Maurice Meyssonnier was a Chief executioner in French Algeria. Meyssonnier family is linked to executioners as far back as the 16th century.
Meyssonnier performed, among many others, the last guillotining of a woman (Madeleine Mouton in 1948) in Algeria, which was the second-to-last female guillotining in France and her colonies.
He was succeeded by his son, Fernand Meyssonnier, who from young age served his father as assistant and eventually became the last executioner in French Algeria, even if formally never appointed, as Maurice retained his position but ceased to carry out the death sentences.
A communist by his political belief, Meyssonnier in addition to his executioner duties was also a bar owner.
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at the bottom of the frame, positioning the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass so that the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below.
Decapitation, also known as beheading, is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function.
Hamida Djandoubi was a Tunisian sentenced to death in France. He was a Tunisian agricultural worker and convicted murderer. He moved to Marseille, France, in 1968 and six years later he kidnapped, tortured and murdered 22-year-old Élisabeth Bousquet. He was sentenced to death in February 1977 and executed by guillotine in September that year. He was the last person to be executed in Western Europe, and he was the last person to be lawfully executed by beheading anywhere in the Western world. He was not however, the last person sentenced to death in France. Marcel Chevalier served as chief executioner.
An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who carries out a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person.
Marcel Chevalier worked as the last chief executioner in France. He succeeded his wife's uncle, André Obrecht, in 1976 and held his position until 1981, when capital punishment was abolished under president François Mitterrand and justice minister Robert Badinter. The method of application of the death penalty for civil capital offences in France from 1791 to 1981 was beheading with the guillotine. Military executions were by firing squad.
La Santé Prison is a prison operated by the French Prison Service of the Ministry of Justice located in the east of the Montparnasse district of the 14th arrondissement in Paris, France at 42 Rue de la Santé. It is one of the most infamous prisons in France, with both VIP and high security wings.
Raoul Albin Louis Salan was a French Army general. He served as the fourth French commanding general during the First Indochina War. He was one of four generals who organized the 1961 Algiers Putsch operation. He was the founder of the Organisation armée secrète and the most decorated soldier in the French Army at the end of his military career.
Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779–1869) was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864. He was the longest-serving executioner in the States and was nicknamed Mastro Titta, a Roman corruption of maestro di giustizia, or master of justice. At the age of 85, he was retired by Pope Pius IX with a monthly pension of 30 scudi.
Charles-Henri Sanson, full title Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Longval, was the royal executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI, and High Executioner of the First French Republic. He administered capital punishment in the city of Paris for over forty years, and by his own hand executed nearly 3,000 people, including the King himself.
Capital punishment in France is banned by Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic, voted as a constitutional amendment by the Congress of the French Parliament on 19 February 2007 and simply stating "No one can be sentenced to the death penalty". The death penalty was already declared illegal on 9 October 1981 when President François Mitterrand signed a law prohibiting the judicial system from using it and commuting the sentences of the six people on death row to life imprisonment. The last execution took place by guillotine, being the main legal method since the French Revolution; Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian citizen convicted of torture and murder on French soil, who was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille.
Johan Alfred Andersson Ander was a convicted Swedish murderer and the last person to be executed in Sweden.
Mam'zelle Guillotine, by Baroness Orczy, is a sequel book to the classic adventure tale, The Scarlet Pimpernel. First published in 1940, it was the last novel Orczy wrote featuring the Pimpernel and is dedicated to those fighting in World War II.
"To all those who are fighting in the air, on the water and on land for our country and for our homes, I dedicate this because it is to them that we shall owe a happy issue out of all our troubles and a lasting peace." - Emmuska Orczy - Monte Carlo - 1939-40
Jules-Henri Desfourneaux was the last French executioner to officiate in public. He came from a long line of executioners named Desfourneaux stretching back many hundreds of years . Like all French executioners since 1792 his method of application of the death penalty was beheading by guillotine.
Fernand Meyssonnier (1931–2008) was an executioner in the last years of French Algeria. He acted as an executioner from 1947 to 1961 and killed more than 200 people. He is the author of a book "The Executioner's Tale" answering questions about his career as an executioner.
Jérôme Henri Carrein was the second-to-last convicted criminal to be executed by guillotine in France.
The execution of Louis XVI by guillotine, a major event of the French Revolution, took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. At a trial on 17 January 1793, the National Convention had convicted the king of high treason in a near-unanimous vote; while no one voted "not guilty", several deputies abstained. Ultimately, they condemned him to death by a simple majority. The execution was performed four days later by Charles-Henri Sanson, then High Executioner of the French First Republic and previously royal executioner under Louis.
Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was a French highwayman who was the first person to be executed by guillotine.
Henry-Clément Sanson was a French executioner. He held the position of Royal Executioner of the City of Paris, serving King Louis-Philippe I from 1840 to 1847.
Anatole Deibler was a French executioner. Succeeding his father, Louis-Antoine-Stanislas Deibler, as the lead French executioner, he participated in the execution of 395 criminals during his 54-year career. During his 40 years as lead executioner he was responsible for 299 beheadings. He is considered one of the most famous French executioners. This is due to the fact that most of his executions were public and were widely reported by the media. The advent of the camera made him somewhat of a celebrity.
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