1939: Eugen Weidmann, the last public beheading in France
June 17th, 2010 Headsman
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.
Two photographs of Eugen Weidmann’s execution in Versailles 17 June 1939. (Click for larger images.)
The government immediately banned public executions. Although it wouldn’t be the government much longer, the change stuck.
But the crowd scene wasn’t the half of it.
Still photos of the guillotine had been snapped for years, but a delay putting justice into its heavy downward-crashing motion that morning meant the execution took place in plenty of light for an illicit moving picture.
Caution: Mature content. This is video of the guillotine in action.
From the time this film cut, France’s national razor would do its cutting only behind prison walls. It would be another 38 years yet before it trimmed its last client.
* According to his biography, British horror actor Christopher Lee — age 17 — was in the crowd.
On this day..
- 1751: Thomas Quin, Joseph Dowdell, Thomas Talbot, and five others at Tyburn - 2020
- 1771: Daskalogiannis - 2019
- 1581: Christman Genipperteinga - 2018
- 2008: Tsutomu Miyazaki, the Nerd Cult Killer - 2017
- 2015: Dok Macuei Marer, South Sudan assassin - 2016
- 1660: Jan Quisthout van der Linde condemned to drown in New Amsterdam - 2015
- 1800: Suleiman al-Halabi, assassin of General Kleber - 2014
- 1930: 13 Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang cadres, for the Yen Bai mutiny - 2013
- 1842: Charles Stoddart and Arthur Conolly, Great Game diplomats - 2012
- 1825: Isaac, Israel, and Nelson Thayer, in Buffalo's only public hanging - 2011
- 1795: The last Montagnards - 2009
- 1747: Mary Allen and Henry Simms, Gallows Lovers - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,France,Guillotine,History,Kidnapping,Mature Content,Milestones,Murder,Pelf,Public Executions,Theft
Tags: 1930s, 1939, christopher lee, eugen weidmann, june 17, versailles
Hi there mates, how is everything, and what you desire
to say regarding this paragraph, in my view its truly remarkable for me.
That is just completely disgusting but quite effective. Don’t think that would be much of a deterrent unless the criminals were put to death right after being found guilty!
Das Filmchen gefällt mir. Die einzig richtige Bestrafung für Mörder und Vergewaltiger.
Things were a lot simpler way back when.
Two guys march him out & one guy holds the condemned man in place with his hand!?
Spartan, but effective, to say the least.
Yeah, that whole process was frighteningly efficient.
I don’t usually watch videos like that, but it certainly showed how efficient it was – no wonder “The National Razor” was able to shave so many heads in the 1790’s!