William Marwood was a British state hangman. He developed the technique of hanging known as the "long drop".
William Marwood
The grave of William Frederick Horry, the first person to be hanged by William Marwood.
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's Odyssey. Hanging is also a method of suicide.
Detail from a painting by Pisanello, 1436–1438
Execution of guards and kapos of the Stutthof concentration camp on 4 July 1946 by short-drop hanging. In the foreground are the female overseers: Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, Gerda Steinhoff (left to right).
Mass execution of Serbs by the Austro-Hungarian army in 1916
The execution of Henry Wirz in 1865 near the U.S. Capitol; Wirz was given a standard drop, which did not break his neck