We recently wrote that a vacancy for an executioner had opened in Sri Lanka, for which we managed to respond. It is unknown how their career will develop in this field, and the position of executioner itself in modern world looks like a relic. Nevertheless, there were always executioners. We decided to remember the most famous and, no matter how crazy it may sound, effective representatives of this profession.
Franz Schmidt
Over 45 years of work, he executed 361 people
Franz was born into the family of an executioner in the city of Bamberg and strung up a man for the first time in 1573, thereby celebrating his 18th birthday. Five years later he became the chief executioner of the city of Nuremberg and faithfully performed this job for 40 years. All this time, Schmidt kept a diary, where he wrote down who he executed and for what. He was confident that he was helping the condemned to atone for their sins, and therefore tried to reduce their suffering to a minimum (in particular, he insisted that wheeling be replaced with a quick beheading).
Charles Henri Sanson
Beheaded 2,918 people
Charles Henri Sanson also inherited the profession. He came from a dynasty of Parisian executioners who worked from 1688 to 1847. It all started with Charles Sanson, whom Louis XIV appointed the chief executioner of Paris. In the capital of France, he received a government house (in common parlance, the “executioner’s palace”). There was a torture chamber inside, and next to it was Sanson's shop. A special privilege of the Parisian executioner was the right to take tribute from market traders in food products, so there was always goods in the shop. In 1726, the honorary position passed to eight-year-old Charles Baptiste, and in 1778, Charles Henri Sanson, who was later nicknamed the Great Sanson, took up the beheading sword. By that time, market privileges had ended, and the expanding Sanson clan had to pay for executions on its own. In 1789, the Great Sanson replaced the sword with a more effective guillotine, and in 1793 it was he who beheaded Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Georges-Jacques Danton (Maximilian Robespierre was executed by his son Gabriel). In 1795, the Great Sanson retired and took up peaceful affairs: tending the garden and playing on the musical instruments- violin and cello. When Napoleon asked how he slept, Charles Henri replied that it was no worse than kings and dictators. Interesting fact: the last executioner of the dynasty was Clement Henri Sanson, who in 1847 pawned a guillotine on a moneylender, so he could not enforce the court decision and was removed from office.
Fernand Meyssonnier
Executed more than 200 Algerian rebels
A hereditary executioner, whose family has been engaged in this profession since the 16th century. He began working on the guillotine in 1947 (at the age of 16 he helped his father Maurice Meyssonnier). He collected the belongings of those executed - in total there were about 500 artifacts in his collection. He planned to exhibit them in the museum of punishments and punishments, which he dreamed of opening, but this idea remained unrealized. But Meyssonnier had a bar, a high salary, the right to bear arms and free travel around the world. In Tahiti in 1961 he met future wife, and he exhibited the guillotine (model No. 48), which took the lives of so many people, in various museums until his death in 2008.
The last executioner in French Algeria, from 1947 to 1961 he executed over 200 Algerian rebels. Meyssonnier recalled that many shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, some went to their death courageously, others fainted or tried to fight.
Giovanni Batista Bugatti
Over 65 years of work, executed 516 people
This Italian executioner worked in the Papal States from 1796 to 1865. Bugatti began in those days when the condemned were sent to the next world with the help of axes and clubs, then he began to hang and cut off heads, and in 1816 he switched to the “Roman” guillotine. Maestro Titto, as Bugatti was nicknamed, called those executed “patients” and could only leave the Trastevere area on the day of execution, so his figure on the Ponte Sant’Angelo signaled that someone would soon be beheaded. Charles Dickens, who found Maestro Titto at work, described with horror the execution procedure and the excitement that reigned around this bloody show.
James Barry
Chopped off over 200 heads
In the period from 1884 to 1892, he performed two seemingly incompatible jobs - he was an executioner and a preacher. Barry's favorite sermon is the one where he calls for the abolition of the death penalty. At the same time, the British executioner can be called a theorist in the execution of death sentences. He wrote that it is psychologically difficult for a condemned person to climb the stairs to execution, but going down is much easier (after the reform of 1890, the gallows were built taking this nuance into account). Barry is also referred to in a conversation about the preparation of the hanging rope: the day before the execution, a bag of sand was hung on it so that it would not stretch at the time of execution. According to Barry's observations, a 90-kilogram bag of sand helps a rope designed to weigh five tons become 15% thinner in a day.
Albert Pierpoint
Hanged 608 convicts
Pierpoint has been called England's most effective executioner and holds the title of "Official Executioner of the United Kingdom." Pierpoint carried out court executions from 1934 to 1956, receiving £15 for each person hanged. In 1956, he executed his own friend and retired. After this, Pierpoint became an innkeeper and wrote memoirs, which served as the basis for the film “The Last Executioner,” which focused on the story of his hanged friend. However, the memoirs also reveal others Interesting Facts about Pierpoint: he could hang a man in 17 seconds, and also informed the English Royal Commission that foreigners behave inappropriately before execution.
