“Been a heavy few days in the news , let’s see what Simons got to cheer us up , oh🙈”

Alexei's death isn't even the tip of the iceberg for how botched the Romanov assassination was. The gunmen were each assigned one person to shoot, but everyone was so eager to be the one to kill the czar that they wasted all their bullets on him. All five children were still alive after the first round of shooting and they were locked in the smoke filled basement while their killers reloaded and waited for the smoke to clear. Worst of all, one of the daughters (probably Anastasia) regained consciousness while the bodies were being carried off. She screamed at the sight of her family's bodies and was finally shot in the head and killed. The whole thing took so long that the sun was starting to come up as the bodies were finally carried away.

Guy Fawkes will be forever remembered as the only person to enter parliament with an honest intention.

"Oh death, why are you taking so long?" I burst out laughing at this. Poor bloke.

As a veterinarian, we’ve been humanely euthanizing animals for decades, actually centuries. There is no secret that an intravenous barbiturate overdose will basically cause the patient to calmly close their eyes and permanently fall asleep. The process can be expedited in anxious patients by sedating them prior to the injection. The problems with executions in the modern US are political rather than medical. Many medical associations refuse to attend or even offer advice toward death penalty methodology. The profession most capable of humanely dispatching criminals refuses to participate in such activities because they are ironically sworn to preserve human life, go figure.

I don't like people forgetting that tsar and his family were not the only ones executed there. Doctor, cook, maid and groom also were shot.

With so many videos having an AI narrator, it's nice to hear an actual person.

I don't think Fawkes's friends and love ones would agree that his execution was botched. He was lucky to avoid a death of slow torture to top off the several days of torture he'd already endured.

When you said "the bullets didn't hit her heart at all" I really expected to hear you say "because she didn't have one." Especially after hearing the details of her crime.

Having to live in Milwaukee for any length of time is surely worse than surviving 3 botched executions.

Anyone who has ever worked in confined spaces knows the dangers of asphyxiation, and that no symptoms will be noticed other than you suddenly just pass out and never wake up. So the botch free, completely painless solution is a similar oxygen deprivation like those encountered in confined spaces. Break out the original old Gas Chambers. Execution simply requires you replace the atmosphere in the chamber with pure nitrogen. Since nitrogen is not toxic and makes up 80% of the air we breath it would go completely unnoticed by the condemned that anything changed except perhaps sounds of venting gasses in and out of the chamber. Once all the air has been displaced by nitrogen its simply a matter of waiting around 60 minutes to assure the end of life functions. It would be 100% painless and about as failure and idiot proof as the process could be made. For anyone wondering, our bodies to not notice a lack of oxygen to breath, but rather the buildup of CO2 in our blood that gives us the feeling of needing to breath. In a pure nitrogen environment our bodies can still exchange out CO2 just fine. This is what makes oxygen deprived confined spaces so dangerous, because you wont notice anything wrong. This goes back to why miners used to take caged birds into mines.

I remember one story about Judge Roy Bean, of Langtry, TX. A young man came into town, generally causing trouble and was caught stealing. He was sentenced to hang and dragged out to the “gallows”- in this case, the swing arm that was used to load and unload train cars. One end of the rope was tied around his neck and the other to a horse. The horse was spooked and the young man was dragged up. Then the rope broke. He literally hit the ground running and was gone before anyone could stop him. It helped that everyone who would have been in the posse was busy laughing.

12:21 Donny Osmond is also situs inversus. It almost killed him because he was suffering from appendisitis, but went undiagnosed because the doctors couldn't figure what was wrong with him because his appendix wasn't where it was suppose to be.

all these modern executions confuse me with how complex and expensive they are, like, a 9mil is like 25 cents at most, and if they committed a crime worthy of the death penalty, then they dont really deserve any more recognition than the half hour it'll take to clean up the mess

I find that among these botched executions one particularly horrible is missing: on March 2nd, 1974, an anarchist known as Heinz Chez (supposedly a Pole, it seems he was in fact some German called George Welzel) was executed in Tarragona via garrote vil and the executor, totally unfamiliar with the method (it was his first execution), fell into the common misconception that the device killed by screwing it into the cerebellum (it doesn't, you put a piece of wood on top of the screw to rest the neck on it and, once you tighten the screw, another piece called the corbatín basically smashes the throat, making the condemned faint and killing in seconds unless there's a very high difference in strength between executor and condemned in favour of the latter), so the guy suffered for 25 long minutes while the screw dug into his skull until someone realized the mistake, a piece of scrap wood was placed at the end of the screw and it was then when he could die.

