Not a single state in the world in the course of its development could do without the institution of executioners. not an exception. In Rus', in the Moscow kingdom, in the Russian Empire, death sentences were passed, which were carried out by the executioner, or, as our ancestors called him, kat.
JUSTICE IN RUSSIAN
We would consider the oldest set of laws, Russian Pravda, dated 1016, to be surprisingly mild. The death penalty was provided only for murder. The captured and exposed criminal was to be executed by one of the relatives of the murdered person. If there was no one among them, the killer got off with a fine of 40 hryvnia. In all other cases, only a monetary fine was provided.
The highest form of punishment was considered to be “deportation and plunder” (deportation of the criminal or enslavement with complete confiscation of property). Agree, such legislation cannot be called bloodthirsty.
The death penalty was mentioned seriously only almost four centuries later in the Dvina charter of 1397. Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich believed that the state did not need a slave who did not want to work, and the Russian land should be rid of such people. The one who was caught stealing for the third time should also be killed.
In the Code of Laws of Ivan III (1497), the death penalty was provided for crimes against the state, murder, robbery, robbery and horse theft (what about introducing the death penalty for car theft?). They were executed by death for theft in the church and sacrilege (the dancers from Pussy Riot would have been impaled). Such types of punishment as whipping, cutting of ears, tongue, and branding appeared.
As the state developed, the number of articles providing for the death penalty increased. According to the Council Code of 1649, about 60 crimes were punishable by death. The list of executions also expanded: to the previously existing quartering and impalement, burning, pouring metal into the throat, hanging and burying in the ground were added. Nostrils were torn for smoking and sniffing tobacco. (This is how our ancestors fought for the health of the nation!)
Such a variety of penalties provided for the presence of specialists, that is, executioners. They, of course, always existed, but only in the 17th century were amateurs given the status of professionals and their hard work equated with socially useful work.
UNPRESTIGIOUS PROFESSION
On May 16, 1681, the Boyar Duma determined in its verdict: “In every city there cannot be without executioners.” So if a question arises about the date of the professional holiday of Russian kata, May 16 is best suited. Hunters (volunteers) from the townspeople and free people were supposed to be appointed as executioners; they were considered serving people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Robbery Order), and they were entitled to a salary of 4 rubles a year.
However, the advertised vacancies have not been filled for years. The governors constantly complained that there were no hunters to break bones, beat with a whip, brand and tear out nostrils. And those chosen by force or tempted by high salaries soon run away. The Russian people did not want to become executioners.
The Orthodox Church openly showed its hostility towards the executioners: the khat was deprived of spiritual nourishment and was not allowed to take communion. If the church still accepted repentant robbers, then only one case of forgiveness of the executioner by the church is known: in 1872, the Solovetsky monastery accepted the former Kata Petrovsky.
The power grew stronger, and the need for shoulder craftsmen grew. In 1742, the Senate ordered everyone county town acquire an executioner, the provincial city - two, Moscow and St. Petersburg - three. The salaries of executors were doubled, and doubled again under Emperor Paul I, and yet there was a catastrophic shortage of “specialists.” In many provincial cities there was no one to carry out court sentences.
THE PROBLEM OF PERSONNEL SHORTAGE
In 1804, there was only one full-time executioner in all of Little Russia. The governor of the region, Prince Alexei Kurakin, it seemed to him, had found a way out of the situation and sent a proposal to the capital to allow the recruitment of executioners from among the convicts. The Senate marveled at the prince’s ingenuity and gave the go-ahead.
In 1818, the situation repeated itself in St. Petersburg. Then, almost simultaneously, two executioners died in the capital and the prison administration fell into a stupor. The prison was filled with convicts who, before heading to the prison camp, had to receive their portion of the whip or a brand on their forehead. The St. Petersburg mayor, Count Miloradovich, remembered Kurakin’s initiative and followed the same path.
In 1833, the State Council extended the practice to the entire Russian Empire. And soon the executors of the convicts everywhere replaced the rare well-wishers. Almost since 1833, all executioners in the Russian Empire were recruited exclusively from criminals.
SPECIAL CONVICTED
Most often, criminals who were sentenced, in addition to time served, to corporal punishment. 30-40 blows of the whip often meant death, because after such a beating many died on the second or third day. Anyone who agreed to the position of executioner was exempt from flogging, that is, saving his life. But they didn’t cut his sentence for this. The executioner remained convicted and continued to serve his sentence in prison.
Initially, the criminals even continued to sit in a common cell with the rest of the inmates, but this practice was soon abandoned: too often the executioners were found dead in the morning. “He took it at night and hanged himself, his conscience probably tortured him,” the cellmates grinned and explained to their superiors. Executioners began to be housed in separate cells, and if possible, separate rooms were built for them in the prison courtyards. And yet, the shortage of personnel for executioners remained a pressing problem until the beginning of the 20th century.
SCARED SPECIALISTS
At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was overwhelmed by a wave of revolutionary terrorism. In 1905-1906, more than 3.5 thousand high-ranking government officials were killed. In response, the authorities introduced military courts in August 1906, which preferred to impose very quick and exclusively death sentences for captured terrorists.
Due to a shortage of executioners, hanging began to be replaced by shooting. The execution was carried out by soldiers bound by an oath. District commanders reported that frequent executions had a detrimental effect on soldiers, and demanded that civilians be hanged by regular executioners in accordance with the law. But where could they get so many of them?
