to the hangman.She asked if she were to be hanged by the drop method,but both indicated "no" with slow back and forths of their heads.The younger assistant told her cheerfully and frankly that she was going to swing high and handsome for the pleasure of the public for what she had done,and for the purpose of discouraging others from disobeying the law.A half mile from the scaffold the cart passed a few remaining people making their way there. Only a single turn remained before the dreaded wooden platform was visible.Martha moaned,her eyes glued by fear to the curve of the road.She felt the weight of the inevitability of the noose,the humiliation of squirming on the rope,the hideous contortions of her face as the knot tightened,and she kicked,her neck stretching and tearing,muscle by muscle.

The sounds of the people in the glade could be heard before the scaffold itself appeared.lt rose as a low buzz,enthusiastic,almost celebratory,and became louder quickly.Finally the dreaded moment came. She saw the edge of the scaffold,and could feel the blood drain from her face as though a plug had been pulled.She swooned against the high railing of the cart and the assistant caught her by the upper arms,then slapped her face hard to startle her to more alertness.There were hundreds gathered to see her execution.Above them,on the high scaffold where she was going to die,was her executioner.Next to him was the sentencing judge-Magistrate Hamilton.She saw the noose hanging from the crossbeam and paled,her bound hands twisting and pulling her handkerchief behind her back,as the cart brought her ever closer to judgement and to her doom.On the left side of the platform were two punishment horses,each with a young man bound in place with his bare buttocks exposed.Two young thieves had just been flogged for their crimes,and were being cleaned up by a local woman,first rinsed with alcohol to clean the cuts,and then a vigorous salting,well-rubbed in,after the tattered bits and shreds of flogged skin were crudely snipped off with scissors and pincers.Both were gagged,but both cried out in severe,continuous pain as they were rinsed and salted,and the tattered shreds of dripping flesh were seized crudely in the pincers and then snipped off.Martha watched in horror remembering her own severe flogging less than an hour earlier,and still in terrible pain from the lash,the brine and salt, and the hot iron used to stanch the persistent bleeding vessels.Martha's thin gown was stuck to her buttocks across much of the surface and seen from behind it was a patch of dark red that bespoke the swift justice of the hangman's assistant and the well-knotted cat. Martha moaned,but stood straighter,aided by the assistant,as the cart arrived at the scaffold.The crowd became quiet as it stopped and the assistants began immediately to take the condemned woman from the cart. The breeze had abated and the drizzling had stopped.She was walked up the wet steps,pale as parchment,and looked upon her executioner who stood by the noose,arms folded over his chest.The back of Martha's white gown was patchy red with blood,and some of it stuck to her skin from the awful flogging she had been given by the hangman's assistant.The crowd was pleased she had suffered so terribly,regretting only that it had not been done in front of them.The assistants pressed her forward,and when she stood before the noose,the hangman seized her shoulders,turned her to face the front of the scaffold.The crowd fell silent as he read from a single page the grim sentence of death.When he had finished,he turned the page toward her to see,and to note the stamp of Edna Hamilton,the thirty-four year-old sentencing judge,who specified a gibbet hanging be carried out.Martha nodded,and the Magistrate turned to her and said,"You are truly guilty,are you not?" Martha nodded,now choking up and close to sobbing.'I am guilty and my remorse will not give me peace-that will come in a moment.You are right to sentence me to death.I pray that any young women who watch me hang will think carefully before taking a life". The judge turned to the hangman and told him to hang her high and slowly that all present might bear witness.She went down the steps and joined her husband at the foot of the scaffold,an excellent vantage point from which to witness the hangman's skill.The women continued to hold her steady as she stood upon the trapdoor.The hangman produced a folded black cloth,opened it partially,then draped it over the loop of the noose.Fully opened,it would be the hood that would be drawn over her head.The noose was a superbly tied traditional,cylindrical hangman's noose.The noose was fashioned from a fine,three-strand,Italian hemp rope that had first been boiled in salt brine,then hung with a five-hundred pound weight.As it dried,the trap was sprung numerous times to stretch the rope as much as possible,so that there would be no play or stretching when the hanging took place.Hanging as it was from the oaken crossbeam,it had a forbidding appearence,and to look upon it was to see the distillation of crime and guilt and it's necessary