Executioner. The real story of Tonka the Machine Gunner. The most famous executioners History of the executioner

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 gain central government and the development of cities, where local power was exercised by elected authorities, a more professional court system emerged.

With the development of legal proceedings, punishments become more complicated. Along with old forms of punishment, such as wergeld (fine) and simple execution, new ones appear. These are scourging, branding, cutting off limbs, wheeling, etc. A certain role was played by the fact that in some places the idea of ​​“an eye for an eye” was preserved, that is, if a person caused any bodily harm, for example, if a criminal broke the victim's arm, then he also needed to break his arm.

Now a specialist was needed who could carry out the punishment procedure, and in such a way that the convicted person would not die if he was sentenced only to punishment, or before all the torture prescribed by the court was carried out.

As before, it was necessary to carry out interrogation procedures, forcing the suspect to testify, but at the same time preventing the loss of consciousness and especially the death of the suspect during interrogation.

The first mention of the position of executioner is found in documents of the 13th century. But the monopoly on the execution of sentences was established only by the 16th century. Before this, the sentence could be carried out, as before, by other people.

The profession of an executioner was not as simple as it might seem at first glance. In particular, this concerned the beheading procedure. It was not easy to cut off a man's head with one blow of an ax, and those executioners who could do it on the first try were especially valued. Such a requirement for the executioner was not put forward out of humanity towards the condemned, but because of entertainment, since executions, as a rule, were of a public nature. They learned the craft from their older comrades. In Russia, the process of training executioners was carried out on a wooden mare. They placed a dummy of a human back made of birch bark on it and practiced blows. Many executioners had something like signature professional techniques. It is known that the last British executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, carried out the execution in a record time of 17 seconds.

Executioner's position

Officially, the work of an executioner was considered the same profession as any other. The executioner was considered an employee, often a city employee, but sometimes he could be in the service of some feudal lord.
He was responsible for the execution of various court sentences, as well as torture. It should be noted that the executioner was precisely the performer. He could not carry out the torture of his own free will. Usually his actions were supervised by a representative of the court.

The executioner received a salary, sometimes a house where he lived. In some cases, executioners, like other employees, were also paid for uniforms. Sometimes this was the general uniform of city employees, sometimes special clothing emphasizing its importance. Most of 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. Before late XVIII There were no masks at all. The executioner in his hometown everyone knew 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. IN 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 quite well known fun fact the inglorious departure from the profession of the French Sanson dynasty of executioners, which had existed for more than 150 years. In Paris, no one was executed for a long time, so the executioner Clemont-Henri Sanson sat without money and got into debt. The best thing the executioner came up with was to lay the guillotine. And as soon as he did this, ironically, an “order” immediately appeared. Sanson begged the moneylender to give him the guillotine for a while, but he was unshakable. Clemont-Henri Sanson was fired. And if not for this misunderstanding, then his descendants could have chopped off heads for another century, because the death penalty in France was abolished only in 1981.

But the work of an executioner was considered an extremely disreputable occupation. By his position, he was close to such lower strata of society as prostitutes, actors, etc. Even by accident, contact with the executioner was unpleasant. That is why the executioner often had to wear uniforms of a special cut and/or color (in Paris - blue).

For a nobleman, the very fact of riding in an executioner's cart was considered offensive. Even if the condemned man was released on the scaffold, the very fact that he rode in the executioner's cart caused enormous damage to his honor.

There is a known case when an executioner, identifying himself as a city employee, was received in the house of a noblewoman. Later, when she found out who he was, she sued him because she felt insulted. And although she lost the case, the fact itself is very significant.

Another time, a group of drunken young nobles, hearing that music was playing in the house they were passing, broke in. But when they learned that they were at an executioner’s wedding, they were very embarrassed. Only one remained and even asked to show him the sword. Therefore, executioners usually socialized and married in a circle of professions close to them - gravediggers, flayers, etc. This is how entire dynasties of executioners arose.

The executioner often risked being beaten. This threat increased beyond the city limits or during major fairs, when many random people appeared in the city and did not have to fear persecution by local authorities.

In many areas of Germany, there was a rule that if someone, for example the municipality of a small city, hired an executioner, he was obliged to provide him with security and even pay a special deposit. There were cases when executioners were killed. This could have been done either by a crowd dissatisfied with the execution, or by criminals.