The few full-time executors now spent most of their time on business trips, being transported under escort from one city to another. In the kata prison, another batch of shackles was waiting.
EXECUTIONERS - "STAKHANOVTS"
The 20th century turned the world upside down. Millions of people went through the war and overstepped the commandment “thou shalt not kill.” The formulations “revolutionary necessity” and “class enemy” freed a person from the burden of moral responsibility. Hundreds, thousands of voluntary executioners appeared. They are no longer social outcasts. They were given titles and orders. Among them, their own leaders in production have emerged.
The most prominent were the brothers Ivan and Vasily Shigalev, Ernst Mach, Pyotr Maggo, who, listed as employees for special assignments, carried out execution sentences. Even they themselves probably don’t know how many people they executed; the victims number in the hundreds and thousands.
However, all of them are far from Vasily Blokhin. For 29 years, from 1924 to 1953, holding various positions, he was exclusively involved in executions. He is credited with 10 to 15 thousand people executed. Blokhin worked in a leather apron below the knees and a cap, and put leather leggings on his hands. For the executions he received seven orders and graduated from his service with the rank of major general.
With the death of Stalin, the era of mass repressions ended, but execution sentences continued to be given. Now they were executed for murder, rape, banditry, espionage and a number of economic crimes.
LOOK INTO THE SOUL OF THE EXECUTIONER
Who are they - people who kill not for personal reasons, but... for work? How do professional hangers and shooters feel? Today, many of those who worked in the 1960s and 1970s are alive, the state to which they pledged to remain silent is long gone, and this gives them the right to speak.
Every time you want to publicly humiliate someone or rise above someone, stop and think about what outcome this could lead to. Are you ready to become an executioner for this person? - even think about it. Yes, tough, but effective.The next time you want to punish someone by publicly scolding them, or when you are in the mood to be rude, or make someone “famous” by posting an unsightly photo of them on a social network and letting it go like a carousel, in general, when the mood for retaliation suddenly appears If you want to achieve justice, think about one thing: you don’t know what demons this person lives with inside, what he is currently suffering from and what he is struggling with, and most importantly, what consequences your momentary attack may lead to.
Such a long, expansive beginning can be boiled down to one request: please, if you have a desire to exalt yourself over someone, suppress it. Make an effort on yourself, become smaller for a moment, take a step back, just remain silent, but don’t attack first, don’t.
Nadezhda Semyonovna recently started working as a cashier in a large supermarket. An older woman, but not yet a pensioner, she was looking for work for a very long time after the company where she had worked as an accountant for a long time went bankrupt and all the employees ended up on the street. Nadezhda Semyonovna’s husband died long ago, she lived alone with her son. The son, an obedient adult boy, supported his mother as best he could and always prepared her pancakes for dinner when she stayed late at work. Such good boy, the neighbors said, it’s a pity that he’s sick. Sunny boy, knowledgeable people carefully corrected him. Nadezhda Semyonovna’s son really was wonderful. And she loved him with tender love. Even then she loved it when the maternity hospital told her that her boy had Down syndrome and, if she didn’t mind, she could silently and quietly refuse him. They say that no one will judge her for such a step, so the doctors and nurses admonished her. But Nadezhda Semyonovna did not give up her son, she could not even think about it. Like this? This is my boy, my little blood! Then Nadezhda Semyonovna’s love flared up bright light and never went out again.
When love is unconditional and expects nothing in return
And so they lived - Nadezhda Semyonovna, her husband, whom she loved no less than her son, and Yurochka, her beloved blood. While the husband was alive, they somehow got out. It was clear that Yurochka would not be accepted into a regular kindergarten (“Where does he belong with healthy children?!” the teachers exclaimed), and Nadezhda Semyonovna and her husband did not have money for an unusual educational institution. Therefore, it was decided that Nadezhda Semyonovna would raise Yurochka herself until school, and then everything would somehow be resolved.Seven-year-old Yurochka was also not very expected at school first call, so there was a question about individual education. Somewhere they found special classes for such children, somewhere they made arrangements with tutors. Later, Nadezhda Semyonovna brought up all her contacts and got a good job, her husband was promoted - and now, it seems, everything has been settled. And they found a nanny for Yurochka, she fed him lunches and breakfasts, took him to lessons and met teachers at home, and everything was fine at work, and the husband was happy, and finally there was money - everyone was happy.
But happiness, as a rule, does not last long, after sitting and drinking tea, it’s time to know the honor, as if one day it said and left this family. First, Nadezhda Semyonovna’s husband died, he died suddenly - that’s how they usually talk about it. Then the company in which Nadezhda Semenovna worked honestly went bankrupt. She would turn black with grief and become haggard, but how? Nadezhda Semyonovna has no time to feel sorry for herself and howl heart-rendingly, Yurochka looks at her, smiles so affectionately, strokes her hand with a warm, soft palm, looks into her eyes and says: “Everything will be fine, mommy.”
And everything was fine, although not right away. Although not immediately, Nadezhda Semyonovna found a job. At first, however, I spent a little time as a cleaner at a small suburban train station, then I began cleaning other people’s houses. And later, luck smiled at her - Nadezhda Semyonovna got a job as a cashier in a large supermarket. And what's wrong with that, where's the luck in that? - someone will think. And the fact is that this supermarket was very close to her house, and her son often visited her under any pretext - either to buy bread, or ice cream, or even just to walk past the cash register and smile at her. Nadezhda Semyonovna was, if not happy, then at least calm. Until this incident.