Vasily Blokhin
Personally shot from 10 to 20 thousand people
From 1926 to 1953, Blokhin commanded the OGPU-NKVD-MGB firing squad and rose to the rank of major general, which he was stripped of in 1954. According to various sources, he personally shot from 10 to 20 thousand people (they also cite a completely frightening figure of 50 thousand), including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Blokhin’s former boss Nikolai Yezhov, writer Isaac Babel and theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Directed the execution Polish officers near Katyn. According to the recollections of the former head of the Kalinin NKVD, Major General Dmitry Tokarev, Blokhin was dressed in brown before being shot: a leather cap, a long leather apron, leather gloves with elbow-length cuffs. His favorite weapon is the Walther PP.
Robert Greene
Sent 387 people to the next world
This man worked as an electrician at Dannemora Prison from 1898 to 1939, where he not only oversaw the electrical supply, but was also responsible for electrocutions. The childhood dream of becoming a minister went to waste - the son of immigrants from Ireland began to improve his profession as an executioner. Greene did not use the classic execution scheme, in which the voltage was increased from 500 to 2000 volts to fry a person in terrible agony in less than a minute. He acted exactly the opposite, immediately burning out the internal organs of the condemned. Before his death, Robert Greene said that he did not regret anything, because he worked for the good of society and responsibly carried out orders from above.
John Woodd
Executed 347 criminals and 10 convicts at the Nuremberg trials
In his native San Antonio, John Woodd hanged murderers and rapists, but became known to the world as a volunteer executioner of the Nuremberg prison. A junior sergeant in the US Army, on the night of October 16, 1946, he hanged Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Jodl and eight other convicts in less than an hour and a half, and he had to strangle Julius Streicher with his hands. They say that Woodd made good money selling pieces of the rope on which the leaders of Nazi Germany were hanged.
Mohammed Saad al-Beshi
The exact figure is unknown, but apparently the count is in the hundreds.
He began his career as an executioner in 1998, and dreamed of it back in 1983, when in the Taif prison he twisted the arms and blindfolded those sentenced to death. Al-Beshi prefers to use a scimitar (a traditional curved Arab sword more than a meter in length), which was given to him by the government for his professional services, to behead heads, but he often has to shoot people (not only men, but also women). The executioner claims that he is carrying out the will of Allah. In Saudi Arabia the death penalty prescribed for murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, drug trafficking and drug use. Every time he prays for the condemned man, he also visits his family before execution to ask for forgiveness. After work, he returns home and his family helps him wash the blood off his sword. Al-Beshi, like the Great Sanson, claims that work does not prevent him from sleeping peacefully. By agreement with the state, Al-Beshi cannot disclose how many people he has executed (or how many he kills daily), but it is likely a significant number.
The Great Patriotic War became a severe test for everyone Soviet people. And people were not always on the side of heroism and courage.
In the service of the Nazis, this woman personally executed one and a half thousand soldiers and partisans, and then became an exemplary Soviet woman
In the series “The Executioner,” which was just shown on Channel One, Soviet investigators are looking for the mysterious Tonka the Machine Gunner. During the Great Patriotic War she collaborated with the fascists and shot captured Soviet soldiers and partisans. For the most part, this series is a figment of the writer's imagination. However, the main character of “The Executioner” had a real prototype. After the war, the traitor skillfully covered her tracks and calmly got married, gave birth to children, and became a leader in production.
On November 20, 1978, 59-year-old Antonina Ginzburg (nee Makarova*) was sentenced to capital punishment - execution. She listened to the judge calmly. At the same time, I sincerely did not understand why the sentence was so cruel.
“There was a war...” she sighed. - And now my eyes are sore, I need surgery - will they really not have mercy?
During the investigation, the woman did not deny it, did not play around, and immediately admitted her guilt. But, it seems, she never understood the scale of this guilt. It seems that in the understanding of the venerable mother of the family, her own crimes occupied a place somewhere between stealing candy from a store and adultery.
During her service with the German occupation authorities, Antonina Makarova shot, according to some sources, about 1,500 people with a machine gun. Petitions for clemency were rejected, and a year after the trial the sentence was carried out.
Confrontation: a witness to the bloody events in the village of Lokot identified Antonina Makarova (far right of those sitting). Photo: archive of the FSB Directorate for the Bryansk Region.
Tonya Makarova went to the front voluntarily, wanting to help wounded Soviet soldiers, but became a killer. “Life turned out this way...” she will say during interrogation. Photo: archive of the FSB Directorate for the Bryansk Region.
In “The Executioner,” the heroine is still tormented by some spiritual doubts, and before the executions she puts on a bunny mask. In fact, Makarova did not hide her face. It’s necessary, it’s necessary, she reasoned, firmly deciding to prove herself from the best side in order to survive. In the series, she finishes off the wounded with shots in the eyes with a revolver - believing that her image is fixed in the pupils of the victims. In reality, the machine gunner was not superstitious: “It happened that you would shoot, come closer, and someone else would twitch. Then she shot him in the head again so that the person would not suffer.”
There were also disappointments in her work. For example, Makarova was very worried that bullets and blood greatly damaged clothes and shoes - after the executions, she took for herself all the good stuff. Sometimes she looked at those sentenced to prison in advance, looking for new clothes. In her free time, Tonka had fun with German soldiers in a music club.
