Many times our minds were piqued by something we had seen and we were curious enough to investigate some certain situation. On one particular cowboy show, Dennis and I were put off at the fact a man had hanged himself simply by kicking a stool out from under himself. Fake…boo. How could that possibly be fatal? I was seven at the time and Dennis was closing in on his ninth birthday. We had seen numerous hangings where the trap door was released and the bad guy’s neck was snapped as the slack ran out of the rope after a 10 foot fall. Now that was how hanging killed someone!!!
Still, we were curious as to how much death a person could inflict on themselves simply by kicking out a stool so we decided to field our own little experiment. For this we needed some rope, which we found in the back yard by the tree house. We didn’t know how to make a hangman’s noose so we just made a simple slip knot and made sure it wouldn’t come loose when we tried to hang ourselves.
With our rope now ready we needed a beam to throw the rope over. We easily realized the branch of our front yard tree would make a suitable beam, so we headed for the front yard.
Now we were ready to validate our hypothesis that just merely dangling from the end of a rope cannot cause death. To enact our plan it was agreed I would climb up the tree and put the noose over my head. I would then slip off the branch and hold onto the rope myself as I dangled in mid air. If indeed, I could tell this was a possible way of causing death I would let go of the rope myself and gravity would pull me to the ground, thus ending the experiment.
I climbed up the tree, got out into the middle of the branch, put the noose over my head and let myself slip off the branch while I kept a hold of it as if I were going to do chin ups. I let go of the branch with one hand and used it to grab a hold of the rope. There I was, possibly suspended between life and death. I had one hand on the branch, the other hand on the rope. The experiment was now only seconds away from its start. I let go of the branch and held on tight to the rope with both hands.The rope immediately tightened around my neck as I slipped down a few inches from the branch and the slack went out of the rope. I was quick to grab the rope with both hands. The grip only lasted for a hundredth of a second as I could instantly tell this was not a recommended activity for the human body. The slip knot held wonderfully as the full weight of my body was hanging there from the tree with only my head keeping me inside the noose. The fire in my throat was a quick reaction to the rope pushing my larynx deeper into my neck. The experiment was over in a second. I knew this was a bad way to die so I let go of the rope…My descent to earth did not happen. I was slowly slipping farther away from the branch. Finding myself in this precarious situation I started to flail my hands and wrench my body as if…as if…well..as if I were choking to death!!
Dennis immediately saw the cause of my slow return to earth. He was standing on the rope. He made a quick side step off the rope and I came hurtling down with a thud. With the slack now back in the rope I was able to breath again. I pulled the rope away from my neck and off my head. I had a rope burn about an inch wide all the way around my neck. I tried to cry, but could only emit a sound made by someone whose mouth is full of marshmallows. The rope had temporarily robbed me of my voice.
What is the moral of this story??? Don’t try hanging yourself. It is painful, dangerous and stupid.