Last public execution in France. Eugen Weidmann's story

Execution using the guillotine is called guillotining.

The main part of the guillotine for cutting off the head is a heavy (40-100 kg) oblique blade (the slang name is “lamb”), freely moving along vertical guides. The blade was raised to a height of 2-3 meters with a rope, where it was held by a latch. The convict was placed on a horizontal bench, fixed on the bench with straps, and his neck was fixed with two boards with a notch, the lower of which was fixed, and the upper moved vertically in the grooves. After that, the latch holding the blade was opened by a lever mechanism, and it fell at high speed, decapitating the victim.

Story [ | ]

The use of the guillotine was suggested in 1791 by the physician and member of the National Assembly, Joseph Guillotin. This machine was neither the invention of Dr. Guillotin nor of his teacher, Dr. Antoine Louis; it is known that a similar tool was used before in Scotland and Ireland, where it was called the Scottish maiden. The guillotine in France was also called the Virgin and even the Furniture of Justice. The Italian instrument of death described by Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo was called mandaia. Although similar devices have been tried before in Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland, it was the device created in France, with a slanting blade, that became the standard tool for the death penalty.

At that time, cruel methods of execution were used: burning at the stake, hanging, quartering. It was believed that the guillotine was a much more humane method of execution than those common at that time (other types of execution, which involved the quick death of the convict, often caused prolonged agony with insufficient qualification of the executioner; the guillotine provides instant death even with the minimum qualification of the executioner). In addition, the guillotine was applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.

Portrait of Doctor Guillotin.

Decapitation by guillotine. French revolution[ | ]

In the story of Victor Hugo "The last day of the condemned to death"The diary of a prisoner is given, who, according to the law, is to be guillotined. In the preface to the story, added to the next edition, Hugo is a fierce opponent of the death penalty through the guillotine and calls for its replacement with life imprisonment. Hanging, quartering, burning disappeared - the turn came and the guillotine, Hugo believed.

From the 1870s until the abolition of the death penalty in France, an improved guillotine of the Berger system was used. It is collapsible for transportation to the place of execution and is installed directly on the ground, usually in front of the gates of the prison, the scaffold is no longer used. The execution itself takes a matter of seconds, the headless body was instantly collided by the executioner's henchmen into a prepared deep box with a lid. During the same period, the positions of regional executioners were abolished. The executioner, his assistants and the guillotine are now based in Paris and go to places to carry out executions.

In Paris, from 1851 to 1899, the condemned were kept in La Roquette prison, in front of the gates of which the executions took place. In the following period, the square in front of the Sante prison became the place of executions. In 1932, in front of the Sante prison, Pavel Gorgulov, a Russian émigré, author of works signed by Pavel Bred, was executed for the murder of the President of the Republic, Paul Doumer. Seven years later, on June 17, 1939, at 4 hours and 50 minutes in Versailles, in front of the Saint-Pierre prison, the head of the German Eugen Weidmann, the killer of seven people, was beheaded. It was the last public execution in France: because of the obscene excitement of the crowd and scandals with the press, it was ordered to continue to carry out executions on the territory of the prison behind closed doors.

The last execution by cutting off the head with a guillotine was carried out in Marseille, during the reign of Giscard d'Estaing, September 10, 1977. The name of the executed Tunisian was Hamida Jandoubi. It was the last death penalty in Western Europe.

In Germany [ | ]

In Germany, the guillotine (German Fallbeil) has been used since the 17th-18th centuries and has been standard view the death penalty in Germany (up to its abolition in 1949) and in the GDR (until it was replaced by execution in 1966). In parallel, decapitation with an ax was also practiced in some lands of Germany, which was finally abolished only in 1936. Unlike the French samples of the XIX-XX centuries, the German guillotine was much lower and had metal vertical racks and a winch for lifting a heavier knife.

In Nazi Germany, guillotining was applied to criminals. An estimated 40,000 people were beheaded in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. This number includes resistance fighters in Germany itself and the countries it occupies. Since the resistance fighters did not belong to the regular army, they were considered common criminals and in many cases were taken to Germany and guillotined. Decapitation was considered an "ignoble" form of death, as opposed to execution.

Notable guillotined personalities:

in Italy [ | ]

Over its almost two hundred years of history, the guillotine has decapitated tens of thousands of people, ranging from criminals and revolutionaries to aristocrats, kings and even queens. Maria Molchanova tells the story of the origin and use of this famous symbol of terror.

