A Hangman’s Diary

The Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573-1617

De: Franz Schmidt, Albrecht Keller - editor and translator, C. Calvert BA - translator, A. W. Gruner MA - translator

Narrado por: John McLain

Now an esoteric of legal and criminal history, A Hangman's Diary gives a year-by-year breakdown on all of Master Franz Schmidt's executions, which included hangings, beheadings, and other methods, as well as details of each capital crime and the reason for the punishment.

From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal throughout his career.

A Hangman's Diary is not only a collection of detailed writings by Schmidt about his work but also an account of criminal procedure in Germany during the Middle Ages. With analysis and explanation, editor Albrecht Keller and translators C. Calvert and A. W. Gruner have put together a masterful tome that sets the scene of execution day and puts you in Master Franz Schmidt's shoes as he does his duty for his country.

An unusual and fascinating classic of crime and punishment, A Hangman's Diary is more than a history lesson; it shows the true anarchy that inhabited our world only a few hundred years ago.

Public Domain (P)2021 Tantor

HEADPHONE USERS BEWARE

very interesting book but the random static sounds almost like gunshots in my headphones. the narrator is fine, but the startling static is very distracting.

WTH…

I loved the story and narration BUT there was random static that came out of nowhere. And it was loud and was during most of the story. That aside it was great.

Great book. Poor audio file.

There were intermittent bursts of full amplitude white noise static. Please fix the corrupted source file. Potential buyers be warned.

Dry but Informative

I had no idea so many rascals lived and were tormented or executed back then. Fascinating view of history!

Interesting history

Intriguing what would get you killed or punished in Midevil times. The narrator does a fair job but sometimes feels mechanical in delivery.

Fascinating insights into the life of an executioner but

The story is interesting and compelling. However, the loud random static bursts are very annoying.

Interesting listen

Very interesting listen. I thought the introduction was very well done. The actual dairy itself is a list with some details on some of the condemned. That can get pretty repetitive at times, bit still there are some interesting stories in each year of the dairy.
On a personal note every 8-10 minutes I got this weird feedback. If others have this issue I can see the audio issue and the repetitiveness may have you leaving this unfinished. I thought it added a great weird horror element and genuinely creeped me out. As if I were listening to to some dark knowledge I wasn’t supposed to know.

Good , but …

There’s some loud static bursts between chapters. Kind of takes you out of the the story for a minute.

Loud static

The actual book is great but the loud piercing static bursts are awful. This needs to be fixed. I don’t know how the publisher missed that. Narrator was great though.

there is a very loud periodic static sound.

I can not listen to this book on headphones. there is a stabbingly loud sound of static that comes out of no where. I wish this could be fixed, because the book is fascinating otherwise.