1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:06,240 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,600 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day. 4 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're looking at the story 5 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: of the guillotine, the bloody icon of the French Revolution, 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: and a sobering reminder that it's always with the best 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: intentions that the worst work is done. As a warning, 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: today's episode includes descriptions of state sanctioned executions and may 9 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: be disturbing for some listeners. The day was April twenty fifth, 10 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety two. A French bandit became the first person 11 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: to be killed by guillotine. The victim in question was 12 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: Nicola Jacques Pelletier, a highwayman who had been convicted and 13 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: sentenced to die for the crime of robbery and murder. 14 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: Although his trial had ended in December of seventeen ninety one, 15 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: Pelletier's death was postponed till the following spring, as the 16 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: means of his execution was still being developed. In the 17 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: early eighteenth century, the French government had many different ways 18 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:22,680 Speaker 1: of dispatching its criminals. Some were straightforward, such as hanging 19 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: or burning at the stake, while others were more imaginative, 20 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: like being drawn and quartered by four horses galloping in 21 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: opposite directions. The one thing the methods had in common 22 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 1: was that they were all needlessly cruel and painful. That's 23 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: because most executions were held in public, in the hope 24 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: that the gruesome displays would act as a warning to 25 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: other unruly citizens. Only rich and powerful criminals were spared 26 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:52,559 Speaker 1: a torturous death. For them, death came in the form 27 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: of decapitation with an axe or sword, a swift and 28 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: relatively painless way to die. The disparity between these forms 29 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: of punishment came under fire during the early days of 30 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: the French Revolution. The movement was rooted in egalitarian principles, 31 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,079 Speaker 1: so of course it opposed a system of capital punishment 32 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: based on class. Several Enlightenment thinkers promoted more humane methods 33 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: of execution, but the real tipping point in the debate 34 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: came in seventeen eighty nine. That's when doctor Joseph Ignas 35 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: Guillotin appeared before the National Assembly in Paris. He was 36 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: a deputy of the revolutionary government but also a professor 37 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: of anatomy. In that dual role, he argued that it 38 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: was unfair to grant a slow, torturous death to common 39 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: criminals while reserving a quick, humane one for aristocratic felons. 40 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: He urged his fellow lawmakers to stay true to the 41 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: ideals of the revolution by adopting beheadings as the one 42 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: and only method of execution for people of any class. 43 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: Doctor Guillotin's proposal was debated for the next two years, 44 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: and ultimately a accepted. In seventeen ninety one, the National 45 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: Assembly made decapitation the only legal form of capital punishment 46 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: in France. The new system immediately hit a snag, though, 47 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,640 Speaker 1: when it was pointed out that most of the nation's 48 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: executioners had never swung a sword. Not only would the 49 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: state have to train dozens of executioners, it would then 50 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,519 Speaker 1: have to supply them with standard equipment, including prisoner restraints 51 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 1: and a steady stream of fresh swords, and even then, 52 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 1: there was no guarantee an executioner would land a clean 53 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: blow every time. The solution to that problem of efficiency 54 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: came once again from doctor Guillouton. In his initial address, 55 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: he had suggested that France build a kind of beheading machine, 56 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:46,400 Speaker 1: a device that would drop a blade with the same 57 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: force each time, he pitched the idea to his colleagues, saying, quote, 58 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: the mechanism falls like lightning, the head flies off, the 59 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: blood's spurts, the man no longer exists. It wasn't a 60 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: whole new idea. Other European countries already had similar devices, 61 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: such as the Scottish Maiden, the gibbet, and the Manyaya. 62 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: France's take on the concept would be largely the same, 63 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: consisting of a large weighted blade attached to the bottom 64 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: of a wooden block, embraced on either side by upright supports. 65 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: A rope and pulley was used to hoist the blade 66 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: several feet into the air, and when released, the blade 67 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,480 Speaker 1: would fall cleanly, chopping off the prisoner's head and sending 68 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: it tumbling into a wicker basket below. Despite its name, 69 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: the guillotine was actually designed by a different doctor, Antoine Luis. 70 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: The prototype built from his design was first tested on 71 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,839 Speaker 1: live animals and later on human corpses. The results prompted 72 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 1: a redesign, with the straight line blade being swapped out 73 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: for a sharp, slanted one. In April of seventeen ninety two, 74 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,919 Speaker 1: a final test was held at a hospital where the 75 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 1: corpses of three stocky men were successfully beheaded. The new 76 