For a long time it was believed that the guillotine was invented at the end of the 18th century, however, latest research showed that such "beheading machines" have a longer history. The most famous, and perhaps one of the first, was the Halifax Gibbet, which was a monolithic wooden structure with two 15-foot uprights surmounted by a horizontal beam. The blade was an ax that slid up and down slots in the uprights. Most likely, the creation of this "Halifax Gallows" dates back to 1066, although the first reliable mention of it dates back to the 1280s. Executions took place in the city's market square on Saturdays and the machine remained in use until April 30, 1650.

Halifax gallows

Another early mention of an execution machine is found in the painting Execution of the Execution of Markod Ballag near Merton, Ireland, 1307. As the name suggests, the name of the victim is Marcod Ballag, and he was beheaded with equipment that is remarkably similar to a late French guillotine. Also, a similar device is found in a picture depicting a combination of a guillotine machine and traditional decapitation. The victim was lying on a bench, with an ax supported by some kind of mechanism and raised above her neck. The difference lies in the executioner standing next to the large hammer, ready to strike the mechanism and send the blade down.

Hereditary executioner Anatole Deibler, "Mr. Paris" (monsieur de Paris), inherited the post from his father and executed 395 people over 40 years of his career.

Beginning in the Middle Ages, execution by beheading was possible only for rich and influential people. Decapitation was thought to be more generous, and certainly less painful, than other methods. Other types of execution, which assumed the quick death of the convict, with insufficient qualifications of the executioner, often caused prolonged agony. The guillotine provided instant death even with the minimum qualification of the executioner. However, let's remember the Halifax Gibbet - it was undoubtedly an exception to the rule, since it was used to execute punishment for any people, regardless of their position in society, including the poor. french guillotine was also applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.

18th century guillotine

At the beginning of the 18th century, many methods of execution were used in France, which were often painful, bloody and painful. Hanging, burning at the stake, quartering were commonplace. Wealthy and influential people were beheaded with an ax or sword, while the execution of the punishment of the common population often used alternation of death and torture. These methods had a dual purpose: to punish the offender and prevent new crimes, so most executions were carried out in public. Gradually, the people grew indignant at such monstrous punishments. These grievances were fueled mainly by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Locke, who argued for more humane methods of execution. One of their supporters was Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin; however, it is still unclear whether the doctor was an advocate for capital punishment or ultimately sought its abolition.

Execution of French revolutionary Maximilian Robespierre

Use the guillotine doctor and member of the National Assembly, professor of anatomy, political figure, member of the Constituent Assembly, friend of Robespierre and Marat, Guillotin proposed in 1792. Actually, this decapitation machine was named after him. The main part of the guillotine, designed for cutting off the head, is a heavy, several tens of kilograms, oblique knife (the slang name is “lamb”), freely moving along vertical guides. The knife was raised to a height of 2-3 meters with a rope, where it was held by a latch. The head of the guillotined was placed in a special recess at the base of the mechanism and fixed on top with a wooden board with a notch for the neck, after which, using a lever mechanism, the latch holding the knife opened, and it fell at high speed onto the victim's neck. Guillotin later oversaw the development of the first prototype, an imposing machine designed by the French doctor Antoine Louis and built by the German inventor of the harpsichord, Tobias Schmidt. Subsequently, after some time using the machine, Guillotin tried in every possible way to remove his name from this tool during the guillotine hysteria in the 1790s, and in early XIX century, his family unsuccessfully tried to petition the government to rename the death machine.

Portrait of Doctor Guillotin

In April 1792, after successful experiments on corpses, in Paris, on the Place de Greve, the first execution was carried out. new car- The first to be executed was a robber named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier. After Pelletier's execution, the decapitation machine was given the name "Louisette" or "Louison", after its designer, Dr. Louis, but this name was soon forgotten. Perhaps the most interesting aspect in the history of the guillotine is the extraordinary speed and scale of its adoption and use. Indeed, by 1795, only a year and a half after its first use, the guillotine had beheaded more than a thousand people in Paris alone. Of course, when mentioning these figures, one cannot ignore the role of time, since in France the machine was introduced only a few months before the bloodiest period of the French Revolution.

