Beheading and Butchers

[ChrisGeorge]

Well, not to get too technical here, but while it is perfectly possible to cut off a head, even with a knife, the secret is to start with a strong blow to the back of the neck. Thats why they behead people on their knees leaning forward. It increases the space between the cervical vertebrae.

And our guy was coming from the front and not the back. Another indication perhaps that head removal was not his intent. Or else that he didn't know that to remove the head he'd have to attack his victim with his knife from behind. Rather, his first intent appears to have been to silence and kill his victim with the neck cut in order to get to the abdominal mutilations that might have been his most important goal.

Chris

[Graham]

Not that I want to be flippant here, but the guy employed to cut Mary Queen of Scots in half took three whacks before her bonce came off.

Years ago I happened to read in a magazine an article by a Japanese army officer who had actually beheaded people at some time in his career, and what stuck in my memory was his belief that the blade had to be the very finest carbon steel, as thin as possible, and had to be oiled. Along with a good eye and proper accuracy, one slice would do the trick.

"I heard one day a gentleman say
That prisoners who are cut in two
Can hardly feel the fatal steel
And so are slain, are slain without much pain"

W S Gilbert - The Mikado

Graham