Hanging has been the execution method of choice for murder in far more countries than just the UK. This section focuses on judicial hangings in the 20th century around the world.
Worldwide Hangings: April
John Harris – South Africa
Apartheid was a repugnant political philosophy to thinking people and some were prepared to carry their antagonism to extremes. One such was John Harris, who put a bomb in a suitcase on July 24th, 1964, and left it on a train seat in Johannesburg central station before casually walking off.
The bomb went off at 5 p.m., killing 77-year-old Edna Rhys and seriously injuring 23 others, including many scarred for life by terrible burns.
Harris, a white man and a member of a group calling itself the African Resistance Movement, was quickly arrested. He was convicted of murder and hanged in Pretoria Central Prison on Thursday, April 1st, 1965.
The case resurfaced in 1995 in Britain when one of his accomplices, John Lloyd, put himself forward as a Labour candidate in the 1997 general election. He was deselected when his past became known.