punishment,all converging before the hooded public hangman.He asked if she had anything she wanted to say before he hanged her."Madam,l will shortly hang you high in front of these good people,but you are allowed to speak first". She tried,but nothing would come out.She could only sputter.Finally,with great effort she spoke,saying that she was sorry for what she had done and that she was ready to pay for her crime.The crowd listened silently,but would only be satisfied when she had paid the full price for her wicked act.A few wept quietly,moved by her suffering,but most knew that she was truly guilty and they would enjoy watching her suffer,minute by minute,as she strangled on the cruel,hemp rope,her face turning purple-black beneath the shameful hood.The hangman seized her shoulders again as soon as he had finished,positioning her on the center of the trap,the hood and noose in front of her to look upon while she was readied.She was instructed to place her feet together,then her legs were bound together just above her knees with a heavy leather strap.The faces of the people below were trained on the pale,sweating ,fearful woman who was only moments from dancing for all to see.Some had never seen a woman hanged,and the dread of it and the severity of it and the awful suffering of it were clearly on their faces and minds.Others were appalled by the murder and for them she couldn't kick long enough or high enough or hard enough.Some of the younger woman looked on her plight and wanted to see how she would act in front of the crowd,especially with so many women present.Many hoped she would go with a terrible struggle,sobbing and battling her executioners.Some wanted the pleasure of seeing her mental suffering increased,while others wanted to see her flogged as punishment for not going quietly.The executioner would severely flog any prisoner who struggled.He took the offender straight to the oak whipping post and secured him or her to it so that their backs and buttocks were bound immovably.A sound traditional strapping,of not less than two dozen lashes across each bare cheek,followed by a harsh,brine and salt flogging of not less than two dozen lashes was a longstanding way to insure a more obedient and more cooperative prisoner.

The noose was run over a pulley at the top,center of the crossbeam,under which Martha now stood.There were two more to guide the rope along the way to where it ended on the left-hand upright at chest height,near the capstain,around which the end would be tied while she strangled slowly.She would be drawn up slowly the rope tied off and she would be left to dangle until justice had been served.Then she would be left swinging for three days and nights after she stopped flailing.She stared at her hangman's eyes,visible in the opening in the front of the hood. She said she would never do again what she had done if he spared her,her head waving back and forth for emphasis.He wanted her nose blown before the hanging,to prolong her dance by clearing her breathing passages,and allowing her to get a little more air.He ignored her plea,then had one of the assistants blow her nose for her into the handkerchief she was twisting behind her back.Some of the women in the crowd were amused at her plight--having her dripping nose blown for her in public.One woman turned away laughing and said she would die of embarrassment if hundreds of people saw her having her nose blown for her like a child.The hangman took the hood from the loop of the noose,and,standing in front of her,finished unfolding it. The assistant put her handkerchief back in her hands,and snatched off Martha's mob cap and put it in her own bag,leaving the hideous cropping of her hair open to be seen by all present.Many of the women gasped aloud upon looking at the shredded stubble.The hangman seized the top of her gown at both shoulders and tore it hard,then pulled the sides down baring her shoulders and breasts,leaving the tattered upper gown on both sides.Already plum-purple with embarrassment because of the state of her hair,she remained that way when her breasts were displayed. He located the wide opening of the hood and holding it out to the side suddenly and elegantly drew it over her head.so swiftly she failed even to blink as it was done.She drew in a long,drawn gasping breath after she was hooded. She thought hooding to be truly shameful and degrading,and turned crimson a moment after her own hood was drawn over her head..When she had witnessed hangings before,she had always squealed as the victim was hooded. She would now see nothing more. He straightened the bell-shaped hood,pulling it down snugly and smoothing the excess cloth evenly on her shoulders.Martha's breathing became faster and at her mouth,the cloth sucked in and blew out with every breath.Her knees wobbled again,this time badly.Those very near to her heard her say,"Oh God,oh God--please don't let me hang-oh God,oh God-l'll never do it again! Oh God,mercy! Please oh my God,not the noose,not the noose"! The hangman leaned close to her ear and said,"No madam-you will surely not do it ever again."



