Word: neck
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...hangman; to see him in one of the local pubs drinking his pint of ale, one would think he was a farmer who had come to the village to sell his produce. One of his favorite jokes on meeting a person is to say, "What a lovely neck." I will never forget the shudder that went over me when he told me: "Ah, you are a large man, you would drop nicely." He told me one time that he was taught the trade by his father, who hanged himself when he became too old to enjoy life, and that...
...Bronx, ex-Pfc. Peter Boucouvales, paralyzed from the waist down by the bullet which had lodged in his neck, lay between clean sheets in the Veterans Administration Hospital. The corridors were cheerless, the windows dirty. His lunch of filet of sole, peas, rice, cole slaw and lemon pie was cold by the time it got to him, but filling nevertheless. Lying in bed, naked to the waist, Boucouvales gazed down at his full stomach. His belly was getting so big, he told the nurses, he ought to be switched to the maternity ward...
...spite of his flapping blue uniform and red scarf with white polka dots, he had shed all his clownishness. He made no attempt to save his neck, again & again gluttonously claimed responsibility: "I am responsible for German rearmament. . . . I always wanted bombers for bombing the U.S. . . . I personally gave the orders to bomb Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry." With furious gusto, he shifted blame from fellow defendants to himself. He spoke with unvarying respect of Adolf Hitler, cried: "I do not propose in any way to hide behind the Führer...
...Thomas Pierrepoint was a good craftsman. He had a keen eye for sizing up the strength of his subjects' neck muscles; he always tied the noose so that it would break the vertebrae at the first snap and spare the poor blighter a lot of agony. He was discreet about his job, never talked to newsmen, never sold souvenirs. He well earned his 15 guineas ($63) for each hanging job; but, as Mrs. Pierrepoint said: "Chief trouble is, the job's not a regular...
...brainy civil engineer who built more dams than any man in history (19, including Boulder and Shasta); of a heart attack; in Redding, Calif. Blustering Hurry Up Crowe once bellowed at a worker: "Watch what the hell you're doing or you'll fall and break your neck." Retorted the worker: "Well, it's my neck." Shot back Crowe: "Yes, it's your neck now, but as soon as you break it, it's mine...