Today’s Dishonorable Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Boiling was a commonly used method of execution in 15th century Europe that drew large crowds. Not every boiling went well, as the records of the French town of Tours show:
On Monday 11 February 1488, a coiner of bad money, named Loys Secretain, was condemned by the Bailif of Touraine to be boiled, drawn and hanged in the Place-le-Roy. The executioner, one Denis, took the said Loys on a scaffold to the cauldron and bound his legs and his body with cords, made him say his “in manus,” pushed him along and threw him head first into the cauldron to be boiled; as soon as he was thrown in, the cords became so loose that he twice rose to the surface of the water, crying for mercy. Which seeing, the provost and some of the inhabitants began to attack the executioner, saying, “Ah, you wretch, you are making that poor sinner suffer and bringing great dishonor on the town of Tours!”
The executioner, seeing the anger of the people, tried two or three times to sink the malefactor with a great iron hook; and forthwith several person, believing that the cords had been broken by a miracle, became excited and cried out loudly, and seeing that the said false coiner was suffering no harm, they approached the executioner as he lay with his face upon the ground, and gave him so many blows that he died where he lay.
Charles VIII pardoned the inhabitants who were accused of killing the executioner. As for the coiner of false money, he was taken to the church of the Jacobins, where he hid himself so completely that he never dared to show his face again.
Culled from: The Book Of Execution
Oy, a human bagel?