Born of a revolution. History of the French guillotine

Starting from the 16th century, they began to invent new tortures and complicate existing ones; It was believed that during the previous two centuries the punishments were “soft”, so they decided to tighten them. And the executions themselves existed of several types: some could be called simple executions, others were more complex in their execution .

Simple executions meant that a person was simply deprived of life: if it concerned persons of the noble class, then their heads were cut off; if a commoner was executed, he was strangled with a rope tied to a crossbar (gallows). They were sentenced to hang for very large number crimes: burglary, residential theft, murder, infanticide, arson, rape, kidnapping, group smuggling, counterfeiting, slander, causing bodily harm resulting in death, etc. In total, there were 115 crimes for which the death penalty by hanging was imposed. Sentences were handed down either by ordinary courts or, during the war, by military tribunals.

The Paris court used two types of interrogations in its practice: ordinary and enhanced, using water or “boots”. In other courts, other types of interrogations were used: lighting wicks inserted between the fingers, hanging by the legs, standing on rack, etc.

When water torture was used, more or less water was forcibly given to the accused depending on the circumstances. The decision was read to him, according to which he was to be tortured, he was seated on something like a stone stool, then his hands were tied to two iron rings located behind his back; the legs were tied to two other rings driven into the wall; then they pulled the ropes with force until the body could bear it.

The interrogator held a bull's horn with the end sawed off in one hand, and with the other poured water into it and forced the criminal to swallow 4 pints of water at once (1 pint equals 568 ml) in the case of a simple interrogation and 8 pints in the case of an enhanced interrogation. During the torture, the surgeon made sure that the accused did not lose consciousness, and if his condition sharply worsened, he stopped the torture. In between the “water procedures” the accused was asked questions. If he did not answer them, the water torture continued.

Torture with the “boot” was used less frequently than torture with water, because after the “boot” the person, as a rule, remained crippled. Interrogation with the help of "boots" was used only in relation to those accused of serious crimes, whose condemnation was inevitable. Through “boot” torture, investigators tried to achieve a full confession of the crime. Here's how it happened.

They sat the man down, tied his hands, and forced him to keep his legs extended. Then two boards were placed on each leg on both sides, tying them under the knee and at the ankle. After this, they tied both legs together and began to gradually compress. These boards were the inner part of the machine, pressing on them as wooden stakes were immersed into it, which the executioner drove into special sockets. As a result of such “interrogation,” the accused’s bones were broken. There were also two types of such interrogation: simple and enhanced. If after a simple interrogation a person could still somehow move with the help of crutches, then after a reinforced one he did not have a single intact bone left.

Some especially dangerous prisoners were sentenced to hanging and burning. First they were hanged, then removed from the gallows and placed on the fire.

Finally, depending on the type of crime, the following tortures and punishments were used: ordinary or enhanced interrogation; public repentance; cutting off an arm or both arms, and cutting or piercing the tongue. And finally, the most terrible executions: hanging, wheeling, quartering and burning. A person sentenced to quartering was simply torn apart with the help of four horses, to which he was tied with ropes. The horses were then forced to pull the body of the condemned man in different directions. This execution was rarely used, mainly for lese majeste. In particular, Damien (who made an unsuccessful attempt on Louis XV) and Ravaillac (the killer of Henry IV) were quartered.

Persons sentenced to hanging or beheading were first led to the entrance of the church, where they performed public repentance.

To cut off the hands of the condemned person, he was forced to kneel, then he was forced to place his hand (or, depending on the sentence, both hands) on the block. The executioner did his job with an ax. The stump was immediately put into a bag filled with sawdust to stop the bleeding.

The tongue was cut off with a regular knife. But the piercing of the tongue was carried out with a special sharp knife, intended for branding.

Those sentenced to the same type of punishment were transported to the place of execution together. The “most guilty” were executed first. The prisoners' sentences were read out after they were taken out of prison. They were then tied with one long rope so that the prisoners could move but could not escape.

The person sentenced to hanging was placed on a special cart, with his back to the horse. The executioner was behind the condemned man. When the cart approached the gallows, the executioner first climbed onto the platform, pulled the condemned man in with a rope, placed him on a special ladder and put a noose on his head. Then the priest took over and prayed with the person sentenced to death. As soon as the priest finished his prayer, the executioner knocked out the ladder from under the condemned man’s feet, and he hung in the air.

As mentioned above, beheading was used in relation to nobles. To carry out this punishment, a scaffold with an area of ​​10 to 12 square meters was built. feet (1 foot equals 32.4 cm) and 6 feet high. When the condemned man climbed the scaffold, his outer clothing was removed, leaving his shirt with his neck exposed. Then his hands were tied, the condemned man knelt down, and his hair was cut off. After this, the convict placed his head on the block, the height of which was approximately 8 inches (1 inch is equal to 27.07 mm). The priest descended from the scaffold, and the executioner cut off his head with a saber. Executioners, as a rule, were experienced people, therefore, with rare exceptions, one blow was enough. If it was not possible to cut off the head the first time, then the executioner finished the “work” with the help of an ordinary ax. Then the head of the executed person was delivered to the scene of the crime he committed, where for some time it was put on public display.

For committing particularly brutal crimes, convicts were sometimes sentenced to ride on the wheel. A person sentenced to be wheeled was broken with an iron crowbar or a wheel, then all the large bones of his body were broken, then he was tied to a large wheel and the wheel was placed on a pole. The convict ended up face up and died from shock and dehydration, often for quite a long time. True, sometimes the executioner, as a favor or for money, quietly strangled the condemned person immediately after the execution began.

Execution by burning was also used, which was prescribed for heresy, magic or witchcraft. At the place of execution, a pillar 7–8 feet high was dug in, around which a fire was laid out, either from logs, or from straw, or from armfuls of brushwood, leaving a passage through which the condemned man was led. The second fire was placed inside the first, directly next to the pillar. The height of the logs, brushwood or straw had to reach the head of the convict. Then the person sentenced to burning was led to the stake, having first put on a shirt soaked in sulfur. The executed person was tied to the post by the neck and legs - with a rope, in the chest area - with an iron chain. After this, they filled the passage with bundles of brushwood or straw and lit a fire. If one of the relatives of the executed person paid the executioner money, then, as in the case of wheeling, he could quietly strangle the condemned person or pierce his heart with an iron pin.

2. The last execution by guillotine

Last public execution by guillotine took place on July 17, 1939. But for another 38 years, the “Widow” (as the French called this killing machine) conscientiously performed its functions of cutting off heads. True, the public was no longer allowed to attend such spectacles.

Hamid Djandoubi, a pimp of Tunisian origin, was guillotined in a Marseille prison in September 1977. The crimes he committed caused violent reaction in society and resumed the interrupted discussion about the death penalty.

Four years later, François Mitterrand abolished the death penalty.

The criminal hobbled to the place of execution on one leg. With the first light of the morning on September 10, 1977, 31-year-old Hamid Dzhandoubi, pimp and murderer, was dragged to the scaffold. To bring him to his knees under the guillotine, guards had to unfasten the prosthetic leg on which he had been limping after a factory accident that cut off his leg. In the courtyard of the Marseille prison of Baumette, he asked for a cigarette. Having not finished smoking, Djandubi asked for another one. It was a Gitan cigarette, his favorite brand. He smoked slowly, in complete silence. Later, his lawyers will say that after the second cigarette he wanted to take a few more puffs, but was refused: “Well, no! That’s enough, we’ve already been lenient with you,” muttered an important police official responsible for carrying out the execution. Djandubi put his head on the block. The blade fell at 4:40 am.

Who remembers Hamid Dzhandoubi today? However, he takes his place in the annals of French justice as the last condemned to death whose sentence was carried out. Convicted of the rape, torture and premeditated murder of his 21-year-old mistress Elisabeth Bousquet, he became the third person to have his head cut off during Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's seven-year presidency. Before him, this fate befell Christian Ranuzzi (July 28, 1976) and Jerome Carrain (June 23, 1977). Djandoubi became the latest person the president refused to pardon, declaring: “Let justice be done.” Justice turned out to be surprisingly swift: on February 25, 1977, the jury trial of the city of Bouches-du-Rhone began, it considered the case for only two days and handed down a death sentence. And five months later, Hamid Dzhandoubi was already guillotined.

