1939: Eugen Weidmann, the last public beheading in France

[Draggingtree]

1939: Eugen Weidmann, the last public beheading in France

June 17th, 2010Headsman

On this date in 1939, French murderer Eugen Weidmann dropped his head in the basket outside a prison in Versailles. France’s signal history of public beheadings died along with him.

The career criminal Weidmann knocked around prison in his twenties.

Further to the maxim that penitentiaries are the school of crime, Weidmann’s stint for robbery connected him right up with a couple of accomplices who started up a kidnapping-robbery-murder ring when they got out.

They left several bodies (and miles of newspaper copy) in their wake in late 1937 before the inevitable capture, confession, condemnation. (Weidmann’s accomplices all managed to avoid the chop.)

The beheading this day did not come off well; a massive crowd* jostled for a view, a scene belied by the tame crowd photo of the execution’s official witnesses. Read More http://www.executedtoday.com/2010/06/17/1939-eugen-weidmann-last-public-beheading-france/

Video at above site ---Caution: Mature content. This is video of the guillotine in action.

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Just something from by bag of useless facts...In medieval Europe beheading was reserved for the Nobility. Hanging was considered...unseemly for persons of noble status. Hanging was for the "common folk" with the often exception of women, they were pretty much always burned at the stake....along with heretics. Of course if someone really ticked off the powers that be there was always being Hung, Drawn and Quartered (see William Wallace & Guy Fawkes.