The upright jerker was an

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

method and device intermittently used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

during the 19th and early 20th century. Intended to replace

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

s, the upright jerker did not see widespread use and was withdrawn from use by the 1930s. As in a hanging, a cord would be wrapped around the neck of the condemned. However, rather than dropping down through a trapdoor, the condemned would be violently jerked into the air by means of a system of weights and pulleys. The objective of this execution method was to provide a swift death by breaking the condemned's neck. The warden of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield obtained , issued on June 18, 1895, for one such "automatic gallows". Executions of this type took place in several U.S. states, notably

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, where among others murderer and gang member

Gerald Chapman Gerald Chapman (August, 1887 – April 6, 1926), known as "The Count of Gramercy Park", "The Gentleman Bandit", and "Gentleman Gerald", was an American criminal who helped lead an early Prohibition-era gang from 1919 until the mid-1920s. His nick ...

was put to death by the method. The upright jerker was never very efficient at breaking the condemned's neck. Instead, the condemned would often be strangled. In one such case, a man by the name of James Stephens was left contorting and gurgling until he finally died of asphyxiation.

References

Execution methods {{death-stub