Leaks: US Supreme Court Staffer Leaks Roe v Wade... WitchHunt Protests Police Ensue

[grarpamp]

Catalogue of the Choice, Curious, and Valuable Library of the late
George Nassau Esq, which will be sold by auction, by Mr. Evans, at
his house, No. 93, Pall-Mall, on Monday March 8, and Seven following
days, Sunday excepted, 1824. Part the second, second day's sale, quarto:

Page 17 Item 357: The Murderous Midwife with her Roasted Punishment:
Being a true and full Relation of a Midwife that was put into an
Iron Cage with sixteen Wild Cats, and so Roasted to Death, by
hanging over a Fire, for having found in her House of Office no
less than Sixty two Children, at Paris, 1673.

About the particularly brutal manner in which a French midwife was
put to death on 28 May 1673 in Paris. No fewer than 62 infant
skeletons were found buried on her premises, and she was condemned
on multiple accounts of abortion / infanticide...

A gibbet was erected, under which a fire was made, and the prisoner
being brought to the place of execution, was hung up in a large
iron cage, in which were also placed sixteen wild cats, which had
been catched in the woods for the purpose. When the heat of the
fire became too great to be endured with patience, the cats flew
upon the woman, as the cause of the intense pain they felt. In about
fifteen minutes they had pulled out her entrails, though she continued
yet alive, and sensible, imploring, as the greatest favour, an
immediate death from the hands of some charitable spectator. No one
however dared to afford her the least assistance; and she continued
in this wretched situation for the space of thirty-five minutes,
and then expired in unspeakable torture. At the time of her death,
twelve of the cats were expired, and the other four were all dead
in less than two minutes afterwards.

The English commentator adds his own view on the matter:

However cruel this execution may appear with regard to the poor
animals, it certainly cannot be thought too severe a punishment for
such a monster of iniquity, as could calmly proceed in acquiring a
fortune by the deliberate murder of such numbers of unoffending,
harmless innocents. And if a method of executing murderers, in a
manner somewhat similar to this was adapted in England, perhaps the
horrid crime of murder might not so frequently disgrace the annals
of the present times.