Life and life of executioners in history. The most famous executioners in human history

November 10th, 2013

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 the 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 convict 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 had to have considerable physical strength and considerable knowledge about the 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 town, 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 by 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 on 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 answered that it was not at all because his father was an executioner, but because the executioner has a special social status and a 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.
[ http://infoglaz.ru/?p=37074

There is nothing incomprehensible about the desire to get rid of evil. It is natural to want to erase the smug smile, for example, from the face of the young scoundrel who shot people in cold blood in the Sarona cafeteria. Today, for this, he awaits prison, and in it, not a home-made dinner, but still a dinner; not soft, but still a mattress - while his victims were already buried... Is this fair? Of course not. Do murderers deserve to die? Of course yes. People demanding the execution of terrorists can be understood.

But let’s ask those who demand the use of the death penalty in Israel, do they agree that we should have a new profession: executioner?

If yes, let's get acquainted with the experience of those countries where such a profession already exists.

Salary: $2000 per month

Jerry Givens served 25 years in the Virginia Department of Prisons, 17 of them as an executioner. He executed people 62 times - by electric shock or injection of poison. But no one, including his immediate family, knew what Jerry did for a living.

He spoke about the executioner’s work in an interview with the Guardian newspaper: “We were preparing for the worst - if the convict began to resist. Sometimes it wasn't easy. But over time, I learned to feel whether the condemned person had come to terms with the fact that everything was over for him or not. Because if there's tension in the room, you'll feel it."

So, those who support the introduction of the death penalty need to answer a few simple questions. Which department will the new profession, Prison Department, be held under? Ministry of Justice? IDF? Civil administration of the territories of Judea and Samaria?

Will he be a civil servant? Will the executioner be hired through an employment agency or directly? Will it be an Israeli or will they invite a specialist from abroad? Will there be a competition? What are the selection criteria? They probably won't ask for previous experience, but what will be required of applicants?

What exactly is the best way to execute terrorists? Hanging, beheading, shooting, electrocuting, injecting poison - which method, in your opinion, is most suitable for a Jewish democratic state?

Givens calls electrocution an easier method for the executioner than injecting poison. And perhaps more humane for the convicted person. “An electric shock is 45 seconds of 2,400 to 3,000 volts, then 45 seconds of low voltage—all in two and a half minutes. And a lethal injection is seven tubes connected to the left arm, three are chemical substances and four are purging, and you have to do all this, and you see how the substance enters the body. Whereas in the case of electrocution, you simply press a button: it’s like turning off a light.”

Death cell in Utah State Penitentiary, USA. Photo: POOL New, Reuters

But he says this, a professional executioner. What do you think? What method do you suggest? You see, it’s easier to answer “yes” in a survey about the death penalty than to organize everything later. If we want to punish evil on a tit-for-tat basis, someone will still have to get their hands dirty. This means that we will have to build a mechanism, a bureaucratic system that will enforce the new law - kill criminals in one way or another.

Related professions

According to World Index, published almost monthly by the Israel Democracy Institute, nearly 70 percent of Israelis agree with the use of the death penalty against terrorists “with blood on their hands.” The survey was conducted in July 2017 after the horrific terrorist attack in Halamish. 44% of respondents (in the Jewish sector) said they fully supported the execution of a terrorist who committed a murder on nationalist grounds. Another 25.8% expressed "fair support" and 4.9% were undecided.

Let us repeat: the desire to destroy the degenerate who killed three people is understandable. But if we want to execute murderers, and legally, we will have to answer not only the questions of sociologists, but also others.

Here is one of them: should execution be painful, and should the torment depend on the severity of the crime? Probably the majority will answer negatively - we are not sadists... But executions are not always carried out according to plan. For example, 38-year-old Clayton Lockett took 43 minutes to kill. Obviously, this scoundrel deserved to die - he kidnapped and raped a 19-year-old girl, whom he then buried alive! But before his death, he also received torture. He was injected with poison, but it had no effect. Then they tripled the dose, but that didn’t help either. In the end he died... from a heart attack. An autopsy showed that due to a problem with the vein, the substance was absorbed into the adjacent tissues, and only a small part entered the blood. In other cases, the cause of a protracted execution may be poor-quality substances used for “lethal injection” or the incompetence of doctors determining a sufficient dose.

If an execution turns into work, you should know in advance that in it, as in any work, failures are possible.