If you want to rise above someone, suppress this feeling
It was immediately obvious that this woman had come to make a scandal. She needed to throw out her emotions, and she couldn’t think of anything else to do but eat up the surprisingly calm person she met. This calm person turned out to be Nadezhda Semyonovna. The wound up woman began to shout at her, and it seemed that Nadezhda Semyonovna’s unhealthy calm turned her on even more. “Why is everything so expensive for you? Why are you knocking out the wrong product that I immediately put in front of you? Why don't you have disposable bags at the checkout? Why are you looking at me like that??? Call the administrator!And the administrator immediately appeared, there was no need to specifically call him, he came running in response to the uncontrollable scream. "What's happened?" - he just asked. And I immediately understood everything: the situation must be resolved immediately. Or at least show the appearance of her solution. But something definitely needs to be done. “What kind of employees do you have?! Where did you get these idiots?! She can’t do anything!” - the woman, who had not calmed down at all, pointed at Nadezhda Semyonovna, who was still in some kind of marble stupor. “She hadn’t really served me yet when she immediately moved on to the next customer! And when I pointed this out to her, she went wild, grabbed my hand and threw me away like that!” The woman went into a frenzy and gesticulated generously in front of the administrator. Nadezhda Semyonovna didn’t even have words to justify herself; she just sat silently and looked in front of her. “We will resolve this issue,” the administrator promised. - “If necessary, we’ll fire you.”
Nadezhda Semyonovna returned home as usual, put the kettle on, brewed tea and called Yurochka for dinner. For dinner they had the same sweet pancakes. Nadezhda Semyonovna, as usual, praised her son, said that today the pancakes were especially successful for him, stroked his head and, citing fatigue, went to bed. Nadezhda Semyonovna accepted warm shower, put on a new nightgown, and lay down in a clean bed. And she never woke up again.
Perhaps she was ill, and after so many trials in life, her health was not very good. But this incident could definitely have been the reason that accelerated his death. Yurochka was taken to a special boarding school, over time he will forget how to bake pancakes, and how his mother smelled, who kissed him at the door every evening.
Every time you want to publicly humiliate someone or rise above someone, stop and think about what outcome this could lead to. Are you ready to become an executioner for this person? - even think about it. Yes, tough, but effective. Each of us struggles with our own inner demons. And there is no need to add to this internal struggle still insignificant external problems. Everyone is at war with their inner demons. If we remembered this, we would be kinder to each other.
Antonina Makarova born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family Makara Parfenova. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her later life. When Tonya came to first grade, because of shyness she could not say her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began shouting “Yes, she’s Makarova!”, meaning that Tony’s father’s name is Makar.
So, with the light hand of the teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family.
The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - a nurse from the Chapaev division Maria Popova, which once in battle actually had to replace a killed machine gunner.
After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she found the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.
Camping wife of an encirclement
19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.”
After the heaviest battles, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only a soldier was next to the young nurse Tonya Nikolay Fedchuk. With him she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They didn’t look for partisans, they didn’t try to get through to their own people - they fed on whatever they had, and sometimes stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his “camp wife.” Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.
In January 1942, they went to the village of Krasny Kolodets, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tonya alone.
Tonya was not expelled from the Red Well, but the local residents already had plenty of worries. But the strange girl did not try to go to the partisans, did not strive to make her way to ours, but strived to make love with one of the men remaining in the village. Having turned the locals against her, Tonya was forced to leave.
Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg. Photo: Public Domain
Salary killer
Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious “Lokot Republic”, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. In essence, these were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.
A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect her of being a partisan or underground woman. She attracted the attention of the police, who took her in, gave her drink, food and rape. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.
Tonya did not play the role of a prostitute for the police for long - one day, drunk, she was taken out into the yard and put behind a Maxim machine gun. There were people standing in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.
The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her own bed.
The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground fighters, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. Those arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.
The cell accommodated 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones.
Neither the Germans nor even the local policemen wanted to take on this work. And here Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.
The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, felt that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot her enemies, but she shoots women and children - the war will write off everything! But her life finally got better.
1500 lives lost
Antonina Makarova's daily routine was as follows: in the morning, shooting 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night making love with some cute German guy or, at worst, with a policeman.
As an incentive, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya acquired a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes made it difficult to wear.
However, sometimes Tonya allowed “marriage” - several children managed to survive, because because of their vertically challenged the bullets went over the head. The children were taken out along with the corpses local residents who buried the dead and handed them over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, “Tonka the machine gunner”, “Tonka the Muscovite” spread throughout the area. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but were unable to reach her.
In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.
By the summer of 1943, Tony's life had changed again sharp turn— The Red Army moved to the West, beginning the liberation of the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Greater Germany.
Honored veteran instead of a war criminal
In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any concern for the accomplices.
Realizing this, Tonya escaped from the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But her survival skills were honed - she managed to obtain documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.
Antonina successfully managed to enlist in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her.
The guy proposed to Tonya, she agreed, and after getting married, the young couple, after the end of the war, left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, her husband’s homeland.
This is how the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and her place was taken by an honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg.