The search for Antonina Makarova began immediately after the fall of the Lokot Republic. There were plenty of eyewitnesses to the atrocities, but she brilliantly burned the bridges leading to her. New surname, new life. In Belarusian Lepel, she got a job as a seamstress in a factory.
She was respected at work, her photo was constantly hung on the honor board. The woman gave birth to two daughters. True, I tried not to drink at parties - apparently, I was afraid of letting it slip. So, sobriety only makes a lady beautiful.
Retribution overtook her only 30 years after the executions. An ominous irony of fate: they came for her when she had completely disappeared among millions of middle-aged Soviet women. I was just applying for my pension. She had just been called to the security service: supposedly something needed to be counted. Behind the window, under the guise of an employee of the institution, sat a witness to the events in Lokte.
The security officers worked day and night, but they found her by accident. The machine gunner’s brother filled out a form to travel abroad and indicated the surname of his married sister. She really adored her family: having seemingly provided for everything, Makarova-Ginzburg never found the strength not to communicate with her relatives.
The sentence was carried out in 1979. Her husband, having finally learned why his wife was arrested, left Lepel with his daughters forever.
*Her name at birth is Antonina Makarovna Parfenova. But at school the girl was mistakenly registered as Makarova, having confused her last name with her patronymic.
The death penalty, around which debates among human rights activists and the public are raging today, is a punishment that appeared in ancient times and has survived to this day. In some periods of human history, the death penalty was almost the predominant punishment in the law enforcement system of various states. To deal with criminals, executioners were required - tireless and ready to “work” from dawn to dusk. This profession is shrouded in sinister myths and mysticism. Who is the executioner really?
In the early Middle Ages, the court was administered by the feudal lord or his representative, based on local traditions. Initially, punishment had to be carried out by the judges themselves or their assistants (bailiffs), victims, randomly hired people, etc. The basis of the inquiry was interviewing witnesses. Controversial issues were resolved using the system of ordeals (“divine judgment”), when a person seemed to surrender to the will of God. This was achieved by conducting a duel, according to the principle “whoever wins is right.” Either the accuser and the suspect themselves, or their representatives (relatives, hired ones, etc.) had to fight.
Another form of ordeal was physical testing, such as holding a hot metal in one's hand or plunging one's hand into boiling water. Later, the judge determined the will of God based on the number and degree of burns. It is clear that such a trial was not very fair. With the strengthening of central power and the development of cities, where local power was exercised by elected authorities, a more professional court system emerged.
With the development of legal proceedings, punishments become more complicated. Along with old forms of punishment, such as wergeld (fine) and simple execution, new ones appear. These are scourging, branding, cutting off limbs, wheeling, etc. A certain role was played by the fact that in some places the idea of “an eye for an eye” was preserved, that is, if a person caused any bodily harm, for example, if a criminal broke the victim's arm, then he also needed to break his arm.
Now a specialist was needed who could carry out the punishment procedure, and in such a way that the convicted person would not die if he was sentenced only to punishment, or before all the torture prescribed by the court was carried out.
As before, it was necessary to carry out interrogation procedures, forcing the suspect to testify, but at the same time preventing the loss of consciousness and especially the death of the suspect during interrogation.
The first mention of the position of executioner is found in documents of the 13th century. But the monopoly on the execution of sentences was established only by the 16th century. Before this, the sentence could be carried out, as before, by other people.
The profession of an executioner was not as simple as it might seem at first glance. In particular, this concerned the beheading procedure. It was not easy to cut off a man's head with one blow of an ax, and those executioners who could do it on the first try were especially valued. Such a requirement for the executioner was not put forward out of humanity towards the condemned, but because of entertainment, since executions, as a rule, were of a public nature. They learned the craft from their older comrades. In Russia, the process of training executioners was carried out on a wooden mare. They placed a dummy of a human back made of birch bark on it and practiced blows. Many executioners had something like signature professional techniques. It is known that the last British executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, carried out the execution in a record time of 17 seconds.
Executioner's position
Officially, the work of an executioner was considered the same profession as any other. The executioner was considered an employee, often a city employee, but sometimes he could be in the service of some feudal lord.
He was responsible for the execution of various court sentences, as well as torture. It should be noted that the executioner was precisely the performer. He could not carry out the torture of his own free will. Usually his actions were supervised by a representative of the court.
The executioner received a salary, sometimes a house where he lived. In some cases, executioners, like other employees, were also paid for uniforms. Sometimes this was the general uniform of city employees, sometimes special clothing emphasizing its importance. Most of the tools (rack, other devices, etc.) were paid for and belonged to the city. The symbol of the executioner (in France) was a special sword with a rounded blade, intended only for cutting off heads. In Russia - a whip.
The mask that is so often shown in movies was not usually worn by the real executioner. The mask was worn by the executioner during the execution of the English king of England, Charles 1st, but this was an isolated incident. Medieval executioners, and even executioners in later periods of history, very rarely hid their faces, so the image of an executioner in a hooded mask that has taken root in modern culture has no basis in reality. Until the end of the 18th century there were no masks at all. Everyone in his hometown knew the executioner by sight. And there was no need for the executioner to hide his identity, because in ancient times no one even thought about taking revenge on the executor of the sentence. The executioner was seen as just a tool.