Turns out humans aren't as easy to kill as they show in the movies, where a vague poke with a knife in the general area of the torso causes people to keel over instantly.

I'm surprised that the execution of Edith Thompson in 1923 wasn't included. By accounts she was so distraught about going to the gallows that she was sedated, to the point where she could no longer stand. She had to be hanged in a deck chair. Incidentally, the only reason she was hanged in the first place is she foolishly was allowed to testify at her lovers murder trial and was implicated in her husband's death. If she would have kept her mouth shut she would have been fine.

Alexi's, some say assassination, I say straight up cold-blooded child murder, he was a child who was innocent of all that was going on around him, it's very upsetting to just imagine how many other children suffered a similar fate through history... I can imagine what the boy must have felt in his last moments, having his parents and sisters dead around him, knowing he was going to be next as the scary men continued to attack him, it's so sad!

While those involved are not known to history, you neglected to mention what is certainly the most significant instance botched executions in history: those two whose survival set off the Nika revolt in Constantinople in 532. Several hooligans belonging to the Blue and Green _demes_ (a cross between chariot-racing fans, hooligan gangs, and political parties) were to be executed by hanging, but the ropes on two of them - one Blue and one Green - broke, and a mob managed to spirit them away to a church and claimed sanctuary. When the next races were held, both _demes_ began demanding their pardoning, before becoming violent and demanding Emperor Justinian's abdication. The violence spilled out into the city, and the rioting lasted five days.

Apparently it's possible that Guy Fawkes didn't actually jump from the gallows but, weakened by the torture, actually fell off due to difficulty in remainjng upright. Regardless of what you may think of him- terrorist? Martyr? Revolionary? Whatever your opinion one can't help but admire his resilience, enduring the rack without immediately giving up his co-conspirators is just incredible.

Had to put down my cat a few months ago. From injection to death was no more than a few seconds and from all appearance a quick and painless process. US law doesn't allow for any improvement/changes to the cocktail thats currently used, but there are definitely better options out there.

Best estimates from DA's across country is 10-15% of all ppl convicted are innocent. Thats a crazy high number

Please do a part 2

Funny (and sad) how the failure of crappy execution methods were chalked up to "divine intervention" and they just let the criminal go on that basis alone. Better than admitting your equipment is shit so you can avoid being out of a job or worse.

As for the Ginggaew Lorsoungnersn execution, there are more details about the case in the Book "The last executioner" by Chavoret Jaruboon. The execution was even more brutal than described by Simon. Chavoret Jaruboon was the last executioner in Thailand who used a firearm to execute prisoners.

Death penalty is just so damn creepy.

I thought it was awesome that gacy’s was one of the worst and longest ones. Must have been cathartic for the loved ones of his victims

I have wondered why they don't seem have a problem injecting cats and dogs to end their life but, convicts seem to be a big problem.

Back in the old West days in New Mexico territory there was a bandit called Black Jack Ketchum. His favorite weapon was a rifle. He said that the only thing a pistol was good for was throwing at a man. One day he was robbing a stagecoach and told the driver to throw down his pistol. Which he did, right at Black Jack's head, knocking him cold. Black Jack was sentenced to hang but, appeals and other things too time and I guess they had a lot of food handy because Black Jack ate a lot and grew quite fat. When they finally got around to hanging him, the hangman miscalculated the length of rope and when they dropped him through the door the sudden stop ripped his head off his body.

Take a look at the painting ‘The Execution Of Lady Jane Grey’, and note the axeman’s knife tucked into his belt. This is for hacking off any remaining bits of sinew.

I always wondered why it was 'hanged by the neck until dead' as the punishment. I guess the fourth story must be the reason

The Only Man Ever to Enter Parliament with Honest Intentions. Remember, remember the fifth of November.

I would've thought the most famous botched execution was Mike the headless chicken.

