France's Last Guillotine Executioner
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- The Last Executioner (2004): Fernand Meysonnier is France's last executioner. Over the years, he has helped chop off the heads of 200 people.
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In a small village in Provence an old man packs up a selection of terrifying torture instruments. This is M. Meysonnier, chief executioner until the guillotine was axed by the government in 1977. He performed his first execution at 14 and never looked back.
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Translation
.45
"no no The blade last a very long time. It does not cut large bones but the cervical vertebraes " (touching the journalist back of the neck )Yes it does stay sharp a long time.
1.52-2.03 ( regarding his first execution at the age of 14)
"It is so violent.You can't say it's like killing a fly but you are killing a human being even though he is a criminal. It left a big impression (negative) on me."
2.15-2.55
"I was first assistant. When the plank is lowered with the condemned on it, my job was to extend my arms to pull the head forward. You see I have to keep the head on the lunette(monocle - the 2 half moon shape that slide up and down between the head and the body) and I have to be careful because the blade passes within 1 inch (3 cm) . The blade slides right there ( pointing at his neck with his finger) but i have to pull the head as much as i can because i don't want the condemned to shrug his head back toward his shoulders. Then I have to keep and hold the head in my hands as the blade falls.
(2.46) not by respect for the criminal but for the human being that he is."
3.02-3.36
"For 2 executions I was in charge because my father was too tired. It was a very intense and emotional moment for me because everyone was watching me and i was taking someone 's life".
It is violent. I turned around to look at my father because he was afraid i would mess up or panic and he asked me with a nod if i was ok and I said yes ."
3.36 3.45 ( being asked if he thought some were innocent)
"No no no all the condemned men were guilty."
4.10-4.17 ( packing the blade and the mutton( the mutton is the heavy weight that sits on top of the blade )
"Oh yeah there's that , the nuts and bolts because with the mutton the whole thing weigh 38 kg ( 84 lbs)
4.26 4.59 (on his thought on the death penalty)
"There was a criminal that had killed 6 people.The father ,mother, 2 small girls and 2 employees on the farm .He slit their throats. A year later the victim's uncle told me that he wished that we could execute him again and again because "i still think of my nieces". So i told him that it is over and the man is gone. It was in 1958. Then the uncle said that he wished the criminal had lingered and died in jail for 40 years because the execution was too quick. The guillotine is too fast"
Oh you little superstar, thank you for the translation :)
+frenchustube Thank you very much (merci beaucoup)
+frenchustube they should pay you for your excellent work and help. Thank you
frenchustube, thank you! It's nice to know what he's saying!
Thank you so much for the translation. I have only very basic French and could not follow most of the conversation. I enjoyed watching the video again once I had read your translation and caught much more of what was said.
If I spoke French, I would find this really interesting.
+John T fortunately in Canada I was taught French as a mandatory subject in school but I didn't understand a word this fellow said because I was too busy smoking pot, cocaine and cigarettes when I should have been in French class. Now it has come back to haunt me like a demon in the night. Point is: Don't do drugs.....study French....
+John T I find this interview really interesting
+John T but if you're wondering he actually pulled the plug twice. Rest of the time he acted as an executer assistant for his father (who was part time executioner during the algerian war)
+John T turn on the close captioning if you want English subtitles
+John T Hahaha, just kidding. The French parts are all gibberish. >.
How about some fucking subtitles????
Travis Johnson how about learning some french. O por lo menos hacerte el pendejo y entender por los gestos
Not everyone speaks frog calm it down cupcake
Tantrum of Darkness french sounds shit
@@l.l.a.s3645 gay ass language
@@matthewbradley4348That's precisely the problem genius 👏
TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH :
The gentleman told at the beginning that he take on his hands the head of the criminal during all the execution, not by respect for the criminal but by respect for the human.
He sometimes had to make 2 executions on the same day, it was a strong emotion because everyone was looking at him, who would take the life of a human.
He said that all convicts were all guilty and that he could'nt be a innocent among them.
4:22 -> There was a criminal who had killed 6 people and a family member of the killed told him he would have preferred the assasin to be in prison during all his life because the guillotine is too fast.
Do you understand ? My english isnt really fluent
Thank you!
Yes, I understand! Thanks! I know this is irrelevant, but I really want to know how to speak French, so I think it's really cool
AzardV yes thank you for translating I felt like the older man was saying much more than the person commentating the video was.
