In #MurderTrending, public executions are a source of entertainment for millions of the Postman app users. While this may seem like a far-fetched premise, the use of public executions as both spectacle and deterrent spans history and the globe—and may be making a comeback.

Public executions have been common throughout the history of human civilizations. Criminals were crucified in ancient Rome and Persia. In China, executions have been documented as far back as the Tang Dynasty. Americans and Europeans, however, are most familiar with the brutal executions that took place in the United Kingdom during the Middle Ages, when capital prisoners were burned, drowned, broken on the wheel, or if their crime was truly egregious—like being a traitor or assassin—hanged, drawn, and quartered. Those found guilty of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials of 1692-1693 were hanged, with one exception, who was crushed to death by stones. The invention of the guillotine made beheadings the most common form of public execution during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror from 1793-1794. Enthusiastic spectators would even take souvenirs, dipping their handkerchiefs into the blood of the executed nobility, much as the Postman app users buy merchandise featuring the Painiacs and the dead inmates.