Hanging is a very simple method of killing someone. You put a noose around the victim's neck and take away all other support so her own weight pulls the noose tight around her throat. Then you can leave her alone while she uses up her stored oxygen and dies. No special skill is required. No special equipment, just a rope and some sort of overhang — a tree branch, building beam, bridge, streetlight. Of course, you can be fancy and build a special gallows with its own beam if you want, but it's not needed.
And the noose doesn't have to be anything fancy. A noose is just a loop that tends to close when you pull on it. There's the traditional hangman's noose, with 7 or 13 turns in the knot, but a simple slipknot will work as well. For most of this century, the UK simply ran the rope through a grommet. For real simplicity, just wind the rope around the victim's neck, then pull up both ends of the rope.
For that matter, you don't even need the loop to tighten. If you put a collar around the victim's neck and tie the rope to it, the collar will press up and back on the victim's epiglottis, closing off her airway. There have been a few cases of people accidentally killed this way. Something around the victim's neck got caught on something that either rose up into the air, or they lost their footing and fell off something they were standing on. Either way, they strangled to death without having a "noose" in the traditional sense.
I think that hanging methods can be divided up into four main categories:
It seems likely this was the usual method in biblical times. Haman was hanged on "a gallows 50 cubits high" in the Book of Esther, and it seems likely he was hoisted. It was used in anti-draft riots during the civil war in New York to lynch blacks. "Hanging from the yardarm", the traditional punishment for mutiny, used a team of seamen to haul on the rope and hoist the prisoner into the air.
Some translators say Haman was not hanged, but "impaled on a stake 50 cubits high" instead. Another yummy way to snuff someone.
The "Commando strangle" is really a form of hanging. You come up behind the victim, flip a thin cord around her neck, and turn around. This crosses the ends, making a loop around her neck. Then you bend forward, hauling her into the air, and her own weight pulls the loop tight. Expect bruises on the back of your shins from her kicking as she strangles to death.
Hoisting — using a simple loop — shows up in the movies "Bloody Birthday" and "Blowout", among others.
When the victim is hoisted the pressure is applied gradually over the course of a second or more. Not much danger of breaking anything vital.
Tyburn "tree" was actually a set of three beams in a triangle, held up by posts at the corneres. The prisoners were brought in on carts, the hangman put the nooses around their necks, up to 6 at a time. then the cart was driven away, leaving them hanging.
Lynchings in the American West frequently used a horse. Tie the victim's arms, put her on a horse, put the noose around her neck and tie it to an overhanging branch. Give the horse a swat on the ass and it runs out from under her. In spite of comments in the novel "The Oxbow Incident", it's unlikely any necks were broken this way. The drop just wasn't long enough.
Variants of this are used by suicides. Stand on a chair with a noose around your neck and kick over the chair. Or use a stool, ottoman, small table... even the proverbial bucket (as in "kick the bucket").
Tyburn shows up in some movies set in 18-19th c. England. The variant with a horse is used in a lot of B-movie westerns. A ladder was used to hang Victoria Winters in the old Dark Shadows TV show. The hangman and sheriff carried her up about 3 rungs, put the noose around her neck, and tilted the ladder out from under her. This version seems to have been common in the UK during the 17th and 18th c.
The movie of "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge" shows another variant. They ran a plank out from the side of a bridge. A bunch of soldiers stood on the inboard end, they put the prisoner on the outboard end with a noose around his neck. The soldiers stepped off, the board tilted out from under him, and he fell until the noose stopped him. Or maybe this should be thought of as a trapdoor at its simplest...
Some UK hangmen seem to have used this — it's easy to throw the victim off the ladder, then quickly climb down and move the ladder out of reach of their feet. Especially if you tie the feet together first, and/or the attachment point for the rope is several feet away horizontally so she tends to hang at a distance from the ladder. It would probably take awhile to get up enough pendulum swing to reach the ladder again.
This method is also used by some suicides. Tie the rope to a bridge or the edge of a roof and jump off.
The notorious highwayman Dick Turpin was hanged this way. According to a guide in York, hanging was a "do it yourself" affair in Yorkshire back then. He was required to climb up the ladder, put the noose around his own neck, and jump off. Presumably someone took the ladder away before he could change his mind. Or maybe — just maybe — they actually had a long enough drop to break his neck.
There's also a variant using a balcony and an overhead beam. Bring the victim out from the 2nd or 3rd floor onto a balcony, put the noose around her neck, and push her off. This also bears some similarity to the trapdoor, in that the platform she is hanged from is still there, potentially in reach of her feet — so you need a drop of 3 or more feet to keep her from getting back up on the platform.
I saw a newsclip with a variant once — a judicial hanging in Libya, I think. Two men lifted the victim a foot or so into the air while a third put the noose around his neck. Then they just let go.
The trapdoor is similar to "turning off" or "throwing off" in its mechanical effect on the victim. But the dramatic effect is quite different. In "turning off", the victim feels the cart or horse sliding out from under her, or the raised object tilt underneath as she slides off to one side. In "throwing off", someone's hands hold her up then throw her off — or push her off the edge of a platform. But with a trapdoor, the victim is standing on a seemingly solid floor, which then drops away underneath them. One moment she's standing, the next she's falling, then the noose jerks tight around her neck and she starts strangling.
The state of Washington uses a double-leaf trap — two hinged pieces with a latch holding them together. So did the UK until they abolished capital punishment. You stand the prisoner right over the split with the noose around her neck. When you open the trap she falls straight down.
Earlier hangings used a single-leaf trap — a platform with a hinged edge, held up by a some sort of latch or a pole underneath. Open the latch, or remove the pole and the trap swings out from under the prisoner, letting them fall and the noose tighten around their neck. The men convicted of conspiring with Booth to kill Lincoln were hanged this way. Or the single leaf can be in the center of a platform, as in the movie "Cat Ballou".
I've even read of fancy trap mechanisms that withdrew the trapdoor halves sideways into the gallows platform — akin to "turning off" in some ways. The mechanism of the trapdoor is also subject to variation. I believe the State of Washington uses an electromagnetic latch to hold the two halves together. Once the victim is in position and noosed, the hangman pushes a button to open the trap.
Of course, when you hang someone from a platform that is still there after the trap opens, you need at least a few feet of drop. Otherwise they might be able to pendulum over and get their feet back onto the platform again. Embarrassing as hell for the officials in charge. Three or four feet seems to have been usual before the invention of the long drop (6-9 feet, depending on weight).
The long drop has another advantage that isn't used much: if you want to hang a large number of people in a short time, you can drop them, cut them down, and immediately reuse the gallows. The long drop makes a real mess of the trachea, and the victim will strangle to death even if cut down. I don't know if it's possible to save someone after a long drop — you would have to perform a tracheotomy, and you'd still have the spinal cord damage to contend with.
I believe the UK used three slots in one side of the trap. When the hangman pulled the lever, the slots would line up with projections on the other side and allow the trap to open.
Older trapdoors used a rope attached to a pin stuck through a hasp. Pulling the lever pulled the pin out and let the trap fall. A variant on this used three guards, each holding a knife over a thread. On a signal from the warden, the guards would simultaneously cut the threads. One of the threads would release a weight which in turn would pull the pin out of the trapdoor. This spread the responsibility around — none of the guards knew which one had actually hanged the prisoner. Same trick as the firing squad with one blank. This always seemed cowardly to me. If you're willing to execute someone, you should accept the responsibility or not involve yourself at all.
So, what's your favorite?