This podcast delves into the gruesome details of the breaking on the wheel execution method, which involved a condemned person having their limbs threaded through the spokes of a wagon wheel and then being hoisted on a pole for display.
The Haitian Revolution was not just a war of independence from French colonial rule; it was also a brutal and violent struggle between different factions within the revolutionaries. Historians have divided the revolution into different chunks, each representing the changing way of things.
The influence of historical broadsheets on public perception is difficult to determine as it is unclear how much the people were changing due to the publications or if the publications were just following societal trends. However, the broadsheets' coverage of executions added a level of realism that appealed to audiences.
The behavior of a perpetrator returning to the scene of a crime is explored, as it may be a way for them to mentally or sexually relive the crime, or to taunt law enforcement. This behavior has been observed in many murder cases, and is crucial for investigators to take note of when trying to catch the culprit.
Alfred Packer spent months in a makeshift shelter, snowed in, and ran out of food rations. He eventually resorted to cannibalism to survive and was jailed for the murder of his crew. No evidence of a crime was found until months later.
Friedland explains how the broadsheets of the 1840s catered to the salacious and pulp-like interests of the new penal voyeurs who were gathering in windows overlooking scaffoldings during executions. These voyeurs processed the execution scenes almost as if they were watching one of Pierre Cornell's tragic characters, highlighting their interest in the intimate moments of life and death.