Take on his hands the head of the criminal? btw thank you for translating
@@Antpeople1 ``putting his hand on the head of the criminal ``
....its a Mediterranean gesture of respect some sort of when hugging
I tried using the closed captions translations. It was hilarious. It began when it said "it was hard chopping off kids" It went on to talk about Hitachi, Sony and many other things that just didn't make sense. The French (which I don't speak) made more sense.
steve cannon the bit later on he starts talking about the team at youtube
This video was obviously made for an English speaking audience, so why was most of the subject's speech not translated by the voice over narrator? Or if translation for the majority of their audience was not intended, why did they leave several minutes of the subject speaking French in the video? Either translate what he said, or edit the footage out!
+Allan Richardson right on!
+Allan Richardson Sorry, but I do not speak French.
+steve cannon Hey watch the modern German film on Rommell, the Desert Fox. The subtitles on the upload will have you facepalming all night. Even after the film's finished.
Sad that no one came to the torture museum, that would've been interesting to see.
He most likely did not promote it properly? There would have been a queue around the corner if he had done? :))
Wrong. Meyssonier was NOT the last executioner in France. He guillotined until 1960, not after, in French algeria of that time. The last french executioner was named Marcel Chevalier. He last execution (and therefore the last execution in France) took place the 10th of September, 1977, at the jail of the Baumettes in Marseille, beheading torturer and murderer Hamida Djandoubi.
Olivier, for add'l grist for the mill, Chevalier outlived Meyssonier by a few months, so he wasn't even the last survivinig executioner, as the narrator states in the video...at least in France. There's repeated reference to Algiers; I'm wondering if Fernand was the last-in-Algiers-while-it-was-still-French, or some other disclaimer like that? Also, Chevalier had the title of "chief executioner," which I don't believe Meyssonier had, as he was ostensibly the assistant, not the executioner. (I believe 'official' records will list his father, even for the times he was the actual executioner.) Thanks for the lead on Chevalier.
Why did they put this up without a translation?
meyssonier nous a evite bien des bataclans
translation to what?
So he became unemployed when they outlawed executions. I wonder what job he got after that? pet shop worker? I mean, can you see his resume? or when they interview him? So Mr. Meysonnier, what kind of experience do you have? lol
He started working in the chicken head chopping business?
+Gdubya73 none He is still trying to read the bible upside down.He dos not know the meaning off the 10 commentments you shall not kill.
He was pensioned adequately i am sure...
Jonathan Williams
Yes, this might be so in regard to the old testament - 10 commandments etc - but in the NEW TESTAMENT, Jesus appears to be an abolishionist regarding capital punishment : He prevented the stoning of the adulteres. And he never defended an execution but preached compassion and forgiveness even of our enemies. No ?
J Calhoun
J Calhoun
I am not a bible expert but I know that translations of the bible, are all from the original Greek text. The particular commandment reads "ού φονεύσεις" (pronounced "oo (like the "oo" in "book") fonefsis"). At the time it was written, the particular word meant to intensively kill someone. So what is the difference between killing intensively and murdering ? And what does an executioner do, but killing intensively ?
Isn't it kind of odd to have one of the most painless forms of execution in a torture museum?
Fernand Meyssonnier was French Algeria's executioner until 1961. The France's last executioner was Marcel Chevalier until 1982.
Mais lexecution en france a ete abolie en france en 1981 donc tu dit de la merde
Le dernier bourreau etait Andre Aubrecht. The last executioner was Andre Aubrecht. His last execution was in 1971, and the death penalty was finally abolished in 1981.
Yes but he means the last executioner still alive
Fun fact:when this execution end, star wars ep4 is already here
Watch with subtitles. So worth it. Especially the long Chevy.
What's interesting is the documentaries/stories of a few families of executioners in France continuing for generations. They were shunned socially and so marriages among the different families ( I don't mean incest) was the only way they could continue the family lines. They were like a necessary evil, doing society's dirty work but not welcome to be part of it.
My right ear enjoyed this.
Yeah so the english subtitles for this video are hilariously unhelpful.
Ridiculous the guys chatting away in French without any translation.
If 200 murders does not land one in hell, what will?