And there are also related specialties. For example, Kenneth Dean spoke about his “routine” service in an interview with the New York Times in 2000. He tied suicide bombers to a gurney. Dean took part in more than 130 executions. Unlike Jerry Givens, he talked about work at home, in the family, including his young children. “I told them that dad had a night job today, an execution, and my seven-year-old daughter asked about the details. “Dad, why are you doing this?” - she asked, and I answered: “This is my job, my sunshine.” That is, if we want to introduce a similar profession in Israel, we will need to stipulate various conditions: the preservation of professional secrets, for example. Who can be told what, and who can’t...

Abdullah Al-Bishi, executioner of Mecca

Givens believes that accepting such a job was the main mistake of his life. Fred Allen, an executioner from Texas, says he can't forget how he tied the condemned to the chair. Therefore, a new question: should new employees be provided with psychotherapist services at the expense of the state, in whose name they will execute terrorists? Or just find people with strong nerves, so that they approach this business with enthusiasm and “spark”? There are such people too.

Abdallah Al-Bishi spoke about his profession in an interview with the Lebanese LBC TV channel. His father was the executioner, and one day he decided to see him at work (children go to their parents to work everywhere).

The boy’s interest, moreover, was not idle: just at that time the digestive system was being taught at school and he wanted to see what was inside a person. My father worked on the street, in front of King Abdulaziz's gate. Little Abdullah was disappointed: he only saw how the severed head flew off - and lost consciousness, not having time to see the structure of the digestive tract.

But today, already an experienced executioner, he says that for his work it is necessary to master theoretical knowledge. “If the executioner knows how to stand next to the person sentenced to execution, how to concentrate on the blow, how to deliver it, then the rest is simple,” he says. - Mercy and compassion only get in the way. If there is compassion in the heart and no firmness in the hand, the criminal will not die from the first blow and will suffer. We have to finish five, six times.”

When a criminal's arm or leg is cut off, it is done under local anesthesia. “No, the head, of course, without anesthesia,” the executioner answered the journalist’s clarifying question.

Having completed his mission, Abdullah returns home with a relieved heart. “I play with the children, we have dinner together, sometimes we go out, and sometimes we stay at home. Everything is fine, work doesn’t affect me in any way.”

And the executioner in Egypt has the rank of police officer, serves in the Department of Prisons, and admits that as a teenager he amused himself by tightening the noose around the necks of cats and dogs, and then throwing them into the canal. Therefore, when he decided to become an executioner, he easily passed the entrance exam, showing that he was able to withstand psychological pressure. “My heart is dead. There is no other way. Choking is a talent. I love my job very much and will not leave it even when I retire,” he assured in an interview.

Everyone has the right to desire retribution. Everyone has the right to be a supporter of the death penalty. And even politicians have the right, alas, to profit from the pain, fear and sorrow of their voters. Only one question remains unanswered: do we really want professional executioners in Israel?

Emil Shleimovich, Maxim Rader, “Details”. Photo: Lou Dematteis, Reuters

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?

The executioners did not wear masks

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.

Chronicles of executioners. The murder of Theodore Varangian and his son John. Radzivilov Chronicle. End of the 15th century

The executioners had dynasties

“My grandfather was an executioner. My father was an executioner. Now here I am - the executioner. My son and his son will also be executioners,” this is probably what any medieval kat could have said, answering the question of what influenced his choice of such an “unusual” profession. Traditionally, the position of executioner was inherited. All executioners living in the same region knew each other, and were often even relatives, since executioners often chose the daughters of other executioners, flayers or gravediggers to create families. The reason for this is not at all professional solidarity, but the position of the executioner in society: according to their social status, the executioners were at the bottom of the city.
In Tsarist Russia, executioners were chosen from former criminals, who were guaranteed “clothing and food” for this.

"The Executioner's Curse" Really Existed

In medieval Europe, there was a concept of 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.

Instruments of torture. Illustration from the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907)

The executioners did not pay for purchases

The executioner received the executed person's belongings

There is an opinion that the executioners always removed the boots from the body of the executed person; in fact, this is only partly true. According to medieval tradition, the executioner was allowed to take from the corpse everything that was on it below the waist. Over time, the executioners were allowed to take away all the property of the criminal.

