Response from Col French MacLean:
Richard, thanks for writing.
You are correct; George J. Dietrich had no part of the death of Woods. Read American Hangman. That has a lot of the info in the report of death on John Woods, although I gave a copy of the report to two expert electricians here in Decatur and they said that the Army botched the report blaming human error on some Army corporal. As you'll read, the electricians found one statement from a lieutenant that he tested the generator equipment and found current running both when the switch was off and on.
I Believe the US Army JAG School has the copies of the death report as I donated all the papers from The Fifth Field and American Hangman to them.
But you'll have plenty of info from American Hangman.
I read your link. There were statements of witnesses (also in AH) as to his death and he probably was dead before he hit the water and certainly never glowed. The electricians explained the differences of standing in fresh water versus salt water which is fascinating.
The Army promoted him to MSG in one day because they were desperate. Officers had been doing the hangings and officer morale was taking a hit, so here was an out and nobody cared if he jumped all that rank, because NOONE ELSE WANTED TO DO IT.
And as you'll see, Woods lied when he said he had been an assistant hangman in civilian life.
Thanks for writing. Blow this guy out of the water!!
French
