✅ SOLVED Lynching photgraph

oldbattleaxe

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May 26, 2010
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Military, could be several things. Execution of a murderer, traitor, deserter, horse thief, rapist? Military use to hang prisoners convicted of capital crimes.
 

Upvote 3
They used to hang horse thieves and cattle rustlers I've pictures like that hangin in peoples homes
 

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I think I would rather be shot if I had to choose.......
 

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I tried to be a poet and learned I shouldnt doet
 

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I'm not entirely convinced that's an authentic hanging/lynching.

There was unfortunately a dark time in America's history when hanging and lynching pictures were big business, including "hanging postcards" too, which were sold in the thousands. Often these pictures were of people who had been hanged but with the scene recreated after the event for a better picture. That looks to be the case here, with the over-dramatic observers and the guy pointing. It was also not unusual for the poor victim to be 'transferred' to a telegraph pole alongside a railroad (for maximum public exposure), having been hung somewhere else. That looks like a telegraph pole, and there's a "Railroad Crossing" sign to the extreme left.

However, here, I suspect the whole thing may have been artificially staged for the purposes of generating a 'saleable' picture. The 'victim' appears to be in an unnatural posture for someone who has been hung. Usually the toes of hanging victims point downwards as least a little, which is not the case here. The neck here is unusually 'bunched up' rather than stretched by the bodyweight pulling down on it. The arms also don't look as if they're limp. I could be wrong, and maybe this poor guy was hung a couple of hours earlier and has gone into rigor mortis (no sign of it around his mouth though), but that's my take.

Are those US Cavalry uniforms? That's what they look like to me.
 

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I agree with Red-Coat. This looks like a staged or prop photograph for whatever purpose. All the dramatic poses of men standing in one straight line so they'd all be in focus.
 

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While the others are definitely soldiers (Notice the leggings on the enlisted, pants tucked in the boots of the officer) the hanging individual is not wearing leggings. Also the legs of the one being hanged are pinioned above the knees.

It is possible that "IF" this is an actual hanging, it's just starting, and they are still hoisting him up. I've seen pictures of soldiers hung during WWII, that their necks aren't elongated and their feet are still rigid when they were first pulled up, or short dropped off a truck.

Just food for thought........
 

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agreed maybe a scene from a spaghetti western

these guys look familiar
spaghetti westerns.png

the rifle is staged
gun.png
 

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Actually, the "Lynchee"is standing on a boulder, and the way the haulers are standing and pointing, I think it is a bunch of fellers goofing off. At least I hope they were. Lynchings happened.........
 

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