Par Laurent REBOURS
Published on 6 August 23 at 15:30 See my news Follow Actu Chartres Doctor Guillotin’s machine. (©DR)
find on Actu Chartres, every Sunday, a Eurelian chronicle of History and stories proposed by Alain Denizet. Professor, historian, writer from Eure-et-Loir, he has for years brought together all of his chronicles on his site.
Eure-et-Loir, the last guillotines
The machine of Doctor Guillotin had been very active in the department until 1872.
The ax then fell “only” four times until 1931, five if we count a Eurelian who had his neck cut off in Paris in 1959. Who are these last guillotined people in Eure-et-Loir?
Poirier, first French serial-killer, five murders in Perche
Poirier file, AD 28 2 U 2, 512 and 513. Photo Jean -Claude Farcy. Letter from Poirier to the president of the court “I ask forgiveness…” in “murder in the bocage, the Poirier affair (1871-1874) SAEL 2012. p. XV of the iconographic notebook. (©DR)
Poirier, the first French serial killeris the author of five murders in Perchetwo wives in 1871 and a wife and two children in 1874.
He is guillotined at Chartres September 29, 1874 in front of a compact crowd and an audience of journalists rushing from Paris placed a few meters from the condemned man. Fascinated.
Because, admits Gaston Vassy in Le Figarowhat decided him to come, “was to see the condemned man up close during the last moments of his life. Such occasions are very rare. [1] “. In fact, presidential pardons are almost systematic and of the guillotine, there was no longer any question for a quarter of a century in Eure-et-Loir.
Brierre escapes the guillotine…
Brierre at trial. L’Illustration, December 28, 1901. (©DR)
The fivefold murder of Corancez was he going to change things? THE 21 avril 1901the five Brierre children were found with their skulls shattered.
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Edouard Brierre, their father, during a highly publicized trial – in France and abroad – had been found guilty by the Assize Court of Chartres [2] despite the absence of confessions, irrefutable evidence and direct witnesses. So President Loubet had saved Brierre’s headsensitive to the arguments deployed by the Human Rights League.
It was for The Journal of Chartres an unprecedented decision in judicial history.
After citing the names of the last criminals executed, he wondered, “What were their crimes compared to that of the monster?” More infamous than all of them, Brierre will have been spared. “.
Gallic disavowed an “astonishing” grace which precipitated the political decay at work since the Dreyfus Affair: “When a man betrays his country, we have more tenderness for him than for his judges; when a Brierre murders his five children, he is pardoned. »
But sparks a debate on the death penalty
Rue des Lisses where Veignal was executed. A small street which made it possible to better control the influx of curious people. The guillotine was previously installed on Place Morard. (©DR)
But Brierre’s grace not only restored the presidential pardon on the media agenda, she motivated February 1902 a bill for the abolition of capital punishment, which was supported by political tenors.
So in his diary The block, Clemenceau expressed the wish that “Brierre’s pardon would lead to the abolition of the death penalty”. The proposal failed before the Assembly on February 10 [3].
1921, Veignal in Chartres
Casimir Veignal, guillotined at 18. source: boisdejustice.com. (©DR)
Mute since the execution of Poirier in 1874, the “widow” became active three times in ten years between 1921 and 1931.
In the night of October 11, 1921the woods of justice were again drawn up in Chartres for Veignal, a day laborer of barely 20 years old who had murdered an old man of Gas with a knife. His cynicism revolted. “For having killed a lousy Beauceron, I should be given the medal,” he had slipped to his guardian during the trial.
On the morning of his execution, he confessed, went to mass, followed the office with a missal without showing the slightest emotion.
Addressing his defender, he nevertheless said these words: “I regret my crime.” I’m going to be guillotined, I deserve it. tell my parents [4] ».
1925, Carpenter in Dreux
The execution of Charpentier. Drawing by Fily Michel. L’Echo Républicain, October 16, 2016. The execution took place, in fact, in the street behind the court and not in front of it. (©DR)
The June 27, 1925it is named Charpentier, a native of Saint-Lubin-des-Joncheretswhich is placed on the seesaw in Dreux opposite the prison, for a murder committed leaving a café against a poor bugger to whom he had stolen three francs.
On waking, Charpentier smoked a cigarette, swallowed two glasses of white wine, attended mass and asked the magistrates to send a last letter to his parents. The execution took place at 4:30 a.m., in front of the prison, rue d’Orfeuil, at the foot of the steps of rue Philidor, in the shadow of the hill of the Royal Chapel [5].
1931, Chartres: Ernest Roi, last guillotined in Eure-et-Loir
Ernest Roi, 19, hoped for a presidential pardon. He regretted his crime, “especially for his mother” to whom he wrote a last letter. He dictated it to the chaplain because he was afraid of making mistakes. La Dépêche-d’Eure-et-Loir, September 23-24, 1931. (©DR)
Finally, Ernest King. This young man – “to be classified among the handsome boys” curiously notes the chronicler of The Eure-et-Loir Dispatch – a massacred the Klein spousestwo traders from Courville sur Eureto pocket the five hundred francs from the cash drawer.
The September 23, 1931before feeling the breath of the steel blade, with an almost frightening calm, he presses the chaplain against him: “Yes, Father, you have to…”.
1959, Jean Dupont, the last Eurelian guillotined… in Paris
” With courage “. They made him take – almost by force – a glass of rum. La Dépêche-d ‘Eure-et-Loir, September 23-24, 1931. The execution report gives the first name Ernest and not Robert… (© DR)
This series of portraits would be incomplete without Jean Dupont, farmer in Bérou-la-Mulotièretownship of Brezolles.
This brutal man, already condemned swindler, is at the origin ofan assassination that places it among the most appalling of the century.
This divorcee never supported that his ex-wife obtained the right of custody of their little girl. So, out of revenge, taking advantage of the days granted to him at Christmas, he kills little Chantal – 6 years old -, butchers her, burns the body and for months makes his wife and the police believe that he has entrusted the child to a family in Paris.
De Gaulle refused him the pardon. The last Eurelian to suffer the death penalty, Dupont was guillotined in Paris on 14 avril 1959 without showing the slightest remorse [6].
Epilogue
As a reminder, Eugene Weidman, was the last French convict to be guillotined in public on June 17, 1939. Hamida Djandoubi was the last criminal to have his neck cut off. It was at the Baumettes prison on September 10, 1977. The death penalty was abolished on October 9, 1981.
[1] Jean-Claude Farcy, Murder in the bocage, the Poirier affair (1871-1874), p. 351, SAEL, 2012. Before Poirier, a triple execution took place on Place Morard on February 10, 1872. Three men had slaughtered two old men in Alluyes while the country was occupied by the Prussians.
[2] Alain Denizet, The Brierre affair, a senseless crime during the Belle EpoqueLa Bisquine, 2015. Ella reissue, 2022.
[3] The abolitionists had taken advantage of the examination of the budget of the Ministry of Justice in the National Assembly to take up the iron. A deputy proposed to abolish the appropriations allocated to the executioner, arguing that it was through budgetary means that the death penalty had been abolished in Portugal in 1865… But the discussion got bogged down and the minister judged that such a debate deserved better. He relied on a commission, an effective means as we know of burying thorny issues… The proposal was rejected by 332 votes against 210.
[4] The Eure-et-Loir DispatchMonday-Tuesday 12-13 October 1921.
[5] The Eure-et-Loir Dispatch, June 27-28, 1925. All of these cases can be viewed online on the Eure-et-Loir archives website. The press is online.
[6] In these last four cases, Gérald Massé, The major criminal cases of Eure-et-LoirDe Boree, 2007
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