Definition
Garroting refers to a method of execution or killing by strangulation, historically accomplished by mechanical means applied to the neck. In legal usage, the term carries two related senses:
1. As a method of capital punishment: An official mode of execution practiced in Spain, Portugal, and certain Spanish-American countries, in which a condemned criminal was killed by means of an iron collar mechanically tightened about the neck. A variant form employed a sharpened screw driven from the rear of the apparatus into the base of the brain, producing death by cervical destruction rather than strangulation alone.
2. As a criminal act: A form of robbery or assault in which the victim is rendered helpless by strangulation or choking from behind, typically to facilitate theft. This usage was particularly prominent in 19th-century English criminal law and press reporting, describing a street crime epidemic in which assailants seized victims from behind and throttled them while confederates rifled their pockets.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A strangulation using a garrote.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To strangle with a garrote; to seize by the throat from behind, as for the purpose of robbery.
The common meaning and legal meaning largely overlap, but the gap that matters for researchers is directional: in ordinary language, garroting describes the physical act; in legal sources, the term may appear in the context of either state-administered execution or private criminal conduct depending entirely on jurisdiction and period. A 19th-century English legal source using "garroting" almost certainly refers to street robbery and assault, while the same term in a Spanish or Latin American legal context almost certainly refers to formal capital punishment. Conflating these two registers produces significant research errors.
Common Confusion
Garroting as capital punishment and garroting as criminal assault are distinct legal concepts sharing a single word. Researchers encountering the term in Victorian-era English sources should presume the criminal-assault meaning, driven by a highly publicized wave of "garroting panics" in London during the 1850s and 1860s that produced legislative responses including the Security Against Violence Act 1863. Researchers in Spanish or Iberian legal history should presume the executionary meaning. The term also occasionally appears as "garrote" or "garrotte" in source documents; these are variant spellings of the same concept, not distinct legal terms.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter garroting in at least three distinct documentary contexts, and the applicable law differs substantially in each.
First, in English criminal law sources from roughly 1850 to 1890, garroting appears frequently in cases, parliamentary debates, and newspaper reporting as a species of violent robbery. The panic generated by garrotting attacks in London produced identifiable statutory responses, and researchers tracing the history of robbery, assault, or mandatory sentencing should note that "garroting" in this context is a vernacular legal category, not a formal statutory term of art. Primary sources will spell it inconsistently.
Second, in sources related to Spanish colonial or Iberian law, garroting appears as an official method of execution. Researchers working on the history of capital punishment, comparative criminal law, or Latin American legal history should look for this usage in the context of execution procedure, not street crime.
Third, the term appears in American sources, primarily as received English criminal vocabulary describing robbery by strangulation. American statutes sometimes used "garroting" as a defined offense in 19th-century penal codes, and the definition could vary by state.
The term does not appear to have any significant modern statutory life in Anglo-American law, having been absorbed into general homicide, robbery, assault, and strangulation statutes. Researchers searching modern databases for garroting as a legal category are unlikely to find it as a formal charge; they should search instead under strangulation, robbery, or the relevant modern statutory equivalents.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) captures both dimensions of the term. Its primary definition focuses on the executionary meaning, describing the Spanish iron-collar apparatus in some mechanical detail and noting the brain-piercing variant. Black's adds "also, popularly" before moving to the criminal assault meaning, treating the execution use as primary and the criminal assault use as derivative popular usage. This framing reflects the encyclopedic rather than purely Anglo-American orientation of Black's at this edition.
The definition in Black's is reliable as far as it goes, but it understates the legal significance of the criminal assault meaning for English and American researchers. The garroting panic of Victorian England was not merely a popular phenomenon; it produced measurable legislative and judicial responses. Historical dictionaries of this era generally capture the term's physical mechanics better than its legal career across jurisdictions.
No meaningful divergence exists between the historical dictionary sources available here, as only one source is cited. Researchers requiring fuller treatment should consult period-specific sources: English case reporters and parliamentary debates for the criminal assault strand, and Spanish or comparative criminal law treatises for the executionary strand.
Jurisdictional Note
In English and American law, garroting functioned as a criminal offense category, not an authorized execution method. In Spain and Portugal and their colonial successors, it was an official mode of capital punishment that persisted in Spain until the late 20th century. Researchers must determine jurisdiction before interpreting any source using this term.