It has been noticed since ancient times that the death penalty is often accompanied by mysterious mystical phenomena.
The statistics related to the execution of sentences are literally full of fatal coincidences and tragic or happy accidents.
Sometimes one of those sentenced suddenly remained alive, while those who were pardoned, on the contrary, died anyway. Why this happens is unclear, but the facts speak for themselves.
100 years of parricide
Here are some of the most famous mystical coincidences.
In 1911, at Greenberry Hill near London, three assassins were convicted and hanged. Their last names were Green, Berry and Hill.
Something similar happened in 1952 in Louisiana (USA). The executed criminals with the names of Steel, Road and Place committed the murder on Stillroad Place.
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On February 13, 1846, a man named Jean-Marie Dubarry was executed for parricide in Tarbes (France). Later, local officials discovered that his direct ancestor with the same name, Jean-Marie Dubarry, was executed for the exact same crime - and also on February 13! Only 100 years earlier - in 1746.
The love story of an American woman, Evelyn Mittelman, is curious. Gangsters have always been her lovers. Moreover, each former chosen one was killed by the next one. This happened four times. The fifth lover, Harry Strous, was sentenced to death for numerous crimes. On the day of his execution, he was allowed a meeting with Evelyn. After him, Strous returned to the cell and there unexpectedly fell from the chair, smashing his head to death on the concrete floor.
Fatal number
The unlucky number 13 is inextricably linked with the death penalty - perhaps because, according to the biblical story, Cain killed his brother Abel on the 13th day of the lunar month.
It has already been noted above that the execution of two Frenchmen named Jean-Marie Dubarry took place on February 13, 1746 and 1846.
On July 13, 1826, the execution of the sentence against five Decembrists took place. The unlucky number clearly played a role in the execution. Three out of five had their ropes broken, but the execution was completed.
Stanley Williams
On December 13, 2005, the state of California (USA) executed Stanley Williams, a murderer and robber who had been awaiting execution for almost 25 years.
In prison, he repented of his crimes, began writing children's books and went down in history as the only Nobel Prize nominee to be sentenced to death.
But most surprising was the role of the number 13 in the execution of American serial killer Crawford Goldsby in Arkansas in 1893. He was tried for the murder of 13 people. The arrest of the offender was made on February 13.
At the trial, the case was heard for 13 hours, 13 witnesses testified. The verdict was carried out 13 days after the announcement. The staircase to the gallows consisted of 13 steps, and the death of the criminal occurred at 13 hours 13 minutes.
He wanted to be born a tree
There are other numerical coincidences associated with executions - for example, the date March 15th. For some reason, it was on this day that a large number of executions of death sentences took place.
On March 15, 1536, the secret execution of Ibrahim Pasha took place by order of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (he was strangled after dinner with the Sultan).
On March 15, 1718, mass executions took place on Red Square in Moscow, which lasted more than three hours, Peter I ordered his son Alexei to be present.
On March 15, 1938, the verdict in the case of Rykov and Bukharin, accused of espionage and called enemies of the people, was carried out.
On the same day, March 15, 1938, Heinrich Yagoda, the former head of the NKVD, was shot - also on charges of cooperation with foreign intelligence.
On March 15, 1988, Willie Darden was executed as a result of miscarriage of justice in Florida (USA), who, despite his alibi, was convicted of the death of three people. The real killer was arrested two weeks later.
On March 15, 1990, Farzad Bazoft, an English journalist of Iranian origin, a reporter for the Observer magazine, was hanged in Iraq for espionage.
And one more tragic event that fell on this date: on March 15, 1963, American Victor Feguer was injected with a lethal injection for the kidnapping and murder. His last supper was the only olive - he swallowed it with a bone in order to be born a tree in a new life.
You can't escape fate
It happens that punishment overtakes the condemned at that moment when, it would seem, the worst is already behind. As if fate itself is doing everything to ensure that the criminal will be punished justly.
Lawrence Baker in Florida in 1996 was sentenced to death in the electric chair for double murder. The verdict was supposed to be carried out on the eve of Christmas - but in honor of the holiday, the governor of the state pardoned the criminal.