He's not the greatest communicator so some of it is not as accurate as I would like. Often his sentences are broken. The background music is Prokofiev - Dance of the Knights
Fernand 0:45: No. It's not bones. Just the spinal cord is.
Fernand 1:52: "It's so violent. We can't compare it to killing a fly. It's a human being whether it's a criminal or not. And I said nothing during, uh... It marked me.
Fernand 2:16: Assistants have a lot of responsibility because when [the criminal] rocks, he rocks. I secured his hands and pull his head and I was careful because the blade passed by 3 cm (~1.2 inches) away [from my fingers]... I pulled the head as much as I can and I held the head in my hands after the blade passed by. Not out of respect for the criminal but respect for humanity.
Fernand 3:03: I did 2 executions because my father was tired. It's a strong emotion because everyone was watching and I was taking life away. It's something. I returned to my father. My father was fearful that I would make a mistake. Panicked. But he had a smile on him.
Fernand 3:35: No, No, No. All the people that I executed were guilty.
Fernand 4:10: Bare in mind that the whole thing is 38kg.
Fernand 4:23: There was a criminal that killed 6 people. The mother, the father, 2 employees of the farm, and 2 children that had their throats slit. A year after his execution, the uncle said to me: '[inaudiable] because I still think of my nieces.' I tell him he's dead. It's over. In '58. He tells me "In hindsight, I wish he suffered in prison. 40 years in prison! A guillotine is too fast.'
hey i'm french dude and the (inaudible) part of your translation is: it want to kill him again, because i still think of my nieces
This would be a fun job. I would love to do this for a fucking living.
Seriously?
Nah i think it gets boring after sometime
+tomaramudarurls Actually over the ARCTIC, but I agree with your basic idea (get a globe and stretch a string between Kansas and Moscow).
Turn on closed captioning. It's hilarious.
chief executioner, wow, he built a model of a guilloutine for his father wow, how admirable
Guess I'll take lessons in French and come back and watch this later.
The experience has to be more traumatic for witnesses.
The final execution in Sweden was accomplished with a guillotine (Fallbila in Swedish), but it was used only once. Earlier on an axe was used.
Good program👍
Pity this interview doesn't have English subtitles. Somebody must have chopped them off.
I feel bad that no one came to the museum
Translation: "It will make you fucking dead, sharp or not".
1:48 : What is this? The GQ Guillotine Executioner of the Year Award?
chettee Yes and he won second to none.
chettee The Guillies are a big event every year.
@The Paranoid Blues Man: Yes... but I really missed Ricky Gervais hosting it this year..
chettee omg lmao
Turning on the subtitles on this is hilarious.
Where the fuck are the subtitles? For all I know he's talking about Wine and cheeses.
CaptainMyCaptain I think I did hear 'brie' in there somewhere 😉
3:45 we didn't lose the war, we lost on the diplomatic front.
Where the hell is the english translation?
There CLEARLY IS English, you deaf idiot!
Florjan, there's clearly NO english tranlsation of the french....I'm not saying it's required (heck, they can post in martian, if they want!). Did you watch/listen? The questions are in english, the answers in french....no translations anywhere.....
At least some closed captions so we'd know what the mass murderer is saying?
I always tell myself to keep my head up, I'll speak to him one day
Well the one in Germany went mad of doing that job during the Second world war and the Soviet executioner who boasted killing 10000 people from 1937-45 also went mad by alcoholism.
LOL, turn on CC and prepare for pure poetry.
So following your logic, a policemen who kills a dangerous bank robber is a murder, that is ridiculous.
That's exactly what police are.... Professional murderers.
No comparison between an officer using justifiable self defence and killing someone who has been imprisoned
Please fix the subtitles so the rest of us can understand the French.
I came from oversimplified
Pointless video. Spend a bit of money and get a translator. Very interesting subject totally spoilt
Great job of not translating what he says.....excellent video.
Algeria was a department of France so he was the last French executioner. Any department of France is French. Corsica, Guadaloupe, Reunion, Martinique, Tahiti.. ALL FRENCH. Algeria became an independent country afterwards.
It makes me so sad that no one came to his museum...I would! I’d love to sot and talk with him and look at all his morbid historical goodies.
Me too
What's funny visiting a guillotine museum?
