The Man They Couldn’t Hang

England, 1880. A prisoner survived his own execution… and walked away

a free man. A convicted murderer named John “Babbacombe” Lee stood on the gallows,

waiting for his execution to begin. The case was grim, the evidence thin, but the sentence

was death by hanging. When the executioner pulled the lever… nothing happened. The trapdoor beneath

Lee’s feet simply refused to open. They reset it and tried again. Still nothing.

A third attempt — same result. Each time, the mechanism jammed, even though it had

been tested that morning with heavy sandbags and had worked perfectly. Every witness claimed

the ropes and beams were in perfect condition — yet every attempt to hang him failed.