The Hanging of Cassie Barclay (guest author)

Bonus story by guest author Rick Jones

I spotted her as she came through the restaurant doors, a small, slightly built girl with long dark hair. She looked a lot like her photograph but seemed to have lost a little weight. I stood up and waved her over, we shook hands quickly. She went to sit down but I stopped her. “Before we continue come to the restroom with me.” I told her.

She looked a little puzzled as I took her arm. The restaurant was almost empty so no one would notice us slipping off together. She didn’t object and followed as we entered the toilet area. I pushed open the disabled toilet door and guided her in.

“I am not being funny Cassie, but I need to be sure that you are not wired or anything.” I told her.

“I have already told you that am not a reporter or police,” she said.

I ignored her and asked for her mobile. She handed it to me, and I took out the battery and handed it back to her after pocketing the battery. “Can I search your bag please?”

“Sure.” She replied as she handed it to me.

There was a small table there and I unzipped it and spilled the contents onto it. I felt a bit embarrassed seeing such items as feminine hygiene products and a pair of clean panties. There were some keys and other odds and ends as well as a purse. I opened it up and tipped the coins onto the table. There were some notes as well as some credit cards. I checked the name on them, and they all tallied with the name she had given me.

“Okay.” I said, satisfied that there were no recording devices there.

I watched as she hurriedly put them all back and then I said that I need to body search her. She said nothing as she stretched out her arms. “I mean strip search.” I told her.

She offered no objection as she began to pull up her top. She pulled it over her head and then began to undo her jeans. I stood and watched as she kicked off her trainers and pushed her jeans all the way down. Moments later she stood in front of me wearing just a red lacy bra and panties set. She looked beautiful; a perfect body that stirred an erection in me. I moved behind her and unclasped her bra.

“Sorry I have to do this.” I told her.

The bra slipped off into her hands and she placed it on the table. I didn’t need to ask about her panties; she pushed them down to her ankles and stepped out of them. As she stood with her hands on her hips I felt a bit of a heel at having to embarrass her like this.

“Thanks Cassie.” I told her. “I just have to be sure; you know.” I added trying to avert her neatly trimmed dark pubic mound.

“It’s okay, I understand,” she told me as she reached for her bra.

Five minutes later she was dressed, and we headed back to our table. I called the waitress over and ordered some coffee.

“So, what do you want to know then?” I asked her.

I knew a lot of things already about her; we had been chatting online for a few months now, but she knew little about me. I rarely chatted to people about my work and my stories, my life was very private, and I liked to keep it that way. Occasionally though you do get people who share a morbid interest in your work and sometimes I let them in. Cassie Barclay was one of the very few that I decided to let in.

“You still work as an executioner?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Not here though,” she said.

I shook my head. “Mainly in the Far East where they still have judicial hangings.” I told her.

“You must be busy then.”

“It’s regular.” I told her. “There are three of us now. Two of them are resident there and they do a lot of the work. I stand in at holidays or when things get very busy.”

“Are they all men?”

I shook my head. “No. I have trained a woman to do it as well.”

“Wow,” she said. “I didn’t think a woman would have the stomach for that.”

“It’s a job like any other.” I told her “She is very efficient.”

“It doesn’t bother you then, hanging people, I mean?”

“I don’t get caught up in the emotions.” I answered. “It’s the Court’s that try them and pass sentence. I just carry it out.”

“What about the innocent ones?”

“Very few are innocent, in fact I only did one that turned out to be a wrong conviction.” I told her.

“I read about a case of an Australian girl, whose boyfriend had planted drugs in her suitcase.” Cassie said. “She hanged but two years later he did the same thing again with another girl and he got found out.”

“Yes I know.” I told her. “I felt bad about that.”

“You hanged her?”

I nodded and glanced up at the waitress bringing our coffee.

“Wow.” Cassie exclaimed when the girl left.

“Please tell me about it?” she said.

I shook my head. It had been a painful experience. Murderers, rapists, and drug dealers were easy to deal with and dispatch, but I always felt that she had been telling the truth. I can still remember hugging her on the gallows as she quietly sobbed.

“Tell me please?” she insisted.

I sipped on my coffee staring blankly into space for a few minutes. “She was a very brave girl.” I told her. “She spotted me in the courtyard a couple of days before her execution. We need to see them to assess them mentally as well as judge their height and weight,” I told her.

“Yes, you need to get the drop right don’t you?” she said.

I nodded. “Anyway, she spotted me and came over to me. She just came out with it and asked if I was her executioner.”

“Wow!” Cassie said. “What did you say?”

