ARMED FORCES: Hangman's End

In postwar Germany, husky, bull-necked Master Sergeant John C. Woods of San Antonio had gone about his business with a craftsman's pride and enthusiasm. As official U.S. hangman, he credited himself with more than 300 successful executions, topped off his career four years ago by hanging ten of the Nazi leaders condemned in the Nürnberg trials. "Never saw a hanging go off any better," he said cheerfully afterwards. He was not disturbed when bald, squat Julius Streicher, the Jew baiter, had snarled at him: "The Bolsheviks will hang you, too, some day."

But, as time went by, Hangman Woods was...