How difficult would it have been to add subtitles/translation for the dialogue of the executioner ffs?? for
th-cam.com/video/DL2lVyqDwTw/w-d-xo.html
"as first assistant women who is he gonna fuck 'em you people's twenty"
LOL xD
In the words of Serpentor, you don't see craftsmanship like that anymore.
Intervention of the executioner. To translate into English.
1 : Les cervicales sont faciles à couper.
2 : C'est violent. C'est pas une mouche, c'est un être humain, même si c'est un grand criminel. Moi je ne disais rien mais ça me marquait.
3 : Quand il bascule, moi je met les bras à travers la guillotine, je met la tête à travers la demi-lunette et je la maintiens. Je fais attention car la lame passe très près. Je tire la tête un maximum pour pas qu'il la rentre dans les épaule. Je la tiens et je garde la tête dans les mains quand la lame tombe. Pas par respect pour le criminel, mais pour l'être humain.
4 : C'est une émotion forte. J'allais enlever la vie à un être humain. Je me suis tourné vers mon père, et il a eu peur que je bafouille.
5 : Tout les condamnés qu'on a exécuté étaient tous coupables.
6 : (prend la lame) Il y a ça et les boulons, en tout c'est 38 kg.
7 : Il y avait un criminel qui avait tué 6 personnes, le père, la mère, deux employés de la ferme, et les deux gamines, égorgées. Un an après, l'oncle me demande si on pouvait l'exécuter à nouveau. Je lui ai dis, non il est mort, c'est fini. Il me dit : j'aurais préféré qu'il passe 40 ans en prison. C'était trop rapide.
Honestly, what type of horribly unprofessional English journalist interviews a fascinating man who doesn't speak English.... and then forgets to dub over the man's voice with that of a translator?
The journalist isn't English, judging by his accent.....and you could always broaden your horizons and learn a bit of French to help you understand. Incidentally, this man Meyssonnier wasn't the last surviving French Executioner. Marcel Chevalier the last mainland chief executioner (Meyssonnier only ever worked in Africa) died a few months after him and it's likely that some of the younger assistants from the 1977 French executions still survive.
+NannyWhip
Right.... because French is one of those languages that one can pick up easily without putting in much effort at all. YOU could try being a better human-being, and learn not to troll others just to inflate your sad little ego. Thanks. Have a good one.
De rien. :-)
Back in the day, we only had the right sound channel.
WTF? The French were using this barbaric thing up until 1977? I'm in shock
same.... and then we all cry about the horrific thing ISIS does...
Take a shot everytime u hear a pun
You’ve got to remember that an executioner is not the one actually killing these convicted criminals. It’s the state that wants these criminals dead! In this case it was the law of France that executed these criminals. These are judicial executions that we’re talking about here. There really is a major difference between those two concepts.
Guillotine was not only an execution machine but was a machine that also propelled fear in the masses unlike hanging or shooting....
.....this was grizzly scary and twisted.
No sir, the french did not lose the war in Algeria, they wiped out their enemies with effciency. De Gaulle organized a national referendum to give independance to Algeria (a country that did not exist as such before the franch arrive and was formerly colonized by the Turkishs). French population voted YES by 75%.
The ultimate Aspirin
OK wait a minute, he OPENED a torture museum??? But nobody came.
Major clue, fool... Lol
No more cursed comment section!
What does this mean? he is speaking French! we seem to get one sentence in twenty in the way of translation!
What makes the guillotine barbaric, is that they usually force the villagers to witness the execution. To show that their in control, and if you dis obey will chop you're head. That had to traumatized people at that time,and to the few living right now.
Being in confinement prison is worst....than guillotine. Slow death.....
Maybe spend less time on the 'heads long' and 'stick out your neck' puns and spend more time on translating the french bits, merci.
How about on screen subtitles
Yes. Someone called "Electroexecutee" here, in TH-cam, explained to me that electric chair is used because of religious reasons.
The United States of America will be a little bit more intelligent if they authorize their to-be-executed to choose the mode of execution.
Fernand said at 1:57 "it's not like killing an insect, it's a human being, nevertheless!"
Why not provide a translation via subtitles?
is he related to the Adams Family?
Journeyman Pictures, c'mon. You guys are a respected documentary production company. Subtitle ze French, ja?