The hangman's rope is the most popular souvenir of the Middle Ages

The executioners moonlighted as exorcists

The executioners sold souvenirs

The executioner's skill is the main thing in the profession

In Rus' they preferred to chop off legs and arms

In Rus' there were many ways to take a life, and they were very cruel. Criminals were wheeled around, molten metal poured down their throats (as a rule, counterfeiters had to fear this), and hung by their ribs. If for some reason the wife decided to kill her husband, she was buried in the ground. She died long and painfully, and compassionate passers-by could leave money for church candles and for the funeral.

If in Europe executioners had to cut off heads more often and set fires on fire, then in Russia court sentences more often indicated maiming rather than killing. According to the Code of 1649, an arm, hand or fingers were cut off for theft. One could lose limbs for murder in a drunken brawl, stealing fish from a fish tank, counterfeiting copper money, and illegally selling vodka.

In 1792, the guillotine was introduced in France to carry out the death sentence. The instrument is named after its inventor, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.

Modern executioners do not hide from society

Modern society, which declares the principles of humanism, has not been able to abandon executioners. Moreover, politicians often hide under their guise. Thus, in the summer of 2002, Condoleezza Rice, who at that time was the US President's national security adviser, personally gave verbal approval to the use of “waterboarding,” when a person is tied up and water is poured on his face, as was done to the terrorist Abu Zubaydah. There is evidence of much harsher CIA practices.

Maurice Hisen has nothing to do with executioners and did not write any books. But the topic of death did not leave him indifferent. He created a photo shoot dedicated to the death of a person and called it “Dying with a smile”

Tags:

The justice system employs police officers, investigators, and judges. Like a relay baton, they pass the criminal to each other. The last one in this chain is executioner.

ONE OF THE OLDEST PROFESSIONS

As soon as they formed a flock, people began to establish certain rules of life within the community. Not everyone liked it. When violators were caught, they were dragged to trial and punished. For a long time, people knew only one type of punishment - death. It was considered quite fair to cut off a head for a stolen bunch of radishes.

Every man was a warrior, knew how to wield a sword or, in extreme cases, a club, and could always personally execute a thief who encroached on the most sacred thing - property. If it was a case of murder, then the sentence was carried out with pleasure by the relatives of the murdered person.

As society developed, legal proceedings also improved; the punishment had to correspond to the gravity of the crime; for a broken arm, the arm should also be carefully broken, and this is much more difficult than killing.

Fantasy awoke in man, he experienced the torment of creativity, types of punishment appeared such as scourging, branding, cutting off limbs and all kinds of torture, for the implementation of which specialists were already needed. And they appeared.

There were executioners in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This is, if not the oldest profession (let’s not encroach on the sacred), then one of the oldest, that’s for sure. And in the Middle Ages, not a single European city could do without an executioner.

Execute a criminal, interrogate with passion a suspect of high treason, carry out a demonstrative execution in the central square - you can’t do it without an executioner!

MAGISTRATE OFFICER

Officially, the executioner was an employee of the city magistrate. A contract was concluded with him, he took an oath, received a salary, the magistrate provided the worker with “working tools.”

The executioner was given a uniform and allocated official housing. The executioners never put any robe with slits for the eyes on their heads. They were paid by the piece for each execution or torture.

Invoice dated March 25, 1594 from executioner Martin Gukleven to the Riga magistrate: executed Gertrude Gufner with a sword - 6 marks; hanged the thief Martin - 5 marks; burned a criminal for false weight of firewood - 1 mark 4 shillings, nailed 2 posters to the pillory - 2 marks.

As you can see, the most expensive thing was cutting off the head (this required the highest qualifications), hanging was cheaper, and for burning they paid sheer nonsense, like for nailing 1 poster to a bulletin board.

As in any craft, among the executioners there were their masters and virtuosos. A skilled executioner mastered several dozen types of torture, was a good psychologist (quickly determined what the victim feared most), drew up a qualified torture scenario and knew how to conduct it so that the interrogated person did not lose consciousness and did not die before the end of the investigation (this was already considered a defect in the work ).

Both young and old gathered at the execution in the medieval city, just like at a show. There were no cinemas, no televisions, visits from traveling actors were rare, and the only entertainment was executions. In the morning, heralds walked around the city and called people.

The poor crowded the square, the nobility bought places in houses with windows on the block. A separate box was built for the high-born. The executioner, like a true artist, gave his best to please the audience with the heart-rending cries of the condemned man and make the spectacle unforgettable, so that it would be remembered for a long time.

