The Brutal Lives of Medieval Executioners: Outcasts and Instruments of Justice

The Role and Social Stigma of Executioners

• 💀 The job of a medieval executioner was a brutal, thankless, and necessary evil, leading to social ostracization for both the executioner and their entire family.
• 🎭 Public executions were major events, drawing large crowds and acting as a form of entertainment and justice, akin to modern sporting events.
• ⚠️ A single mistake by the executioner could incite an angry mob, potentially leading to their own death.

Franz Schmidt: A Master Executioner's Life

• ✍️ Franz Schmidt, a skilled executioner for 45 years, meticulously documented his work in a diary, providing rare insight into the life of an executioner.
• 🔪 While he preferred the axe, Schmidt performed various punishments, including burning, breaking on the wheel, torture, flogging, and branding.
• ⚖️ Despite his social pariah status, Schmidt was respected for his precision, with a 98% success rate for beheadings, and his work was deemed to fulfill legal judgment.
• 💰 Schmidt's earnings, including from his 'side hustle' as an interrogator and torturer, allowed him to live comfortably and purchase a house after retirement.

Notorious Executioners and Evolving Methods

• 🔪 Figures like Jack Ketch in 17th-century England were known for botched executions, leading to public outcry and even accusations of bribery.
• 💰 Executioners often supplemented their income by selling body parts or clothes of the deceased, believed to have medicinal or magical properties.
• ⛓️ William Calcraft, a later English hangman, gained notoriety for his 'short-drop' method and for pulling on the legs of those being hanged to entertain the crowd.
• 👨‍⚖️ James Berry, an English executioner in the late 19th century, perfected the 'long drop' method and, unlike his medieval predecessors, was not entirely socially isolated, even becoming a death penalty abolitionist later in life.

The Modern Executioner and Changing Perceptions

• 👤 Today, executioners in the West, particularly in the United States, remain anonymous, with methods like lethal injection and firing squads designed to obscure their identities.
• 🌍 Famous executioners like Muhammad Saad al-Beshi and Darshan Singh in Saudi Arabia and Singapore, respectively, carried out numerous executions, sometimes with a public persona.
• 🎤 Thai executioner Chavoret Jaruboon performed executions by firing squad and openly discussed his work, viewing it as a duty that did not trouble his karma.
• 📉 The role of the public executioner has largely become a 'dying trade,' with a shift towards more direct and less theatrical forms of death, and a growing societal move away from public spectacles of violence.