“I just said ‘yes.’ What could I say?”

“What did she say?” Cassie asked.

“She told me that she weighed fifty-five kilos and was five feet nine inches, but I had guessed that already” I replied.

“Wow!”

“Then she asked me when the execution would take place. I told her that I couldn’t say. There are always final legal processes to go through and as she was a foreign national there were negotiations going on. I was told though that it was scheduled for two days’ time.”

“What else did she say?” Cassie asked me.

“She asked me if it would hurt. I told her that it would be over very quickly.”

“So, what happened on the day then?” Cassie asked.

“She was told at eight o’clock that morning that her appeal for clemency had been turned down and that she would be executed at eleven o’clock. She was given some writing paper and a pen to write last letters to her family. I knew the night before that she was going to hang and had the gallows prepared ready for her. “I said before taking another sip of coffee.

“You had the rope and everything ready for her?” Cassie asked with excitement in her voice.

I nodded. “At five minutes to eleven the prison governor and I entered the cell along with four
warders. She was sat at the table and stood to her feet; poor thing looked petrified. I waited until the governor read out the execution notice and then I said to him that I didn’t think there would be any need for all this presence. Sometimes the condemned try to run or put up a fight, and so extra warders are needed but I knew that in this case there would be no trouble.”

“So, it was just you and her then?”

“Yes.” I told her before taking another sip. “They all left, including the governor, he didn’t like to watch anyway. I don’t think he had the stomach for it.” I added.

“What happened next?” Cassie asked.

“She was trembling, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. She kept saying that she never knew the drugs were there. I believed her but there was nothing I could do about it. I had my job to do.” I said.

“I went round the table and put my arm around her and calmed her down and then I took the belt I had and fastened it around her waist. She didn’t struggle. She just let me fasten it tightly and then I took each of her hands in turn and fastened her wrists into the loop braces on the belt.”

“You didn’t tie her hands behind her back then?”

I shook my head. “No, we use the waist belt method.” I told her. “I then started to walk her from the cell to the execution chamber. It is always quite a long walk. In fact, it is a couple of blocks away; it gives the condemned too much time to think. She started to sob and so I put my arm around her as we walked. As we went through a series of doors she kept asking me if we were nearly there.”

“She never struggled at all then?” Cassie asked me.

“No.” I told her. “When we entered the chamber though she did wobble; it is an awesome sight though. The gallows are a huge metal structure painted in green and there are thirteen steps up to the metal platform. I had to hold her tightly as I guided her up them. Once you get near the top you can see the noose hanging down from the cross beam and they all wobble at that first sight of it. Sometimes they notice a coffin leaning up against the inner wall; it’s an open staircase and you can see inside the gallows frame. That often scares them as well.”

“Wow.” Cassie said. “Did she see her coffin?”

I shook my head. “No, she was spared that.”

“What about when you got to the top?”

“I walked her slowly to the centre of the platform where the trap door is and where the noose is ready. Usually, I put a bag over the condemned person’s head, but she didn’t want it. She became quite agitated, so I left it off. I then took leather straps from my pocket and tied one around her ankles, and another around her knees. She started to sob as I reached for the noose and placed it around her neck, so I just stood there for a few minutes and hugged her.”

“That was very kind of you.” Cassie said.

“I needed her to be calm. If the rope gets dislodged or they move about, the hanging can go wrong. The neck doesn’t snap correctly, and it can be a long and painful death. Anyway, once I got the rope properly placed and got her settled. I moved slowly away from the trap door to the release lever. She watched me as I took away the safety pin and then just closed her eyes as I pulled.”

“Was her death quick?”

I nodded. “Yes. I heard her neck snap. I looked down and saw her body twitching as it swung but she was dead.”

“How long did you leave her hanging?” Cassie asked.

“I usually leave them for about an hour. I go for a coffee and then collect the doctor, and once he confirms death. I take the body down and prepare it for the burial.”

“You undress them?”

“Undress them, clean them up and put a shroud on them, and then put them in the coffin for burial. In this case her body was sent to Australia to her relatives.”

“Tell me?” she asked. “They say that people can have orgasms as they hang, is it true?”

I smiled. “Not on the long drop ones. You can on short drop with slow strangulation, but long drop is instant death.”

“Did you look at her body afterwards?” she asked. “You know, how a man would look?”

I nodded. “Yes, she was a very attractive girl.”

“Did you touch her?”

“I had to wash her down.” I told her. “Of course, I touched her. But with respect”

Cassie finished her coffee.

Written by Rick Jones