Execution of Emelyan Pugachev

Additional earnings

Since the executioner was considered a city employee, he received a fixed payment at a rate set by the authorities. In addition, all things worn from the victim’s waist and below were given to the executioner. Later, all the clothes began to be placed at his disposal. Since executions were carried out mainly on specially announced days, the rest of the time the executioner did not have much work, and, consequently, income. Sometimes the city executioner traveled to neighboring small towns to perform his functions on orders from local authorities. But this also did not happen often.

To give the executioner the opportunity to earn money and not have to pay him for downtime, other functions were often assigned to him. Which ones specifically depended both on local traditions and on the size of the city.
Among them, the most common were the following.

Firstly, the executioner usually supervised the city prostitutes, naturally collecting a fixed fee from them. That is, he was the owner of a brothel, who was also responsible for the behavior of prostitutes before the city authorities. This practice was very common until the 15th century, but was later gradually abandoned.

Secondly, he was sometimes responsible for cleaning public latrines, performing the work of a goldsmith. These functions were assigned to them in many cities until the end of the 18th century.

Thirdly, he could perform the work of a flayer, i.e., he was engaged in catching stray dogs, removing carrion from the city and driving out lepers. Interestingly, if there were professional flayers in the city, they were often obliged to act as assistants to the executioner. Over time and the growth of cities, the executioner had more and more work, and he gradually got rid of additional functions.

Along with these works, the executioner often provided other services to the population. He traded in parts of corpses and potions made from them, as well as various details related to execution. Things like the "hand of glory" (a hand cut off from a criminal) and the piece of rope with which the criminal was hanged are often mentioned in various books on magic and alchemy of the time.

Often the executioner acted as a healer. It should be noted that due to the nature of his activity, the executioner must have a good understanding of human anatomy. Moreover, unlike doctors of that time, he had free access to corpses. Therefore, he was well versed in various injuries and illnesses. The reputation of executioners as good healers was well known. Thus, Catherine II mentions that in her youth the Danzing executioner treated her spine, i.e., he performed the work of a chiropractor. Sometimes the executioner acted as an exorcist, capable of inflicting pain on the body and expelling the evil spirit that had taken possession of it. The fact is that torture was considered one of the most reliable ways to expel an evil spirit that has taken possession of the body. By inflicting pain on the body, people seemed to torture the demon, forcing him to leave this body.

IN medieval Europe executioners, like all Christians, were allowed into the church. However, they had to be the last to arrive for communion, and during the service they had to stand at the very entrance to the temple. However, despite this, they had the right to conduct wedding ceremonies and exorcism rites. The clergy of that time believed that the torment of the body made it possible to cast out demons.

Today it seems incredible, but executioners often sold souvenirs. And you shouldn’t flatter yourself with the hope that between executions they were engaged in wood carving or clay modeling. Executioners traded alchemical potions and body parts of executed people, their blood and skin. The thing is that, according to medieval alchemists, such reagents and potions had incredible alchemical properties. Others believed that the fragments of the criminal’s body were a talisman. The most harmless souvenir is the hanged man's rope, which supposedly brought good luck. It happened that corpses were secretly bought by medieval doctors for study. anatomical structure bodies.

Russia, as usual, has its own way: the severed parts of the bodies of the “dashing” people were used as a kind of “propaganda”. The royal decree of 1663 states: “Nail the cut off hands and feet near the main roads to trees, and write guilt on the same hands and feet and stick on them that those feet and hands are thieves and robbers and were cut off from them for theft, robbery and for murder... so that people of all ranks know about their crimes.”

There was a concept called the “executioner’s curse.” It had nothing to do with magic or witchcraft, but reflected society’s view of this craft. According to medieval traditions, a person who became an executioner remained one for the rest of his life and could not change his profession of his own free will. In case of refusal to fulfill his duties, the executioner was considered a criminal.

The most famous executioner of the twentieth century is the Frenchman Fernand Meyssonnier. From 1953 to 1057, he personally executed 200 Algerian rebels. He is 77 years old, he still lives in France today, he does not hide his past and even receives a pension from the state. Meyssonnier has been in the profession since he was 16 years old, and it runs in the family. His father became an executioner because of the “benefits and benefits” provided: the right to have military weapons, high salaries, free travel and tax breaks for running a pub. He still keeps the tool of his grim work - the Model 48 guillotine - to this day.