Hamid Djandoubi arrived in Marseille 9 years before his execution, in 1968. At that time he was 22 years old. For the first time in his life, he traveled outside his homeland - Tunisia. Very quickly he got a job - he became a rigger and easily integrated into French society, which after the May 1968 events [The events of May 1968 were a social crisis in France, resulting in demonstrations, riots and a general strike. The skirmishers were students. Led ultimately to a change of government, the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle and, in a broader sense, huge changes in French society. ] somehow it immediately became more modern. In 1971, as a result of an accident, he not only lost his leg, but also broke down mentally: his friends said that the guy became a completely different person - cruel and aggressive. With women, Djandubi, who previously had a reputation as a seducer, became rude. Unexpectedly discovering his talent as a pimp, he lured several girls into prostitution, whom Djandubi literally terrorized. Elisabeth Bousquet's refusal to give in to the demands of her lover, who sent her out into the street to catch clients, literally enraged him: he yelled at her, beat her... As soon as he left prison, where he was sent after Bousquet filed a complaint, he began to threaten her.

Coming out of prison on the night of July 3-4, 1974, Hamid Dzhandoubi kidnapped Elizabeth Bousquet at gunpoint. Having brought her to his home, he throws her on the floor and beats her severely with a stick, then with a belt. Then he rapes her, burns her breasts and genitals with a cigarette: Djandubi saw similar reprisals carried out by gang leaders in the criminal environment of Marseille. The agony of the unfortunate woman lasts for hours. The executioner decides to end her life. He pours gasoline on her and throws a burning match. It doesn't work. He drags her body to his beach house located in Lançon de Provence. There, in the presence of two minor girls who live with him and whom he forces into prostitution, Djandubi strangles his victim. There is horror in the girls' eyes. A few days after the discovery of the corpse, one of the child prostitutes turns him over to the police.

Djandubi is not on the run for long: a few months later he is arrested and imprisoned in Marseilles prison. In the hope of softening the hearts of the judges, he does not deny what he did and admits all the facts; he is even ready to participate in reproducing the circumstances of his crime. The police also arrest two minor accomplices and imprison them in the women's section of Baumette Prison. This becomes a real relief for them - they are so afraid of revenge! Subsequently, one of the lawyers will say: “I thought that I would meet absolutely depressed creatures. I thought that after reading the case describing the torture the victim suffered, they would be tormented by remorse. In fact, they looked completely different, they were relaxed, because prison was after the hell in which they lived lately, seemed to them a real paradise! In November 1974, the lawyer managed to secure their release from custody, and in February 1977 they were completely acquitted.

All of France is closely following the trial of Djandubi, and some newspapers are even comparing him to Adolf Hitler. As he faces the death penalty, various organizations have become active in advocating for the abolition of the death penalty, this “barbaric and useless method that disgraces the country.” Both of the defendant's lawyers, one of whom, Emile Pollack, is considered the best in Marseille, are making every effort to avoid a death sentence. They look into his past, look for extenuating circumstances, and tell the story of a boy who “was gentle, hardworking, obedient and honest,” but whose life was shattered after an accident. "It's the devil in the flesh!" - Prosecutor General Shovi answers them, who is not at all convinced by the arguments presented by the lawyers. However, they do not convince psychiatrists either: in their opinion, Hamid Dzhandoubi “represents a colossal social danger,” although his intelligence is rated “above average.” This expertise is critical. The verdict of capital punishment, returned unanimously by the jury, was greeted with applause.

On March 16, 1981, during the television program “Cards on the Table,” François Mitterrand, the Socialist presidential candidate, spoke out against the death penalty, although all public opinion polls show that the French are not ready to part with the guillotine. This is a turning point in the election campaign, but fate is on Mitterrand's side. On March 10, 1981, he was elected president. And on July 8, Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy announced the abolition of the death penalty. Parliament, assembled for an extraordinary session, votes on September 18 in support of this decision after the Minister of Justice Robber Badinter made his speech, which instantly became famous: “Tomorrow, thanks to you, these murders, shameful for all of us, will no longer be carried out early in the morning, under cover of secrecy, in French prisons. Tomorrow the bloody page of our justice will be turned.”

On February 19, 2007, during the presidency of Jacques Chirac, the abolition of the death penalty was enshrined in the Constitution. At Versailles, where parliament met to vote on this change to the fundamental law, 26 out of 854 parliamentarians voted against it.

Based on materials from the French press, prepared and translated by Yuri Alexandrov

France, Marseille

On September 10, 1977, Tunisian emigrant Hamid Djandoubi, convicted of murder, was executed in Marseille; he became the last criminal to be executed by guillotine.

The guillotine as a device for carrying out the death penalty has been documented since the 13th century, when it was used in Ireland, Scotland and England, especially during the Republic of Oliver Cromwell, as well as in Italy and Switzerland.

During the French Revolution, the guillotine was introduced by decree of the French National Assembly on March 20, 1792 as the only instrument for executing capital punishment, regardless of social status sentenced to death. The idea of ​​this law was submitted in 1790 by the doctor and revolutionary Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who himself was an opponent of the death penalty; he considered guillotining a more humane means of execution than hanging, beheading or shooting. Two years later, according to the design of the military surgeon Antoine Louis, a French version of a similar device was built, it was tested on corpses, and on April 25, 1792, the first person, the common thief Nicolas Pelletier, was executed on it in Paris on Place de Greve. The public, accustomed since the Middle Ages to “exquisite” torture, was disappointed by the speed of the execution.

Subsequently, the guillotine, as this device soon began to be called, was transported to the Place de la Revolution (now the Place de la Concorde), where over the years French Revolution More than 10,000 people were executed, including former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Figures of the French Revolution were also guillotined - Georges Danton, Robespierre, Louis Saint-Just, Desmoulins. Contrary to popular belief, Joseph Guillotin himself was not executed by guillotine, but died naturally.

In 1868, the guillotine was improved - it became dismountable and was transported to the place of execution, as a rule, to the square in front of the prison gates. Around the same time, the positions of regional executioners were abolished, and the main, Parisian executioner with assistants, if necessary, began to travel to various cities of the country.

In Germany, which introduced guillotining in 1803, executions by guillotine continued until 1949, and in the German Democratic Republic until 1960. Switzerland abandoned the use of the guillotine in 1940. The last public execution by guillotine in France was carried out in 1939, and the last execution by guillotine in general was on September 10, 1977. This was also the last death penalty in Western Europe.

In 1981, France abolished the death sentence as a form of punishment, automatically abandoning the guillotine as a means of executing a person.

In the 18th-19th centuries. Cruel methods of execution were used: burning at the stake, hanging, quartering. Only aristocrats and rich people were executed in a more “honorable” way - cutting off the head with a sword or an ax.

But such types of execution (with an ax or sword), which assumed the quick death of the condemned, often caused prolonged agony if the executioner was insufficiently qualified.

The good doctor Guillotin invented the guillotine execution

Doctor Guillotin (Joseph Ignace Guillotin) was born in 1738. Having been elected to the Constituent Assembly, in December 1789 he submitted to the assembly a proposal that the death penalty should always be carried out in the same way - namely through beheading, and, moreover, by means of a machine.

It was believed that such a machine was a much more humane method of execution than those common at that time. Since such a mechanism would ensure instant death even with minimal qualifications of the executioner.

On April 25, 1792, after successful experiments on corpses, the first execution with a new machine, the guillotine, was carried out in Paris, on Place de Greve.

Decapitation by guillotine was a common mechanized form of execution invented shortly before the French Revolution. After the head was cut off, the executioner raised it and showed it to the crowd. In addition, the guillotine was applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.