Such a highly qualified specialist was very rare, so the executioners were paid well and their salaries were not delayed. There were also a kind of “premium”: the clothes of the executed person belonged to the master of the axe. Receiving a high-born gentleman sentenced to death on the scaffold, the executioner assessed whether his trousers were strong and whether his shoes were too worn out.

However, the “axe workers” also had additional sources of income.

SIDE PRODUCTS

The executioner was not only involved in executions and torture. Initially, he supervised the city's prostitutes from the magistrate. The disgraceful position of brothel keeper was very lucrative. City officials soon realized what a fool they had made by entrusting the city's sex industry to the wrong hands, and by the early 16th century the practice had been widely discontinued.

Until the 18th century, the executioner was responsible for cleaning the city's public latrines, that is, he performed the functions of a goldsmith. In many cities, the executioner also performed the functions of a flayer: he was engaged in catching stray dogs. The executioner also removed carrion from the streets and drove out lepers.

However, as the cities grew, the executioners began to have more and more main work, and gradually they began to be freed from functions unusual for them, so as not to be distracted.

In private, many executioners practiced healing. By the nature of their work, they knew anatomy very well. While city doctors were forced to steal corpses from cemeteries for their research, executioners had no problems with “visual aids.”

There were no better traumatologists and chiropractors in Europe than the masters of torture. Catherine II mentioned in her memoirs that her spine was treated by a famous specialist - an executioner from Danzig.

The executioners did not disdain illegal earnings. For their studies, warlocks and alchemists needed either a hand cut off from a criminal or a rope on which he was hanged. Well, where can you get all this if not from the executioner?

And the executioners also took bribes. The relatives of those sentenced to painful execution gave: “For the sake of all that is holy, give him a quick death.” The executioner took the money, strangled the poor fellow and burned the corpse at the stake.

The executioner could kill someone sentenced to scourging: carry out the execution in such a way that the poor fellow died on the third or fourth day after execution (this is how scores were settled). And, on the contrary, he could only rip open the skin on the condemned person’s back with a whip. There was a sea of blood, the spectators were happy, and only the executioner and the executed man tied to the post knew that the main force of the blow of the whip was taken by the post.

Even those sentenced to death paid so that the executioner would try and cut off the head with one blow, and not bale it 3-4 times.

In Germany and France, executioners were very wealthy people. But, despite this, the work of an executioner was considered a low-respect occupation, they were not loved, they were feared and were bypassed by a third road.

CASTE OF THE OUTRAGED

The social status of the executioners was at the level of prostitutes and actors. Their houses were usually located outside the city limits. No one ever settled near them. The executioners had the privilege of taking food from the market for free, because many refused to accept money from them. In church they had to stand at the very door, behind everyone else, and be the last to approach communion.

They were not accepted in decent houses, so the executioners communicated with the same pariahs - gravediggers, flayers and executioners from neighboring cities. In the same circle they were looking for a companion or life partner. Therefore, entire dynasties of executioners practiced in Europe.

The work was dangerous. The executioners were attacked, the executioners were killed. This could have been done either by the accomplices of the executed person or by the crowd dissatisfied with the execution. The Duke of Monmouth was beheaded by the inexperienced executioner John Ketch with the 5th blow. The crowd roared with indignation, the executioner was taken away from the place of execution under guard and put in prison to save him from popular reprisals.

I WANT TO BECOME AN EXECUTIONER

There were few highly qualified executioners. Each city that had its own “specialist” valued him, and almost always a clause was included in the employment contract that the executioner must prepare a successor for himself. How did you become professional executioners?

Most often, executioners became inheritors. The executioner's son actually had no choice but to become an executioner, and the daughter had no choice but to become the executioner's wife. The eldest son took over his father's position, and the younger son left for another city.

Finding a place as an executioner was not difficult; in many cities this vacancy was empty for many years. In the 15th century, many Polish cities did not have their own master and were forced to hire a specialist from Poznan.

Often those sentenced to death became executioners, buying their own life at this price. The candidate became an apprentice and, under the supervision of a master, mastered the craft, gradually getting used to the screams of the tortured and blood.

DECLINE OF THE PROFESSION

In the 18th century, European enlighteners regarded the usual medieval executions as savagery. However, the death blow to the executioner’s profession was dealt not by humanists, but by the leaders of the Great French Revolution, who put executions on stream and introduced the guillotine into the process.

If wielding a sword or an ax required skill, then any butcher could handle the guillotine. The executioner is no longer a unique specialist.

Public executions gradually became a thing of the past. The last public execution in Europe took place in France in 1939.