The problem with executions, is that all of the changes that have been made, were for the benefit of the executors, not the criminals - despite what the press releases have claimed. Hanging, gas chambers, and lethal injection are insanely more inhumane than firing squad or beheading (via guillotine or something more foolproof than a human executioner). That being said, the latter two are unsavoury to the general public, despite being more humane for the condemned. It's like most things in life; the simplest option is often the best option.

Glad Ive refound you Simon! Love your vids.

I can't remember the details, but one that fits this video is a man in Florida who was electricuted three times and survived every one. After that, he was ordered released due to cruel and unusual punishment.

Here's one you probably haven't thought about.......When you get your head chopped off......Does it hurt when it hits the floor? In theory, it would, as the nerves between your head and brain are still intact! For a decapitation to be relatively painless, you'd need a pillow for your head to land on, and safety glasses so you don't get dust in your eyes!.......Bloody health and safety....

I live in last town in England that used execution by pressing to death. (We also held the last public auction of women).

Bring back the guillotine and public executions for several reasons. 1. Public because if you support the death penalty you should be able to stomach it. Also drives the point home to other criminals. 2. With modern technology, we could make an awesome guillotine. Failure rates would be low 3. You could set up a Pachinko machine under it and place bets on where the head will land.

I didn’t know about this other channel of simon’s wtf. Great video 🎉!!

Some people wonder why others have a fascination with gore and gory details. Its ingrained in us. Humans are awful. Always were, always will be. Brutal executes still take place around the world on a regular basis.

Heres Simon, once again talking about murder, death, and the shadier sides of humanity... The Casual Criminalist, The Decoder of the Unkown, The Delver unto Darkness, and the... Side Projector??

Eek I didn’t realize how much I love watching your storytelling outside of the casual criminalist until I found this faster paced channel. ❤

Well, the Plantagenets, Tudors, and the Stuarts were a blood thirsty family! They were either sending members of their family to imprisonment or have them sent to the Tower where they died, either by "natural" (cough cough), means, or were beheaded. The Plantagenets: Henry VI - Murdered, his son, Prince Edward - Died in Battle, his army against his cousin, King Edward IVs army. K. E/IV's father was murdered in the Wars of the Roses. George, Duke of Clarence, K.EIV's brother betrayed him and was allegedly drowned in a vat of Malmsey Wine. George's son died at the Tower after being imprisoned there. His daughter was MARGARET POLE, as mentioned in this video. K.EIV's two sons, King Edward V, and his brother Richard were the Princes in the Tower. As were several of K.EV's maternal uncles, when his paternal uncle Richard became regent for him as he was only 12, and he took the throne for himself. MARGARET POLE was the first cousin, to the Princes and their sister was Elizabeth of York, mother of Margret Tudor, (who married James IV of Scotland, and was Grandmother to MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, mentioned in the vid), Henry VIII, (two beheaded wives, and Jane Seymour, who gave him his long awaited son, Edward VI. Her brothers, Edward and Thomas, were also beheaded in their nephew's rein), and Mary Tudor, Dutchess of Suffolk, who's great-granddaughter was Queen Lady Jane Grey, also beheaded, along with her husband. Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn, wife number 2, of Henry VIII, was beheaded, and her cousin, Katherine Howard, who was also wife number 5 of Henry's was also beheaded. Elizabeth, I had her cousin MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, beheaded, although the chances were that had William Cecil had not hated MQoS, then the chances were quite high that Elizabeth could very well have forgiven her, and recanted the order. But seeing an opportunity to be rid of her, Cecil, decided to act practically immediately to carry out Elizabeth's warrant that she'd signed in anger and haste. A few days later, Elizabeth did change her mind, only to be told by Cecil that it was too late, it was done. As you can imagine, Elizabeth, being her father's daughter and having his temper, too. She was Not a happy bunny with Cecil! But when she died childless, Elizabeth named MQoS son James VI&I of Scotland and England her heir. And it was his son, Charles I that was beheaded by the Government, and his, Charles I's illegitimate grandson, JAMES SCOTT, DUKE of MONMOUTH, was also brutality beheaded, on the orders of his uncle, King James II. When executioner Jack Ketch failed to behead him cleanly, taking between 5-8 blowes of the axe, reportedly, he then had to use his knife to cut through the sinew of his neck! So, just because you were related to the monach by blood or marriage, it did not mean you were immune to either things you did, things you didn't, or things others said you did. Many other relations were also bumped off, some brutality. It's little wonder with knowing how badly a beheading can go wrong, that Anne Boleyn asked Henry for a last favour from her husband, a swordsman from France to take her head, rather than risk the axeman. Luckily, for her, that day Henry was obviously in a good mood. He agreed, and one was sent for, and she didn't suffer. Unlike many others who suffered the block or noose.

