Jakob Kuisl

Jakob Kuisl is the hangman. As a hangman, it is Jakob’s job to torture prisoners in an effort to get a confession and later act out the execution of prisoners who have confessed. Jakob did not want to be a hangman like his father because he had found the profession to be brutal and unconscionable. However, after living on the road as a soldier, Jakob discovered that there is honor in his family’s profession, honor that was missing from the killings he saw committed as a soldier.

Jakob is gentle enough to be reluctant to torture those he knows are innocent. When Martha Stechlin is arrested and charged with being a witch, Jakob knows she is innocent because he knows Martha. Martha delivered all of Jakob’s children, both the living and the dead. For this reason, Jakob fights to prove Martha’s innocence before...