History of the guillotine. Born of a revolution. History of the French guillotine

Thirty-five years ago, the knife of history’s bloodiest instrument, the guillotine, clanged for the last time. On September 10, 1977, the death sentence was carried out for the last time at the guillotine: Tunisian immigrant Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, was executed. Four years later, France would abandon both the guillotine and execution altogether.

The history of this bloody instrument of history has ceased, and I would like to believe that forever. The history of the guillotine, which ended with the execution of a Tunisian immigrant, who was also legless, goes back hundreds of years. In its original meaning, the guillotine is a mechanism for carrying out the death penalty by cutting off the head.

Execution using a guillotine is called guillotining. Actually, the author of these lines, a naval mechanical engineer, had to see the guillotine in action more than once - knives weighing tens of tons cut cables, ship iron, meter-long layers of paper, and so on. But this, you know, is not the same. All this is just a technical use of a weapon that was once used to cut off heads...

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 guillotined person 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 a lever mechanism, the latch holding the knife opened, and it fell at high speed onto the victim’s neck.

The use of the guillotine was proposed in 1792 by the physician and member of the National Assembly Joseph Ignace Guillotin (Guillotin), professor of anatomy, politician, member of the Constituent Assembly, friend of Robespierre and Marat. In fact, this beheading machine was named after him. Although in fact this weapon was not the invention of either Dr. Guillotin or his teacher, Dr. Louis.

It is known that a similar weapon was previously used in Scotland and Ireland, where it was called the Scottish Maid. According to historical sources, the guillotine in France was previously also called the Virgin and even the Furniture of Justice. Although similar devices had been tried before in Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland, it was the device created in France, with an oblique knife, that became the standard instrument of capital punishment. At that time, cruel methods of execution were used: burning at the stake, hanging, and quartering. Only aristocrats and rich people were executed in a more “honorable” way - cutting off the head with a sword or an ax.

It was believed that the guillotine was a much more humane method of execution than the methods common at that time. Other types of execution, which involved the quick death of the convict, often caused prolonged agony if the executioner was insufficiently qualified. The guillotine ensures instant death even with minimal qualifications of the executioner. In addition, the guillotine was applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.

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 close connection of the guillotine with the era of terror served as an obstacle to its spread in Europe. However, in 1853 the guillotine was introduced in Saxony and then spread to some other German states. The legend that Guillotin himself was executed by the machine he proposed for use is without foundation: he survived the revolution perfectly and died a natural death safely in his bed in 1814.

The guillotine, by the way, was used for many years in many other countries, including Germany. The guillotine was used intensively during the French Revolution and remained the main method of death penalty in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981. Although the last time the guillotine was put into action was 35 years ago, on September 10, 1977. What kind of life did the last person executed by guillotine have?

The biography of the executed man is not without interest. It seems that if there had not been a guillotine in France, he would still have been executed in any other way - his character was so criminal. Interestingly, the main executioner in the prison in Marseille was actually the city's namesake, Marcel Chevalier. He carried out that very last death sentence on the guillotine.

28-year-old Tunisian Hamida Djandoubi is the same man who was the last European to be guillotined in France, in the famous Baumette prison in Marseille. He was a Tunisian immigrant convicted of torturing and murdering 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, an acquaintance of his.

Hamida Djandoubi was born in Tunisia around 1949. In 1968 he began to live in Marseille and began working in a grocery store. He took a job as a landscape designer, but in 1971 there was a workplace accident that resulted in him losing two-thirds of his leg.

In 1973, 21-year-old Elizabeth Bousquet, whom he met in the hospital while recovering from an amputation, filed a police report against him, alleging that he was trying to force her into prostitution. In the spring of 1973, Djandubi was arrested, but was soon released from custody, but did not give up his criminal idea: he gained the trust of two other girls and forced them into prostitution.

At the same time, Djandubi was considering a plan of revenge against Elizabeth Bousquet. As a result, in July 1974, he kidnapped a girl and dragged her to his home, where, in front of two other slaves, he began to abuse his victim: beat her and torture her with a lit cigarette. Despite the abuse and severe injuries, Bousquet survived. Then Djandubi took her in his car to the outskirts of Marseille, and there he strangled her. Upon his return, Djandubi warned the girls to keep their mouths shut.

A month after the murder, Djandubi kidnapped another girl, but she managed to escape and report to the police. After a lengthy preliminary trial, Djandoubi stood trial in Aix-en-Provence on charges of serious crimes: murder, rape and torture.

The defense tried to save Dzhandubi from a death sentence. The defense's arguments were based mainly on the consequences of the amputation of the client's leg: the lawyer argued that the accident and subsequent injury drove Djandubi to alcoholism and criminal tendencies.

However, the court did not take these arguments into account: on February 25, 1977, it sentenced the defendant to death. The appeal was rejected, and in the early morning of September 10, 1977, Giandubi was informed that he would be executed by guillotine, as were Christian Ranucci (executed July 28, 1976) and Jérôme Carrin (executed June 23, 1977). He, like these child killers, did not receive a “presidential reprieve” from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. At 4:40 a.m. on September 10, Djandoubi was executed. Despite the fact that Djandoubi was the last person executed, he was not the last person condemned to death. However, The death penalty was no longer used because François Mitterrand, who came to power in 1981, abolished executions in France.

