Today’s Brutal Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The story of a lynching was more than the simple fact of a black man or woman hanged by the neck. It was the story of slow, methodical, sadistic, often highly inventive forms of torture and mutilation. If executed by fire, it was the red-hot poker applied to the eyes and genitals and the stench of burning flesh, as the body slowly roasted over the flames and the blood sizzled in the heat. If executed by hanging, it was the convulsive movement of the limbs. Whether by fire or rope, it was the dismemberment and distribution of severed bodily parts as favors and souvenirs to participants and the crowd: teeth, ears, toes, fingers, nails, kneecaps, bits of charred skin and bones. Such human trophies might reappear as watch fobs or be displayed conspicuously for public viewing. The severed knuckles of lynching victim Sam Hose, for example, would be prominently displayed in the window of a grocery store in Atlanta.
Culled from: Without Sanctuary