It was believed that the severed head could see for about ten seconds. Thus, the person’s head was raised so that at the last moment before death he could see the crowd laughing at him.

Is the head still alive after being cut off by the guillotine?

In 1793, after the execution of Charlotte Corday, who stabbed to death one of the leaders of the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, according to eyewitnesses, the executioner, taking the severed head by the hair, mockingly whipped her across the cheeks. To the great amazement of the spectators, Charlotte's face turned red, and his features twisted in a grimace of indignation.

Thus, the first documentary report of eyewitnesses was compiled that a person’s head severed by a guillotine was capable of retaining consciousness. But such an observation was far from the last.

Unlike the arms and legs, the head contains the brain, a mental center capable of consciously controlling muscle movements. When the head is cut off, in principle, no trauma is caused to the brain, so it is able to function until a lack of oxygen leads to loss of consciousness and death.

excerpt from the film “White Sun of the Desert”

According to eyewitnesses, the English King Charles I and Queen Anne Boleyn moved their lips after their execution at the hands of the executioner, trying to say something.

Categorically opposing the use of the guillotine, the German scientist Sommering referred to numerous records from doctors that the faces of those executed were distorted in pain when the doctors touched the cut of the spinal canal with their fingers.

The most famous of this kind of evidence comes from the pen of Dr. Borieux, who examined the head of the executed criminal Henri Langille. The doctor writes that within 25-30 seconds after decapitation, he called Langille by name twice, and each time he opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on Borjo.

Judith and Holofernes by Caravaggio

The execution itself by guillotine takes a matter of seconds; the headless body was instantly pushed by the executioner's assistants into a prepared deep box with a lid. During the same period, the positions of regional executioners were abolished.

In Germany, guillotine cutting (German: Fallbeil) has been used since the 17th and 18th centuries and was standard view the death penalty until its abolition in 1949. At the same time, in some lands of Germany, beheading with an ax was practiced, which was finally abolished only in 1936. Unlike French models of the 19th and 20th centuries, the German guillotine was much lower and had metal vertical posts and a winch for lifting the knife.

The last execution by beheading by guillotine was carried out in Marseille, during the reign of Giscard d'Estaing, on September 10, 1977. The executed man's name was Hamida Jandubi, of Arab origin. This was the last death penalty in Western Europe.

Doctor Guillotin

“The purpose of the invention was to create a painless and quick method of execution.” — Joseph Ignace Guillotin

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Over its almost two-hundred-year 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.

It was long believed that the guillotine was invented at the end of the 18th century, however, recent research has shown that such “beheading machines” have a longer history. The most famous, and perhaps one of the first, was a machine called the Halifax Gibbet, which was a monolithic wooden structure with two 15-foot posts topped by a horizontal beam. The blade was an ax that slid up and down along 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 town's market square on Saturdays, and the machine remained in use until April 30, 1650.

In 18th-century France, aristocrats held “victim balls” of the guillotine.

Halifax Gallows

Another early mention of an execution machine is found in the painting Execution of Marcod Ballagh near Merton in Ireland 1307. As the title suggests, the victim's name is Marcod Ballagh, and he was beheaded using equipment that bears a striking resemblance to a late French guillotine. A similar device is also found in a painting depicting a combination of a guillotine machine and traditional beheading. The victim was lying on a bench, with an ax secured by some kind of mechanism and raised above her neck. The difference lies in the executioner, who stands next to a large hammer, ready to strike the mechanism and send the blade down.

Hereditary executioner Anatole Deibler, “Monsieur de Paris,” inherited the post from his father and executed 395 people over a 40-year career.

Since the Middle Ages, execution by beheading was only possible for rich and influential people. Decapitation was believed to be more generous, and certainly less painful, than other methods. Other types of execution, which involved the quick death of the convict, often caused prolonged agony if the executioner was insufficiently qualified. The guillotine ensured instant death even with minimal qualifications of the executioner. However, let us remember “Halifax Gibbet” - it was undoubtedly an exception to the rule, since it was used to carry out punishment for any people, regardless of their position in society, including the poor. The French guillotine was also applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.

The guillotine remained the official method of execution in France until 1977

18th century guillotine

At the beginning of the 18th century, many methods of execution were used in France, which were often painful, bloody and excruciating. Hanging, burning at the stake, and quartering were commonplace. Rich and powerful people were beheaded with an ax or sword, while the execution of the common populace often involved alternating between death and torture. These methods had a dual purpose: to punish the criminal and to prevent new crimes, so most executions were carried out in public. Gradually, indignation at such monstrous punishments grew among the people. These discontents 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 of capital punishment or ultimately sought its abolition.

Execution of French revolutionary Maximilian Robespierre

A doctor and member of the National Assembly, professor of anatomy, politician, member of the Constituent Assembly, friend of Robespierre and Marat, Guillotin proposed using the guillotine in 1792. In fact, this beheading machine was named after him. The main part of the guillotine, intended for cutting off a head, is a heavy, several tens of kilograms, oblique knife (the slang name is “lamb”), which moves freely along vertical guides. The knife was raised to a height of 2-3 meters with a rope, where it was held in place by a latch. The head of the person being guillotined was placed in a special recess at the base of the mechanism and secured on top with a wooden board with a recess for the neck, after which, using 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 impressive machine designed by the French doctor Antoine Louis and built by the German harpsichord inventor Tobias Schmidt. Subsequently, after some time of using the machine, Guillotin tried in every possible way to remove his name from this weapon 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.

The way executioners dressed when going to the scaffold dictated fashion in France.

Portrait of Doctor Guillotin

In April 1792, after successful experiments on corpses, the first execution with the new machine was carried out in Paris, on Place de Greve - the first executed was a robber named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier. After Pelletier's execution, the beheading machine was given the name "Luisette" or "Luizon", after its designer, Dr. Louis, but this name was soon forgotten. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of 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 the French King Louis XVI

Eerie images of the guillotine began to appear in magazines and pamphlets, accompanied by highly ambiguous humorous comments. They wrote about her, composed songs and poems, and depicted her in caricatures and frightening drawings. The guillotine touched everything - fashion, literature and even children's toys; it became 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 terrifying - “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 there. Both yesterday's king and an ordinary criminal or political rebel could be executed on the guillotine. This allowed the machine to become the arbiter of supreme justice.

Guillotin proposed the machine as a humane method of execution

Guillotine in Prague Pankrac prison

At the end of the 18th century, people came in whole groups to Revolution Square to watch the machine do its terrible work. Spectators could buy souvenirs, read the program listing the names of the victims, and even have a snack at a restaurant nearby called “Cabaret at the Guillotine.” Some went to executions every day, most notably the "Knitters" - a group of female fanatics who sat in the front rows directly in front of the scaffold and knitted between executions. This eerie theatrical atmosphere also extended to the convicts. Many made sarcastic remarks or impudent last words before death, 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. An exact copy of 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 influence on children. Small guillotines also found a place on the dinner tables of the upper classes, they were used for cutting bread and vegetables.

"Children's" guillotine

As the popularity of the guillotine grew, so did the reputation of executioners; during the Great French Revolution, they gained enormous fame. Executioners were assessed on their ability to quickly and accurately organize a large number of executions. Such work often became a family affair. Generations of the famous Sanson family served as government executioners from 1792 to 1847, bringing blades to 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 in the streets, and the way they dressed when going to the scaffold dictated the fashion in the country. The criminal world also admired the executioners. According to some reports, gangsters and other bandits even got tattoos with dark slogans like: “My head will go to Deibler.”

Last public execution by guillotine, 1939

The guillotine was used intensively during the French Revolution and remained the main method of executing capital punishment in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981. Public executions continued in France until 1939, when Eugene Weidmann became the last "open-air" victim. Thus, it took almost 150 years for Guillotin’s original humane wishes to be realized in order to keep the execution process secret from prying eyes. The last time the guillotine was used was on September 10, 1977, when 28-year-old Tunisian Hamida Djandoubi was executed. He was a Tunisian immigrant convicted of torturing and murdering 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, an acquaintance of his. The next execution was scheduled to take place in 1981, but the alleged victim, Philippe Maurice, was granted clemency.