Typically, the position of executioner was held either by inheritance or under the threat of criminal prosecution.
There was a practice that a convicted person could receive an amnesty if he agreed to become an executioner. To do this, it is necessary that the place of executioner be vacant, and not all convicts could be offered such a choice.
Before becoming an executioner, the applicant had to work as an apprentice for a long time. The applicant must have considerable physical strength and significant knowledge about human body. To confirm his skill, the candidate, as in other medieval professions, had to perform a “masterpiece,” that is, perform his duties under the supervision of elders. If the executioner retired, he was obliged to propose a candidate to his post to the city.
Sometimes, in addition to the executioner, there were other related positions. So, in Paris, in addition to the executioner himself, the team included his assistant, who was responsible for torture, and a carpenter, specially involved in the construction of the scaffold, etc.
Although, according to the law, the executioner was considered an ordinary employee, the attitude towards him was appropriate. True, he could often earn good money.
At all times, executioners were paid little. In Russia, for example, according to the Code of 1649, the executioners’ salaries were paid from the sovereign’s treasury - “an annual salary of 4 rubles each, from labial unsalary income.” However, this was compensated by a kind of “social package”. Since the executioner was widely known in his area, he could, when he came to the market, take everything he needed completely free of charge. Literally, the executioner could eat the same as the one he served. However, this tradition did not arise out of favor towards executioners, but quite the opposite: not a single merchant wanted to take “blood” money from the hands of a murderer, but since the state needed the executioner, everyone was obliged to feed him.
However, over time, the tradition has changed, and a rather amusing fact is known about the inglorious departure from the profession of the French Sanson dynasty of executioners, which existed for more than 150 years. In Paris, no one was executed for a long time, so the executioner Clemont-Henri Sanson sat without money and got into debt. The best thing the executioner came up with was to lay the guillotine. And as soon as he did this, ironically, an “order” immediately appeared. Sanson begged the moneylender to give him the guillotine for a while, but he was unshakable. Clemont-Henri Sanson was fired. And if not for this misunderstanding, then his descendants could have chopped off heads for another century, because the death penalty in France was abolished only in 1981.
But the work of an executioner was considered an extremely disreputable occupation. By his position, he was close to such lower strata of society as prostitutes, actors, etc. Even by accident, contact with the executioner was unpleasant. That is why the executioner often had to wear uniforms of a special cut and/or color (in Paris - blue).
For a nobleman, the very fact of riding in an executioner's cart was considered offensive. Even if the condemned man was released on the scaffold, the very fact that he rode in the executioner's cart caused enormous damage to his honor.
There is a known case when an executioner, identifying himself as a city employee, was received in the house of a noblewoman. Later, when she found out who he was, she sued him because she felt insulted. And although she lost the case, the fact itself is very significant.
Another time, a group of drunken young nobles, hearing that music was playing in the house they were passing, broke in. But when they learned that they were at an executioner’s wedding, they were very embarrassed. Only one remained and even asked to show him the sword. Therefore, executioners usually socialized and married in a circle of professions close to them - gravediggers, flayers, etc. This is how entire dynasties of executioners arose.
The executioner often risked being beaten. This threat increased beyond the city limits or during major fairs, when many random people appeared in the city and did not have to fear persecution by local authorities.
In many areas of Germany, there was a rule that if someone, for example the municipality of a small city, hired an executioner, he was obliged to provide him with security and even pay a special deposit. There were cases when executioners were killed. This could have been done either by a crowd dissatisfied with the execution, or by criminals.
Execution of Emelyan Pugachev
Additional earnings
Since the executioner was considered a city employee, he received a fixed payment at a rate set by the authorities. In addition, all things worn from the victim’s waist and below were given to the executioner. Later, all the clothes began to be placed at his disposal. Since executions were carried out mainly on specially announced days, the rest of the time the executioner did not have much work, and, consequently, income. Sometimes the city executioner traveled to neighboring small towns to perform his functions on orders from local authorities. But this also did not happen often.
To give the executioner the opportunity to earn money and not have to pay him for downtime, other functions were often assigned to him. Which ones specifically depended both on local traditions and on the size of the city.
Among them, the most common were the following.
Firstly, the executioner usually supervised the city prostitutes, naturally collecting a fixed fee from them. That is, he was the owner of a brothel, who was also responsible for the behavior of prostitutes before the city authorities. This practice was very common until the 15th century, but was later gradually abandoned.
Secondly, he was sometimes responsible for cleaning public latrines, performing the work of a goldsmith. These functions were assigned to them in many cities until the end of the 18th century.
Thirdly, he could perform the work of a flayer, i.e., he was engaged in catching stray dogs, removing carrion from the city and driving out lepers. Interestingly, if there were professional flayers in the city, they were often obliged to act as assistants to the executioner. Over time and the growth of cities, the executioner had more and more work, and he gradually got rid of additional functions.
Along with these works, the executioner often provided other services to the population. He traded in parts of corpses and potions made from them, as well as various details related to execution. Things like the "hand of glory" (a hand cut off from a criminal) and the piece of rope with which the criminal was hanged are often mentioned in various books on magic and alchemy of the time.
