Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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A real life horror story I came across in the May 9th, 1901 issue of the 'Weekly British Whig' (Kingston, Ontario).

Here is the full article:

"Cut Off His Head

"Peterboro Man Took His Life in a Remarkable Manner

"Peterboro, May 7 – Word has reached here that John Connelly, an old Peterboro lumberman, committed suicide in a most unique way.

"Connelly was cutting wood in a lonely place, and erected a trap or dead fall, but using a pole, one eod of which he fastened between two trees and elevated the end so that he could place a figure four under it. Then he placed a heavy weight on the top of the pole, and on the under side of it he fastened his axe with face down, then he laid a large block on the ground and in the block was a place rounded out for his neck, and two holes bored and a pin in each one, on either side of the hollow, to keep his head from being moved by the fall of the axe. He crawled under this trap and lying on his back with the face up and his neck on the block between the two pins, he was ready to depart. With a long stick or paddle he knocked down the figure four and down came the axe with all the heavy weight to force it and completely severed the head from the body. He still held the stick in his hand when found and death must have been instantaneous.

"Connolly [sic?] went ot the west from this town thirty years ago."