Singapore’s hangman is a semi-retired 73 year old desi named Darshan Singh. This man, who looks like any other jolly uncle on the street, has executed over 850 prisoners in his 46 years at the job.
Darshan Singh holds the world’s record for executions: 18 men in one day, three at a time. He takes real pride in his work, bragging that he has never botched an execution. The government pays him $312 for each execution and he gets to dress casually at his job, “often just a T-shirt, shorts, sports shoes and knee-length socks.” [Link]
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p>His next execution is likely to be that of convicted Australian drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen.
Nguyen will meet Mr Singh a few days before he is executed and will be asked if he would like to donate his organs.On the day before his execution, Mr Singh will lead him to a set of scales close to his death-row cell to weigh him.
Mr Singh will use the Official Table of Drops, published by the British Home Office in 1913, to calculate the correct length of rope for the hanging. “I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.”
On the day of Nguyen’s execution, Mr Singh will be picked up by a government vehicle and driven to the prison, arriving at 2am local time (0400 AEST) to prepare the gallows.
Shortly before 6am, he will handcuff Nguyen’s hands behind his back and lead him on his final short walk to the gallows, just a few metres from the cell.
… Darshan Singh will place a rope around the 25-year-old’s neck and say the words he has spoken to more than 850 condemned prisoners during his 46 years as Singapore’s chief executioner.
“I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you.”
[According to his colleague:] “Death has always come instantaneously and painlessly. In that split second, at precisely 6am, it’s all over.” [Link]
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p>He’s still working because the government is having a hard time finding somebody to replace him: “Mr Singh tries to comfort them if they are completely alone in the world at such a horrible time.”
“He tried to train two would-be hangmen to replace him, a Malaysian and a Chinese, both in the prison service,” the colleague said.
“But when it came to pulling the lever for the real thing, they both froze and could not do it.
“The Chinese guy, a prison officer, became so distraught he walked out immediately and resigned from the prison service altogether…” [Link]
<
p>Darshan Singh acquired his trade by accident rather than by design:
Mr Singh joined the British colonial prison service in the mid-1950s after arriving from Malaysia. When the long-established British hangman Mr Seymour retired, Singh, then 27, volunteered for the job. He was attracted by the bonus payment for executions. “It’s all I know. It has become my bread and butter.”“He also used to cane convicted criminals after training in this field,” the colleague said.
“The pay then was 50cents per stroke. He could wield a cane as well as he could wield a cricket bat.”
Mr Singh lives happily with his second wife and is close to their three adult adopted children.
His first wife left him years earlier because she could not accept what he did. He had kept it a secret from her for years.
When his colleague asked him why he had stayed so long in such a gruesome job, he replied: “It’s all I know. It has become my bread and butter.” [Link]
The article makes him out to be a caring sort, not a sadist:
Mr Singh reportedly spends time getting to know the condemned prisoners, especially those who do not receive visitors or religious support.“He is a very kindly man and although it’s his job to end their lives he does feel for them,” his friend said. “Mr Singh tries to comfort them if they are completely alone in the world at such a horrible time.” [Link]
Up till now, his identity has been a closely held secret but he was outed by the Australian press because of the interest in the Nguyen case. Even now he can’t comment directly on the case, so most of the information about him was given by a friend. [Via BoingBoing]
UPDATE: Darshan Singh can retire now, we’ve found a replacement. I’ll see if we can get a similar topless shot of him, but for now, this will have to do:
Yep and its an ok job. At least its jhatka
Doesn’t Wrangham make a pretty good case that intentional violence is a widespread feature amongst some primates?
so? 1) you should read my blog perhaps before you assume that i buy into the naturalistic fallacy. common chimpanzees regularly engage in sperm competition where they load a fertile female with as much jizz as possible because they know that their cousin is going to be dipping his quill into the glue pot soon. i certainly don’t think that that means humans should behave in the same way. 2) no non-human creature has constructed societies with laws, abstract principles and processes which render null and void the lives of its own conspecifics in a mechanistic fashion. biology scaffolds our social interactions, but how the details are sketched out is due to higher processes. and in any case, i’ve turned against wrangham’s particular model of evolutionary psychology (as applied to humans) over the past few years on grounds of weak science.
i didn’t hate on the guy, i don’t really care much about the specific case. but being part of the state killing machine is a serious affair, and i don’t think that people should defend this guy as if he is a 9-5 lunch bucket type. i’m personally marginally in favor of the death penalty in the abstract, though operationally against it in implementation (in other words, i think it is a good last-resort threat in the legal system). but it is a serious issue, people can disagree, and these are human lives, scum or not, that we are contending with here.
similarly, being a soldier is a serious affair. sometimes it takes courage, sometimes it doesn’t. i’m not going to get into my personal philosophy about it, aside from the fact that turning people in killing industries into gods or devils or mortals reduces the complexity of their situation. they can be all or none or some of all the entities i listed.
well ArZan at least you didnt chose the dilf Tees.