Often the executioner acted as a healer. It should be noted that due to the nature of his activity, the executioner must have a good understanding of human anatomy. Moreover, unlike doctors of that time, he had free access to corpses. Therefore, he was well versed in various injuries and illnesses. The reputation of executioners as good healers was well known. Thus, Catherine II mentions that in her youth the Danzing executioner treated her spine, i.e., he performed the work of a chiropractor. Sometimes the executioner acted as an exorcist, capable of inflicting pain on the body and expelling the evil spirit that had taken possession of it. The fact is that torture was considered one of the most reliable ways to expel an evil spirit that has taken possession of the body. By inflicting pain on the body, people seemed to torture the demon, forcing him to leave this body.
In medieval Europe, executioners, like all Christians, were allowed into the church. However, they had to be the last to arrive for communion, and during the service they had to stand at the very entrance to the temple. However, despite this, they had the right to conduct wedding ceremonies and exorcism rites. The clergy of that time believed that the torment of the body made it possible to cast out demons.
Today it seems incredible, but executioners often sold souvenirs. And you shouldn’t flatter yourself with the hope that between executions they were engaged in wood carving or clay modeling. Executioners traded alchemical potions and body parts of executed people, their blood and skin. The thing is that, according to medieval alchemists, such reagents and potions had incredible alchemical properties. Others believed that the fragments of the criminal’s body were a talisman. The most harmless souvenir is the hanged man's rope, which supposedly brought good luck. It happened that corpses were secretly bought by medieval doctors to study the anatomical structure of the body.
Russia, as usual, has its own way: the severed parts of the bodies of the “dashing” people were used as a kind of “propaganda”. The royal decree of 1663 states: “Nail the cut off hands and feet near the main roads to trees, and write guilt on the same hands and feet and stick on them that those feet and hands are thieves and robbers and were cut off from them for theft, robbery and for murder... so that people of all ranks know about their crimes.”
There was a concept called the “executioner’s curse.” It had nothing to do with magic or witchcraft, but reflected society’s view of this craft. According to medieval traditions, a person who became an executioner remained one for the rest of his life and could not change his profession of his own free will. In case of refusal to fulfill his duties, the executioner was considered a criminal.
The most famous executioner of the twentieth century is the Frenchman Fernand Meyssonnier. From 1953 to 1057, he personally executed 200 Algerian rebels. He is 77 years old, he still lives in France today, he does not hide his past and even receives a pension from the state. Meyssonnier has been in the profession since he was 16 years old, and it runs in the family. His father became an executioner because of the “benefits and benefits” provided: the right to have military weapons, high salaries, free travel and tax breaks for running a pub. He still keeps the tool of his grim work - the Model 48 guillotine - to this day.
Until 2008, he lived in France, received a state pension and did not hide his past. When asked why he became an executioner, Fernand replied that it was not because his father was an executioner, but because the executioner has a special social status, high salary. Free travel around the country, the right to have military weapons, as well as tax benefits when doing business.
Fernand Meyssonnier - the most famous executioner of the twentieth century and his identity document
“Sometimes they tell me: “ How much courage does it take to execute people on the guillotine?" But this is not courage, but self-control. Self-confidence must be one hundred percent.
When the condemned were taken out into the prison yard, they immediately saw the guillotine. Some stood courageously, others fell unconscious or peed in their pants.
I climbed right under the guillotine knife, grabbed the client by the head and pulled him towards me. If at that moment my father had accidentally lowered the knife, I would have been cut in half. When I pressed the client's head against the stand, my father lowered a special wooden device with a semicircular cutout that held the head in the desired position. Then you try harder, grab the client by the ears, pull his head towards you and shout: “Vas-y mon pere!” (“Come on, father!”). If I hesitated, the client had time to react somehow: he turned his head to the side, biting my hands. Or he pulled his head out. Here I had to be careful - the knife fell very close to my fingers. Some prisoners shouted: “Allahu Akbar!” The first time I remember thinking: “So fast!” Then I got used to it."
“I was the punishing hand of Justice and proud of it,” he writes in his book. And no remorse or nightmares. He kept the tool of his craft - the guillotine - until his death, exhibited it in his own museum near Avignon and sometimes traveled with it to different countries:
“For me, the guillotine is like for a car enthusiast and collector of an expensive Ferrari. I could sell it and provide myself with a calm and well-fed life.”
But Meyssonnier did not sell the guillotine, although the “model 48” cut, in his words, poorly, and he had to “help with his hands.” The executioner pulled the doomed man’s head forward by the ears, because “ the criminals pulled her into their shoulders and the execution did not really work.”
Dismantling the guillotine on the prison grounds after the execution. The last execution in France was carried out in 1977
Public execution. Public executions existed in France until 1939
Nevertheless, they write that Fernand was a kind fellow, a fan of ballet and opera, a lover of history and a champion of justice, and in general he was kind to criminals.
Both father and son always followed the same principle: to do their job cleanly and as quickly as possible, so as not to prolong the already unbearable suffering of the condemned. Fernand argued that the guillotine was the most painless execution. After retiring, he also released his memoirs, thanks to which he is also quite a famous person.
