""nice story - apart from the description of the hanging.""

The rest of the story...at the time, the fishery officer told me that the old gent was later examined at the hospital, and he had no physical injury. He said that the old guy lived to a ripe old age, and it was the last time he tried to hang himself, as far as he knew.
The lobster poaching operation lasted for a few more years, they eventually moved on, and the conservation officers never established a poaching case against them, though they continued to try and catch them. He said that it was the last stake out he participated in against these folks.