The prison authorities allowed him to watch TV, using headphones, so as not to disturb other inmates. On January 1, the voltage at the substation suddenly surged. Baker was killed by a shock through the headphones.
In the early 2000s, the murderer Roni Blackville was sentenced to death in Texas. The governor's wife begged her husband to show compassion. The day of the execution coincided with her birthday - and at six in the morning she announced to her husband that the best gift would be a signature on the pardon document. The governor agreed and signed the necessary documents.
But it was not possible to call or send an e-mail to the prison where Blackwill was held: the last night a hurricane cut off electrical and telephone wires, and mobile communications also did not work. One of the governor's assistants volunteered to go to the place of execution, but because of the fog at the beginning of the journey he crashed a car. I had to send another employee - but that one had an upset stomach on the way, which caused him to lose time. In addition, just before the prison, his car ran out of gas.
The assistant to the governor came running there. The execution, scheduled for eight hours, was three minutes away. But it turned out that the letter remained with the official who crashed the car. The head of the prison did not dare to take responsibility without an official document, and the sentence was carried out.
Survivors of death
In the same way, the forces of nature intervened in the execution of the execution - but in order to prevent it from taking place.
In 1724, Maggie Dixon was hanged in Edinburgh, England for the murder of her child. The family managed to persuade the executioner and took the lifeless body. They put him in a coffin and carried him to the local cemetery to be buried. Suddenly there was a loud knock from the coffin.
Relatives, overcoming fear, removed the cover - the woman was alive. Since the execution was carried out according to all the rules, it was not repeated. Maggie lived for another 40 years, and in Edinburgh there is still a tavern named after her.
In Australia, in 1872, a killer nicknamed the Man Francis escaped punishment through a series of startling accidents. At first, the execution was delayed for several hours so that the busy sheriff could attend.
During this time, it rained and the rope got wet. It was dried over a fire - as a result of which it stopped sliding. When the executioner knocked the support out from under Francis, he hung in a noose - but it did not shrink. Three minutes later, the criminal pulled himself up in his arms, took his head out of the loop and jumped down. As a result, the execution was changed to life imprisonment.
American Romel Brum in 2009 was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder by the Lucasville (Ohio) court. Doctors spent two hours trying to find a suitable vein for injection in Broome - and in the end announced that they could not guarantee the humane effect of the drug. The death sentence was first postponed, and later, under public pressure, commuted to life imprisonment.
Headless Runner
In the history of executions, there are cases when, after the execution, the bodies of the condemned made some movements or spoke.
The archive of the gendarme office of the Tomsk province keeps documents about an event that occurred at the end of the 19th century, when a jury sentenced the murderer of his wife and three young children to be hanged.
After the executed man was taken out of the noose, the doctor bent over the body to pronounce death. But the "corpse" unexpectedly grabbed the doctor by the throat - and only after that he finally lost his life. The police were unable to unclench the frozen hands, as a result the doctor died of suffocation.
A similar case was documented in medieval Germany. The nobleman Dietz von Schaunburg and four of his associates, who had rebelled against the Bavarian king, were sentenced to beheading. The execution took place in the presence of the monarch. Von Schaunburg turned to him with a final request: if he, already headless, manages to run past the other convicts, they will be pardoned. The king agreed.
The distance between the inmates was eight steps. The decapitated body of Diez von Schaunburg took 32 steps - and only then fell to the ground. The shocked monarch fulfilled his promise.
Painting as a premonition
And one more amazing mystical coincidence that is relevant to this topic. It concerns the famous painting by Vasily Surikov "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution". As you know, the archers in 1698 were executed on chopping blocks and gallows. Surikov depicted the gallows on the canvas.
The painting was first shown to the public on March 1, 1881. It was on this day that an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II took place, which led to the death of the sovereign. The organizers and perpetrators of the attack were sentenced to be hanged.
What caused such mysterious coincidences? Perhaps no one will answer this question directly. Perhaps some unknown natural forces - spontaneous or even rational - interfere in the executions. In the meantime, we can only fix the facts and be convinced of their amazing nature.