Mohammed Saad al-Beshi is the current Chief Executioner of Saudi Arabia. He is 45 today. “It doesn’t matter how many orders I have per day: two, four or ten. I am fulfilling God’s mission and therefore I do not know fatigue,” says the executioner, who began working in 1998. In not a single interview did he mention how many executions he had carried out or what fees he received, but he boasted that the authorities rewarded him with a sword for his high professionalism. Mohammed “keeps his sword razor sharp” and “cleans it regularly.” By the way, he is already teaching his 22-year-old son the craft.
One of the most famous executioners in the post-Soviet space is Oleg Alkaev, who in the 1990s was the head of the firing squad and headed the Minsk pre-trial detention center. He not only leads an active social life, but also published a book about his workdays, after which he was called a humanist executioner.
EXECUTIONER - from the Ingush word PALAKH “a type of sword with a long blade”, this type of sword was used by the Crusaders. Broadsword
Boling Alive
It was a very painful and slow type of execution. It was not as widespread as other methods, but was used in both Europe and Asia for 2000 years. The chronicles describe three types of this execution: during the first, the doomed person was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, tar, and oil. This is what they did according to the laws of the Hansa with counterfeiters. These laws did not make discounts for women either - in 1456 in Lübeck, 17-year-old Margaret Grimm was thrown alive into boiling tar for selling three counterfeit thalers. This method was as merciful as possible - a person almost instantly lost consciousness from painful shock due to a massive burn on almost the entire surface of the body.
During the second type of execution, the previously bound condemned person was placed in a giant cauldron with cold water. The executioner lit a fire under the cauldron so that the water slowly boiled. During such an execution, the convict remained conscious and suffered for up to an hour and a half.
However, there was a third, most terrible version of this execution - the victim, suspended over a cauldron of boiling liquid, was slowly lowered into the cauldron, so that her entire body was cooked gradually, over long hours. The longest period of such execution was during the reign of Genghis Khan, when the condemned lived and suffered for a whole day. At the same time, it was periodically raised from boiling water and doused with ice water. According to eyewitnesses, the meat began to fall away from the bones, but the man was still alive. In a similar way, although for a shorter period of time, unfortunate counterfeiters were executed in Germany - they were slowly boiled in boiling oil - "... first up to the knees, then up to the waist, then up to the chest and finally up to the neck...". At the same time, a weight was tied to the condemned person’s feet so that he could not pull his limbs out of the boiling water and the process continued continuously. This was not torture; in England it was a completely legal punishment for forging banknotes.
In the time of Henry VIII (about 1531), this punishment was provided for poisoners. The execution of a certain Richard Roose, who was a cook for the Bishop of Rochester, is known. This cook put poison in the food, as a result of which two people died and the rest were seriously poisoned. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be boiled alive. This was a direct intervention of secular authorities in spiritual jurisdiction, but this did not save the criminal. He was executed at Smithfield on April 15, 1532. This should have served as a lesson for all criminals who planned such a thing. A servant was boiled alive at King's Lynn fairground in 1531 for poisoning her mistress. Margaret Dovey, a servant, was executed at Smithfield on March 28, 1542, for poisoning the masters with whom she lived.
Breaking on the wheel 
Breaking on the wheel was a type of torture, and later execution, in the Middle Ages.
The wheel looked like an ordinary cart wheel, only large sizes with a lot of spokes. The victim was undressed, the arms and legs were spread out and tied between two strong boards, then the executioner hit the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and hips with a large hammer, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times, while the executioner tried not to deliver fatal blows (an iron-bound wheel could be used instead of a hammer).
According to the records of a 17th century German chronicler, after this execution the victim turned “into a gigantic screaming doll, writhing in streams of blood, like a sea monster with shapeless pieces of flesh mixed with fragments of bones.” The victim was then tied to the wheel by passing ropes through the broken joints. The wheel was raised on a pole so that the birds could peck the still living victim. Sometimes, instead of a wheel, massive iron rods with knobs were used. There is also a legend that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was executed in this way, and subsequently this torture/execution began to be called “Katherine’s wheel.” It was a cruel torture, comparable in its severity to the shame of a government official. As the Dutch proverb goes: opgroeien voor galg en rad ("get on the gallows and the wheel"), i.e. be prepared for any crime.
After hanging, wheeling was the most common (and at the same time the most monstrous) form of execution in West German Europe from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the 18th century. Together with burning at the stake and quartering, this was the most popular execution in terms of entertainment, which took place in all the squares of Europe. Hundreds of noble and ordinary people came to watch a good wheeling, especially if women were executed.
Beheading 
Decapitation is the cutting off of the head of a living victim, with inevitable subsequent death. Usually done with a large knife, sword or axe.
Decapitation was considered a “dignified” form of execution for nobles and nobles who were warriors had to die by the sword (in England, for example, the privilege of the nobles was execution by beheading). An “undignified” death would be on the gallows or at the stake.
If the executioner's ax or sword was sharp and it hit immediately, then decapitation was painless and quick. If the execution weapon was blunt or the execution was clumsy, then repeated blows could be very painful. Usually the official gave a coin to the executioner so that he would do everything quickly.
