Garrote
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A garrote (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, or wire used to strangle someone to death. The term especially refers to an execution device, but is sometimes used in assassination because it can be completely silent. The garotte was allegedly employed by Thuggees. A garotte can be made out of many different materials, including ropes, ty-reps, fishing lines, nylon and iron wires. Due to its small size, it is easily concealed, and can, if made out of non-iron parts, bypass a metal-detector.
Some incidents of garroting have involved a stick used to tighten the garrote; the Spanish name actually refers to that very 'rod', so it is a pars pro toto where the eponymous component may actually be absent. One of the reasons possession of a nunchaku is illegal in many jurisdictions is that it can easily be employed as a garrote in some configurations.
In British criminal law, garrotte also was a defined type of violent robbery using at least physical threat against the victims. The imposition of a punishment comprising flagellation in addition to penal servitude was successful in almost eliminating it in the 19th century.
Use as an Execution Device
The garrote particularly refers to the execution device used by the Spaniards until the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship as recently as 1974. In Spain, it was abolished, as well as the death penalty, in 1978 with the new constitution. Originally, it was an execution where the convict was killed by hitting him with a club ("garrote" in Spanish). Later, it was refined and consisted of a seat to restrain the condemned person while the executioner tightened a metal band around his neck with a crank or a wheel until suffocation of the executee.
Some versions of this device incorporated a fixed metal blade or spike directed at the spinal cord, to hasten the breaking of the neck. The spiked version, called the Catalan garrote, was used as late as 1897 in Spain but would continue up to 1940 in Cuba (as well as being used by some other colonies until shortly after the 1898 Spanish-American War). A further alternate device involved two metallic squares covered with leather, of which the upper one moved over the bottom one when the executioner turned the lever, breaking the inmate's neck trapped inside.
The garrote was not abolished in the Philippines after that Spanish colony became American in 1898. At least four executions using this method were carried out in Puerto Rico after it became an American colony.
Short History
The use of the garotte as a strangling cord, started in the Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal. It was already in use during the conquista of Latin America, as attested by the execution of the Inca emperor Atahualpa. In the 1810's the first metallic versions of garrottes appeared, and started to be used in Spain. In 28th of April 1828 they would be declared the single civilian execution method in Spain. The Portuguese Penal Code, in 1851, would include it as an execution method (substituing hanging), but it would never be used under that provision.In May 1897, the last public garrotting was carried out in Spain, in Barcelona. After that, all executions would be held in private inside prisons (even if the press took photos of some of them).
The last civilian executions in Spain were those of Pilar Prades in May 1959 and José María Jarabo in July 1959. Recent legislations made many crimes belong to military legislation (like robbery-murder), thus for several years prosecutors would very sparsely request civilian executions. Several executions would still be carried out in Spain, 8 of them in the 1970s: the January 1972 firing squad execution of robber-murderer Pedro Martínez Expósito, the garrottings of cop killers Heinz Ches and Salvador Puig Antich in March 1974 (the last garrottings in Spain and the world) and the firing squad executions of 5 terrorists from ETA and FRAP in September 1975.
With the 1973 Penal Code, prosecutors once again started requesting execution in civilian cases. If the death penalty had not been abolished in 1976 after dictator Franco's death, most likely civilian executions would have resumed. The last man to be sentenced to death by garrotting was José Luis Cerveto in October 1977, for a double robbery murder in May 1974 (he was also a pedophile). He requested the democratic government to execute him, but his sentence was commuted. Another prisoner whose civilian death sentence was commuted by the new Government was businessman Juan Ballot, for the hire murder of his wife in Navarra in November 1973.
The garotte was sometimes used in England to execute religious "heretics" before they were burned at the stake.
The Garrote In Popular Culture
- In the movie Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt is garroted by Princess Leia when she sneaks up behind him and uses the chain she is bound with to strangle him.
- In The Godfather movie and video game, Luca Brasi is garrotted by the henchmen of opposing gangster, Virgil Sollozzo.
- A restraining-seat garrote, similar to the one pictured on this page, was used to try to execute James Bond in the movie The World Is Not Enough. This particular garrote incorporated a rounded metal fixture in lieu of a blade. The villainess, Elektra King, claimed that it would take five turns of the wheel to break Bond's neck; naturally, she managed to complete only four turns before Bond (with a little help) was able to free himself.
- In the "Black Market" episode of the 2004 TV series Battlestar Galactica, Commander Jack Fisk of the Battlestar Pegasus is garroted by a henchman of a black market ringleader.
- Agent 47 in the Hitman video game series almost always carries a fiber wire to garrote unsuspecting targets and guards.
- In the movie, book, and show Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom's weapon of choice is a garotte.
- In the film "Friday the 13th part two" the character of "Crazy Ralph" is garroted with a piece of Barbed Wire" by the then pillowcase wearing Jason Voorhees.
- In Cuco Valoy's salsa classic 'El Juicio' the singer talks about the messiah returning with a garrote as well as a machete to punish the wicked.
See also
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