March 25, 940 Japan Samurai Taira no Masakado is beheaded in battle by his cousin Masakado has led a small rebellion against the emperor. During that time, he killed his uncle Kunika, earning him a bounty on his head. His cousin, son of the uncle he killed, killed Masakado at the Battle of Kojima, severed…
Postcard featuring beheading executions
March 7, 1905 Vietnam Two murderers are executed Little is known about the crimes or the execution except what is captioned on this macabre postcard: "Exécution capitale de deux assassins annamites le 7 mars 1905 avant l'abolition de la peine de mort" (Execution of the two Vietnamese murders on 7th March 1905 before the abolition…
Johann Sylvan executed for Unitarian beliefs
December 23, 1572 Heidelberg, Germany Reformed German theologian Johann Sylvan is executed for publishing antitrinitarian literature Sylvan had published a thesis entitled "True Christian Confession of the Ancient Faith of the One True God and of Messiah Jesus of the True Christ, against the Three-Person Idol and the Two-Natured False Deity of the Antichrist," an…
St. Edmund shot with enough arrows to resemble a hedgehog then beheaded; a talking wolf leads his followers to his severed head
November 20, 869 (or 870) Kingdom of East Anglia (modern day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk) Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia, is killed for refusing to renounce Christ Edmund was defeated by the Great Heathen Army (also known as the Great Viking Army or Great Danish Army) when East Anglia was invaded…
The first two victims of the Cleveland Torso Murderer found (graphic)
September 23, 1935 Cleveland, Ohio Edward Andrassy and an unidentified male are found decapitated and emasculated near Jackass Hill The headless, emasculated bodies of Andrassy and a still unidentified male were discovered roughly 30 feet from each other. Though both bodies had been found the same day, they had been murdered at separate times: Andrassy…