Guillotine

Guillotine. After existing for two centuries, it was abolished in 1981. Photo "Sigma".

“Holy guillotine”, “path to repentance”, “folk razor”, “patriotic truncation”, “transom”, “widow”, “Capetian tie”, later “window”, “machine”, “lathe” - that’s just some of the nicknames that people used to call the guillotine. Such a variety of names was explained both by the popularity of the guillotine and the fear that it inspired.

The French machine for cutting off heads was invented by two doctors: Dr. Guillotin and Dr. Louis, a humanist and scientist.

The first put forward the idea of ​​universal equality before death, which can be realized with the help of an improved knife, and the second materialized this idea. Each of them deserved the right to give their name to this first achievement of industrial technology in the field of killing.

Last public execution in June 1939. Eugene Weidmann was guillotined at Versailles. Photo. Police archive. D.R.

At first the car was called “Luizon”, “Luisette” and even “Mirabelle” - in honor of Mirabeau, who supported this project, but in the end the name “guillotine” stuck to it, although Dr. Guillotin always objected to such excessive gratitude. According to numerous testimonies, “he was extremely saddened by this.” Disillusioned with his “invention,” Guillotin left political career and actively involved in restoration Medical Academy, then, miraculously avoiding “the embrace of his goddaughter,” he opened his office.

Several numbers

Between 1792 and 1795:

- According to some data, from 13,800 to 18,613 guillotinations were carried out by court verdict. 2,794 are in Paris during the Jacobin dictatorship. In addition, approximately 25,000 beheadings were carried out as a result of simple administrative decisions. In total, during the period of the revolution, from 38,000 to 43,000 executions by guillotine took place.

Including:

- former aristocrats: 1,278 people, of which 750 are women.

- wives of farmers and artisans: 1467.

- nuns: 350.

- priests: 1135.

- commoners of different classes: 13,665.

- children: 41.

Between 1796 and 1810:

There are no reliable statistics available. Some sources give an average of 419 sentences per year between 1803 and 1809, of which 120 were death sentences. In total there are about 540 guillotined.

From 1811 to 1825: 4,520.

From 1826 to 1850: 1,029.

From 1851 to 1900: 642.

From 1901 to 1950: 457.

From 1950 to 1977: 65.

- Total: 6,713 guillotinations over 165 years from 1811 to 1977. The large number of executions in the period 1811–1825 is explained by the fact that “mitigating circumstances” did not apply then. Introduced in 1832, they saved the head of almost every second convict. Since 1950, the decline of the death penalty begins.

From 1792 to 1977:

- There will be 45,000-49,000 beheadings in France, excluding the period 1796–1810.

From 1968 to 1977:

- 9,231 people were found guilty of crimes punishable by guillotine.

- The prosecutor's office demanded 163 death sentences.

- 38 death sentences were imposed.

- 23 were not subject to appeal, 15 were appealed through the cassation court.

- In 7 cases the sentence was carried out.

Average annual figure:

- 850 possible death sentences, 15 at the request of the prosecutor's office, 4 sentences passed; 1 execution every two years. According to revolutionary statistics:

- 2% of those guillotined were of noble origin.

- from 8 to 18% - political opponents.

- from 80 to 90% are commoners, murderers, swindlers.

From 1950 to 1977:

- According to sociological research J-M. Bessette, which examined 82 guillotines:

- middle age convicts - 32 years.

- every second person guillotined was under 30 years old, 15% were between the ages of 20 and 24 years.

- 20% - single or divorced.

- 70% are workers.

- 5% - artisans, traders, office workers.

- more than 40% were born abroad.

From 1846 to 1893:

- 46 women were guillotined.

From 1941 to 1949:

- 18 women were executed by guillotine, 9 in the period 1944–1949. for contact with the enemy. One of them, named Marie-Louise Giraud, was executed in 1943 for helping to perform abortions. Since 1949, all women sentenced to death have received pardon.

- The last woman executed was Germaine Godefroy.

She was guillotined in 1949.

- The last woman convicted was Marie-Claire Emma.

She was pardoned in 1973.

Robespierre guillotines the executioner, beheading all the French. Revolutionary engraving. Private count

Torture, hanging, wheeling, quartering, beheading with a sword were the legacy of despotic, obscurantist eras; against this background, the guillotine for many became the embodiment of “new ideas” in the field of justice based on humanistic principles. In practice, she was the “daughter of the Enlightenment,” a philosophical creation that established a new type of legal relations between people.

On the other hand, the ominous instrument marked the transition from ancient, “homegrown” methods to mechanical ones. The guillotine heralded the beginning of an era of "industrial" death and "new inventions of new justice", which would later lead to the invention of the gas chamber and the electric chair, also due to the synthesis of social sciences, technology and medicine.

Jean-Michel Bessette writes: “The man-made, in a certain sense, inspired component of the executioners’ work disappears, and with it something human is lost... The guillotine is no longer controlled by a person, it is not the mind that moves his hand - a mechanism operates; the executioner turns into a mechanic of the judicial machine..."

With the advent of the guillotine, killing becomes a clear, simple and quick process that has nothing in common with old-fashioned methods of execution, which required certain knowledge and skill from the performers, and they were people not without moral and physical weaknesses and even dishonesty.

General laughter!

So, in the name of promoting the principles of equality, humanity and progress, the question of a beheading machine designed to change the very aesthetics of death was raised in the National Assembly.

On October 9, 1789, as part of a discussion on criminal legislation, Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a physician, anatomy teacher at the Faculty of Medicine and newly elected Parisian deputy, rose to the podium of the National Assembly.

He had a reputation among his colleagues as an honest scientist and philanthropist, and was even appointed to a commission tasked with shedding light on Mesmer's "witchcraft, wands and animal magnetism." When Guillotin put forward the idea that the same offense should be punished equally, regardless of the rank, title and merits of the perpetrator, he was listened to with respect.

Many deputies have already expressed similar considerations: the inequality and cruelty of punishments for criminal offenses outraged the public.

Two months later, on December 1, 1789, Guillotin again made an impassioned speech in defense of equality in death, for the same execution for all.

“In all cases where the law provides for the death penalty for the accused, the essence of the punishment must be the same, regardless of the nature of the crime.”

It was then that Guillotin mentioned the instrument of killing, which would later immortalize his name in history.

The technical concept and mechanical principles of the device had not yet been worked out, but from a theoretical point of view, Dr. Guillotin had already thought of everything.

He described the possibilities to his colleagues future car, which will chop off heads so simply and quickly that the convict will hardly feel even a “light breath on the back of his head.”

Guillotin ended his speech with a phrase that became famous: “My machine, gentlemen, will cut off your head in the blink of an eye, and you will not feel anything... The knife falls with the speed of lightning, the head flies off, blood splashes, the man is no more!..”

Most of the deputies were puzzled.

There were rumors that the Parisian deputy was outraged by the various types of execution provided for by the code at that time, because the cries of the condemned for many years His mother was horrified and went into premature labor. In January 1791, Dr. Guillotin again tried to win over his colleagues to his side.

The “machine question” was not discussed, but the idea of ​​“equal execution for all”, the refusal to stigmatize the families of convicts and the abolition of confiscation of property were adopted, which was a huge step forward.

Four months later, at the end of May 1791, the Assembly debated questions of criminal law for three days.

During the preparation of the draft of the new criminal code, issues of punishment procedures, including the death penalty, were finally raised.

Proponents of the death penalty and abolitionists clashed in fierce debate. The arguments of both sides will be discussed for another two hundred years.

The former believed that the death penalty, by its visibility, prevents the recurrence of crimes, the latter called it legalized murder, emphasizing the irreversibility of a miscarriage of justice.

