John C. Woods
John Chris Woods (June 5, 1911, Wichita, Kansas – July 21, 1950 at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands) was an American Master Sergeant and the hangman for the Third United States Army at the Nuremberg Trials.
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[edit] The executions in Nuremberg Prison
Together with Joseph Malta, on October 16, 1946, Woods carried out the executions of the ten convicted German Main War Criminals. The executions took place in the gymnasium of Nuremberg Prison. Either Woods or his colleague Malta calculated wrong lengths for the ropes used for the executions, so that several convicts did not die quickly due to a broken neck as intended, but had to suffer a slow and painful death by suffocation.[1][2][3]
In addition to that mistake, the trapdoor was too small, so that several convicts suffered bloody head injuries when they hit the trapdoor.[4]
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The body of Wilhelm Keitel after being hanged.
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The body of Wilhelm Frick after being hanged.
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The body of Hans Frank after being hanged.
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The body of Alfred Jodl after being hanged.
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The body of Ernst Kaltenbrunner after being hanged.
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The body of Joachim von Ribbentrop after being hanged.
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The body of Julius Streicher after being hanged.
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The body of Arthur Seyss-Inquart after being hanged.
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Woods readying the gallows on October 6, 1946.
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Woods hanging Nazi war criminals in September 1946.
Woods is said[by whom?] to have kept small pieces of the rope used for each convict as his souvenir, considered to be against the policy adopted at Nuremberg Trials by the Colonel in charge of executions.
Altogether he executed 347 people during his 15-year career.
Woods said after the Nuremberg executions:
"I hanged those ten Nazis... and I am proud of it... I wasn't nervous.... A fellow can't afford to have nerves in this business.... I want to put in a good word for those G.I.s who helped me... they all did swell.... I am trying to get [them] a promotion.... The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident, years ago in the States...."[1]
And:
"Ten men in 103 minutes. That's fast work."
[edit] Death
Woods was accidentally electrocuted while repairing a high voltage power line in Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. He is buried in Toronto Township Cemetery, Toronto, Kansas.[5]
[edit] Famous convicts hanged by Woods
- Hans Frank
- Wilhelm Frick
- Alfred Jodl
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner
- Wilhelm Keitel
- Joachim von Ribbentrop
- Alfred Rosenberg
- Fritz Sauckel
- Arthur Seyss-Inquart
- Julius Streicher
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b TIME Magazine, October 28, 1946, p. 34
- ^ Howard Kingsbury Smith: The Execution of Nazi War Criminals. Eyewitness Report.
- ^ TURLEY, Mark. From Nuremberg to Nineveh
- ^ Spiegel Online, Nürnberger Prozesse: Der Tod durch den Strick dauerte 15 Minuten (German), 16 January 2007
- ^ http://getruralkansas.org/Toronto/168Explore/1183.shtml
4. "By The Neck Until Dead: The Gallows of Nuremberg" by Stanley Tilles with Jeffrey Denhart, Publisher: Jona Books, Box 336, Bedford Indiana, 47421 </references>
[edit] External links
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