HISTORY OF GIBBETING

We know our Bibliophile readers very well and this gruesome history of Britain's most brutal punishment will sell out fast. The history of gibbeting is the story of hanging of criminals in a body shaped metal cage as a warning and as a form of justice. From the folklore of live gibbettings to the eerie historical documenting of this weird post-execution tradition, the book looks at how and why society has dealt with murderers and other serious criminals in this way using case studies. It looks at how the introduction of the Murder Act in 1752 shaped our relationship with gibbeting for years to come. Chapters include Infamy, Thieves and Pirates, That's Entertainment, The Gibbet as A Landmark, No Deterrent, The Decline of the Gibbet and A Modern Fascination where gibbet cages remain on display in museums all over the country. Sometimes it was not the whole body but body parts as a form of this horrific torture, a gruesome spectacle where the body was placed in a tight cage of chains or irons that fitted the body perfectly and then was hung from a height of 20-30 feet on a wooden post. Gibbet cages were made individually and no two were the same and none was removed before the body had decayed and all that was left was bones and dust. One example is of Edward Hewison who in 1379 was a private in the Earl of Northumberland's Light Horse, tried and convicted of raping Louisa Bently in a field on the way to York as Louisa was walking to work. Hewison was executed at York Castle and afterwards his body was hung upon a gibbet in the field where the offence had taken place. There is no mention of Louisa's murder in any reports, only the rape, which makes it a highly unusual case of gibbeting. An uncomfortable sidelong glance at our ancestors and what they did. 150pp, illus.
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