Decapitation: Complete separation of the head from the body

Beheading usually means that the removal of the head is deliberate. It is generally done during an execution with an axe, sword, or guillotine. If the removal of the head is an accident or unintentional, it is called decapitation. It can happen because of an auto accident, explosion, factory accident, a mistake during a hanging or some other violent accident.

Decapitation is always fatal, that is, the result is always death. This is because it causes all other organs to stop receiving nervous signals from the brain that are needed to function, while the supply of blood, and therefore oxygen, to the brain itself is also cut off.

Decapitation can also describe the removal of a head from a body that is already dead. In these situations, the head is usually a trophy or a public display of warning.

Beheading was the usual means of death penalty in Scandinavian countries in the past. Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, commoners with an axe. The last execution by beheading in Finland occurred in 1822, when a farmhand Tahvo Putkonen was beheaded for murder. The last beheading in Sweden occurred in 1910, when Johan Andersson-Ander was guillotined for murder. Also Germany, France and Belgium favoured beheading in the past. In those countries was carried out by guillotine.

Last beheading in Europe occurred 1977, when a Tunisian murderer Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined in France.

Some countries, especially Arab countries or former French colonies, still use beheading as the means of execution. In Saudi Arabia, the convicts are beheaded with a sword.

The executioner who performs beheadings is called a headsman.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has had centuries of public beheadings, but in 2013 is considering firing squads as an alternative means of execution.

 

Biblical

• Goliath
• John the Baptist in the Gospels
• Holofernes in the Book of Judith
• Apostle James, traditionally
• Apostle Paul, traditionally

China

• Guan Yu

 

England

• Anne Boleyn (1536)
• Catherine Howard (1542)
• Lady Jane Grey (1554)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)
• Sir Walter Raleigh (1618)
• Charles I, King of England and Scotland (1649)
• Blackbeard (1718)

The Colonial Americas

• Panama: Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1519)

Frisia

• Wijerd Jelckama

French Revolution

• Marie Antoinette
• Louis XVI of France
• Madame du Barry
• Maximilien Robespierre

Iraq

• Shosei Koda
• Kim Sun-il
• Kenneth Bigley
• Nick Berg
• Eugene Armstrong
• Jack Hensley
• Maher Kemal
• Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti

Switzerland

• Wildhans von Breitenlandenberg and 61 companions following the siege of Greifensee during the Old Zürich War (1444).

Saudi Arabia

• Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.

• Execution
• Guillotine