Until 2008, he lived in France, received a state pension and did not hide his past. When asked why he became an executioner, Fernand 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. Not only is he active social life, but also published a book about his workdays, after which he was called a humanist executioner.
[ http://infoglaz.ru/?p=37074

A profession in a person’s life has great importance. There are prestigious, humane, highly paid ones, and there are those that are not customary to be proud of. They are hidden, but it turns out that someone still has to do this kind of work. Profession: executioner.

Since the beginning of its development, society has gone through different stages. And those members who did not comply with certain rules and requirements were punished. The most frequently used measures were expulsion or execution.

Such cruelty for modern man easily explained at that time. It’s just that the culprit could, by his behavior, pose a threat to the entire system, so it was necessary to isolate him, but due to small food supplies and difficulties in obtaining them, it was easier to simply kill a person than to contain him. And to perform such work, a certain person was also required. And the profession of executioner appeared.

Who became the executioner?

Who was hired for this job? What qualities should a person have in order to be able to deprive his fellow man of licking?

Nowadays it is customary to hide one’s face from the public, since the profession is not on the list of prestigious ones and is condemned by humanely minded humanity.

But in the Middle Ages, executioners could walk without a mask. And the stereotypical image of a hooded kata may be considered misleading. There was no need to hide, the executioner was known personally and there were no complaints against him, because he was an ordinary performer.

And the most remarkable thing is that the profession was passed down from generation to generation. And this was understood as a natural process. It turns out that entire dynasties were formed. And they did not look for girls from noble families as wives, but, for example, the daughters of gravediggers or flayers. This was probably common sense, since it was easier for people in their own circle to find a common language.

Both in Russia and in other countries, executioners were considered the lowest class. They, as a rule, were at the very bottom of society. Not every person was able to carry out executions every day and still remain sane. Therefore, former criminals received offers to become executioners.

We can say that the profession was assigned to a person for life, as if dooming him. Because it was considered impossible to refuse to fulfill duties, that is, taking the lives of other people. Therefore, the people used the expression “curse of the executioner.” It meant that having once taken on this mission, a person was doomed to carry it out constantly until his death. Otherwise, he would have been considered a deserter and severely punished. Perhaps, in this case, the executioner would change places with his victim.

Executioner's salary

How much was society willing to pay for such unpleasant work? It turns out that not so much. But the executor of the sentence had a so-called social package. He could take the things of the executed person and did not buy food at the market, but simply took what he needed. Why did this happen? It can be assumed because the khat enjoyed a special location. But this is not so, the merchants simply refused to take money from hands washed in blood. The ancestors believed that this could bring misfortune. And at the same time, the executioner needed food. There was only one way out - take it for free.

But time passed and traditions changed. Society began to treat money less pickily, and one could turn a blind eye to “blood money.”

History knows one case. In Paris there was a dynasty of executioners, the Sansons. But during a certain period it turned out that there were no orders for the death penalty. Perhaps no one dared to break the law and therefore the executioner was forced to go into debt and starve. But he found a way out - he laid a guillotine. And as if by a twist of fate, it was at that moment that he was called upon to do his job. But since the moneylender had the weapon, the executioner encountered a problem and was fired.

And he could have worked and worked, right up until 1981, until the death penalty was abolished in France.

The executioner and religion

How did the clergy treat the executioners? Here, as often happens, there is no categorical acceptance or refusal. Kats were allowed to attend church and confess, but under one condition. They should have been located right at the entrance and not attracted the attention of parishioners. But to exorcise demons, executioners were used with great willingness, since the torment of the body was considered holy and helped to expel evil spirits from the soul.

It turns out that the tradition of selling various souvenirs was introduced by executioners. But unfortunately, these are not cute little products at all, but what would you think? Parts of the executed person's body or his belongings. In old times, people attributed alchemical properties to human bones, skin and blood; they were used by healers to prepare various potions and potions. Therefore, the executioner had something to get hold of. The most harmless of the souvenirs was the rope on which the man was hanged.

But in Russia, it was customary to nail the hands of criminals and other parts of the body along the road, so that those who traded in theft would remember the inevitable punishment that awaits them for criminal acts.

In defense of the executioners, it can be said that this profession was indeed not only special, but also difficult. A good executioner still needed to be found. After all, no one wanted to suffer for a long time, and not every executioner could cut off a head the first time; this required not only skill and experience, but also desire.

