What a Way to Go: The Guillotine the Pendulum the Thousand Cuts the Spanish Donkey and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death

A gruesomely hilarious and fascinating pop-history account of methods of execution from around the world and through the ages . In this wickedly humorous book Geoffrey Abbott describes the effectiveness of instruments of torture and reveals the macabre origins of familiar phrases such as gone west or drawn a blank. Covering everything from the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body What a Way to Go is everything you ever wanted to know about the ultimate penalty---and a lot you never thought to ask. . It includes such hair-raising categories as:- Sewn in an Animas Belly: A living person is sewn into the belly of an animal and left to die&- The Spanish Donkey: This method of torture consisted of seating a victim on top of a wall that resembled an inverted V with weights attached to the ankles the weights slowly increased until the victims body split in two- Iron Chair: The victim is tied to an iron armchair and pushed nearer and nearer to a blazing fire. What a Way to Go is a a unique and fascinating look at the grim and gritty history of sanctioned death