There were a lot of botched executions of POWs in Japan during WW2. Far from the worst that happened at camps, but beheadings with swords (beheadings are really hard, and a sword doesn't have much added weight to it like an axe, so it is even more of a mess and takes more swings, generally), shootings with arrows that took a bunch to kill the person, though I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not, and of course, experiments were used as a form of execution (and experimemts always have a huge margin of error). I did a project on it in 8th grade, so I read a lot of detailed transcripts and first and second hand reports. Why I was allowed, I am not quite sure. I have also heard that people who have gotten lethal injection who were long term intravenous users have needed to find a vein themselves, or have offered to, but it was many years ago, so I do not remember how reliable the source was.

Really well done Sir !!!

Thank you so much for making this video I was obsessed with this subject a bit ago. I don't like to read so thank you for allowing me to listen

17:17 How does a death warrant expire if the prisoner didn’t die?

Please can someone tell Simon it's pronounced 'bod iss' and not 'bow dice'...

Oh nice to find you on another channel Simon. I love The Casual Criminalist!!!

GREAT VID SIMON!!! 👍✌😉

15 lip moving minutes! That's insane! I wonder if anyone was able to read her lips and see what she was saying if anything.

Maybe I zoned out, but I'm surprised the first electrocution wasn't in here. It was..... rough. If you've ever seen or read The Green Mile, that's what Delacroix's death was based on.

With Kenneth Eugene Smith the method of execution should be called nitrogen _anoxia_ not hypoxia. Hypoxia is very low levels of oxygen in the blood and tissues but the person may not expire. _Anoxia_ , on the other hand is the _absence_ of oxygen in the tissues, which would eventually and with 100% confidence prove fatal.

Wrong date for Louis XVI's execution: 20 September 1792 saw the abolition of the monarchy. The king was later put on trial and guillotined on 21 January 1793

I'm not sure why they don't use a potent opioid. That seems to work on people who aren't even trying to hurt themselves.

The guy who invented the lethal injection even admitted he knows that the prisoner wakes up at the moment the breathing paralysis drug kicks in meaning they suffocate painfully whilst conscious. He said he doesn't care and they should suffer with a smirk.

Simon! How, oh how, did you miss Wenceslao Moguel -- El Fusilado. This man was a soldier under Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution. He was captured in 1915 and got the firing squad. He was shot in the body 8-9 times and received a point-blank coup de grâce to the head. He survived all of it and simply played dead until his executioners departed. He got medical attention and lived until 1976. How BAD ASS do you have to be to survive a firing squad!?

your content is so creative

The sharp gallows sound funny af and hard to believe, but wow.

Letting monsters live is cruel and inhumane.

The guillotine had a 100 percent chance of death. Studies from the french revolution (directly) state that an angled sharp blade descending thus striking a neck will 100 percent decapitate ones head from a human. It has been proven to be economical, easy to maintain, easy to make, and with modern elements can and will do the job the first time and only the first time.

My ex wife had three photos of her great grandfather that moved from central Mexico to Kansas city, KS to work on the railroad. All three of the photos he was wearing something around his neck. Her grandma told me that he wore that to hide his scars from the hanging he survived.

7:32 How did the fever and delirium prove to be a saving grace? How did it keep him from dying?

The Mary Queen of Scotts story made me think of all the nursery rhymes that had historic origins. I did a quick search to see if Grand Mastermind Simon had ever covered a whole list of them, and came back with just a few single incidents. So, I think that would make a great video. 10 Nursery rhymes historic origins. Or, you could split it into 2 videos to "Make more money!! Ehhhhh?!" Lol Bless your capitalist heart!

I can't listen Simon's videos at night anymore because I always get super interested and miss sleep 😂❤

SIMON HOW?! I already have most of the channels subscribed do I need? No but this is my bed time stories(Simon reading a script and ranting)

Guy Fawkes, The last person to enter the houses of Parliament with honest intentions.

I feel really bad for Damiens...

