[rdl6989]

Pardon my stupidity, but how do you “botch” a decapitation?

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Failure to do it properly can keep you from getting ahead.

[SunkenCiv]

How did you know I’ve botched a- uh, I mean, I have no idea. It’s totally mysterious to me too.

[nmh]

A “proper” decapitation has ONE severing mark on the bone. If more than one mark is on the bones - then someone screwed up. They “hacked” it off rather than one fell swoop of the blade.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Could have been on purpose, as has been said about the executions of Essex and Mary Queen of Scots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland

“In Lady Antonia Fraser’s biography, Mary Queen of Scots, the author writes that it took two strikes to decapitate Mary: the first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head, at which point the queen’s lips moved (her servants reported they thought she had whispered the words “Sweet Jesus”). The second blow severed the neck, all but a small bit of sinew which the executioner severed by using the axe as a saw.

“It has been suggested that it took three strikes to decapitate Mary instead of two. If so, then Mary would have been executed with the same number of axe strikes as Essex. It has been postulated that said number was part of a ritual devised to protract the suffering of the victim.[6]