The hangman bade his assistants hold her steady as he took a fresh,knotted cat from the rack and stood behind Martha,who was first turned so that her flogged buttocks were visible to the crowd.The hangman stepped forward,and crudely raised her gown to bare her buttocks before the delighted crowd.Cries of "Flog her,flog her!!" had issued from the crowd here and there since she had mounted the thirteen steps of the scaffold,most coming from younger women.When the hangman took up the cat,the crowd applauded as one.The hangman positioned himself behind Martha,already moaning in pain from when her gown was torn from her lashed,bloody buttocks.He announced that she would be given twenty-four lashes by traditional flogging,brined and salted for each stroke of the cat.Martha heard the count of "One!" and felt the women 's steel grip on her shoulders to hold her steady for the flogging.The pain of the stroke was indescribable,and the sound of the leather tails and knots striking the brined and salted flesh made the crowd wince,then applaud the hangman's skill.Martha cried out,and felt the pain across across both cheeks from top to bottom,from two inches above the buttocks to four inches below,the tails and knots skillfully spread with each stroke.The crowd's applause of the hangman continued as the second lash was inflicted.Martha farted loudly and urinated in full public view as her suffering continued unabated,and the women screamed and squealed as each lash fell.Her buttocks were flogged bloody and would continue dripping as she danced.Some of the skin hung in shreddy tatters and gave testament to the cruelty of a traditional flogging.She was held on her feet almost entirely by the two women.Her gown was lowered to her ankles when it was done.



The crowd held it's breath as the moment came for the hangman to seize the noose and position it carefully around her neck in a manner that the windpipe would be spared any direct pressure.A prolonged and painful hanging would then result,with dangling and kicking for at least twenty minutes,as her soft,white neck,was bruised and twisted and stretched.She twisted her handkerchief desperately and felt her shoulders steadied by an assistant as the hangman put the noose around her neck.She gasped loudly,a long shuddering breath that was almost like a death rattle.A moment later it was pulled snug and tight on the left side of her neck .There were suddenly gasps and cries from the onlookers below as she wet herself badly and the whole front of the gown turned yellow.She slumped briefly,then stood straighter,her head and neck still.The assistants drew the woman up on tiptoe as the hangman adjusted the placement of the knot to his satisfaction,then nodded,indicating they were to hold the condemned woman steady while he came to take the rope. Keeping her on tiptoe,he took the rope and drew it around the capstain while Martha struggled,on the edge of panic,her breath coming quickly,her belly leaden and sinking. He snatched out a huge white handkerchief and dried his hands before seizing the lever that would spring the trap beneath her.He approached the lever,flung his handkerchief onto his left shoulder seized the lever and yanked it with a vengeance.The trap fell and the leaves, attached to sandbags,slammed to the sides.leaving Martha hanged and dangling for all to see. Martha Lyam,aged forty-nine,murderess,hooded and noosed and urinating down her legs and off her toes,and twisting her elegant handkerchief in her fingers,hung by her neck for all to see.Justice was served.He then took the rope in his hands and drew her high,pulling her up until she was left writhing and squirming hideously a full five feet above the platform floor,farting loudly and long,her bound legs preventing it's quick escape.The crowd gave it's approval immediately.The squeals and screams of the women,particularly the younger women were heard amidst the cheers and applause,as the guilty woman was drawn up swiftly and smoothly to suffer death by hanging,an exceedingly harsh,cruel punishment,practiced since antiquity. But the shame,the embarrassment and the pain had only just begun.And it would get far worse.