One of the most ardent supporters of the abolition of the death penalty was Robespierre. Several theses put forward by him during the discussion went down in history: “Man must be sacred to man... I come here to beg not the gods, but the legislators, who should be the instrument and interpreters of the eternal laws inscribed by the Divine in the hearts of people, I came here to beg them to cross out from the French code bloody laws prescribing murder, equally rejected by their morality and the new constitution. I want to prove to them that, firstly, the death penalty is inherently unjust, and, secondly, that it does not deter crimes, but, on the contrary, multiplies crimes much more than it prevents them.”

Paradoxically, throughout the forty days of Robespierre's dictatorship, the guillotine functioned non-stop, symbolizing the apogee of the legal use of the death penalty in France. Only in the period from June 10 to July 27, 1794, one thousand three hundred and seventy-three heads fell from their shoulders, “like tiles torn off by the wind,” as Fouquier-Tinville would say. This was the time of the Great Terror. In total, in France, according to reliable sources, from thirty to forty thousand people were executed according to the verdicts of the revolutionary courts.

Let's go back to 1791. There were more deputies who supported the abolition of the death penalty, but the political situation was critical, there was talk of “internal enemies,” and the majority gave way to the minority.

On June 1, 1791, the Assembly voted overwhelmingly to retain the death penalty in the territory of the Republic. A debate immediately began that lasted several months, this time about the method of execution. All deputies were of the opinion that the execution should be as minimally painful as possible and as quick as possible. But how exactly should one execute? The debate focused mainly on a comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of hanging and beheading. Speaker Amber proposed tying the condemned man to a post and strangling him with a collar, but the majority voted for beheading. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, it is a quick execution, but the main thing was that hanging was traditionally the execution of commoners, while beheading was the privilege of those of noble birth.

Characteristics of the guillotine

"Dr. Louie's Daughter."

- Height of vertical posts: 4.5 m.

- Distance between posts: 37 cm.

- Height of folding board: 85 cm.

- Knife weight: 7 kg.

- Cargo weight: 30 kg.

- Weight of bolts securing the knife to the load: 3 kg.

- Total weight of the decapitating mechanism: 40 kg.

- Knife drop height: 2.25 m.

- Average neck thickness: 13 cm.

- Execution time: ±0.04 seconds.

- Time to cut the neck of a convicted person: 0.02 seconds.

- Blade speed: ± 23.4 km/h.

- Total machine weight: 580 kg.

This machine must consist of the following parts:

Two parallel oak posts, six inches thick and ten feet high, are mounted on the frame a foot apart, joined at the top by a crossbar, and supported by supports at the sides and rear. On the inside of the racks there are longitudinal grooves of square section, an inch deep, along which the side projections of the knife slide. At the top of each rack, under the crossbar, there are copper rollers.

Made by a skilled metal craftsman, this hard-hardened knife cuts with its beveled blade. The length of the cutting surface of the blade is eight inches, the height is six.

The blade on top is the same thickness as an axe. This part contains holes for iron hoops, by which a load weighing thirty pounds or more is secured. In addition, on the top surface, a foot across, there are square inch-wide tabs on both sides that fit into the grooves of the posts.

A strong long rope passed through a ring holds the knife under the top bar.

The wooden block on which the neck of the person to be executed is placed is eight inches high and four inches thick.

The base of the block, one foot wide, corresponds to the distance between the posts. Using removable pins, the base is attached to the posts on both sides. On top of the block there is a recess for the sharp edge of a beveled knife. The side grooves of the racks end at this level. A notch must be made in the center to properly position the neck of the person being executed.

To prevent a person from raising his head during execution, above the back of the head, where the hairline ends, it must be secured with an iron hoop in the shape of a horseshoe. The ends of the hoop have holes for bolting to the base of the top of the block.

The executed person is placed on his stomach, his neck is placed in the hole of the block. When all preparations are completed, the performer simultaneously releases both ends of the rope holding the knife, and, falling from above, it due to own weight and acceleration separates the head from the body in the blink of an eye!

Any defects in the above parts can be easily identified by even the most inexperienced designer.

Signed: Louis. Scientific Secretary of the Surgical Society.

So the choice of representatives of the people was partly an egalitarian revenge. Since the death penalty remains, “to hell with the rope! Long live the abolition of privileges and noble beheading for all!

From now on, concepts varying degrees the severity of suffering and shame will not apply to the death penalty.

Sword or axe?

Ratified on September 25, amended on October 6, 1791, the new criminal code read:

“All those sentenced to death will have their heads cut off,” specifying that “the death penalty is a simple deprivation of life and it is prohibited to torture the convicted person.”

All criminal courts in France received the right to impose death sentences, but the method of carrying out the sentence was not determined by law. How to cut off a head? Saber? With a sword? An ax?

Due to the lack of clarity, executions were suspended for some time, and the government began to address the issue.

Many were concerned by the fact that beheadings “the old fashioned way” often turned into a horrific spectacle, which contradicted the requirements of the new law - a simple, painless killing that excluded preliminary torture. However, given the possible awkwardness of the executioner and the complexity of the execution procedure itself, the torment of the condemned seemed inevitable.

The state executioner Sanson was most concerned. He sent a memorandum to Justice Minister Adrien Duport in which he argued that lack of experience could lead to the most dire consequences. Presenting a lot of arguments against beheading with a sword, he, in particular, stated:

“How can one endure such a bloody execution without trembling? In other types of execution it is easy to hide weakness from the public, for there is no need for the condemned to remain firm and fearless. But in this case, if the convict grumbles, the execution will be disrupted. How to force a person who cannot or will not hold on?...

Profession: guillotine worker

“The chief executor of sentences in criminal cases,” as the executioner should be called, worked on a semi-legal basis. His duties were not regulated. He was not a civil servant, but an employee.

In France, as elsewhere, this workshop existed according to the caste principle. Positions were distributed among their own people according to a complex system of intra-shop unions, including marriage ones, which led to the formation of entire dynasties.

If there was no heir, the most experienced assistant to the retired executioner was appointed to the vacant place. Since the executioner's work was paid by the piece, his salary was not officially listed anywhere. Fighting for the abolition of the death penalty, deputy Pierre Bass tried to get the corresponding allocations from the budget of the Ministry of Justice, which amounted to 185,000 francs a year, abolished.

According to the "Historian of the Executioners" Jacques Delarue, on July 1, 1979, the main executioner received 40,833 francs per year net after paying 3,650.14 francs to the Social Security Fund plus remunerations amounting to about 2,100 francs. First class assistants received 2111.70 francs per month. The salary was subject to income tax.

The notorious “basket premium” of 6,000 francs for each “head”, according to Jacques Delarue, was pure fiction. Thus, the main executive earned less than the secretary, and his assistants earned less than the janitor. Not enough for a person who had the legal right to kill his own kind. Moreover, his work was fraught with risk.

Neck cutting machine

Based on humanistic considerations, I have the honor to warn about all the incidents that may occur in the event of execution by sword...

It is necessary that, guided by philanthropy, deputies find a way to immobilize the convicted person so that the execution of the sentence cannot be called into question, so as not to prolong the punishment and thereby strengthen its inevitability.

This way we will fulfill the will of the legislator and avoid unrest in society.”

Photographer

One of the executioner’s assistants, who performed a particularly important duty, was undeservedly forgotten. In thieves' jargon he was called a "photographer." Often it was thanks to him that executions did not turn into massacres. He made sure that the convict stood straight, did not pull his head into his shoulders, so that the back of his head lay exactly on the line of fall of the knife. He stood in front of the guillotine and, if necessary, pulled the convict by the hair (or ears, if he was bald) for a “final adjustment.” “Freeze!” The search for the right angle, or rather the right position, earned him the nickname Photographer.

As Marcel Chevalier says in an interview about the time when he worked as an executioner’s assistant: “A photographer is a truly dangerous profession! Yes, yes, putting a person down is dangerous. If Obrecht had let go of the blade too quickly, my arms would have been cut off!”

The Minister of Justice reported the fears of the Parisian executioner and his own concerns to the directorate of the Paris department, which, in turn, informed the National Assembly.

