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 a pillory at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below.
Decapitation 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 by way of severing through the jugular vein and common carotid artery, while all other organs are deprived of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function. The term beheading refers to the act of deliberately decapitating a person, either as a means of murder or as an execution; it may be performed with an axe, sword, or knife, or by mechanical means such as a guillotine. An executioner who carries out executions by beheading is sometimes called a headsman. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, a car or industrial accident, improperly administered execution by hanging or other violent injury. The national laws of Saudi Arabia and Yemen permit beheading. Under Sharia, which exclusively applies to Muslims, beheading is also a legal punishment in Zamfara State, Nigeria. In practice, Saudi Arabia is the only country that continues to behead its offenders regularly as a punishment for capital crimes. Cases of decapitation by suicidal hanging, suicide by train decapitation and by guillotine are known.
Hamida Djandoubi was a Tunisian convicted murderer sentenced to death in France. He moved to Marseille in 1968, and six years later he was convicted of the kidnapping, torture and murder of 21-year-old Élisabeth Bousquet. He was sentenced to death in February 1977 and executed by guillotine in September that year, and also the last person to be lawfully executed by beheading anywhere in the Western world. Marcel Chevalier served as chief executioner.
An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person.
Marcel Chevalier worked as the last chief executioner in France.
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 southern Paris, France at 42 Rue de la Santé. It is one of the most famous prisons in France, with both VIP and maximum security sections.
Charles-Henri Sanson, full title Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Longval, was the royal executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI, as well as high executioner of the First French Republic. He administered capital punishment in the city of Paris for over forty years. By his own hand he executed nearly 3,000 people, including Robert-François Damiens, who attempted to assassinate King Louis XV. Sanson would later execute King Louis XVI.
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 seven 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, was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille.
André Albert Obrecht was a French executioner who served as the 6th Monsieur de Paris from 1951 until 1976. He participated in a total of 322 executions.
Johan Alfred Andersson Ander was a convicted Swedish murderer and the last person to be executed in Sweden.
Capital punishment in Sweden was last used in 1910, though it remained a legal sentence for at least some crimes until 1973. It is now outlawed by the Swedish Constitution, which states that capital punishment, corporal punishment, and torture are strictly prohibited. At the time of the abolition of the death penalty in Sweden, the legal method of execution was beheading. It was one of the last states in Europe to abolish the death penalty.
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 a French executioner who served as the 5th Monsieur de Paris from 1939 until 1951. He was the last executioner to officiate in public. Desfourneaux participated in around 350 executions.
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.
Louis XVI, former King of France since the abolition of the monarchy, was publicly executed on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. At his trial four days prior, the National Convention had convicted the former 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 by guillotine was performed 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 François Joseph Deibler was a French executioner who served as the 4th Monsieur de Paris from 1899 until his death in 1939. During his 54-year career, he participated in the execution of 395 criminals.
Madeleine Mouton, known as The Berthelot Poisoner was a French serial killer who poisoned eleven people in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria in 1943, seven of which were fatal. Convicted, sentenced to death and later executed for these crimes, she became the second-to-last French woman to be guillotined, and the only one to be executed in French Algeria.
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