She did not move at all at first, when the executioner drew her high,praying she would be cut down because she had just sworn righteousness.It was an instant later,that she knew for a certainty that that would not happen.The fear and panic were like nothing she had ever experienced.The cries and shrieks of the women and the cheers from the onlookers as she felt her neck being painfully stretched were real.She had truly been hanged for her sins.It was done and she would now suffer for her crime.Panic gripped her and fueled her terror.Her heart pounded furiously and she began to kick,setting off a wave of squeals from many of the women and cheers from both women and men.The pain of her neck stretching slowly,beneath her whole weight as it pulled downward was unbearable,and she tried to scream to no avail.She felt her eyes bulging from their sockets,and she thrust out her tongue to widen her throat to get more air.Her drool poured from her mouth and soaked a portion of the hood.She became grotesque.Beneath the black hood,her neck was slightly cocked to the side,and the hangman had positioned the base of the knot at her ear,so that it was immovable.Her tethered feet began to kick wildly,then pointed straight down and flapped furiously back and forth as she sought to find the last support under her feet,before it had been taken away.Her breasts bounced on her chest,jiggling pitifully as she thrashed in agony.She knew she was swinging high above the scaffold floor,but was so terrified and desperate,she kicked to find support for her feet anyway.Her frightening dance fueled the shrieking and screaming of the crowd as her body turned one way and then another while she kicked and flailed and thrashed.All watched entranced and wide-eyed,as Martha wiggled and danced continuously..She could only get air with intense effort,and gurgled hideously as she strangled and choked,every muscle of her chest and belly struggling to bring in air.Her head felt squeezed,like it was in a vice and the pain of her neck being slowly stretched became worse and worse.She thrashed to shift the noose--anything to lessen the pain--but it made the pain worse which caused her to thrash more,making the stretching worse.She was locked in a circle of thrashing,and stretching and worsening pain and could not break out of it.In his wisdom and with his skill,the hangman had been the architect of her pain.She finally understood that execution by hanging was meant to punish the guilty with excruciating pain for what they had done and that it was just and right for it to be witnessed in public.She had never imagined when she cheered for the prisoner to kick lively when she had witnessed hangings,that they were suffering so.She could hear and feel the skin and muscles in her neck being torn,and she could feel the wetness of the blood on her skin as it was slowly stretched asunder.Gobs of thick snot gushed from her nostrils and were clearly audible as a disgusting gurgle which sent many in the crowd to giggle with looks of disgust on their faces.Her terror and her panic fed each other and her pain became unimaginable, Her legs kicked and flailed and flapped as she gurgled and choked.She clutched her handkerchief in her hands,finally ripping it in half,one piece in each hand.A gasp went up from the crowd when they heard the sound of the tearing cloth.The sky had gone dark and the clouds moved slowly,driven by an unseen wind .In the far distance came the muffled sound of rolling thunder.Dangling high on the scaffold ,swinging wildly in the most excruciating suffering,Martha bucked and writhed,her torso thrusting and twisting violently as she gurgled and farted again and again then was unable to control her sphincter. She felt it go entirely lax and thrashed in horror and agony as she evacuated her bowels uncontrolably into the white dress,made sheer and gauzy by the rain.The men grunted loudly as the upper gown bulged and sagged beneath the weight,and a spreading brown discoloration soiled the wet, white cloth.Dozens of scented handkerchieves were snatched out quickly from between breasts by giggling ladies who covered their mouths and noses to breathe pleasant cologne rather than the unholy stench that now filled the air near the front of the scaffoldThe sight of the beautiful woman,thrashing and unable to control her most private functions was not cause for sympathy for most onlookers,although some wept quietly as they watched her writhe,and winced and turned away occasionally as her stomach muscles tried to squeeze in more air,in a gasping,agonizing breath.As her neck became more elongated,the hood rose a little,off her shoulders,testament to the cruel stretching of her neck. Her hips and torso contorted as a thousand sensations arose from deep within her belly and culminated in an orgasmic climax,such as she had never known.Her legs and pelvis rocked and twisted as it continued,side by side with her indescribable suffering. Her hips convulsed and finally stiffened,and her back arched like a cat,then there were a series of spasms and twitches as it ended slowly,but the pain of the hanging continued unabated.She stopped kicking only after twenty-two minutes had passed,and then spasmed horribly as consciousness faded.Finally she hung completely limp,swinging gently in the breeze that still bore the reek of her shame,her bowels emptied before the crowd.Patches of red,yellow and brown,soiled the white gown,and a glob of white cum could be clearly seen near the yellow.The black hood was bloodied on the left side where her neck had been most cruelly stretched and the right side was dripping her sticky drool onto her shoulder.The front was fairly dripping with thick,gelatinous yellow snot issuing from both her nostrils.The applause given the executioner and his assistants was thunderous.Many of the women wept quietly,not for Martha herself,but because she had been so superbly flogged and so beautifully hanged.

The assistants,both with scented handkerchieves over their faces, cut her down three days later,and buried her in a pine coffin,her hands and legs still bound.The hood was yanked off her head and they saw the death mask of the hanged,the open,staring still bulging eyes,the stiff black tongue,protruding grotesquely from her mouth,the lips bloodied from being bitten while she had kicked.Hideous dried globs of snot encrusting her face from nose to chin. She was buried and no marker was left.Her execution was noted in the official register,and her name was spoken no more,except when the topic of her hanging was discussed.