Responding to a request from Duport, who recommended “as soon as possible to decide on a method of execution that would meet the principles of the new law,” the deputies decided that “enlightened humanity should improve the art of killing as soon as possible.” And they asked the Surgical Society to make a report on the topic.

The scientific secretary of the eminent institution, Dr. Louis, personally began to study this pressing problem. Dr. Louis was the most famous physician of his time and had extensive experience in medico-legal and legal matters.

Within two weeks, he summarized his observations and presented his conclusion to the deputies.

Recalling that his report is based on clinical observations and takes into account the requirements of law, science, justice and humanitarian considerations, the scientist confirmed that the fears were not unfounded. Dr. Louis gave the example of the execution of Monsieur de Lolly. “He was on his knees, blindfolded. The executioner hit him on the back of the head. The first blow failed to cut off the head. The body, unimpeded, fell forward, and it took three or four more blows from the sword to complete the job. The spectators watched in horror at this, so to speak, chopping block.”

Dr. Louis offered to support Dr. Guillotin and create a machine for cutting necks. “Given the structure of the neck, in the center of which there is a spine consisting of several vertebrae, and their joints are almost impossible to identify, quick and accurate separation of the head from the body cannot be ensured by the performer (executioner), whose dexterity depends on many reasons. For reliability, the procedure must be carried out by mechanical means, with a deliberately calculated force and accuracy of impact.”

Philanthropy calendar

In France, before the revolution, a decree of 1670 was in force, providing for 115 possible cases of the death penalty. A nobleman was beheaded, a highwayman was carved up in the city square, a regicide was quartered, a counterfeiter was boiled alive in boiling water, a heretic was burned, a commoner caught stealing was hanged. As a result, before the revolution, an average of 300 performances were recorded per year.

1791 The new code reduces the number of crimes punishable by death from 115 to 32. A court of people's assessors was established, and the method of death penalty was unified - guillotining. The right to pardon has been abolished.

1792 The first execution by guillotine of a certain Jacques-Nicolas Peletier.

1793 Appointment of an executioner in each department of the Republic.

1802 Restoring the right to pardon as the prerogative of the first person of the state. At this moment - the First Consul.

1810 The new criminal code increases the number of offenses punishable by death from 32 to 39. Introduces an additional penalty of cutting off the hand for parricide before beheading. Complicity and attempted murder are subject to the death penalty; in fact, 78 types of crimes are subject to the guillotine.

1830 The revision of the criminal code leads to a reduction in the number of crimes punishable by death from 39 to 36.

1832 The jury is allowed to consider mitigating circumstances. Abolition of certain types of torture, including the iron collar and cutting off the wrist. The revision of the criminal code reduces the number of crimes punishable by death to 25.

1845 The number of crimes punishable by capital punishment reaches 26. The introduction of the death penalty for organizing railway accidents that resulted in human casualties.

1848 The death penalty for political crimes has been abolished, the number of “death” articles has been reduced to 15.

1853 In the Second Empire, 16 articles punishable by death.

1870 The guillotine is no longer installed on the scaffold. There remains one executioner with five assistants for the entire territory of the state and one more for Corsica and Algeria.

1939 Public beheadings have been abolished. The public is no longer allowed to attend executions. According to Article 16, the following are now allowed to participate in the procedure:

- chairman of the jury;

- an official appointed by the Prosecutor General;

- local court judge;

- court secretary;

- defenders of the convicted person;

- priest;

- director of a correctional institution;

- the Commissioner of Police and, at the request of the Prosecutor General, if necessary, members of the public security forces;

- prison doctor or any other doctor appointed by the Prosecutor General.

It is worth noting that the executioner and his assistants do not appear on the list.

1950 The death penalty has been introduced for armed robbery. For the first time in more than a hundred years, for an attempt on property, and not on a person’s life.

1951 The press is prohibited from reporting on executions and is ordered to confine itself to the protocols.

1959 Fifth Republic. The new code, directly following from the 1810 edition, contains 50 articles under which the death penalty is imposed.

1977 September 10 in Baumette prison (Marseille) in last time used the guillotine to execute Jandubi Hamid, a 28-year-old bachelor, without certain occupations, guilty of murder.

1981 On September 18, the National Assembly votes in favor of abolishing the death penalty with 369 votes in favor, 113 against, and 5 abstentions. On September 30, the Senate passes the law without amendments: 161 votes for, 126 against. In the interval between these dates, the jury of the Upper Rhine handed down the last death sentence to a certain Jean Michel M..., who was wanted.

Taste Blood

After the beheading of Louis XVI, his body was taken to the Madeleine cemetery. The horse harnessed to Sanson's cart stumbled, and the basket, where the head and body of the sovereign lay, overturned onto the highway. Passers-by rushed - some with a scarf, some with a tie, some with a piece of paper - to collect the blood of the martyr. Some tasted it and thought it was “damn salty.” One even filled a couple of thimbles with dark red clay. After the execution of Henry II, Duke of Montmorency in Toulouse, soldiers drank his blood to adopt “valor, strength and generosity.”

Dr. Louis also recalled that the idea of ​​a beheading machine was not new; primitive examples had existed for a long time, in particular, in some German principalities, in England and Italy. In fact, the French did not invent the machine, but rediscovered it.

In addition, the speaker made several clarifications regarding the “knife,” the main part of the future machine. He proposed improving the horizontal knife of previous “cut-heads” with a significant innovation - a 45-degree beveled edge - in order to achieve greater efficiency.

“It is well known,” he writes, “that cutting tools are practically ineffective when struck perpendicularly. Under a microscope you can see that the blade is just a more or less thin saw. It is necessary that it slides over the body that is to be cut. We will be able to achieve instant decapitation with an ax or knife, the blade of which is not a straight line, but an oblique one, like an old reed - then when striking, its force acts perpendicularly only in the center, and the blade freely penetrates into the object it divides, exerting an oblique effect on the sides, which guarantees achievement of the goal...

It's not difficult to build a car that won't crash. Decapitation will be carried out instantly, in accordance with the spirit and letter of the new law. Tests can be carried out on carcasses or live sheep.”

The doctor ended his report with technical considerations: “Let’s see if there is a need to fix the head of the executed person at the base of the skull with a collar, the ends of which can be fastened with dowels under the scaffold.”

Members of the Legislative Assembly, as it became known on October 1, were shocked by what they heard and may have been embarrassed to publicly discuss the death machine project. But the scientific approach made a strong impression on them, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief: a solution to the problem had been found. Dr. Louis's report was published. On March 20, 1792, a decree was ratified that “all those sentenced to death will be beheaded in the manner adopted as a result of consultations with the scientific secretary of the Surgical Society.” As a result, the deputies authorized the executive branch to allocate the funds necessary to create the machine.

Not once in the two centuries until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 was the guillotine mentioned in the French criminal code. Guillotining has always been designated by the wording - “a method adopted as a result of consultations with the scientific secretary of the Surgical Society.”

As soon as the idea of ​​a “shortening machine” was formalized into law, all that remained was to bring it to life in the shortest possible time. It was decided to appoint a member of the bureau of the Paris municipality, Pierre Louis Roederer, who distinguished himself in the discussion of financial and judicial laws, to be responsible for the production of the prototype.

Roederer began by consulting with the author of the idea, Dr. Guillotin, but quickly recognized him as a theoretician and turned to the practitioner - Dr. Louis, the only one who was able to translate the idea into reality. He put the doctor in touch with Gidon, a carpenter who worked for the government. Accustomed to the construction of scaffolds, he fell into deep and understandable confusion. Dr. Louis compiled detailed description devices, detailing the project as much as possible. This description became the most detailed document on the guillotine in history, confirming the fact that Dr. Louis was its real inventor.

Based on the technical specifications, Gidon prepared an estimate of the work within 24 hours and on March 31, 1792, handed it over to Dr. Louis, who handed it over to Roederer. The estimate was 5,660 livres - a huge amount for those times.