Execution of King Louis XVI of France

Horrific images of the guillotine began to appear in magazines and brochures, accompanied by highly ambiguous humorous comments. They wrote about her, composed songs and poems, she was depicted in caricatures and frightening drawings. The guillotine has touched everything - fashion, literature and even children's toys, it has become an integral part of French history. However, despite all the horror of that period, the guillotine did not become hated by the people. The nicknames given to her by the people were more sad and romantic than hateful and frightening - "national razor", "widow", "Madame Guillotin". An important fact in this phenomenon is that the guillotine itself was never associated with any particular layer of society, and also that Robespierre himself was beheaded on it. On the guillotine, both yesterday's king and an ordinary criminal or political rebel could be executed. This allowed the machine to become the arbiter of higher justice.

Guillotine in Pankrac Prison in Prague

At the end of the 18th century, people came in groups to Revolution Square to watch the machine do its terrible job. Spectators could buy souvenirs, read a program that listed the names of the victims, and even have a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant called Cabaret at the Guillotine. Some went to executions every day, especially the "Knitters" - a group of fanatic women who sat in the front rows right in front of the scaffold and knitted on knitting needles between executions. Such a terrible theatrical atmosphere extended to the convicts. Many made sarcastic or cheeky remarks. last words before dying, some even danced their last steps along the steps of the scaffold.

Execution of Marie Antoinette

Children often went to executions and some of them even played at home with their own miniature models of the guillotine. Exact copy a guillotine about half a meter high was a popular toy in France at that time. Such toys were fully functional, and children used them to cut off the heads of dolls or even small rodents. However, they were eventually banned in some cities as having a bad effect on children. Small guillotines also found a place on the dining tables of the upper classes, they were used to cut bread and vegetables.

"Children's" guillotine

With the growing popularity of the guillotine, the reputation of executioners also grew; during the French Revolution, they received great fame. Executioners were evaluated by their ability to quickly and accurately organize a large number of executions. Such work often became a family affair. Many generations famous family The Sanson served as state executioners from 1792 to 1847, the hands of members of this family lowered a blade on the necks of thousands of victims, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the role of the main executioners went to the Deibler family, father and son. They held this position from 1879 to 1939. People often praised the names of the Sansons and Deiblers on the streets, and the way they dressed on the scaffold dictated the fashion in the country. The underworld also admired executioners. According to some reports, gangsters and other bandits even stuffed tattoos with gloomy slogans like: "My head will go to Deibler."

Last public execution by guillotine, 1939

The guillotine was intensively used during the French Revolution and remained the main method of execution of capital punishment in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981. Public executions continued in France until 1939, when Eugène Weidmann became the last victim "under open sky". Thus, it took almost 150 years for Guillotin's original humane wishes to be realized in the secrecy of the execution process from prying eyes. Last time The guillotine was activated on September 10, 1977 - the 28-year-old Tunisian Hamida Dzhandubi was executed. He was a Tunisian immigrant convicted of torturing and killing 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, an acquaintance of his. The next execution was to take place in 1981, but the alleged victim, Philippe Maurice, received a pardon.

In February, a number of State Duma deputies proposed returning classical exams to schools. The corresponding draft amendments to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” have been submitted to the State Duma for consideration. According to the authors, the Unified State Examination has shown its inconsistency...

New

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  I will give the official figures, which are very revealing. About 995,000 tons of polluting emissions occur annually, of which 66,000 tons are on the conscience of industrial enterprises, that is, approximately 6.6%...
• 
  
• 
  Moskalkova Tatyana Nikolaevna
• 
  
• 
  

• 
  On December 25, 2018, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted the number of the resolution “On the practice of consideration by courts of cases on contesting regulatory legal acts and acts containing clarifications of the legislation and possessing ...
• 
  In February, a number of State Duma deputies proposed returning classical exams to schools. The corresponding draft amendments to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” have been submitted to the State Duma for consideration. According to the authors, the exam showed its ...
• 
  Health problems can be in slender, and in very thin, and in very fat people. But if in a polyclinic or in a hospital they try to provide a person of normal physique or thin, if possible ...
• 
  The head of Rospotrebnadzor recently made a sensational proposal to influence excess weight legally. Speaking about improving the quality of food, Anna Popova said that the department is considering Japanese...
• 
  Draft Law “On Distributed Custody” No. 879 343-6 “On Amendments to Certain legislative acts in order to increase guarantees for the exercise of the rights and freedoms of incapacitated and not fully capable citizens "...
• 
  On the balcony, a man with a knife to his throat threatens to commit suicide. Arriving police, called by neighbors, shoot him with a taser1 to prevent him from committing suicide. This scene is not...
• 
  The Ministry of Economic Development proposes to fine land owners and tenants who found military burials in it and kept silent about it. Draft relevant amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses...
• 
  Dear colleagues! Here you can post (preferably a short but capacious) video with an appeal on specific problems of Russian legislation that you had the opportunity to meet in your...
• 
  Last year, the Criminal Finance Act came into force in the UK. Like legal act almost simultaneously adopted in the United States. They radically changed the situation with the ownership and use of...

