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While numerous execution methods, such as burning at the stake, date back centuries, the detailed documentation of capital punishment has been lacking throughout much of history. Though the well-known "eye for an eye" principle of the Code of Hammurabi clearly outlined punishments, records of those who were actually punished remain absent. Each of these individuals marks the first documented execution of their kind, whether due to the nature of their punishment, their age, gender, or location.
10. Priscillian, AD 385
Priscillian, a priest known for his strict self-discipline and ascetic lifestyle, was also a Manichaean, which conflicted with Christian church teachings. Manichaeism, a religion founded by the Persian prophet Mani, positioned itself alongside Buddhism and Christianity. The faith teaches that life on Earth is inherently flawed, and the only true salvation lies in understanding the soul's true knowledge.
Emperor Maximus of the Roman Empire condemned Priscillian for heresy, leading to his beheading. He became the first person documented to undergo such a punishment, marking the first time that both the government and the church collaborated to accuse someone of heresy. This practice continued for centuries, often employed to eliminate religious or political dissidents.
9. William Maurice, 1241
William Maurice, the accused pirate, holds the grim distinction of being the first person ever recorded to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. This particularly gruesome punishment was actually devised specifically for him.
Do you recall the scene in Braveheart where another William (Wallace) was subjected to a similar fate? The screams and the unsettling anticipation of unimaginable torture, so vile they couldn’t even show it fully onscreen. Well, he was being disemboweled and castrated, though that wasn’t the worst part. (Well, maybe it was—or when they burn the organs in front of the still-living victim.)
Hanging, drawing, and quartering was a brutal process of torture that the local spectators seemed to take a disturbing enjoyment in. As a result, many others after Maurice suffered the same horrific punishment.
The ‘drawn’ part actually occurred first. Poor Maurice was dragged by horses to the execution site, where he was disemboweled. Afterward, his head was severed. His body was then tied to four horses, each heading in a different direction (the quartering), and his dismembered parts were publicly displayed around the town.
8. Unnamed Men in The Netherlands, 1321
Little is known about this case, except that the unnamed men were accused of sodomy and sentenced to death by fire. These two men, who resided in Egmont near Amsterdam, hold the grim distinction of being the first recorded individuals in the northern Netherlands to be punished for such acts.
7. Agnes Waterhouse, 1566
In Chelmsford, England, Agnes Waterhouse was accused of being a witch and hanged for the deaths of her husband, her neighbor William Fynne, and several animals. Agnes’s daughter, Joan, and her friend Elizabeth Francis were also put on trial, but only Agnes was convicted.
Apparently, Elizabeth introduced Agnes to witchcraft when she gave her a cat named Satan. The cat demonstrated its powers by killing a pig and teaching Agnes the secrets of sorcery. Agnes even managed to transform the dominant cat into a toad, but that did not end her use of witchcraft.
Blood didn’t seem to run as thick as water in the Waterhouse family, as accused daughter Joan testified against her mother in order to save herself from the same fate.
6. George Kendall, 1608
Captain George Kendall was a member of the first council in the Jamestown colony in Virginia. The councilors had trouble getting along even before arriving in the New World, and they imprisoned John Smith aboard the Susan Constant, planning to hang him in the near future.
Smith survived and later became one of the councilors who tried and convicted Kendall. Kendall’s exact crime remains unclear, but it was severe enough to get him removed from the council and imprisoned aboard the Discovery ship, as no prisons had yet been built in Jamestown.
A clever blacksmith, who was about to be hanged for threatening the president of the council, managed to escape execution by accusing Kendall of being a Spanish spy. Kendall became the first Virginia colonist to be sentenced to death and was executed by firing squad.
5. Jane Champion, 1632
Less than 15 years after George Kendall’s trial and execution, another Virginia resident, Jane Champion, was accused of murder and became the first woman to be executed in the American colonies. The details of the murder and the motive are unknown, but she was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging.
4. Michael Hammond, 1708
In 1708, the English were relentless in their commitment to hang anyone found guilty of a crime, regardless of the offense or the offender's age. This harshness, compounded by their focus on theft, led to the tragic hanging of seven-year-old Michael Hammond and his eleven-year-old sister, Ann.
Michael, from King’s Lynn, holds the grim distinction of being the youngest person ever hanged for a felony. His crime was reportedly the theft of a loaf of bread. While theft is certainly wrong, no one seemed to take into account during his trial or execution that the thief was merely a young child.
3. Charles Brooks Jr., 1982
Charles Brooks Jr. and Woody Lourdes were convicted in 1976 for stealing a car during a test drive and fatally shooting the mechanic who accompanied them. Lourdes received a 40-year sentence, while Brooks became the first person to be executed by lethal injection.
The two men never disclosed who was responsible for shooting mechanic David Gregory in the head, but Brooks was the one who received the death sentence. On December 7, 1982, at 12:09 AM, surrounded by 20 witnesses in a Texas prison, Brooks was administered the barbiturate sodium thiopental. After reportedly moving and gasping, he was pronounced dead at 12:16 AM.
2. William Kemmler, 1890
William Kemmler, serving time at Auburn Prison in New York for murdering his lover with an axe, became the first person to die by electrocution. The electric chair, designed by prison electrician Edwin Davis, delivered its lethal current through electrodes placed on the felon’s head and back.
When Kemmler was executed, the initial shock lasted 17 seconds before it malfunctioned. A second shock, lasting about two minutes, was needed to complete the execution. Despite the first failure, the procedure was deemed successful, as it was quicker than hanging.
1. Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, 1792
While hanging remained the standard execution method in England, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was working on a more humane way to execute convicted criminals in France. After testing his invention, the guillotine, on various animals and human corpses, it was determined that the device cleanly severed the heads of the test subjects, making it ready for use on a live person.
Convicted of robbery and murder, Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by the guillotine. His head was swiftly severed and dropped into a wicker basket, while the crowd expressed their disapproval of the new method of execution.
Though much of the blood was quickly absorbed by sawdust, the guillotine was far less brutal and slow compared to its predecessor methods. Despite the crowd’s general distaste, the guillotine remained France’s execution method of choice until 1977.