They searched for her for thirty years
Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous acts of “Tonka the Machine Gunner” immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but the identities of only two hundred could be established.
They interrogated witnesses, checked, clarified - but they could not get on the trail of the female punisher.
Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led ordinary life Soviet man— lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the actions of “Tonka the Machine Gunner”.
The KGB spent more than three decades searching for her, but found her almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfyonov, going abroad, submitted forms with information about his relatives. There, among the solid Parfenovs, for some reason Antonina Makarova, after her husband Ginzburg, was listed as her sister.
Yes, how that teacher’s mistake helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!
The KGB operatives worked brilliantly - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the Machine Gunner”, she was arrested.
She didn’t deny it, she talked about everything calmly, and said that nightmares didn’t torment her. She didn’t want to communicate with either her daughters or her husband. And the front-line husband ran around the authorities, threatening to file a complaint Brezhnev, even at the UN - demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.
After that, the dashing, dashing veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. You wouldn’t wish what these people had to endure on your enemy.
Retribution
Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978. This was the last one major process over traitors to the Motherland in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.
Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the passage of time, the punishment could not be too severe; she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. My only regret was that because of the shame I had to move again and change jobs. Even the investigators, knowing about Antonina Ginzburg’s exemplary post-war biography, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.
However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.
At the trial, her guilt in the murder of 168 of those whose identities could be established was documented. More than 1,300 more remained unknown victims of “Tonka the Machine Gunner.” There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.
At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.
Each death sentence costs American taxpayers $2.3 million. Life imprisonment is much cheaper, but this does not bother many supporters of maintaining the death penalty. In the past, executions were also expensive, but there were people who knew how to make money from them. The main performer of the procedure, the executioner, is now an endangered profession, like a chimney sweep or coachman. Nevertheless, executioners still exist, and some of them are still proud of their art.
When a judge pronounces a sentence, everyone understands that someone must carry it out. If the sentence is prison or hard labor, someone must transport the convicted person to the place of serving, and then guard him until the end of the sentence. If the sentence is chopping off a hand or, say, quartering, then someone will have to take an ax. Therefore, if a country has the death penalty, then there are executioners. For the most part, these are real specialists who provide services with professional calm and efficiency. And yet, this unusual craft leaves an imprint on both their character and fate.
Medieval executioners are usually represented as muscular brutes with a bag on their head. Indeed, these people needed a fair amount of physical strength, but they had no need to hide their faces. The population knew their executioners by sight and name, since it was impossible to remain incognito in a small medieval town. In most European countries, executioners were considered artisans like carpenters or saddlers, and they were usually proud of their profession and passed it on by inheritance. In many countries, labor dynasties of shoulder craftsmen arose; some of these dynasties managed to achieve wealth and even fame.
In medieval Germany, executioners were valued and generously rewarded for their work, as evidenced, in particular, by the fate of Franz Schmidt, who served as the chief executioner of Nuremberg. Schmidt was born in 1555 into the family of an executioner in the city of Bamberg. In his youth, he helped his father, gradually learning the intricacies of the craft, and in 1573 he carried out his first independent execution, strangling a certain Leonard Russ, convicted of theft. Five years later he received a position as an executioner in Nuremberg and married the daughter of the city's chief executioner. After the death of his father-in-law, Schmidt inherited his position, and with it considerable income. In Nuremberg, the chief executioner earned almost as much as a judge, which allowed him to lead the life of a very wealthy burgher. By the way, “executioner” in German is Scharfrichter, that is, it sounds like “sharp judge.”
The English executioners worked extremely clumsily, since the pay for their labor was pitiful
Master Franz, as he was now called, was a careful and conscientious worker. He strove to reduce the torment of those executed to the necessary minimum and often petitioned for the replacement of cruel executions such as wheeling with a simple and quick beheading. He also kept a diary in which he completely dispassionately described the cases of execution: “August 13, summer 1594. The weaver Christoph Mayer and Hans Weber, a fruit merchant, both citizens of Nuremberg, who had been committing sodomy for three years, were caught in their practice by an apprentice ironmonger... The weaver was executed by sword, and then his body was put on fire along with the fruit merchant, who was burned alive." Schmidt remained at peace with himself and his conscience because he believed that he was doing God's work in helping sinners atone for their sins. Master Franz remained in office for 45 years, executing 361 people over the years, after which he retired and became a medical consultant, since he understood anatomy better than many doctors. Schmidt died in 1634, surrounded by his loving family, and was given a lavish state burial. His grave is surrounded by the graves of other eminent citizens of Nuremberg, in particular the great artist Albrecht Dürer.
In France, executioners were treated differently - they were shunned and feared, but at the same time they were given excellent opportunities to earn money. There were also executioner dynasties here, many of them for centuries, but the most famous was the Sanson dynasty, which arose in the 17th century. In 1684, Charles Sanson, who served in the royal army, received orders Louis XIV on the appointment to the position of executor of sentences in Paris. In the capital, Sanson was provided with government housing, which the townspeople called the executioner's mansion.
