Justice
There Will Be No Public Hangings in This North Dakota Town
The mayor of Medora, Doug Ellison, explains his decision to drop the idea for fake executions.
Doug Ellison thought he had come up with a good idea. He would erect a gallows on his property in Medora, North Dakota – where he has served as mayor since 2008 – and then pretend to hang himself in front of a throng of tourists.
Ellison has since laid his idea down gently, like a fizzing bomb, and walked briskly in the opposite direction. “I've been accused of contributing to moral decay,” he says. “That was not my intent.”