Number 46 – They love a good hanging

Mr Grasse starts this particular diatribe with the fact that “every society has a spectacle at it's centre” apparently in America this is the Super Bowl in France it is the Tour De France and in North Korea it is the Mass Games, well that is certainly true now, but how about 142 years ago (that is when the last public hanging in Britain happened)? Well I'd like to look into history if I may. 1868 in America the “spectacle” would have been, well what do you know, a public hanging! In fact America did not abolish public hangings until 1936 (that's 68 years after England). Take a look at this picture taken at the last public hanging in America,

 

it looks like a “spectacle” to me!