Friday Fun Facts.

You know Gene, the guy on The Sopranos who hung himself at the beginning of this season? Remember how he stayed alive for nearly five minutes afte jumping off the crate, futilily tugging at the noose? Well, old Gene is a good reminder of what happens when we don't know how to kill ourselves properly. It also shows why knowing' one's history matters.
Hanging as a quick and painless form of execution is actually a fairly modern invention. The trap door "drop" in a gallows wasn't invented until the 18th century. This innovation causes instant death via a severed spinal cord. In the old days, however, this was far from the case. hanging victims didn't usually choke to death per se. Their breathing was restricted enough to add to the general discomfort, but not totally cut off. What usually killed them was the constriction of the jugular veins while the carotid artery continued to pump blood into the brain. This caused the brain to become engorged with unoxygenated blood until the victim eventually died from hundreds of micro strokes and aneuryisms. Sometimes, both the jugular and carotid were constricted, causing the brain to slowly starve. Notice the words I emphasized. If the hangman was really sloppy, an old-fashioned lynching could take more than an hour.
Simply put, a medieval hanging is hardly any better than crucifixion. And yet, this is what thousands of people who choose to suicide by hanging do to themselves. Eugene's five- minute "hangman's hornpipe" dance was actually much quicker and prettier than what really happens. Unless you want to go through the trouble of building a professional gallows, I would strongly advise against going out this way. If it seems like your life is out of control, nobody understands, and you just want all your troubles to go away; please, think overdose.