Serial killer Eugene Weidman was executed on the guillotine with the sounds of jazz rushing from open windows. The lever of the machine was turned by the hereditary executioner Jules Henri Defourneau.

Today, more than 60 countries still practice death sentences, and they also have professional executioners who work in the old fashioned way with a sword and an ax.

Mohammed Saad al-Beshi, executioner in Saudi Arabia (working experience since 1998), works with a sword, cutting off an arm, leg or head with one blow. When asked how he sleeps, he answers: “Sound.”

Klim PODKOVA

Antonina Makarova born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family Makara Parfenova. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future life. When Tonya came to first grade, because of shyness she could not say her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began shouting “Yes, she’s Makarova!”, meaning that Tony’s father’s name is Makar.

So, with the light hand of the teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family.

The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - a nurse from the Chapaev division Maria Popova, which once in battle actually had to replace a killed machine gunner.

After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she was caught by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.

Camping wife of an encirclement

19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.”

After the hardest battles, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only a soldier was next to the young nurse Tonya Nikolay Fedchuk. With him she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They didn’t look for partisans, they didn’t try to get through to their own people - they fed on whatever they had, and sometimes stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his “camp wife.” Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.

In January 1942, they went to the village of Krasny Kolodets, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tonya alone.

Tonya was not expelled from the Red Well, but the local residents already had plenty of worries. But the strange girl did not try to go to the partisans, did not strive to make her way to ours, but strived to make love with one of the men remaining in the village. Having turned the locals against her, Tonya was forced to leave.

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg. Photo: Public Domain

Salary killer

Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious “Lokot Republic”, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. In essence, these were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.

A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect her of being a partisan or underground woman. She attracted the attention of the police, who took her in, gave her drink, food and rape. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.

Tonya did not play the role of a prostitute for the police for long - one day, drunk, she was taken out into the yard and put behind a Maxim machine gun. There were people standing in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.

The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her own bed.

The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground fighters, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. Those arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.

The cell accommodated 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones.

Neither the Germans nor even the local policemen wanted to take on this work. And here Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.

The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, felt that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot her enemies, but she shoots women and children - the war will write off everything! But her life finally got better.

1500 lives lost

Antonina Makarova's daily routine was as follows: in the morning, shooting 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night making love with some cute German guy or, at worst, with a policeman.

As an incentive, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya acquired a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes made it difficult to wear.

However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive because, due to their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out along with the corpses by local residents who were burying the dead and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, “Tonka the machine gunner”, “Tonka the Muscovite” spread throughout the area. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but were unable to reach her.

In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.

By the summer of 1943, Tony’s life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, beginning the liberation of the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Greater Germany.

Honored veteran instead of a war criminal

In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any concern for the accomplices.

Realizing this, Tonya escaped from the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But her survival skills were honed - she managed to obtain documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.

Antonina successfully managed to enlist in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her.

The guy proposed to Tonya, she agreed, and after getting married, the young couple, after the end of the war, left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, her husband’s homeland.

This is how the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and her place was taken by an honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg.

They searched for her for thirty years

Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous acts of “Tonka the Machine Gunner” immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but the identities of only two hundred could be established.

They interrogated witnesses, checked, clarified - but they could not get on the trail of the female punisher.

Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the ordinary life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the actions of “Tonka the Machine Gunner”.

The KGB spent more than three decades searching for her, but found her almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfyonov, going abroad, submitted forms with information about his relatives. There, among the solid Parfenovs, for some reason Antonina Makarova, after her husband Ginzburg, was listed as her sister.

Yes, how that teacher’s mistake helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!

The KGB operatives worked brilliantly - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the Machine Gunner”, she was arrested.

She didn’t deny it, she talked about everything calmly, and said that nightmares didn’t torment her. She didn’t want to communicate with her daughters or her husband. And the front-line husband ran around the authorities, threatening to file a complaint Brezhnev, even at the UN - demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.

After that, the dashing, dashing veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. You wouldn’t wish what these people had to endure on your enemy.

Retribution

Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors to the Motherland in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.

Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the passage of time, the punishment could not be too severe; she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. My only regret was that because of the shame I had to move again and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about Antonina Ginzburg’s exemplary post-war biography, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.

However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.

At the trial, her guilt in the murder of 168 of those whose identities could be established was documented. More than 1,300 more remained unknown victims of “Tonka the Machine Gunner.” There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.

At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.