A method of Inflicting the death penalty on convicted criminals practised in Spain, Portugal, and some Spanish-American countries, consisting in strangulation by means of an iron collar which is mechanically tightened about the neck of the sufferer, sometimes with the variation that a sharpened screw is made to advance from the back of the apparatus and pierce the base of the brain. Also, popularly, any form of strangling resorted to to overcome resistance or induce unconsciousness, especially as a concomitant to highway robbery.