While Charles-Henri Sanson tried to reduce the cost of one execution, thousands of Frenchmen became shorter by the head
Like most artisans of that time, the executioner worked at his place of residence. His house was combined with a torture chamber, and the corpses of some of those executed were displayed right next to the fence. At the entrance to the mansion there was a stone cross, at which debtors declared their bankruptcy. There was also a shop here that belonged to the executioner, and Sanson had something to sell. The Parisian executioners had a special royal privilege - they could collect daily tribute in food from every merchant in the city market. Charles Sanson sent servants to the market every day with huge baskets. His family ate some of it, but the executioner sold most of what he collected. In addition, he received a good salary. The Sansons also traded in medicinal herbs and body parts of executed criminals, which no alchemist or warlock could do without. The Sansons quickly became rich and led the lives of successful entrepreneurs.
The wealth of French executioners had a positive effect on the quality of the services they provided. At least those executed died quickly, without unnecessary suffering. But in England they saved money on executioners, and therefore there were no more crooked executioners in all of Europe. The British recruited people from the street and even criminals as executioners, and none of them received special training. For example, the favorite of Elizabeth I, the Earl of Essex, once pardoned a certain Thomas Derrick, sentenced to death for rape, on the condition that he would become the executioner. Derrick was a good hanger and even improved the gallows by equipping it with a system of blocks, but he was inept with an ax. In 1601, the Earl of Essex was himself convicted of attempted rebellion and ascended to the scaffold. It took Derrick three blows to finally separate the Count's head from his body.
Derrick's successors were no better. Around 1663, the post of London executioner was taken by the Irish immigrant John Ketch, who proved his complete incompetence. In 1683 he had to execute the famous oppositionist Lord Russell. From the first blow, the ax not only did not cut off his head, but did not even kill him. The second blow did not kill the lord either. The execution turned into a disgusting torture, and the crowd was ready to tear the executioner apart. After this story, Ketch issued a letter of apology, in which he argued that Lord Russell himself was to blame for placing his head on the block incorrectly. But this was not the worst execution in John Ketch's career.
The French Revolution destroyed the monarchy, and the revolution in the scaffold business jeopardized the profession of executioner
On July 15, 1685, the rebellious Duke of Monmouth ascended the scaffold. Turning to Ketch, the Duke said: “Here are six guineas for you. Don't try to cut me down the same way you cut Lord Russell. I heard you hit him three or four times. My servants will give you even more gold if you do your job well.” However, no amount of money could compensate for the lack of professionalism - the ax only slightly touched the neck of the executed man. Monmouth jumped to his feet, gave the executioner a contemptuous look and again laid his head on the block. Ketch struck two more times, but the Duke was still alive, although bleeding. The crowd roared with indignation, and Ketch, dropping the ax, declared that he could not finish the work because he had a bad heart. However, the sheriff in charge of the execution forced him to pick up the ax and continue. It took Ketch two more blows to finally finish off the victim, but the head was still not severed. Desperate, Ketch began sawing off the head with a butcher knife. By the end of the procedure, the crowd was so angry that the executioner had to be escorted away from the execution site under guard.
After this disgrace, John Ketch was sent to prison, which, apparently, saved him from popular reprisals. The butcher Paska Rose, who had previously assisted Ketch, became the new executioner, but after four months Rose was caught committing burglary. We had to let Ketch out, who hanged Rose.
British traditions turned out to be very persistent. The sending of convicts to the next world was trusted for a long time random people and various kinds of renegades. Others did not take up this business because the pay for labor was meager. For example, the London executioner John Price lived on the brink of poverty until in 1715 he went to a debtor's prison, from which he escaped and was soon hanged for double murder.
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In the 18th century, almost all educators began to oppose the cruel medieval executions, and many condemned the death penalty as such. In 1786, the death penalty was officially abolished in Tuscany, although in fact it had not been used in the Grand Duchy since 1769. However, it was not the humanism of the enlighteners that struck the professional executioners, but mass terror.In 1778, the position of Parisian executioner passed to Charles-Henri Sanson, the great-grandson of the aforementioned Charles Sanson. Charles-Henri was 39 years old at that time, 20 of which he worked in the torture chamber and on the scaffold, helping his father. By that time, the Sanson clan had grown and possessed considerable wealth, which increased every year, thanks to royal privileges. However, the revolution put an end to ancient customs, and Charles-Henri Sanson's income decreased sharply. He could no longer rob market traders, while he covered the costs of organizing executions from his own pocket. In particular, Sanson himself had to buy swords for beheadings and pay for the transportation of those condemned to the scaffold.
The leader of the British executioner team, John Ellis (left), was also a barber and died from a razor.
In 1789, physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin proposed using a more humane method of execution - the guillotine. “Before you have time to blink your eye,” the doctor told the revolutionary deputies, “I’ll cut off your head with my car, and you won’t even feel anything!” Sanson immediately jumped on the idea, saying that the guillotine would help him reduce the cost of maintaining swords, which quickly become dull and often break. On April 25, 1792, Charles-Henri Sanson publicly tested the guillotine on the robber and murderer Nicolas-Jacques Peyetier. The people who gathered to look at the outlandish machine were quite disappointed by the speed and routine of the procedure. Many were even indignant: “Bring back our gallows!” Sanson was very pleased, not realizing that this was the beginning of the end.
With the beginning of the terror, the guillotine began to work at full power, and the executioner’s family also suffered. Younger son Charles-Henri Gabriel fell from the scaffold while showing the crowd the severed head of an aristocrat, and broke his neck. The young man's father continued to work tirelessly, despite the grief, but provided the scaffold with a protective fence. On January 21, 1793, Charles-Henri Sanson carried out the main execution of his life, cutting off the head of Louis XVI, and then executed Robespierre and many other leaders of the revolution.