It is known that in Russia execution techniques were taught on a special dummy.

It is curious that in Europe executioners more often had to take the lives of criminals. But in Russia, for the purpose of education, a person could have his hand or ears cut off, depending on what his crime was.

There have been quite a lot of types of executions throughout time, and many of them were particularly cruel. Despite the fact that the deprivation of one person’s life by another is contrary to nature itself and modern society I couldn’t completely give up on this idea.

And now well-known executioners live on full state support, who not only do not hide their faces, but are also proud of their profession.

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We recently wrote that a vacancy for an executioner had opened in Sri Lanka, for which we managed to respond. It is unknown how their career will develop in this field, and the position of executioner itself in modern world looks like a relic. Nevertheless, there were always executioners. We decided to remember the most famous and, no matter how crazy it may sound, effective representatives of this profession.

Franz Schmidt

Over 45 years of work, he executed 361 people

Franz was born into the family of an executioner in the city of Bamberg and strung up a man for the first time in 1573, thereby celebrating his 18th birthday. Five years later he became the chief executioner of the city of Nuremberg and faithfully performed this job for 40 years. All this time, Schmidt kept a diary, where he wrote down who he executed and for what. He was confident that he was helping the condemned to atone for their sins, and therefore tried to reduce their suffering to a minimum (in particular, he insisted that wheeling be replaced with a quick beheading).

Charles Henri Sanson

Beheaded 2,918 people

Charles Henri Sanson also inherited the profession. He came from a dynasty of Parisian executioners who worked from 1688 to 1847. It all started with Charles Sanson, whom Louis XIV appointed the chief executioner of Paris. In the capital of France, he received a government house (in common parlance, the “executioner’s palace”). There was a torture chamber inside, and next to it was Sanson's shop. A special privilege of the Parisian executioner was the right to take tribute from market traders in food products, so there was always goods in the shop. In 1726, the honorary position passed to eight-year-old Charles Baptiste, and in 1778, Charles Henri Sanson, who was later nicknamed the Great Sanson, took up the beheading sword. By that time, market privileges had ended, and the expanding Sanson clan had to pay for executions on its own. In 1789, the Great Sanson replaced the sword with a more effective guillotine, and in 1793 it was he who beheaded Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Georges-Jacques Danton (Maximilian Robespierre was executed by his son Gabriel). In 1795, the Great Sanson retired and took up peaceful affairs: tending the garden and playing on the musical instruments- violin and cello. When Napoleon asked how he slept, Charles Henri replied that it was no worse than kings and dictators. Interesting fact: the last executioner of the dynasty was Clement Henri Sanson, who in 1847 pawned a guillotine on a moneylender, so he could not enforce the court decision and was removed from office.

Fernand Meyssonnier

Executed more than 200 Algerian rebels

A hereditary executioner, whose family has been engaged in this profession since the 16th century. He began working on the guillotine in 1947 (at the age of 16 he helped his father Maurice Meyssonnier). He collected the belongings of those executed - in total there were about 500 artifacts in his collection. He planned to exhibit them in the museum of punishments and punishments, which he dreamed of opening, but this idea remained unrealized. But Meyssonnier had a bar, a high salary, the right to bear arms and free travel around the world. He met his future wife in Tahiti in 1961, and he exhibited the guillotine (Model No. 48), which took the lives of so many people, in various museums until his death in 2008.

The last executioner in French Algeria, from 1947 to 1961 he executed over 200 Algerian rebels. Meyssonnier recalled that many shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, some went to their death courageously, others fainted or tried to fight.

Giovanni Batista Bugatti

Over 65 years of work, executed 516 people

This Italian executioner worked in the Papal States from 1796 to 1865. Bugatti began in those days when the condemned were sent to the next world with the help of axes and clubs, then he began to hang and cut off heads, and in 1816 he switched to the “Roman” guillotine. Maestro Titto, as Bugatti was nicknamed, called those executed “patients” and could only leave the Trastevere area on the day of execution, so his figure on the Ponte Sant’Angelo signaled that someone would soon be beheaded. Charles Dickens, who found Maestro Titto at work, described with horror the execution procedure and the excitement that reigned around this bloody show.

