The upright jerker was an execution method and device intermittently used in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century.
However, rather than dropping down through a trapdoor, the condemned would be violently jerked into the air by means of a system of weights and pulleys.
[2][page needed] The warden of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield, Jabez L. Woodbridge, obtained US patent 541409 , issued on June 18, 1895, for one such "automatic gallows".
Executions of this type took place in several U.S. states, notably Connecticut, where among others murderer and gang member Gerald Chapman was put to death by the method.
In one such case, a man by the name of James Stephens was left contorting and gurgling until he finally died of asphyxiation.