In 1795, the Grand Sanson, as he came to be called, resigned and spent his last years in peace and quiet. He tinkered in the kindergarten, played the violin and cello, and occasionally communicated with great people who wanted to touch the legend. They say that Napoleon Bonaparte once asked a retired executioner how he slept after so many executions, and Sanson replied: “If emperors, kings and dictators sleep well, then why should executioners sleep poorly?” Meanwhile, the Great Sanson had to have serious reasons to worry about the future of his family, because the revolution and the guillotine were undermining the foundations of his profession.
Technological progress has transformed people rare profession to ordinary electricians and mechanics
If previously the executioner was a unique specialist who was required to perform filigree execution of single orders, now people were executed in an assembly line manner using a machine that any butcher could operate. Thus, during his long career, Charles-Henri Sanson executed 2 thousand 918 people, and most of the executions occurred during the years of revolutionary terror. However, society changed - it was no longer possible to control it with the help of show executions in medieval style. Executions had to either become widespread or disappear altogether. The need for professional executioners was eliminated in both cases.
During the 19th century, executioners were increasingly viewed as a shameful relic of the Middle Ages. In addition, in some countries restrictions were imposed on representatives of this profession, which in the era of progress looked simply wild. One of the last executioners of the old school was the Roman executioner Giovanni Batista Bugatti, nicknamed Mastro Titta. He began his service in 1796, when axes and clubs for crushing heads were still in use, and ended in 1861, when the guillotine was used. Mastro Titta called those executed patients. For 65 years and 148 days, Signor Bugatti sent 516 people to the next world, but during this time he never left the Trastevere area in which he lived, except for official reasons - the executioner was forbidden to cross the Tiber River on the Bridge of Sant'Angelo under pain of death. There was some ancient superstition behind this ban, but it was strictly observed. If Bugatti walked across the bridge, all of Rome knew that soon someone’s head would roll off his shoulders.
The medieval customs that governed the life of the executioner were in poor harmony with the technology of execution. Crowds of onlookers still gathered around the guillotine, but the ceremony itself had lost its former attractive force. In 1848, Charles Dickens observed the work of Mastro Titta, and he was struck by the senselessness of what was happening: “He was a young man of twenty-six years old, strongly and well built... He immediately knelt down, right under the knife of the guillotine. Then he put his neck into a hole cut for this purpose on the cross board... a leather bag was suspended right under it, and his head instantly rolled into it... No one was shocked by what had happened, no one was even excited. I did not notice the slightest manifestation of disgust, pity, indignation or sadness. In the crowd, at the very foot of the scaffold, while the body was being laid in the coffin, my empty pockets were rummaged several times. It was an ugly, vile, senseless, sickening spectacle, a bloodbath - and nothing more, except for a moment of interest in the unfortunate actor... The lottery regulars, having settled in convenient places, counted the drops of blood that fell here and there from the scaffold in order to buy a ticket with the corresponding number. There is great demand for it."
Gradually, the executioners themselves began to experience psychological discomfort. For example, the grandson of the Great Sanson, Henri-Clément, was not up to the level of his family calling. This cultured and sensitive young man preferred the company of actors and artists to the guillotine, so the position of executioner, which he inherited in 1840, fell heavily on him. After each execution, Henri-Clément, in order to relieve stress, went on a wild spree and soon lost the fortune acquired by six generations of Parisian executioners. The matter ended with the fact that, unable to pay off his debts, Henri-Clément tried to pawn the guillotine. The execution instrument was considered family property of the Sansons, so legally he had the right to it. The government paid off the debts of the hapless executioner, confiscated the guillotine and fired Henri-Clément. Thus ended the history of the most famous dynasty of shoulder craftsmen - but not the history of the profession.
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In the second half of the 19th century, the execution procedure became increasingly impersonal, and the professional level of the performers gradually declined. Shooting became an increasingly popular form of capital punishment. When several soldiers shot at a convict, the burden of responsibility was shared by everyone and ultimately fell on no one, and skill was not required here at all. With the gallows it was a little more difficult. It was possible to hang a man different ways. The long rope method meant that the neck of the executed person would be instantly broken and death would occur quickly and without pain. However, in this case it was necessary to know the weight and height of the victim, and not every hangman could take all this into account and select the rope of the required length. The short rope method was simple, but the agony could drag on for several minutes as the person being executed died from suffocation. Of course, many ignorant executioners preferred the second method.Photo: Lorenz Schweitz carried out sentences with precision using the skills he acquired in the slaughterhouse. Hanging remained the main method of execution in the Anglo-Saxon world, and in the then United States sheriffs, that is, people who knew little about the executioner business, were usually responsible for gallows. In Great Britain, people who were considered professionals were hanged, but their professionalism traditionally left much to be desired. The most famous specialist Victorian era There was William Calcraft, who got into the profession completely by accident. In the late 1820s, the young shoemaker Calcraft worked part-time outside the walls of London's Newgate prison - selling meat pies. Here he was met by the aging executioner John Foxton and offered new job. William Calcraft became London's hangman in 1829 and remained in this position for 45 years, hanging 450 people. Over all these years, he never learned how to kill people quickly and painlessly. Calcraft stubbornly used the short rope method, and when the agony dragged on, he himself hung on the executed man, grabbing him by the legs or shoulders in order to strangle him as quickly as possible.
