The brutal events on Houtman Abrolhos following the wreck of the Batavia in 1629.

The flagship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Batavia, was wrecked on the morning of the 4th of June 1629 on an isolated reef of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off the coast of Western Australia. The majority of crew and passengers (180-250, including 30 women and children) were able to reach an island which they called Batavia's Graveyard (now known as Beacon Island). After the commander, Francisco Pelsaert, sailed to Batavia for help, Jeronimus Cornelisz took control. Over the next several months his men raped and murdered at least 125 captive shipwrecked passengers and crew. Upon Pelsaert's return Cornelisz and the ringleaders were tried, had their hands severed, and were executed by hanging. Recent archeological excavations have revealed the nature of the attacks and provided scientific validation of some of the alleged incidents. The Batavia mutiny represents a particularly heinous mass murder in the annals of Australia's maritime history.

Judicial Murder-Suicides in Van Diemen's Land.

On the morning of December 17, 1827, nine convicts were executed by public hanging in Hobart Town, the capital of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land (now the Australian state of Tasmania). Two months previously they had drowned senior Constable George Rex on Small Island, which was part of the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbor, in front of five bound and gagged witnesses. They offered no defence at their trial. Examination of the Tasmanian colonial convict records shows that "suicide by lottery" involved convicts choosing two men, one to die and the other to kill him. The witnesses would earn a respite when taken away for the trial, and the murderer would be executed. "Death by gallows" could be considered a nineteenth-century version of an orchestrated suicide reminiscent of more modern "death by cop." This category of "judicial" murder-suicide expands the range of contemporary classifications of dyadic deaths.

Munich anatomy and the distribution of bodies from the Stadelheim execution site during National Socialism.

During the reign of National Socialism (NS) anatomical institutes regularly received bodies of executed prisoners in steadily increasing numbers. After 1939, the execution site at Stadelheim prison in Munich supplied not only Munich anatomy but also the institutes in Erlangen, Innsbruck and Würzburg. Due to the disappearance of the Munich body journals, the exact dimension and procedure of body procurement from Stadelheim remained unknown for 70 years. After consultation of a wide range of sources, including rediscovered fragments of the body journals, it is now possible to give an almost comprehensive account of the developments. This article deals with the attempts at recovering information on body procurement from Stadelheim prison during the NS period, which already indicated the significance of Munich anatomy in organizing the distribution of bodies. Thereafter, it addresses the number and distinct groups of Stadelheim prisoners, executed and delivered to the four anatomical institutes, the differences in the handling of their bodies, and the extent to which in particular Munich anatomy profited from the massive increase in executions. Finally, it unveils the role of the Munich Anatomical Institute in distributing those bodies among the anatomies during the Second World War, making it not only the main beneficiary but also the interim center of this process.

A Hanged From the Past: Medical Consideration on the Judas Iscariot Fresco-Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines, La Brigue (15th Century).

The medieval chapel of Notre Dame-des-Fontaines (Our Lady of the Fountains), in the French Maritime Alps, is entirely covered by the fresco cycle of the Passion (15th century) that depicts the last days of Jesus from the Last Supper to the Resurrection. Under a small window, there is the brutal representation of the suicide of Judas Iscariot, hanging from a tree, with the abdomen quartered from which his soul, represented by a small man, is kidnapped by a devil. The author, Giovanni Canavesio, represented the traitor's death with very detailed anatomical structures, differently thus from other paintings of the same subject; it is therefore possible to assume that the artist had become familiar with the human anatomy. In particular, the realism of the hanged man's posture, neck bent in an unnatural way, allows us to hypothesize that it probably comes from direct observation of the executions of capital punishment, not infrequently imposed by the public authorities in low medieval Italy.

The possibility of establishing causes of death on the basis of the exhumed remains of prisoners executed during the communist regime in Poland: the exhumations at Powazki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

This study presents the results of the analysis of forensic examinations of the remains of 194 prisoners exhumed at Powazki Military Cemetery in Warsaw. In all probability, most of those buried there were judicially sentenced to death by firing squad or hanging in connection with activities of the Polish independence underground in its struggles with the postwar communist regime. Forensic medical research focussed on determining causes of death and reconstructing the mechanisms of injury leading to death. Most probable causes of death were found in 108 of 194 cases; of these, 76 were isolated gunshot wounds to the head, mostly directed to the occipital region. In 29 of 194 cases, only extensive skull fractures were observed, making it impossible to determine the mechanism of injury. The condition of these skulls do not permit the exclusion of injuries due to gunshots, which were very likely given the historical context of the studied location. In one case, it is assumed that the cause of death could be blunt force trauma to the head. In 86 of 194 cases, it was not possible to determine the cause of death. Of these cases, 20 skeletons were in such poor condition that erosive changes could have completely obliterated even very extensive head injuries leading to death. No injuries were observed that could be associated with execution by hanging.

A coinsidence, a chance or a misfortune? Hangman's fracture.

William R. Francis and Bassam El-Effendi shared a common ground: they were the first individuals to classify Hangman's Fractures. Interestingly, although they were unaware of each other, they classified and published their findings in the same year, published in the same edition of the same journal (but on different pages). This new classification system was a chance for notoriety for El-Effendi, yet it was a misfortune for Francis. Both physicians graduated in 1973 (from different universities). Also fellows at different universities in 1981, they were also both unaware they studied the same topic. Coincidentally, their paths crossed in the same edition of a journal where their studies were published in the same year, which was unprecedented in the literature. One classification scheme is well-known while the other is almost completely unheard of for no apparent reason other than chance for one and misfortune for the other.

The "death" of lethal injection as we know it? The role of chemical execution in the American criminal justice system.

Several independent elements have recently combined to thrust United States capital punishment into a chaos. Corrections officials and policy makers have attempted to "humanize" capital punishment by evolving into a chemical execution process, and soften the outward appearance. Foreign policies have interrupted chemical protocols by banning key ingredients. These disruptions are spawning new theories of legal challenges in capital punishment. This is a critical time for stakeholders and all members of a civilized society to pause and reflect on the role of capital punishment.

[Anatomical Vitamin C-Research during National Socialism and the Post-war Period: Max Clara's Human Experiments at the Munich Anatomical Institute]. / Anatomische Vitamin C-Forschung im Nationalsozialismus und in der Nachkriegszeit: Max Claras Humanexperimente an der Anatomischen Anstalt München.

In autumn of 1942, Max Clara (1899-1966) became chairman of the anatomical institute Munich. There, he intensified his research concerning the proof of vitamin C with the bodies of executed prisoners which were delivered by the Munich-Stadelheim prison. This research on human organs was pursued by applying ascorbic acid (Cebion) to prisoners before their execution. The paper investigates this intensified and radicalized anatomical research through human experiments, which Max Clara conducted in Munich and published from Istanbul during the postwar years, as well as its scientific references from the Nazi period.

Salem witchcraft and lessons for contemporary forensic psychiatry.

In 1692 and 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts, more than 150 colonists were accused of witchcraft, resulting in 19 being hanged and one man being crushed to death. Contributions to these events included: historical, religious and cultural belief systems; social and community concerns; economic, gender, and political factors; and local family grievances. Child witnessing, certainty of physician diagnosis, use of special evidence in the absence of scholarly and legal scrutiny, and tautological reasoning were important factors, as well. For forensic psychiatry, the events at Salem in 1692 still hold contemporary implications. These events of three centuries ago call to mind more recent daycare sexual abuse scandals.