Gibbeting

Not to be confused with the Halifax Gibbet, a kind of guillotine.

The reconstructed gallows-style gibbet at Caxton Gibbet, in Cambridgeshire, England

Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet (/ˈdʒɪbɪt/) was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation.[1] The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet[2] is also called "hanging in chains".[3]

  1. ^ Pettifer, Ernest (1992). Punishments of Former Days. Winchester: Waterside Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-8-72870-05-2.
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Ed., Oxford University. Electronic CD edition.
  3. ^ Gallagher, Rob. "Gibbeting". Archived from the original on 22 November 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2009.