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:04,279 Speaker 1: triangular blade earned the approval of France's chief executioner, Charles 77 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:08,919 Speaker 1: Henri Sainsan, and with that the guillotine was declared ready 78 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: for action. Its first unlucky customer was Nicola Jacques Pelletier, 79 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: who had spent five months on death row waiting for 80 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: the means of his destruction to be completed. The day 81 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,279 Speaker 1: finally came on April twenty fifth, when Pelletier was led 82 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: onto a platform and the plaza outside the Hotel de 83 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: Ville in Paris. Public executions were generally well attended, but 84 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: the debut of the state's new execution device drew an 85 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: even bigger crowd than usual. Curious Parisians had gathered there 86 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: hours early to watch the soldiers assemble the strange new contraption. 87 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 1: Then the big moment finally came. The executioner Saint San 88 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: secured Pelletier's neck into the bottom of the guillotine, which 89 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: had been painted blood red for the occasion, and then 90 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: released the weighted blade. It was all over in an instant. 91 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: Pelletier's head was safely deposited in its basket, out of 92 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: view of the crowd, and the floorboards of the scaffold, 93 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: now soaked through with his blood, were quickly covered over 94 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:15,159 Speaker 1: with sawdust. That efficiency made the guillotine a success in 95 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: the eyes of the state, but for the bloodthirsty public, 96 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: it didn't make for a very satisfying show. Some in 97 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,359 Speaker 1: the crowd that day began chanting, give me back my 98 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 1: wooden gallows, a sentiment that would be echoed by many 99 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: members of the public for years to come. Despite that 100 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: somewhat chilly reception, the guillotine rollout continued unabated. Dozens of 101 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:40,400 Speaker 1: the machines were manufactured from the same design and sent 102 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,840 Speaker 1: out to towns across every region of France. It wasn't 103 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,599 Speaker 1: long before the public warmed up to the guillotine and 104 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,840 Speaker 1: began to appreciate its clinical efficiency. Within a few months 105 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: of Pelletier's execution, the revolution had changed shape into something 106 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: much darker. The year that followed became known as the 107 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: Reign of Terror, a period in which thousands were executed 108 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 1: by guillotine, often without trial and with little cause. At 109 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: the height of that slaughter, Sanson beheaded three hundred men 110 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 1: and women in just three days, and, in a clear 111 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: sign of the times, the former royal executioner even guillotined 112 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: his old boss, King Louis the sixteenth. The frequency of 113 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: those public killings made them part of popular French culture. 114 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 1: Some people attended them on a daily basis, and others 115 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: wrote songs and poems praising France's new killing machine, the 116 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,760 Speaker 1: so called National Blade. Pretty soon an entire cottage industry 117 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 1: sprang up around the grizzly spectacle. Vendors sold programs listing 118 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: the names of the day's victims, and a nearby restaurant 119 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: rebranded itself as the Cabaret de la guillotine. Even toymakers 120 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: got in on the act, producing miniature working guillotines that 121 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: children could use to be head dolls and even live 122 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: Mices eventually banned the toy guillotines for fear of their 123 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: corrupting influence, and nearly two hundred years later, France finally 124 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,480 Speaker 1: did the same to the real thing. The last French 125 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: execution by guillotine occurred in nineteen seventy seven. Then four 126 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: years later, France cut ties with its invention for good 127 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 1: by abolishing capital punishment altogether. As for the guillotine's namesake, 128 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: there's a persistent myth that he fell victim to the 129 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: blade himself. In reality, though doctor Guilloton lived until eighteen 130 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,960 Speaker 1: fourteen and died of natural causes. He was reportedly appalled 131 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,839 Speaker 1: to see the device he'd championed reduced to a tool 132 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: of assembly line slaughter, and as you can imagine, he 133 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:46,480 Speaker 1: was less than thrilled that his name had become synonymous 134 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: with a deadly invention, particularly since he hadn't technically invented it. 135 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:54,559 Speaker 1: I can sympathize with that to some extent, since doctor 136 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: Guilloton seems to have had fairly good intentions. But at 137 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,959 Speaker 1: the end of the day, if your contributed into society 138 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: is a machine that chops people's heads off, you probably 139 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: shouldn't expect to walk away unscathed yourself. I'm Gabe Lucier 140 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history 141 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,199 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you want to keep 142 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,239 Speaker 1: up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, 143 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have 144 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my 145 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: way by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. 146 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,199 Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett for producing the show, 147 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 148 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,280 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in history class.