The end of William Calcraft's career was an unenviable one. In 1874 he was discharged due to old age, giving him a modest pension of 25 shillings a week. He lived out his days in poverty and loneliness and, according to a contemporary, “had a truly gloomy appearance in his shabby black clothes, with his long hair and a long beard." However, many of his colleagues were even less fortunate. Misfortunes plagued executioners all over the world, as if due to bad karma. Perhaps it was so.
In the 1870s, George Maldon, nicknamed the Prince of Hangmen by the press, rose to fame in Arkansas. He was a small, quiet man, always dressed in black, with a huge bushy beard. He loved his work and even kept a collection of ropes, hooks and belts that had been used. Unlike most of his colleagues, Maledon used the long rope method very professionally, so that his clients suffered little or no pain. And yet, in his old age, grief awaited him. George Maldon's 18-year-old daughter Anne was shot and killed by her lover Frank Craven. The case fell into the hands of Judge Isaac Parker, who was nicknamed the Hanging Judge. Maledon carried out his sentences for many years, so the ending was clear to everyone. However, Craven achieved a retrial and received a life sentence. Having failed to hang the only criminal he wanted to execute, Maldon broke down morally. He retired and toured the country with his own little show, showing off his collection of nooses for money.
An unenviable fate awaited the British John Ellis, who hanged criminals from 1901 to 1924. Ellis ran a barber shop and worked part-time as an executioner to make ends meet. He was a very responsible and conscientious person with a rather fine mental organization. He hanged easily and painlessly for the person being executed, but he himself often found himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Such a breakdown occurred in 1923, when he strung up Edith Thompson, who had killed her lover's wife. Thompson fainted at the sight of the gallows and had to be tied to a chair and hanged like that. In addition, at the time of her execution, Thompson began bleeding heavily, which suggested that she was pregnant. John Ellis soon left his post as executioner and began to drink heavily. In 1924, he tried to shoot himself and, since suicide was considered illegal, he served a year for attempting to kill himself. In 1932, John Ellis, probably in a state of delirium tremens, attacked his wife with a razor, but suddenly changed his mind about killing her and cut his own throat.
If the executioner had strong nerves, fate had something special in store for him. For example, the Swedish specialist Albert Gustav Dahlman, who at the beginning of the twentieth century chopped off heads with an ax in the old fashioned way, was hit by a tram and died in 1920, being disabled. A different story happened with his German colleague Lorenz Schweitz. Schweitz was a butcher by profession, type and calling. In 1901, Prussia was left without an executioner, as the representative of the old executioner dynasty, Wilhelm Reindel, had to be fired due to excessive drinking, inability to cut off a head with one blow of an ax, and for appearing to be weak-minded. Lorenz Schweitz passed his exams and got his dream job. After each execution, he engraved the name of the victim on the ax, and in an interview he said that he did not feel any remorse. Fate punished him in 1923, when, due to the economic crisis, all the savings of the retired executioner disappeared. Schweitz could not bear the loss of his fortune and shot himself. Schweitz's assistant and successor Paul Spaete shot himself in 1924, presumably for the same reason.
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The time of the executioners was ending, so it was not surprising that the executioners drank themselves to death and shot themselves. In the era mass society there was no stable place for the executioner. If earlier Samson executed a criminal at the behest of Louis XIV, now the anonymous state dealt with the condemned man at the hands of unknown prison workers. The place of the executioner was gradually taken by a machine, be it an electric chair or a gas chamber, and it was activated by ordinary guards, who, moreover, often did this in turns or by lot.And yet the profession of executioner continued to exist in the twentieth century. The Nazis, in particular, took care of this. The main executioner of the Third Reich was Johan Reinhart, who traveled around the country in a car with a mobile guillotine. There were so many calls that Rinehart even asked to be allowed to drive over the speed limit, but the authorities refused. Despite the eternal rush, the executioner always went to work dressed up: a black camisole, a white shirt, a bow tie and a top hat. After the war, Reinachrt was arrested, but very soon his services were needed again. He helped the American executioner Staff Sergeant John Woods hang Nazi criminals. However, despite the good deed accomplished in Nuremberg, both hangers were punished by fate. Woods accidentally killed himself in 1950 electric shock. That same year, Rinehart's son, tired of bearing the stigma of being the executioner's son, committed suicide.
Meanwhile, the death penalty was increasingly falling out of fashion. The first step towards its abolition was usually a ban on public executions. Thus, in Canada, such a ban was introduced in 1935, after the executioner Arthur English failed to properly hang Thomasina Sarao, convicted of murder. English was English by name, origin, and competence in the executioner's business. He believed outdated data about the weight of the executed woman; as a result, the rope tore off the woman’s head, and the Canadian authorities decided not to show such spectacles to the public in the future. France has abolished public executions following the guillotining of murderer Eugene Weidmann. The execution, which took place in June 1939, turned into a real farce. The sounds of jazz could be heard from the open windows, and a crowd of onlookers were noisy around, warming themselves with alcohol in anticipation of the spectacle since the evening. The scion of the ancient executioner dynasty, Jules-Henri Desfourneaux, put the guillotine into action, and the French never saw any more executions.
