The Executioner Always Chops Twice: Ghastly Blunders on the Scaffold

A former Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London and author of numerous books on torture and the death penalty, Abbott offers a front row seat to more than 80 bungled executions in his latest volume (originally published by Summersdale in 2002), which comes complete with illustrations, famous last words and a crash course in modes of execution. The grisly tales range from botched decapitations in the mid-1500s to messy electrocutions in the late 20th century. Readers with strong stomachs should be able to get past the gory detail of these stories to root out the morbidly comedic tone Abbott often employs when relating famous last words, such as the flirty admonishments that Mary, Queen of Scots, gave to her executioners, or Sir Thomas More's demand that the guillotine cut off his head but not clip his beard. Such anecdotes show how the condemned maintained their dignity in the face of death. Though not for the faint of heart--or for readers who may feel that the death penalty deserves a more serious consideration--this book offers ghastly trivia and a good chill.