hanging

     People who have read about illegal hangings may have missed something. Hanging was the method of executing criminals for centuries. The last hanging of a condemned criminal in the United states was in 1970.  That's part of what made the unlawful lynchings in the South so sinister--the people who did the hanging constituted themselves a secret government of some kind, and too often believed that they were merely meting out "justice".  They weren't merely violent criminals, but an organized cult with a warped philosophy--a philosophy we still hear too much of today, propounded by people and groups who believe themselves superior to government by the people and the rule of law.