Gidon said that it would cost that much money to make a prototype, and if “the costs of the first machine seem excessive, then subsequent devices will cost much less, given that the experience of creating the first prototype will remove all difficulties and doubts.” He assured that the car would last at least half a century. Perhaps Gidon asked for so much to get rid of the order. An ancient, inviolable tradition forbade the carpenter fraternity from making execution instruments.

Be that as it may, the government, represented by the Minister of Public Taxation Clavier, rejected Guidon's estimate, and Roederer asked Louis to find a “good master” with reasonable claims.

This was the German Tobias Schmidt, a harpsichord master from Strasbourg, who periodically gave concerts. Schmidt, who considered himself a man of art, wrote to the doctor after the publication of his report and offered his services, assuring that he would be honored to produce a “beheading machine” that could bring happiness to humanity.

1932 Execution. Two baskets: one for the body, the other for the head. Photo. Private count

Preparation for execution. Photo. Private number

Dr. Louis contacted Schmidt: he was already actively developing the topic, designing his own version of the machine. Louis asked him to leave his “personal research” and calculate the proposed project.

Less than a week later, Tobias Schmidt presented an estimate of 960 livres, almost six times less than Guidon's. Clavier haggled for the sake of appearance, and the amount was 812 livres.

Schmidt showed passionate zeal and made the car in a week. The only thing he changed in Dr. Louis's design was the height of the posts along which the knife slid: fourteen feet instead of ten. Gidon in his estimate increased it to eighteen feet.

A knife with a blade beveled at an angle of 45°, made by another master, weighed forty kilograms, including weight, instead of sixty.

1909 Execution of Béruyer in Balance (Drôme department).

Tests could begin. First on sheep, then on corpses. On April 19, 1792, according to some sources - in Salpêtrière, according to others - in Bicêtre, the guillotine was assembled in the presence of people participating in the project, among whom were members of the government, doctors Louis and Guillotin, Charles-Henri Sanson and hospital staff.

The car met all expectations. The heads were separated from the body in the blink of an eye.

After such convincing results, nothing stood in the way of the “wonderful machine” entering official service as quickly as possible.

On April 25, 1792, it was installed on the Place de Grève to put to death a certain Jacques-Nicolas Peletier, convicted of robbery with violence, who thus acquired the dubious fame of the discoverer of the guillotine. Peletier's execution marked the beginning of the incessant movement of the knife. Soon thousands of heads will be cut off from shoulders on the guillotine. Over two centuries, from 1792 to 1981, in addition to the thirty-five to forty thousand executed during the years of the Jacobin dictatorship, about eight to ten thousand heads would be cut off at the guillotine.

In accordance with the law adopted in France, from now on everyone had to be executed equally, and delegated representatives of the Republic traveled around the country with a guillotine in a van. The condemned had to wait, and each court required its own guillotine.

The decree of June 13, 1793 determined their number at the rate of one per department, for a total of eighty-three vehicles. Thus a new serious market appeared.

As the first builder of the guillotine, Tobias Schmidt claimed and received the exclusive right to manufacture it. However, in the harpsichord workshops of the master, despite the reorganization and hiring of additional workers, it was impossible to fulfill orders of a semi-industrial nature. Soon, complaints arose against Schmidt's production. The quality of the machines supplied to him did not fully meet the technical specifications, and obvious shortcomings in several devices prompted competitors to offer their services.

A certain Noel Clarin almost captured the market by offering to build the perfect guillotine for five hundred livres, including painting it red.

Roederer asked officials from various departments to inspect Schmidt's cars and provide him with a detailed report on their merits and defects.

Kings of the Guillotine

After the adoption of a law declaring that there was only one full-time executioner left in the country, seven executioners were replaced in France:

Jean-François Heidenreich (1871–1872). They said about him that he was too sensitive for his service. He participated in more than 820 executions.

Nicolas Roche (1872–1879). Introduced the wearing of a top hat during executions.

Louis Debler (1879–1899). Son of the executioner Joseph Debler. Received the nickname Lame. Executed at least 259 convicts. In particular, he beheaded Ravachol Caserio, the murderer of President Sadi Carnot.

Anatole Debler (1899–1939). Son of Louis Debler. Replaced the cylinder with a pot. He claimed that he spent less time chopping off heads than pronouncing the word “guillotine” syllable by syllable. 450 convicts owe their death to him, one of them is Landru.

Henri Defourneaux (1939–1951). The brother-in-law of the previous executioner married his niece, who was the daughter of the executioner’s assistant. From the bowler hat he moved on to a gray felt hat. We owe him the last public execution in France - at Versailles in 1939. During the war, he continued to “practice” in Sante prison on the heads of patriots. At the end of the war, he was still in his position, in particular, he beheaded Dr. Petiot, convicted of 21 murders.

André Obrecht (1951–1976) Nephew of the previous executioner. He was selected from 150 applicants after a vacancy was advertised in the Journal Officiel. He worked as an assistant executioner since 1922, at the time of his appointment he took part in 362 executions. Then he cut off 51 more heads, including Emile Buisson, “public enemy number 1,” and Christian Ranucci.

Marcel Chevalier (1976–1981). Husband of the previous executioner's niece and Obrecht's assistant since 1958. As chief executioner, he carried out only two beheadings, one of which was the last in France (the execution of Hamid Dzhanboudi, September 10, 1977).

Johann Baptist Reichart (1933–1945). Some people didn't like Reichart, but he became the real king of the guillotine. By nationality, Reichart was not French, but German. Johann Baptist Reichart, a loyal servant of Nazi justice, became the last in a dynasty of executioners that had existed since the 18th century.

He carried out 3,010 executions, of which 2,948 were by guillotine. After the war, Reichart entered the service of the Allies. It was he who was entrusted with preparing the hanging of Nazi criminals convicted at the Nuremberg trials. He gave several advanced training lessons to Sergeant Wood, the American executioner who carried out the executions. After these executions, he retired and lived near Munich, devoting himself to breeding dogs.

Preparations for the execution of Vashe. Engraving by Dete. Private count

The document signed by the architect Giraud stated that the “Schmidt machine” was well conceived, but not perfected.

The shortcomings were explained by haste, and the master was recommended to make some improvements: “The grooves and strips are made of wood, while the first should be made of copper, and the second of iron... The hooks to which the rope with the load is attached are fastened with round-headed nails instead of reliable ones screws with nuts..."

It was also advised to attach the footrest to the guillotine, and attach the brackets higher to ensure greater stability of the entire apparatus.

Finally, it was pointed out that it was necessary to equip each machine with two sets of weights and knives, “in order to have a replacement in case of possible breakdown.”

The report ended with the sentence: “If you pay the master five hundred livres per car, on the condition that he will make all these changes and supply all the necessary accessories, he will, without a doubt, get down to business.” Tobias Schmidt retained the guillotine market, missing only an order for nine machines for Belgium (then a French territory), they were built by a certain Iver, a carpenter from Douai.

Tobias made the required changes, in particular, installing copper grooves to improve the sliding of the knife and introducing a semi-mechanical load release system.

Tobias Schmidt made a fortune in the production of death machines, but, having fallen in love with the dancer Chamrois, a protégé of Eugene Beauharnais, he went broke.

The modified guillotine completely satisfied demand for three quarters of a century, but philanthropists, inventors and entrepreneurs of all stripes did not abandon their attempts to deprive Schmidt of his monopoly.

During the Jacobin dictatorship, one of them proposed to the Committee of Public Safety to build machines with four and even nine knives to speed up the process. In 1794, in Bordeaux, the carpenter Bürge, by order of the chairman of the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, made a four-knife guillotine, but it was never put into use.

The second, with nine blades, was made by the mechanic Guyot. Tests carried out in Bicetre did not give positive results.

Guillotines with one knife really couldn’t cope with the number of people executed. Mass shootings and drownings became commonplace. In 1794, Turreau even ordered executions with bayonets in the name of saving ammunition.

Later, proposals appeared to make guillotines solid cast in order to avoid assembling beams. Or vehicles on wheels to eliminate the complex process of installation and dismantling.