Venezuela was the first to abandon the death penalty, and did so back in 1863. In the twentieth century, capital punishment began to be gradually abolished in developed countries. The countries of the former fascist bloc. Italy made this decision in 1948, and Germany in 1949. Some states needed major judicial scandals to achieve this. For example, in Great Britain in 1950, Timothy Evans was hanged, accused of murdering his wife and little daughter, and three years later it turned out that the neighbor of the executed man was the murderous maniac John Christie, who committed the crime. The scandal led to a partial ban on executions in Britain from 1965 and a permanent ban from 1971.
The main argument in favor of refusing the services of executioners is usually called the requirements of humanity. Meanwhile, there are also economic reasons. Thus, for Californians, the practice of keeping prisoners sentenced to death in solitary confinement with increased security measures costs $114 million a year. Each death sentence costs American taxpayers an average of $2.3 million, which is three times the amount needed to house one prisoner for 40 years. Thus, modern world faces the same problem that the Great Sanson faced in his time: executions bring quite large losses.
And yet professional executioners still exist. In Saudi Arabia, one of the the best specialists considered to be Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, experience since 1998. Most often, he works with a sharply sharpened sword, with which he instantly cuts off a head, arm or leg. The executioner answers questions about sleep like a true follower of Sanson: “How do I sleep? Tightly." When asked how many people he can behead at once, he answers with a pious confidence worthy of Master Franz: “It doesn’t matter to me - two, four, ten. As long as I do God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many I execute.” Al-Beshi believes that those around him love and respect him, and when he comes home from work, his wife and children help him wash the blood from his sword. So maybe some professions will never die.
In those days, they put it on par with entertainment programs, so not a single weekend passed without this “entertainment.” The execution of the death sentence could not have taken place without the executioners. It was they who carried out torture, cut off heads and prepared guillotines. But who is the executioner: cruel and heartless or an eternally damned unfortunate person?
An Ignoble Calling
The executioner was considered an employee of the organs judicial system, authorized to carry out punishment and capital punishment by the ruler of the state themselves. It would seem that the profession of an executioner could well be honorable with such a definition, but everything was different. He was not free to change his occupation or go to public places.
They had to live outside the city, in the same place where the prisons were located. He carries out all the work himself from start to finish, that is, he prepared the necessary tools, and after the job was completed, he buried the corpse. Their work required good knowledge of anatomy.
There is a myth that they wore black masks. In fact, they did not hide their faces, and they could be recognized by their black robe and highly developed muscles. There was no point in hiding his face, because everyone already knew who the executioner was and where he lived. They covered their faces only during the execution of kings, so that their devoted servants would not take revenge afterwards.
Position in society
A paradoxical situation: citizens watched with delight the executioner’s work, but at the same time despised him. Maybe people would treat them with more respect if they had a decent salary; they received a small salary. As a bonus, they could take all the belongings of the executed person. They often worked as exorcists. In the Middle Ages, they were sure that by torturing one’s body one could drive out demons; this played into the hands of professional torturers.
But what kind of profession is an executioner if it does not have certain privileges? He could buy what he needed from the market absolutely free of charge. This peculiar benefit is explained by the fact that no one wanted to take money from the hands of the killer. At the same time, the state needed such people, and therefore traders followed this rule.
Another way of earning money for them was trading in unusual things. These included body parts of executed people, skin, blood, and various potions. Alchemists were confident that special potions could be created from such ingredients. Gallows' ropes were also bought; according to some legends, they could bring good luck to their owner. Doctors bought the bodies completely and carried out their research on the human body and entrails. Magicians bought skulls for their rituals.
One could understand who the executioner was by his position when he came to church. Like any other Christian, he was allowed into it, but had to stand at the very entrance and be the last to receive communion.
Bloody Dynasty
Who would have thought to start doing such a craft? The profession of executioner in the Middle Ages was inherited - from father to son. As a result, entire clans were formed. Almost all executioners living in one region were related to each other. After all, representatives of other classes would never give up their beloved daughter for such a man.
The lowly position of the executioner was capable of tarnishing the entire family of the bride. Their wives could only be the same daughters of executioners, gravediggers, flayers, or even prostitutes.
People called the executioners “sons of whores” and they were right, because they often became the wives of the executioners. In Tsarist Russia, no dynasties of executioners were created. They were chosen from former criminals. They agreed to do “dirty” work in exchange for food and clothing.
Subtleties of craftsmanship
At first glance it may seem quite simple work. In fact, it took a lot of knowledge and training to behead criminals. It is not easy to cut off a head on the first attempt, but when the executioner knew how to do it, it was believed that he had achieved high level skill.
What is a professional executioner? This is the one who understands the structure of the human body, knows how to use all kinds of torture devices, and has sufficient physical strength to wield an ax and dig graves.
Curse of the Executioner
There was a legend among the people that the executioner was cursed. Those who knew this understood that there was nothing to do with magic or the supernatural. This was due to society’s view of the lives of people engaged in ignoble crafts. According to tradition, having become an executioner, it was no longer possible to refuse this work, and if a person refused, he himself was recognized as a criminal and executed.
This is how, having become a torturer-executioner by birth, a person was forced to engage in “dirty” labor all his life. No free will. Living away from people, the inability to change jobs and a limited choice of life partner. For centuries, more and more hereditary killers were born in the dynasties of executioners.