The Romanov's were killed so brutaly, especially Alexi. They even killed his dog, like they did not show absolutely any mercy whataoever

I love that you used the word "bloody" in the intro and not in the easily assumed context. Ironic type of funny!

Wow, never knew hanging could actually rip the head off during the drop. I wonder how tight and power the drop was

I still believe that if you murder someone. You should be sentenced to suffer the same method of death.

9:06 imagine making a dying confession like that only to live.....awkward.

I think she’s dead….. “no I’m not”

Executions in the 1700s,1800s 1900s were more brutal than todays methods. I miss the late 20th century

I was just in Edinburgh 2 weeks ago. We were on a 3 country vacation to Edinburgh, London and Paris. My family's favorite part of the entire vacation was the tour of "Mary Kings Close!" It is so crazy how bad life was during that time period. Standing in the rooms where so much death has occurred is a very strange feeling. I had never heard the details of the plague until this tour. If anyone reading this ever gets a chance to go on that tour, I would highly recommend it! Im definitely going to do it again someday. Even my 11 year old daughter thought it was awesome! She's being a plague doctor for Halloween now she likes it so much! She even told me she liked it more than Disneyland Paris! Having said all of this, when you said "finally" before the second to last story, I couldn't believe Mary's botched execution wasn't on your list! Everything you just said is exactly the same as they told us on the tour.

In French, the method of execution that was applied to Robert-François Damiens is called « écartèlement à quatre chevaux ». I guess we could translate this by « teared apart by four horses ». This was the method reserved for the most horrible crimes and regicides. The convict was tied to a sort of table in the middle, to be sure the body would stay there while the horses get away with the members. They added acid and cut the links between members to help the process. There was a variant of this only used for torture (not exectution) where the 4 horses were replaced by big reels slowly pulling apart the convict. In this case, there usually wasn't any acid or cutting the links between members. In this case, it's said that the guy could be stretched by 4 to 6 inches before dying from asphyxia or cardiac arrest. (sorry, I hope my English isn't too crappy)

Dr. Gullotine invented a device that got the job done every time.

Geez, you'd need quite a lot of gemstones to make a suit of armor from them...

The past was the worst, even the recent past. Lol

As a Tucsonan, it is wild to hear my hometown mentioned on one of Simon's shows. Guess there's more history in our city than I expected!

Just joined this channel...how many channels you got brother? Haha. Hard to keep up with everything you do 😢

I just clicked and video just started. I'm nervous! Not sure I want to know this, lol.... I love your videos.

Sorry Simon *13:22 Henry VIII never converted to Protestantism. He died a Catholic, even instructing choristers to sing Chantry for him whilst his soul was in (Catholic) purgatory. Nonetheless, great episode as ever.

You did a brilliant job on this. Kudos.

With a name like “Guy Fawkes” i would certainly believe he was the first man to start fraternities lol.

Remember remember the 5th of November!

The story about Mary Queen of Scots was interesting. Supposedly my family are descendants of hers. I'm not exactly sure how, but its generally accepted that at some point one of her relatives made their way to the United States back in the 18th or 19th century. I'm not sure I believe it but that's the story.

Oh well. Poor murderers eh!

Thank you

I like you where do you get all this information from?

Found another Vid that's going to end up on every other channel.

That we know about...

When Francois Damien was read the long list of the tortures he'd be inflicted before the eventual execution, he simply nodded his head and uttered calmly: "This will be a hard day."

I was waiting for you to mention the sadistic/incompetent executioner Jack Ketch active 1663 - 1686.

You missed a good one - the Ohio botched execution of Christopher Newton - another case of the convict being so fat they couldn't get the needle in a vein, and at one point, he had to be good a "potty break" in the middle of his execution, probably the only time something like this has ever happened.

7:50 "Legally already dead, the authorities were in a bit of a bind." This is a rare mismatched sentence from Simon's world. Usually the writing is good. This kind of problem with the subject changing between clauses is more common with Coffeehouse Crime or the many ill-written shows about alpine disasters. One of my recent favorites of this: "Bear attacks former teacher while jogging in park." You know what's intended, but it sounds like the bear was jogging in the park and attacked its former teacher.

I love this guys voice and his videos!

This was a great compilation, but I think Jack Ketch’s career as an executioner merited a mention.