John Chris

John Chris Woods, born 05-06-1911, Wichita, Kansas, was an American Master Sergeant and the hangman for the Third United States Army at the Nuremberg Trials. Together with Joseph Malta, on October 16, 1946, Woods carried out the executions of the ten convicted German Main War Criminals. Joseph Malta (27-11-1918 in Revere, Massachusetts– 06-01-1999 in Revere Massachusetts was the hangman who, with Woods, executed the top 10 leaders of the Third Reich in Nuremburg on October 16, 1946, for crimes against humanity.

    Malta was a 28-year-old U.S. Army military policeman when he volunteered for the job of hanging the men condemned by the International Military Tribunal. He hanged 60 Nazi government and military leaders. A floor sander in civilian life, Malta left the Army in 1947 and returned to his former job. "It was a pleasure doing it," noted Malta in later life, echoed the sentiments of his hangman partner John C Woods.  The executions took place in the gymnasium of Nuremberg Prison. Either Woods or his colleague Malta calculated wrong lengths for the ropes used for the executions, so that several convicts did not die quickly due ;))to a broken neck as intended, but had to suffer a slow and painful death by suffocation. In addition to that mistake, the trapdoor was too small, so that several convicts suffered bloody head injuries when they hit the trapdoor. Woods is said to have kept small pieces of the rope used for each convict as his souvenir, considered to be against the policy adopted at Nuremberg Trials by the Colonel in charge of executions. Altogether he executed 347 people during his 15-year career. Woods said after the Nuremberg executions: "I hanged those ten Nazis... and I am proud of it... I wasn't nervous.... A fellow can't afford to have nerves in this business.... I want to put in a good word for those G.I.s who helped me... they all did swell.... I am trying to get [them] a promotion.... The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident, years ago in the States...." and  "Ten men in 103 minutes. That's fast work.". Woods was accidentally electrocuted while repairing a high voltage power line in Eniwetok, Marshall Islands , on 21-07-1950, age 39. He is buried in Toronto Township Cemetery, Toronto Kansas.

 

     

 

            

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