Decapitation

Decapitation, or beheading, is the removal of a living being's head, inevitably resulting in death. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, or knife, or by means of a guillotine. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, automobile or industrial accident or other violent injury. Suicide by decapitation is rare, but not unknown. In 2003 a British man killed himself by means of a home-made guillotine, constructed over a period of several weeks.

Some famous persons who have been beheaded

Biblical

• Goliath
• John the Baptist in the Gospels
• Holofernes in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith (probably fictional)
• Apostle James, traditionally
• Apostle Paul, traditionally

Islam

• 680 Imam Husayn bin Ali - which marked the division between Shia and Sunni

China

• Wen Tianxiang

Actually thousands of famous Chinese have been decapitated since decapitation was the most commonly used capital punishment in imperial China.

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England

• William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1483)
• Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (1521)
• Sir Thomas More (1535)
• George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (1536)
• Anne Boleyn (1536)
• Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (1540)
• Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)
• Catherine Howard (1542)
• Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1547)
• Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1549)
• Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1552)
• John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1553)
• Lord Guilford Dudley (1554)
• Lady Jane Grey (1554)
• Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1554)
• Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1572)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)
• Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601)
• Walter Raleigh (1618)
• Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1641)
• William Laud (1645)
• Charles I of England (1649)
• James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (1649)
• James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1685)
• Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (1747)

French Revolution

• Marie Antoinette
• Louis XVI of France
• Georges Danton
• Madame du Barry
• Madame Elisabeth
• Antoine Lavoisier
• Maximilien Robespierre
• Camille Desmoulins
• Louis de Saint-Just
• Philippe Egalité
• Jacques Hébert
• Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
• Jacques Pierre Brissot
• Charlotte Corday
• Madame Roland
• Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
• Jean Sylvain Bailly
• Antoine Barnave

Italy

• Beatrice and Lucrezia Cenci

Mythological

• Ganesha
• Medusa
• Mimir

Scotland

• William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered; his head was impaled on a pike on London Bridge
• Mary Queen of Scots

Nazi Germany

• Helmuth Hübener, 27 October, 1942 (beheaded for treason after distributing anti-Hitler leaflets; at 17, the youngest person executed by the Nazis for treason)
• Marinus van der Lubbe, January 10, 1934 (executed after he was accused of setting fire to the German Reichstag building)
• Sophie Scholl, February 22, 1943 (of the White Rose executed by Nazis for treason)

Modern era

• Yukio Mishima, November 25, 1970 (seppuku)
• Prince Faisal bin Musad, June, 1975
• Vic Morrow, July 23, 1982 (Actor killed in filming accident)
• Robert Lees, June 13, 2004 (murdered)

It is often stated that actress Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in the automobile accident that took her life in 1967, but this is untrue.

Related Topics:
Jayne Mansfield - 1967

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Iraq Insurgency Decapitation Victims

• 1 Bulgarian
• 1 Pakistani
• 1 Turkman
• 1 Nepali (one of twelve was beheaded http://www.shianews.com/hi/middle_east/news_id/0001150.php, the rest shot)
• 3 Iraqi Kurds
• 2 of unknown nationality
• Hans Christian Ostrø, August, 1995
• Nicholas Berg, April/May, 2004
• Paul Johnson, June 18, 2004
• Kim Sun-il, June 22, 2004
• Mohammed Mutawalli, August 8, 2004
• Khaled Abdul Messih, August 25, 2004
• Durmus Kumdereli, August 17/September 13 2004
• Eugene Armstrong September 20, 2004
• Jack Hensley September 21, 2004
• Barea Nafea Dawoud Ibrahim October 2, 2004
• Kenneth Bigley, October 8, 2004
• Luqman Mohammed Kurdi Hussein, reported October 11, 2004
• Maher Kemal, reported October 11, 2004
• Ala al-Maliki, October 12, 2004
• Fadhel Ibrahim, October 13, 2004
• Firas Imeil, October 13, 2004
• Ramazan Elbu, October 14, 2004
• Seif Adnan Kanaan, October 22, 2004
• 1 Iraqi, October 28, 2004 (one of eleven was beheaded, the rest shot)
• Shosei Koda, October 31, 2004
• Major Hussein Shunun, November 3, 2004