A Look Back At The Disturbing Practice Of Gibbeting

Published October 24, 2021
Updated March 4, 2024

Gibbeted bodies would stink so badly that nearby residents would have to shut their windows to keep the wind from carrying the bodies’ stench into their homes.

The Gibbet

Chronicle / Alamy Stock PhotoThe gibbet was a form of public execution meant to deter criminals.

Throughout history, criminals have been subjected to punishments that now seem needlessly grisly and barbaric. Notable among these was the gibbet, which punished criminals not only in life but also in death.

Gibbeting was the practice of locking criminals in human-shaped cages and hanging them up for display in public areas as a warning to others. The gibbet itself refers the wooden structure from which the cage was hung.

This brutal, gallows-style public execution most often killed its victims over the course of several days, usually by causing them to die of exposure, dehydration, and/or starvation. And although the gibbet was meant to deter other would-be criminals from committing the same crime as the sentenced, if the monarch at the time was unpopular, this could backfire greatly.

What Was The Gibbet?

The gibbet traces its origins back to the Medieval period, a style of public execution meant to deter criminals, similar to the guillotine, the executioner’s block, an impalement stake, or hanging gallows. Placing a criminal’s body in a gibbet to be put on display was also known as “hanging in chains.”

Despite having been in use for centuries, the practice of gibbeting was officially codified in England by the Murder Act of 1751. This act allowed those accused of murder to be executed via gibbet, and the punishment was largely used to punish traitors, robbers, murderers, pirates, and highwaymen.

By leaving their dead bodies hanging from the gibbet, law enforcement believed that other would-be criminals would be deterred from committing similar crimes.

Reconstruction Of A Gibbet

Andrew Dunn/Wikimedia CommonsReconstruction of a gibbet at Caxton Gibbet in Cambridgeshire, England.

In most cases, criminals were executed prior to being gibbeted. However, criminals were occasionally gibbeted alive and left to die of exposure and starvation/dehydration.

Oddly enough, the gibbeting of a criminal was considered to be a great spectacle. Happy crowds would gather to see it, sometimes amounting to tens of thousands of people. Obviously, gibbeting was the subject of much macabre fascination.

The victims of gibbeting were always men; since female corpses were in high demand from surgeons and anatomists, female criminals were always dissected rather than gibbeted.

There were, however, a few notable times in which gibbeting backfired on an unpopular monarch. Such an instance occurred in the early 14th century under the rule of King Edward II. When Edward II’s enemies — the rebels Henry of Montfort and Henry of Wylynton — were drawn and hanged, the king ordered their bodies be displayed via gibbet near Bristol.

Gibbet

Chronicle / Alamy Stock PhotoAn 1804 illustration of an early execution gibbet.

Given that Edward II was not well regarded by his people, however, the Henries’ bodies were instead made into relics and utilized as symbols of rebellion and protest against the king. Some rumors even circulated, claiming that miracles occurred in proximity to the gibbet that displayed their bodies.

Eventually, the method began to lose some popularity, particularly after lawmakers declared that the bodies of convicted murderers had to be either publicly dissected or gibbeted.

Why, exactly, gibbeting fell out of favor is fairly easy to see in hindsight, though.

Why Gibbeting Fell Out Of Favor

While witnessing a gibbeting was quite enjoyable to many, living near a gibbet was gross and unpleasant.

Gibbeted bodies would stink so badly that nearby residents would have to shut their windows to keep the wind from carrying the bodies’ stench into their homes.

Winters Gibbet In Northumberland

Clearview / Alamy Stock PhotoWinter’s Gibbet in Northumberland.

Furthermore, gibbets spooked people by creaking and clanking eerily. The wind added to their eeriness by making them twist and sway.

People who lived near them would have to put up with their stench and eeriness as birds and bugs ate their corpses. Typically, gibbets wouldn’t be removed until well after the corpse became nothing more than a skeleton. Hence, gibbets often stood for years.

Authorities made the bodies difficult to remove by hanging them from 30-foot-tall posts. Sometimes, they made the posts even taller. On one occasion, they even studded a post with 12,000 nails to keep it from being torn down.

Blacksmiths who were tasked with making gibbet cages often had a hard time doing so, since they often had no prior knowledge of the structures. Consequently, the cages’ designs varied greatly. They were also expensive to make.

Some people, such as the English naval administrator Samuel Pepys, objected to gibbeting on the grounds that it was barbaric. Some Christians also objected to the practice, arguing that the persecution of criminals should end with their death, and that displaying their bodies posthumously was disrespectful.

Gibbet Cage

NotFromUtrecht/Wikimedia CommonsA gibbet cage on display at Leicester Guildhall Museum.

Despite the people’s objections to the practice, the trouble that gibbets caused their neighbors, and how difficult and expensive they were to make, authorities insisted on using this grisly form of execution.

Authorities at the time felt that the key to stopping crime was making its punishment as appalling as possible. They argued that appalling punishments like gibbeting showed would-be criminals that breaking the law was far from worthwhile.

Authorities saw gibbeting as a way to prevent not only murder but also lesser crimes. They gibbeted people for robbing the mail, piracy, and smuggling, among other crimes.

Captain Kidd In A Gibbet

Science History Images / Alamy Stock PhotoAn 18th century illustration depicting Captain Kidd hanging in chains for piracy.

However, despite the appalling nature of gibbeting, crime in England failed to decline while the practice was in use. This is perhaps part of the reason why it fell out of favor and was formally abolished in 1834.

Although gibbeting is a thing of the past, remnants of the practice can be found throughout England. Over a dozen gibbet cages remain in the country, most of which are in small museums.

Furthermore, many criminals lent their names to the places where they were gibbeted. As a result, many of England’s towns and regions have roads and features that bear the names of gibbeted criminals. The names of these places serve as reminders of the disturbing punishment that the country once embraced.


After learning about the grisly practice of gibbeting, read the last words of 23 notorious criminals before they were executed. Then see the 384-year-old shopping list found underneath a historic house in England.

author
All That's Interesting
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A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
Austin Harvey
editor
A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Austin Harvey has also had work published with Discover Magazine, Giddy, and Lucid covering topics on mental health, sexual health, history, and sociology. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Point Park University.