Burning at stake
Burning was used as an execution in many ancient societies. According to ancient records, Roman authorities executed many early Christian martyrs by burning them. According to records, in some cases the burning failed and the victim was beheaded. During times Byzantine Empire burning was reserved for the stubborn followers of Zarathustra, due to their worship of fire.
In 1184, the Synod of Verona decreed that burning at the stake was the official punishment for heresy. This decree was later confirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229, and by numerous ecclesiastical and temporal authorities until the 17th century.
Increasing persecution of witches over the centuries resulted in millions of women being burned at the stake. The first great witch hunt occurred in Switzerland in 1427. From 1500 to 1600, witch trials became common throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and Spain during the existence of the Inquisition.
The most famous executed in this way:
Jacques de Molay (Master of the Templar Order, 1314);
Jan Hus (1415);
In England, the traditional punishment for treason for women was burning at the stake, for men - quartering. They were for two types of treason - against the Supreme Authority (the king), and against the rightful master (including the murder of a husband by a wife).
Hanging
Hanging was both a type of execution and a type of torture in the Middle Ages. The convict could simply be hanged in a noose, breaking his neck. However, if he was being tortured, there were a variety of methods available. Usually the person was "drawn and quartered" before being hanged. For extremely serious crimes (such as crimes against the king), hanging was not enough. The convict was cut into pieces alive before being hanged.
Hanging has been used throughout history. It is known that it was invented and used in the Persian Empire. The usual wording of the sentence was “the convict is hanged by the neck until death.” As a form of judicial punishment in England, hanging dates back to the Saxon period, around 400 AD. Records of British laments begin in 1360 with Thomas de Warblynton.
An early method of hanging was to place a noose around the prisoner's neck, throw the other end over a tree, and pull until the victim suffocated. Sometimes a ladder or cart was used, which the executioner knocked out from under the victim's feet.
In 1124 Ralph Bassett had a court at Hundehoh in Leicestershire. There he hanged more thieves than anywhere else. 44 were hanged in one day, and 6 of them were blinded and castrated.
Hanging was also common during hostilities. Captured soldiers, deserters, and civilians were hanged.
Flaying
Flaying is a method of execution or torture, depending on how much skin is removed. Skin was torn off from both living and dead people. There are records of skin being removed from the corpses of enemies or criminals for intimidation.
Flaying differed from flagellation in that the former involved the use of a knife (causing extreme pain), while flagellation was any corporal punishment where some type of whip, rod, or other sharp implement was used to cause physical pain (where possible flaying is a collateral phenomenon). 
Skin picking has a very ancient history. The Assyrians also skinned captured enemies or rebel rulers and nailed them to the walls of their cities as a warning to those who would challenge their power. IN Western Europe used as a method of punishment for traitors and traitors.
Pierre Basile, a French knight who killed King Richard the Lionheart of England with a crossbow during the siege of Chalus-Charbrol on March 26, 1199. Richard, who took off his chain mail, was not mortally wounded by Basile’s bolt, but the gangrene that developed as a result brought the king to the grave 6 April of the same year. Basil was one of two knights defending the castle. The castle was not ready for a siege, and Basil was forced to defend the ramparts with shields made from parts of armor, boards, and even frying pans (to the great joy of the besiegers). This may be why Richard did not wear full armor the day he was shot. They say that Richard ordered not to execute Basil and even pay him money. One way or another, after the death of the king, Basil was flayed, and then he was hanged.
Quartering (Hanged, drawn and quartered)
Quartering was a punishment in England for treason or attempt on the king's life. Only men were executed this way. Women were burned at the stake.
Execution details:
The condemned man was transported stretched out on a wooden frame to the place of execution
Strangled with a noose, but not to death
Limbs and genitals were cut off; the last thing the victim saw was her own heart. Entrails were burned
The body was dismembered into 4 parts (quartered)
As a rule, 5 parts (limbs and head) were hung out for people to see in different parts of the city as a warning.
An example of quartering is the execution of William Wallace.
Breaking by horses
The convicted person was tied to horses by his limbs. If the horses were unable to tear the unfortunate man apart, the executioner made cuts at each joint to speed up the execution. Ripping, as a rule, was preceded by torture: pieces of meat were torn out of the criminal’s thighs, chest, and calves with tongs.
Buried alive
Also one of the ancient punishments, but even in the Middle Ages people found use for it. In 1295, Marie de Romainville, suspected of theft, was buried alive in the ground at Hotels by the verdict of Baglia Sainte-Geneviève. In 1302, he also sentenced Amelotte de Christelle to this terrible execution for stealing, among other things, a skirt, two rings and two belts. In 1460, during the reign of Louis XI, Perette Mauger was buried alive for theft and concealment. Germany also executed women who killed their children.
The crucifixion
Crucifixion is quite an ancient punishment. But in the Middle Ages we also encounter this savagery. So Louis the Fat in 1127 ordered the crucification of the attacker. He also ordered that a dog be tied next to him and that it be beaten; it would become angry and bite the criminal. There was also a pathetic image of a crucifixion, head down. It was sometimes used by Jews and heretics in France.