The use of the death machine, called the guillotine, was proposed by the physician and member of the National Assembly, Joseph Guillotin, back in 1791. However, this mechanism was not the invention of Dr. Guillotin, it is known that a similar tool was used before in Scotland and Ireland, where it was called the Scottish Maiden. Since the first execution, in almost 200 years of use, the guillotine has decapitated tens of thousands of people who were executed with this terrible device. We invite you to learn a little more about this killing machine and Once again rejoice in the fact that we live in the modern world.

Creation of the guillotine

The creation of the guillotine is attributed to the end of 1789, and it is associated with the name of Joseph Guillotin. Being an opponent of the death penalty, which was impossible to abolish in those days, Guillotin advocated the use of more humane methods of execution. He helped develop a device for rapid decapitation (decapitation), in contrast to the earlier swords and axes, which was called the "guillotine".

In the future, Guillotin made a lot of efforts so that his name was not associated with this murder weapon, but nothing came of it. His family even had to change their last name.

Lack of blood

The first person to be executed by guillotine was Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier, who was sentenced to death for robbery and murder. On the morning of April 25, 1792, a huge crowd of curious Parisians gathered to look at this spectacle. Pelletier mounted the scaffold, painted blood-red, a sharp blade fell on his neck, his head flew off into a wicker basket. The bloody sawdust was raked up.

Everything happened so quickly that the audience, thirsty for blood, were disappointed. Some even began to shout: “Return the wooden gallows!”. But, despite their protests, guillotines soon appeared in all cities. The guillotine made it possible to actually turn human deaths into a real pipeline. So, one of the executioners, Charles-Henri Sanson, executed 300 men and women in three days, as well as 12 victims in just 13 minutes.

Experiments

Devices for decapitation were known even before the French Revolution, but during this period they were significantly improved, and the guillotine appeared. Previously, its accuracy and effectiveness was tested on live sheep and calves, as well as on human corpses. In parallel, in these experiments, medical scientists studied the influence of the brain on various functions of the body.

Vietnam

In 1955, South Vietnam seceded from North Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam was established, with Ngo Dinh Diem as its first president. Fearing conspirators seeking a coup, he passed Law 10/59, which allowed anyone suspected of having communist ties to be imprisoned without trial.

There, after horrendous torture, a death sentence was eventually pronounced. However, in order to fall victim to Ngo Dinh Diem, it was not necessary to go to prison. The ruler traveled around the villages with a mobile guillotine and executed all those suspected of disloyalty. Over the next few years, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese were executed and their heads hung everywhere.

Profitable Nazi venture

The rebirth of the guillotine took place during the period of Nazism in Germany, when Hitler personally ordered the production of a large number of them. The executioners became quite rich people. One of the most famous executioners of Nazi Germany, Johan Reichgart, was able to buy a villa in a wealthy suburb of Munich with the money he earned.

The Nazis even managed to get additional profit from the families of decapitated victims. Each family was billed for each day the accused was kept in prison, and an additional bill for the execution of the sentence. Guillotines were used for almost nine years, and 16,500 people were executed during this time.

Life after execution...

Do the eyes of the executed man see anything in those seconds when his head, cut off from the body, flies into the basket? Does he still have the ability to think? It is quite possible, since the brain itself is not injured, for some time it continues to perform its functions. And only when its supply of oxygen stops, loss of consciousness and death occurs.

This is supported by the testimony of eyewitnesses and experiments on animals. So, King Charles I of England and Queen Anne Boleyn, after cutting off their heads, moved their lips, as if they were trying to say something. And the doctor Boryo notes in his notes that, twice addressing the executed criminal Henri Longueville by name, 25-30 seconds after the execution, he noticed that he opened his eyes and looked at him.

Guillotine in North America

IN North America the guillotine was used only once on the island of St. Pierre for the execution of a fisherman who killed his drinking companion while drinking. Although the guillotine was never used there again, legislators often advocated its return, some citing the fact that the use of the guillotine would make organ donation more accessible.