The subtitle was hilarious 😂
@ 5:07 It looks like they're walking along up to the Fontaine de Vaucluse, a gorgeous spot in Provence, near Avignon. @ 1:37 OMG he was SO handsome when he was young!
“He made a model…for his father’s birthday…”
gawd……
I am not a supporter of the death penalty. I admit that though bloody and grisly the Guillotine is probably probably the most humane ( alongside long drop hanging). I don't believe all that rot about consciousness remaining in the head. Instant loss of blood pressure to the brain would render one senseless immediately. What I don't like is the fact that this guy seems to have brought his job home (unlike most executioners). Making a model guillotine for your dad and then proudly displaying it shows that this guy has a rather macabre interest in death rather than just thinking himself of a professional instrument of justice like Albert Pierrepoint ( who prided himself on giving people an instant painless death and is known to have performed the quickest hanging in history: 10 seconds from entering the condemned cell to the guy's death)
+mattbod They made the Guillotine so that the prisoner doe not feel pain. Even though it is really grizzly, there are few cases where the prisoner felt pain.
+Aidan Otero and the prisoner told this after ???? lol
+angofbew exactly..hahahahahaaaa!!
+Aidan Otero The prisoners actually survive a few seconds after being decapitated so I don't know if it's all that humane. Death by firing squad seems to be the most painless form of execution.
+mattbod Actually Hypoxia is the most humane death penalty. essentially sit someone in a room, and fill it with Carbon Monoxide. But no country does it that way.
Those puns? Really? Pretty cheap jokes for the gravity of the story.
"Gravity of the story"
don't lose your head over it....
That's some razor sharp thinking there
what is he saying....?
It's so disturbing the government allowed him to keep that in his home.
I want to study French and Spanish
This subject is somewhat misleading. Fernand Meyssonnier was assistant executioner in French Algeria (and not in France) and last helped execute someone in 1959. The auction of his "torture instruments" (all fake) was cancelled. Marcel Chevalier (died 2008) was the last executioner in France - last execution in 1977 assisted by his son, Eric.
What does'redcoat' mean? I'm not English,so I cant be one.You can use the bible to justify anything if you choose,eg 'thou shalt not kill'.The latter doesn't have any conditions,it's quite emphatic.I don't empathise with murderers.I feel angry when I read of murdererss wishing death on them .But when I calm down I remember that no man has the right to kill another. As I said before, two wrongs don't make a right. Can you argue about anything without resorting to personal insults? 'Grow a pair'?
Your telling me that when the first Star Wars movie came out people were being executed like this
The death sentence hasn't been axe in1977 like you write but in 1981.
The last criminal executed in France was a moroccan in Marseilles in 1977.
Need to bring this back, and within days of conviction...end the legal industry's un checked fleecing of society by prolonging legal proceedings without end...
Utterly depraved ... but the United States is not any more moral in this respect.
Need translation, this would actually be very interesting if I could understand what was going on.
I agree!
They came up with an amazing new form of transportation though, a mobility panini.
You pronounced guillotine wrong.
Thank you!
How does one get a translation on videos?
Et vive la France 🇨🇵🇨🇵🇨🇵
Amazingly bad closed captions!
Bruh so it was like a sport 💀💀💀
Ugh bruh he has the
Fricken guillotine in his house. What??!?? He executed someone at fourteen! He made his father a model execution device. I thought my family was fucked up.
Well done Fernand.
Wonderfull work!
Crazy topic to work on, I cant begin to think how he actually feels about the past he lived
Wow!
Brovo!.
Soldiers kill in the heat of battle,not bu operating a guilotine.
Last time I checked, soldiers and policemen killed fugatives and combatants even when their lives were not directly endangered, either to eliminate a potentially dangerous felon whose conduct imperiled the property or lives of others, or in the case of the military, to further the foreign policy objectives of the state. So, your entire self-defense argument falls flat.
Don't lecture me on self-defense and homicide, I'm an attorney.
What sort of father would allow his son to do this at 14? Wtf
A real man
Lord have Mercy, Lord have Mercy, Lord have Mercy,
Don't watch this unless you understand french.
Why there is no translations what the french guy says???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
You will never get an answer to this question. There is no good answer for it really, the only explanation is there's something seriously wrong with the documentary maker and it's being reflected in his choice not to provide any translation.
I'm so glad to know both English and French ^^
Subtitles are all screwed up, not cool...