Had he not been a desi uncle type he wouldnt have been mentioned. And he is in the 9-5 type. As a society the complexity exists but not for everyone equaly, the judge and the sociey as a whole which decide the penalties for different crimes are the ones who face the more complex situation. His job is a 9-5 kind and its an OK job the same as a transcriptionist or records clerk in a court.
Do you really think so GGK?
No matter your views on the death penalty, you don’t think having to execute people on a regular basis gives this job some rather unnerving overtones?
I would think that this line of work exacts a toll, somehow, on those who do it….but he seems all sorts of well-adjusted and kindly. Either he’s completely detached himself from what he does, or he’s reconciled the two in some way I’d like to know about, or he’s able to shrug this off with that “if not me, then someone else” logic that also shrugs off free agency.
I’m not judging the guy…he does seem like he genuinely wants to give the condemned some sense of peace in their final moments.
But at the same time, I wonder what Kafka (maybe Kundera?) would make of the condemned man’s perspective……walking up to the final moments of life, and the man who is about to make you dangle is wearing knee-socks.
(does it count as gallows humor if it actually involves gallows? or is it just stripped to bare absurdity and doesn’t count as more than a bad pun?)
I think I’d die laughing.
Ok its more complicated than that and i know what youre getting at. Its 9-5 kind of job in the sense he is not taking the responsibilty of deciding who should be executed for their offenses. The folks deciding that are the ones dealing with the real complexity and its a more grim situation for them. Mr singh shouldnt bear any guilt for what he does for a living. Like he said himself he doesnt know anything else so his socio-economic background presented him with limited oppurtunites If you are in his knee high socks carrying a noose you shouldnt let it bother you. Look at it from his perspective you have limited options for a career Theres an hindi-urdu-punjabi refrain sigh and as you exhale say Gam ke liye bhi sahuliyat chahiye (ie to feel sorrow you need some level of material comfort)…i’d modify it to sapne dekhne ke liye sahuliyat chahiye. ie to have desires you need a level of material comfort… Your expectations are influenced by your economic background. A lot of folks dont have the luxury of choices and have to take what comes their way and they are content with that because they were not expecting much.
If you think death penalty/caning should be outlawed why should you hold that against mr singh like some pompus a55 had done earlier accusing him of having sold his soul for money. I’m sorry i’m on another tangent…. Its more irritating to see western desi’s who dont understand that there are people outside the western world with limited oppurtunities and they still pass on their elitist judgement on people whose background leaves them less choices
Ok Ok
So unclejie doesn’t have a run of the mill job, but so what, he’s happy and clearly by the picture not at all hungry! Eating more than just bread and butter 😉
But come on, why are our indian uncles so casual about something like having a photo put in the paper. Most people I know will be in their finest attire if they know that they were going to be in the paper.
Alright; if Mr Singh actually knew that this photo would be used and he therefore posed for it accordingly and with full knowledge, that’s okay then. As long as nobody’s being exploited or deliberately set up to be ridiculed (which isn’t the case here, as Ennis has kindly confirmed).
Regarding the question of “is it always wrong to kill” — No. It depends on the circumstances in which it occurs and the motivations of the person carrying out the act.
Killing someone in self-defence or to protect an innocent/vulnerable third-party is one thing (when all other non-violent means have failed), but killing someone for personal ego, revenge, money, power, or to gain territory is an entirely different matter. Similarly, killing someone in combat on the battlefield is one thing, but killing an unarmed civilian, or someone retreating or surrendering, is also a different scenario from a moral/ethical perspective.
Some would also say that the very last example in the previous paragraph also extends to the execution of prisoners. Personally I’m not sure about this from an ethical standpoint, although there are valid arguments for both sides.
I can’t guarantee that, but it’s not like it’s a paparazzi shot. It’s a newspaper photo, and it looks like it was taken a few feet away from him. Furthermore, from what people said, this sort of informal dress is not uncommon in Singapore which is very hot and very humid.
Perhaps you missed this part:
His profession obviously bothered non-Western desis who knew him better than any of the people here too…
I wonder if he’s a vegetarian …
Abhi, John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hitman might interest you, though the author isn’t truly a hitman, but he does write about CIA jackals and their role in deposing “dictators.”