And although proposals for the use of the guillotine were rejected, the death penalty was widely used. From 1735 to 1924, more than 500 death sentences were carried out in the state of Georgia. At first it was hanging, later replaced by an electric chair. In one of the state prisons, a kind of “record” was set - it took only 81 minutes to execute six men in the electric chair.

Family traditions

The executioner profession was despised in France, they were shunned by society, and merchants often refused to serve them. They had to live with their families outside the city. Because of the damaged reputation, there were difficulties with marriages, so the executioners and members of their families were legally allowed to marry their own cousins.

The most famous executioner in history was Charles-Henri Sanson, who began to carry out death sentences at the age of 15, and his most famous victim was King Louis XVI in 1793. Later family tradition continued by his son Henri, who beheaded the king's wife, Marie Antoinette. His other son, Gabriel, also decided to follow in his father's footsteps. However, after the first beheading, Gabriel slipped on the bloody scaffold, fell from it and died.

Eugene Weidman

Eugene Weidman was sentenced to death in 1937 for a series of murders in Paris. On June 17, 1939, a guillotine was prepared for him outside the prison, curious spectators gathered. The bloodthirsty crowd could not be calmed down for a long time, because of this, the execution even had to be postponed. And after the beheading, people with handkerchiefs rushed to the bloody scaffold to take the handkerchiefs with Weidmann's blood home as souvenirs.

After that, the authorities in the person of French President Albert Lebrun banned public executions, believing that they rather arouse disgusting base instincts in people than serve as a deterrent for criminals. Thus, Eugene Weidman became the last person in France to be publicly beheaded.

Suicide

Despite the falling popularity of the guillotine, it continued to be used by those who decided to commit suicide. In 2003, 36-year-old Boyd Taylor from England spent several weeks constructing a guillotine in his bedroom that was supposed to turn on at night while he was sleeping. The headless body of the son was discovered by his father, who was awakened by a noise similar to the sound of a chimney falling from the roof.

In 2007, the body of a man was discovered in Michigan, who died in the forest from a mechanism he built. But the most terrible was the death of David Moore. In 2006, Moore built a guillotine from metal tubing and a saw blade. However, the device initially did not work, Moore was only seriously injured. He had to make his way to the bedroom, where he had 10 Molotov cocktails stashed away. Moore blew them up, but they didn't work as planned either.

Born in Germany in 1908, Eugène Weidmann began stealing from a young age and, even as an adult, did not give up his criminal habits.

While serving a five-year sentence in prison for robbery, he met future partners in crime, Roger Millon and Jean Blanc. After their release, the three began working together, kidnapping and robbing tourists around Paris.

1. June 17, 1938. Eugène Weidmann shows the police the cave in the forest of Fontainebleau in France where he killed the nurse Jeanine Keller.

They robbed and murdered a young New York City dancer, a chauffeur, a nurse, a theater producer, an anti-Nazi activist, and a real estate agent.

The National Security Administration eventually got on Weidman's trail. One day, returning home, he found two police officers waiting for him at the door. Weidman fired a pistol at the officers, wounding them, but they still managed to knock the criminal to the ground and neutralize him with a hammer lying at the entrance.

As a result of a sensational trial, Weidman and Millon were sentenced to death, and Blanc to 20 months in prison. On June 16, 1939, French President Albert Lebrun rejected Weidmann's pardon and commuted Million's death sentence to life imprisonment.

On the morning of June 17, 1939, Weidman met on the square near the Saint-Pierre prison in Versailles, where the guillotine and the whistle of the crowd were waiting for him.

8. June 17, 1939. A crowd gathers around the guillotine in anticipation of Weidmann's execution near the Saint-Pierre prison.

Among those wishing to watch the execution of the audience was the future famous British actor Christopher Lee, who was 17 at the time.

9. June 17, 1939. On the way to the guillotine, Weidman passes by the box in which his body will be transported.

Weidmann was placed in the guillotine, and the chief executioner of France, Jules Henri Defurneau, immediately lowered the blade.

The crowd present at the execution was very unrestrained and noisy, many of the spectators broke through the cordon to soak handkerchiefs in Weidman's blood as souvenirs. The scene was so horrifying that French President Albert Lebrun banned public executions altogether, arguing that instead of deterring crime, they help awaken people's base instincts.

The guillotine, originally invented as a quick and relatively humane method of killing, continued to be used in private executions until 1977, when Hamida Djandoubi was executed behind closed doors in Marseille. The death penalty in France was abolished in 1981.