Drowning
Anyone who uttered shameful curses was subject to punishment. So the nobles had to pay a fine, and those who were from the common people were subject to drowning. These unfortunates were put in a bag, tied with a rope and thrown into the river. Once Louis de Boas-Bourbon met King Charles VI, he bowed to him, but did not kneel. Karl recognized him and ordered him to be taken into custody. He was soon put in a bag and thrown into the Seine. On the bag was written "Make way for royal justice."
Beating by stones
When the condemned man was led through the city, a bailiff walked with him with a pike in his hand, on which a banner fluttered to attract the attention of those who could speak in his defense. If no one showed up, he was stoned. The beating was carried out in two ways: the accused was beaten with stones or raised to a height; one of the guides pushed him off, and the other rolled a large stone onto him.
Torture
Torture has been used in medieval inquests since 1252. In the Middle Ages, torture was considered a normal method for obtaining testimony and confessions. The torture methods used by Inquisition interrogators were moderate compared to secular courts, as they were prohibited from using methods that would result in bloodshed or death.
Although tongs can probably be considered torture, people died from this torture. The idea was to pull out the meat with tongs. Typically, this procedure also included pouring molten lead into the mouth and onto the wounds.
Blinding
It was applied mainly to people of noble family, whom they feared, but did not dare to destroy. A stream of boiling water, red-hot iron, which was held in front of the eyes until they were cooked.
Hand cutting
Chopping off the hand is one of the mutilations that civilization most opposed. In 1525, Jean Leclerc was convicted of knocking over statues of saints: they pulled out his arms with red-hot pliers, cut off his hand, tore off his nose, and then slowly burned him at the stake. The condemned man knelt down, placed his hand, palm up, on the block, and with one blow of an ax or knife the executioner cut it off. The amputated part was inserted into a bag filled with bran.
Chopping off legs (Legs cutting) It was not at all honorable, it rather inspired horror. They resorted to cutting off legs only under the first kings of France. The legs of prisoners were also cut off during internecine wars. In the laws of Saint Louis, we find that for secondary theft the leg is also taken away.
Chronicle of France or of St Denis (fourteenth century)
Martyre de Sainte Apollonie, Bibliotheque Municipale de Chamberyms, France, 1470
Des Phillistins crevant les yeux de Samson, Bibliotheque Municipale de Marseille, Provence, 1470-80
Written sources
Materials from the book of the hereditary executioner, former executor of the Supreme Sentences of the Paris Criminal Court G. Sanson
Article on live boiling
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Article about the execution of William Wallace
Materials from the book "Death in the Middle Ages" by T. Boase
One of the most ancient professions is executioner– has never been honorable. The death penalty was once the predominant punishment for serious crimes. And someone had to carry out the sentence. Of course, there were few people willing - the social status of the executioner was at the level of thieves and prostitutes. The executioners lived outside the city, looked for wives and apprentices among their own kind, in the church they stood behind everyone, people avoided them. However, in this inglorious profession there were those whose names went down in history.
The chief executioner of the city of Nuremberg in Germany, Franz Schmidt, executed 361 people over 45 years of work - the exact numbers and circumstances of the execution are known thanks to the diary in which the pedantic executioner recorded all the details. He showed humanity to the convicts - he tried to reduce their suffering to a minimum, and believed that he was helping them atone for their sins. In 1617, he left his position, which washed away the stigma of “dishonest”, as executioners, prostitutes and beggars were called.
Often executioners had entire dynasties - the profession was necessarily passed on from father to son. The most famous was the Sanson dynasty in France - 6 generations served as executioners for a century and a half. Members of the Sanson family were executors of sentences over Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, revolutionaries Danton, Robespierre, Saint-Just and other historical figures.
According to legend, Napoleon once asked Charles Sanson whether he could sleep peacefully after executing 3 thousand people. He replied: “If kings, dictators and emperors sleep peacefully, why shouldn’t the executioner sleep peacefully?” Henri Sanson interrupted the Clement dynasty - due to financial difficulties, he laid down the guillotine. When the order came to appear for the execution of the death sentence, he rushed to the moneylender, but he refused to give out the “tool of labor” for the time being. Therefore, in 1847, Sanson was dismissed.
Italy's most famous executioner was Giovanni Batista Bugatti, who executed 516 people during his 65 years of work. He began his “professional activity” with axes and clubs, then switched to the guillotine. Bugatti called the convicts patients, and he himself was nicknamed “Master of Justice.”
Briton James Berry combined two professions - executioner and preacher. He also wrote theoretical works on the proper execution of executions. And the most effective executioner in England is called Albert Pierpoint, who in the twentieth century. executed 608 convicts. He retired after hanging his own friend. Pierpoint wrote the memoir that served as the basis for the film The Last Executioner.
US Army Lance Sergeant John Woodd hanged 347 murderers and rapists, but became famous in 1946 by executing 10 Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg trials. And after the execution, he made money by selling pieces of the rope on which the leaders of Hitler's Germany were hanged.
The hereditary executioner Fernand Meyssonnier worked on the guillotine since 1947, executed more than 200 Algerian rebels, and collected the things of those executed to exhibit in the museum. He began working as an executioner at the age of 16, helping his father. After his retirement, he wrote memoirs in which he admitted that he had no remorse, since he considered himself the punishing hand of justice.
