1951: Marcel Ythier, Andre Obrecht’s first
3 comments November 13th, 2019 Headsman
On this date in 1951, Marcel Ythier lost his head as France gained a headsman.
Ythier escaped a life sentence at hard labor and fled to Aix-en-Provence to build a burglary career, which improved to a murder career when he shot dead the constable who surprised him in the act in May 1950.
Ythier’s was the first execution conducted by Andre Obrecht, nephew to the great head-chopper Anatole Deibler and the latter’s heir as France’s chief executioner. Indeed, Obrecht would be the last chief executioner in every sense but literally, carrying the title from 1951 to 1976, when he beheaded Christian Ranucci, the third-last fall of the guillotine. (Francophone specialists might go for Obrecht’s memoirs.)
Obrecht resigned the post a few weeks after Ranucci’s controversial death, leaving his own nephew (and longtime assistant executioner) Marcel Chevalier to write the illustrious profession‘s Gallic finale with the two last executions in French history.
Not to worry: the classic bourreau lives on as one of the jokers in Executed Today’s pack of custom playing cards.
On this day..
- 1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman's last - 2020
- 1989: Rohana Wijeweera - 2018
- 1752: William Montgomery, small enough to fail - 2017
- 1544: Maria von Beckum and her sister-in-law Ursula - 2016
- 1765: Patrick Ogilvie, but not Katharine Nairn - 2015
- Announcing: Execution Playing Cards - 2014
- 1795: David McCraw, "blasted all our conjugal happiness" - 2014
- 2010: Farid Baghlani, womanslayer - 2013
- 1943: The Zalkind family - 2012
- Themed Set: Meaghan Good - 2012
- 1663: Corfitz Ulfeldt, in effigy - 2011
- 1676: Col. Thomas Hansford, the first American independence martyr - 2010
- 1534: Barthélemi Milon, for the Affair of the Placards - 2009
- 1849: Frederick and Marie Manning, a Dickensian scene - 2008
- 1002: St. Brice's Day Massacre - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,France,Guillotine,Murder
Tags: 1950s, 1951, aix-en-provence, andre obrecht, marcel ythier, november 13
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