Guillotine History

And the history associated with the creation and implementation guillotines quite fascinating. 18th century French doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin did not invent the guillotine, but had the misfortune of being forever associated with a machine that became famous during the French Revolution. Monsieur Guillotin's only connection with the device is that he persuaded the French National Assembly to approve the new machine as a more humane method of capital punishment.

During this period in Europe, the death penalty was the usual punishment for those guilty of a wide range of crimes, from murder to petty theft. However, the method of execution varied significantly and depended on the social status of the criminal. Noble gentlemen and ladies were honored by beheading, following the traditions of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who believed that there was no more noble way to die.

The inhabitants were not given such luxury as a quick death. The Spaniards used the garrote, which mechanically tightened the noose around the neck, and burned those accused of heresy and witchcraft at the stake. To do this, they were put in a barrel lined with firewood and tinder, and then set on fire. Conventional hanging was also widespread.

The most popular punishments for thieves in Europe were cutting on the wheel, hanging and quartering. Quartering was invented in 1241 for the execution of William Maurice on charges of piracy, and was subsequently used on male criminals to punish treason or grand theft. Women were never subjected to this execution because it required exposure of the body, which was considered immodest, even after death. The men were tied to a cross-shaped post, which the horses dragged behind them to the place of execution. On the scaffold, the victim was strangled, but at the last moment the rope was loosened so that she would be alive during the cutting off of her genitals. The stomach was opened and gutted, throwing the internal organs into the fire. At the end of the execution, the body was cut into four parts.

The death penalty in the pre-guillotine era was a terrifying spectacle, specifically carried out to intimidate and subjugate the population. Although most criminals burned at the stake were first suffocated, the image of human flesh being consumed by fire sent the crowd into trembling. Parts of quartered bodies were specially boiled and hung on the city gates, as a warning to anyone who dared to repeat such crimes. Despite the apparent support of the crowd, greedy for a bloody spectacle, the rulers of Europe began to think about the manifestations of barbarity that accompanied executions.

Especially in the 18th century, with the spread of humanistic views of the Enlightenment, thinkers such as Voltaire, Locke and Diderot called for more humane methods of carrying out the death penalty. Beheading and hanging were considered by these thinkers to be beyond barbarism, as they forced the criminal to suffer cruelly before death. Hanging often involved prolonged rocking and tugging of the victim, whose neck was loosely secured to the rope. Chopping off heads requires strong and experienced performers, because swords and axes did not always give an accurate and clean cut, forcing the executioner to repeat the blow. Moreover, if beheading were applied to all criminals, there would not be enough qualified executioners.

Thus, the idea of ​​​​using machines won the favor of the authorities. According to a memo by Dr. Antoine Louis, who headed the commission on the death penalty and was the secretary of the French Academy of Surgery, the German engineer Tobias Schmidt built a machine for cutting off heads. It consisted of two vertical bars 14 feet high, connected by crosshairs at the top points. The inner edges of the bars were polished and lubricated, they guided the falling blade, which was raised and controlled by a system of pulleys. The entire installation was located on a platform twenty-four steps long. For the first time, Nicola Pelletier was successfully executed on charges of robbery.

Initially, the machine was called Louisette, named after the medical expert Antoine Louis, but the name guillotine soon became established. Execution by guillotine became widespread in France and was subsequently used in various European countries. The effectiveness of the guillotine was proven during the French Revolution. With the spread of equality and fraternity, numerous men and women of noble birth were put to death. With the accumulation of experience, the platform, which was twenty-four steps long, was abolished, since those sentenced to death were often unable to complete them on their own. Guillotines installed simply on a flat surface have gained popularity.

As the number of executions increased, the machine - nicknamed the "widow" - improved technically. New versions included an improved blade positioned at a 45-degree angle, small indentations in the wooden board and metal hoops to secure the head, and a blood collection tray.

Guillotining was a common means of carrying out death sentences until the 20th century. Similar devices were used in Germany, Greece, Switzerland and Sweden. Under pressure from public opinion, France abolished the death penalty in 1981. The last criminal to be guillotined in France was Hamida Djandoubi.

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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” was assigned to it, although Dr. Guillotin always objected to such excessive gratitude. According to numerous testimonies, “he was extremely saddened by this.” Disappointed in his “invention,” Guillotin abandoned his political career and actively became involved in the restoration of the Medical Academy, then, miraculously avoiding “the embrace of his goddaughter,” he opened an 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 a sociological study by J-M. Bessette, which examined 82 guillotines:

- The average age of convicts is 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 gave 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 to his colleagues the possibilities of a future machine that would cut off heads so simply and quickly that the convict would hardly feel even “a slight 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 executions provided for by the code at that time, because the screams of the condemned for many years terrified his mother and she had a premature birth. 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 brand 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. In this part there are 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 its 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, the concepts of varying degrees 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 per 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 Duport’s request, 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 On September 10, the guillotine was used for the last time at Baumette prison (Marseille), executing Djandoubi Hamid, a 28-year-old bachelor of no occupation, 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. 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 Pierre Louis Roederer, a member of the bureau of the Paris municipality, 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 wrote up a detailed description of the device, 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 Ofisiel. He worked as an assistant executioner since 1922, at the time of his appointment he took part in 362 executions. Then he beheaded another 51 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 dog breeding.

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 spike in the shape of an arrowhead, located at the top between the blocks 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 announces 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.