James Barry

Chopped off over 200 heads

In the period from 1884 to 1892, he performed two seemingly incompatible jobs - he was an executioner and a preacher. Barry's favorite sermon is the one where he calls for the abolition of the death penalty. At the same time, the British executioner can be called a theorist in the execution of death sentences. He wrote that it is psychologically difficult for a condemned person to climb the stairs to execution, but going down is much easier (after the reform of 1890, the gallows were built taking this nuance into account). Barry is also referred to in a conversation about the preparation of the hanging rope: the day before the execution, a bag of sand was hung on it so that it would not stretch at the time of execution. According to Barry's observations, a 90-kilogram bag of sand helps a rope designed to weigh five tons become 15% thinner in a day.

Albert Pierpoint

Hanged 608 convicts

Pierpoint has been called England's most effective executioner and holds the title of "Official Executioner of the United Kingdom." Pierpoint carried out court executions from 1934 to 1956, receiving £15 for each person hanged. In 1956, he executed his own friend and retired. After this, Pierpoint became an innkeeper and wrote memoirs, which served as the basis for the film “The Last Executioner,” which focused on the story of his hanged friend. However, the memoirs also reveal others Interesting Facts about Pierpoint: he could hang a man in 17 seconds, and also informed the English Royal Commission that foreigners behave inappropriately before execution.

Vasily Blokhin

Personally shot from 10 to 20 thousand people

From 1926 to 1953, Blokhin commanded the OGPU-NKVD-MGB firing squad and rose to the rank of major general, which he was stripped of in 1954. According to various sources, he personally shot from 10 to 20 thousand people (they also call a completely frightening figure of 50 thousand), including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Blokhin’s former boss Nikolai Yezhov, writer Isaac Babel and theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold. He led the execution of Polish officers near Katyn. According to the recollections of the former head of the Kalinin NKVD, Major General Dmitry Tokarev, Blokhin was dressed in brown before being shot: a leather cap, a long leather apron, leather gloves with elbow-length cuffs. His favorite weapon is the Walther PP.

Robert Greene

Sent 387 people to the next world

This man worked as an electrician at Dannemora Prison from 1898 to 1939, where he not only oversaw the electrical supply, but was also responsible for electrocutions. The childhood dream of becoming a minister went to waste - the son of immigrants from Ireland began to improve his profession as an executioner. Greene did not use the classic execution scheme, in which the voltage was increased from 500 to 2000 volts to fry a person in terrible agony in less than a minute. He acted exactly the opposite, immediately burning out internal organs sentenced. Before his death, Robert Greene said that he did not regret anything, because he worked for the good of society and responsibly carried out orders from above.

John Woodd

Executed 347 criminals and 10 convicts at the Nuremberg trials

In his native San Antonio, John Woodd hanged murderers and rapists, but became known to the world as a volunteer executioner of the Nuremberg prison. A junior sergeant in the US Army, on the night of October 16, 1946, he hanged Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Jodl and eight other convicts in less than an hour and a half, and he had to strangle Julius Streicher with his hands. They say that Woodd made good money selling pieces of the rope on which the leaders of Nazi Germany were hanged.

Mohammed Saad al-Beshi

The exact figure is unknown, but apparently the count is in the hundreds.

He began his career as an executioner in 1998, and dreamed of it back in 1983, when in the Taif prison he twisted the arms and blindfolded those sentenced to death. Al-Beshi prefers to use a scimitar (a traditional curved Arab sword more than a meter in length), which was given to him by the government for his professional services, to behead heads, but he often has to shoot people (not only men, but also women). The executioner claims that he is carrying out the will of Allah. In Saudi Arabia, the death penalty is prescribed for murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, drug trafficking and drug use. Every time he prays for the condemned man, he also visits his family before execution to ask for forgiveness. After work, he returns home and his family helps him wash the blood off his sword. Al-Beshi, like the Great Sanson, claims that work does not prevent him from sleeping peacefully. By agreement with the state, Al-Beshi cannot disclose how many people he has executed (or how many he kills daily), but it is likely a significant number.

The justice system consists of 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.

The executioners were 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 the 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, 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 real 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 lives at such a 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 mortal blow to the executioner’s profession was dealt not by humanists, but by the leaders of the Great french revolution, putting executions on stream and introducing the guillotine into the process.

If wielding a sword or an ax required skill, then any butcher could handle a 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