After the execution of Charlotte Corday, the question arose about the possible preservation of consciousness after beheading, and one Munich professor proposed a machine for “truly humane” executions that would meet the highest moral aspirations.

Franz von Paula Ruithuisen was a famous person - a chemist, zoologist and anthropologist.

After conducting numerous tests on animals, he proposed building a guillotine with an additional knife that would separate the hemispheres of the brain. “You can also provide,” he writes, “an additional knife to cut the spine, spinal cord, or, in extreme cases, the aorta, to cause rapid blood loss.”

Although the respected scientist covered the costs of making the prototype, his contemporaries were not interested in his proposal.

Schmidt's wonderful guillotine remained “on the throne” until 1870, when Justice Minister Adolphe Cremieux ordered two portable machines to speed up the transition from life to death. In addition, he ordered the guillotine to be removed from the pedestal and installed directly on the ground. A wave of indignation arose: “We shouldn’t die like pigs!” - the journalists were unanimously indignant, defending human dignity.

It was these portable machines, “paid for and ordered by the vile overthrown government,” that the Communards would burn in April 1871 on Place Voltaire, “as a slavish instrument of monarchical domination, in the name of purification and the triumph of new freedom.” Before the “head-cutting machine” had been burned, “it was reborn from the ashes”: at the beginning of 1872, the Minister of Justice ordered new ones.

Obstinate suicide bomber. Cover of Petit Magazine. 1932 Private. count

Cabinetmaker and assistant executioner Leon Berger was assigned to revive the guillotine.

Taking the burned cars as a starting point, Leon Berger made significant changes to the design of the guillotine, which has since been recognized as perfect and has subsequently undergone only minor modifications.

“Berge's machine” was distinguished, in particular, by the presence of springs in the lower part of the vertical posts. They were intended to cushion the knife at the point of impact. Then the springs were replaced with rubber rollers, which provided less recoil, dampening the speed of the fall of the load moving along the grooves. This is how the “voice” of the guillotine changed. But the main change in the “1872 series” concerned the knife trigger mechanism. Its locking and unlocking now depended on a metal arrowhead-shaped spike located at the top between the jaws of the mechanical device. The pads were opened using a lever (which was later replaced with a regular button), releasing the indicated spike, and with it the knife with a load.

Delivery of a guillotine in a German prison. 1931 Private count

Finally, we improved the sliding of this entire mass by installing rollers at the ends of the load moving along the grooves of the racks.

Henceforth, the racks were placed on beams located directly on the ground. A willow basket trimmed with zinc and oilcloth was placed next to the machine. First the head and then the body of the executed person were placed in the basket. Despite technological innovations and significant “improvement in performance” in cutting off heads, the guillotine caused some concern in the minds of the “bureaucrats”.

Under the old regime there were one hundred and sixty executioners in the country, assisted by from three hundred to four hundred assistants.

After a decree issued in June 1793, each department was assigned a guillotine and an executioner, thus bringing the number of officially registered executors to eighty-three.

For the profession, this was the beginning of a decline that will only get worse.

When the fever of the revolutionary times subsided and the criminal code was adopted in 1810, the law softened.

With the introduction of “mitigating circumstances” and the abolition of the death penalty for certain types of crimes in 1832, the number of executions decreased and executioners had much less work to do. The law of 1832 dealt a fatal blow to the class. It provided for a gradual reduction in the number of executioners by half by abolishing the positions of those who stopped working due to illness or death.

The decree of 1849 determined that from now on there would be only one chief executioner in each department with an appellate court.

Thus the number of executioners was reduced to thirty-four. The decree of November 1870 “finished off” the estate, according to which all chief executioners and their assistants, after the ratification of this decree in each administrative unit of the state, were released from work. Henceforth, justice had to be content with the services of one main - Parisian - executioner, who had five assistants. They were authorized to carry out executions throughout the Republic, transporting the guillotine by train. At the time of the abolition of the death penalty, there were three guillotines in the French Republic, two of them were kept in the Parisian prison of Santé, one for executions in Paris, the second for the provinces. The third guillotine was located on the territory of one of the overseas colonies, in the hands of the local madmen.

Considering the advantages and merits that were recognized for the guillotine at the time of its invention and a century and a half later, it is surprising that it did not conquer the whole world.

For unclear reasons, it was used only in France and its overseas possessions. In Belgium it began to be used in 1796, when part of the country was annexed. For some time the guillotine existed in French territories in Northern Italy and in the German Rhine principalities. There was another guillotine in the middle of the 19th century in Greece. Only Nazi Germany widely used this method of execution, with the difference that their guillotines did not have a hinged board. It is worth noting that the Anglo-Saxon countries opposed the guillotine most actively. The British believed that beheading was the prerogative of “high-born” heads, but they nevertheless began to consider the problem.

Having examined the issue, the Royal Commission (1949–1953) stated: “We are confident that the injuries sustained by the guillotine will shock the public opinion of our country.”

Thirty-three beheadings per hour

However, the commission recognized that the “correct execution of punishment” must meet three criteria: “to be humane, effective and decent”, and the guillotine to be “easy to administer and effective”.

In reality, the French method, washed with the blood of the noble class, contradicted national chauvinism and persistent anti-French sentiment.

But was this decapitation machine as efficient as it was made out to be?

Installing the device does not take much time, and guillotining looks like a completely merciful method, because it happens quickly.

At the moment the knife falls on the back of the convict's head, the speed is equal to the square root of the double acceleration constant multiplied by the height of the fall. If it is known that the height of the drop of the load is 2.25 m, the knife itself weighs 7 kg, the load - 30 kg, the total weight of the fastening bolts - 3 kg, which in total gives 40 kg with little friction, it turns out that the knife falls on the back of the convict's head at a speed of 6.5 m/sec. In other words - 23.4 km/h. As a result, provided that the resistance is considered to be negligibly small, the cutting time for an average neck with a diameter of 13 cm is two hundredths of a second. From the start of the knife to its stop, that is, cutting off the head, less than half a second passes.

Exclusive rights of the guillotined

According to the decree, a number of measures were applied to those executed by guillotine:

- Separate camera.

- 24-hour surveillance.

- Handcuffs outside the cell.

- Special form.

- Release from work.

- Extra food and unlimited number of transfers.

- The sentence can be carried out only after a pardon is refused.

- The convicted person can be sure that he will not be executed on Sunday, July 14 or during a religious holiday.

- If a convicted woman declares her pregnancy, she can be guillotined only after being cleared of pregnancy.

- Over the past thirty years, a death sentence has been carried out on average after 6 months.

- Prohibition of guillotining of convicted persons under 18 years of age and over 70 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime.

From the book of Che-Ka. Materials on the activities of emergency commissions author Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich

Dry guillotine Arrests of socialists by the Bolshevik government began from the very first months after its victory. They became widespread before the demonstration in honor of the opening Constituent Assembly On January 3, 1918, when in Moscow, for example, 63 were arrested on the same day

From the book of Che-Ka. Materials on the activities of emergency commissions. author Socialist Revolutionary Party Central Bureau

Dry guillotine. Arrests of socialists by the Bolshevik government began in the very first months after its victory. They became widespread before the demonstration in honor of the opening of the Constituent Assembly on January 3, 1918, when in Moscow, for example, they were arrested on the same day

From the book Wolf's Milk author Gubin Andrey Terentyevich

GUILLOTINE OF MIKHEI ESAULOV A famous warrior came to the healing waters of your village to improve his health civil war division commander Ivan Mitrofanovich Zolotarev, who has long lived near Moscow itself. They greeted him with a brass band, flowers, a spontaneous rally - a joke

From the book Live the Sword or Study of Happiness. The Life and Death of Citizen Saint-Just [Part III] author Shumilov Valery Albertovich

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE THE AVENGER OF THE PEOPLE, OR THE GUILLOTINE, DELIVERED ON JULY 7, 1794. Revolution Square On this day, the prisoners’ toilet was delayed. There were too many of them, and Charles Henriot Sanson got bored walking in the Conciergerie reception along the long bars,