'Last Words of the Executed' is Free eBook Today

The book tells the history of capital punishment in America from the gallows and the electric chair. Here is an excerpt:

Hanging is America’s oldest method of execution, imported from
Britain, and also the simplest. It required only a sturdy rope and a
high perch—usually a tree or scaffold bar—strong enough to sup-
port a human body. In the best circumstances, the fall broke the
condemned person’s neck.