Turner Classic Movies was showing the classic
Almost positive that the exact opposite is true. “A colleague and close friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Australian that Mr Singh wanted to give up his hangman’s responsibilities and live quietly in retirement but the authorities were having trouble finding anyone to replace him.”
Well, there’s been little discussion of how the death penalty is practiced in Singapore (as opposed to in some abstract sense which has little to do with the morality of the situation Mr. Singh has put himself in) but let no one say that we haven’t learned somethings:
It’s okay to kill someone if someone tells you to.
It’s especially okay to kill someone if the government tells you to.
It’s okay to kill someone if you’re paid to.
It’s okay to kill someone if you don’t have any other job skills.
It’s okay to kill someone if someone else probably would.
It’s okay to kill someone if you’re part of the middle class of some non-western country.
and last but not least:
I didnt miss it and it didnt bother me at all… there’s a huge difference in that situation vs when someone says “he sold his soul for money” which is to demonize him.
BLA BLA BLA Societies rather than an individual decide under what condition some one should be killed.
Societies rather than an individual decide under what condition some one should be killed.
So those who shoved Jews into the gas chambers, you have no criticism for them either?
I call Godwin’s Law:
The Nazis were actually invoked by Razib, indirectly, when he discussed the banality of evil, and then again by whoever invoked Arendt.
Those were oblique references.
You’ll notice that Godwin’s law specifies that there must be a comparison to Nazis or Hitler and I did no such thing. What I did was point out that by GGK’s logic, those whose job it was to shove Jews into gas chambers are blameless. After all, they were merely killing those who German society had decided to kill.
This is a reductio ad absurdum (in my opinion. of course, GGK might say that, yes, concentration camp workers were blameless but in this case I think there’s little point arguing any further) and to ignore it just because it involves Nazis would be pretty silly.
I’m sure we’re all glad to know that the ex-Mrs. Singh did not incur the wrath of your moral outrage that the Sepia poster raising the issue of Mr. Singh’s possible trade of his soul for money did… . Obviously you must have viewed the divorce papers to be so sure that she didn’t feel Mr Singh lacked a soul.
The Nazis were actually invoked by Razib, indirectly, when he discussed the banality of evil, and then again by whoever invoked Arendt.
haha. are we playing six-degrees-of-godwin’s-law now?
???? Wow thats rhetoric comparing Sg’s legal system be compared to nazi germanys.
who r “we”. Oh Vikram Ji Gustakhi maaf Huzoor I forgot about the royal we. I’m happy that youre glad.
???? Wow thats rhetoric comparing Sg’s legal system be compared to nazi germanys.
No, as I explained above, it isn’t. But clearly this is pointless.
Anyone read the poem ‘The Hangman at Home’ by Carl Sandburg? I had it at highschool.
WHAT does the hangman think about When he goes home at night from work? When he sits down with his wife and Children for a cup of coffee and a Plate of ham and eggs, do they ask Him if it was a good day’s work And everything went well or do they Stay off some topics and talk about The weather, base ball, politics And the comic strips in the papers And the movies? Do they look at his Hands when he reaches for the coffee Or the ham and eggs? If the little Ones say, Daddy, play horse, here’s A rope—does he answer like a joke: I seen enough rope for today? Or does his face light up like a Bonfire of joy and does he say: It’s a good and dandy world we live In. And if a white face moon looks In through a window where a baby girl Sleeps and the moon gleams mix with Baby ears and baby hair—the hangman— How does he act then? It must be easy For him. Anything is easy for a hangman, I guess.
Uncleji is out of a job — because of this pic!
Really, he was fired for this pic? Do you have a link?
Here you go.
Thanks for the link. Looks like Van Tuong Nguyen’s lawyer is using this firing as additional reason to push for a reprieve. Pretty interesting.
GET OVER IT!!
YA DO THE CRIME, YA DO THE TIME!!
ITS SIMPLE!!
Doing time = jail, chokey, the cage, the old gitmo. You repent, you exit. You grow a puritanical attitude and a penchant for typing things out in CAPS.
Death is the END of time (for those that are about to die). Pretty soon, you’re dust.
No man has the right to take another mans life.
the mans a serial killer just because the state says its ok does not mean that when he dies he wont go to hell if it exists. State sanctioned murder is still maybe a crime, if there is a day of judgement im glad im not him. You cant kill 850 people and not pay a price. Somebody name me another person thats killed 850? mmmmm i think most serial killers dont even make double figures this guys a legend.