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This article recounts the last public execution by guillotine in France – the death of Eugène Weidmann on June 17, 1939, outside the Saint-Pierre Prison in Versailles – along with the context of his crimes, the sensational trial, the chaotic crowd behaviour, and President Albert Lebrun’s immediate ban on all future public executions. The content is for educational and historical documentation purposes only, based on French archival sources and contemporary newspapers. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
Eugène Weidmann: The Last Public Guillotine Execution in France
Weidmann is led away in handcuffs after his capture by police.
In the early morning hours of June 17, 1939, outside the Saint-Pierre Prison in Versailles, a massive crowd gathered from very early on. They jostled, shouted, whistled, and eagerly awaited the final performance of the “National Razor” – the guillotine. The man on the scaffold was Eugène Weidmann, 31, a German criminal who had committed a series of brutal kidnappings and murders in the Paris area throughout 1937. He was the last serial killer to be publicly executed by guillotine in France. The chaotic behaviour of the crowd – rushing forward to dab up Weidmann’s blood with handkerchiefs as souvenirs – so scandalised the French government that it immediately banned all future public executions. From that day on, no public beheading has ever taken place on French soil. This article tells the full story: Weidmann’s crimes, his trial, the execution, and its lasting legacy.
1. Weidmann’s Crimes: Six Victims and a “Treasure Hunt”
The trial of Eugene Weidmann
Eugène Weidmann was born in 1908 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. He was an incorrigible criminal from an early age, sent to a juvenile detention facility and later serving prison terms for theft and burglary in Canada and Germany before arriving in Paris in 1937. In Paris, he began collaborating with two accomplices – Roger Million and Jean Blanc – on a scheme to kidnap foreign tourists for ransom.
Their first victim was Jean de Koven, a 22-year-old wealthy and beautiful American dancer and socialite travelling in France. They lured her to a rented villa in Saint-Cloud with the promise of a governess position. Instead, they kidnapped her, but the plan went wrong and Weidmann killed her. Nevertheless, he still sent ransom demands to her family – even though she was already dead.
Weidmann’s subsequent victims included Joseph Couffy – a tour guide; a chauffeur; a real estate broker; a woman lured by a false offer of employment as a governess; and a man Weidmann had met while imprisoned in Germany. On the surface, the crimes appeared profit-motivated, but they brought him only very small sums of money. Weidmann killed coldly, usually by shooting his victims in the back of the neck or strangling them, then stealing the small amounts of cash in their wallets.
2. The Sensational Trial and Death Sentence
Weidmann on trial in France.
When Weidmann was arrested, his case became a media sensation. French newspapers called him a “monster” and a “cold-blooded killer”. The trial took place in March 1939 and captured national attention. Weidmann was convicted of kidnapping and murdering six people. He was sentenced to death by guillotine.
France was the last country in Europe still practising public executions. Although beheadings before a crowd had long been criticised as barbaric, the French government had not formally abolished the practice. Weidmann would become the last name on that list.
3. The Execution and the “Disgusting, Unruly” Crowd
The trial, March 24, 1939.
In the early morning of June 17, 1939, the guillotine was erected outside the Saint-Pierre Prison in Versailles. Thousands of people gathered, jostling, shouting, and whistling. They climbed trees, rooftops, and walls to get a better view. The crowd was so large and unruly that it delayed the execution – instead of taking place at dawn as usual, it was pushed back until full daylight. This allowed photographers and a newsreel cameraman to capture clear images and a short film – one of the few existing motion pictures of a public beheading.
Weidmann was led to the guillotine. According to reports, he was calm and offered no resistance. He was placed on the board, and the blade fell. Death came instantly. But what happened next was truly shocking.
The crowd surged forward toward the scaffold, using handkerchiefs and scarves to dab up Weidmann’s blood as souvenirs. Some even tried to buy bloodstained cloth from journalists at the scene. The French newspaper Paris-Soir denounced the crowd as “disgusting”, “unruly”, “jostling, clamouring, whistling”. The newspaper wrote that the crowd’s hysterical behaviour was no longer the witnessing of a sentence but a savage form of entertainment.
4. The Consequence: A Permanent Ban on Public Executions
Preparing the guillotine (later the spot was changed).
The chaos of Weidmann’s execution was the final straw. The French government, already under criticism for maintaining public executions, decided to act. President Albert Lebrun immediately signed a decree banning all future public executions. From that day forward, every death sentence in France was to be carried out within prison walls, privately, without public witnesses.
The guillotine continued to be used in France until 1977 – its final victim was Hamida Djandoubi, executed at the Baumettes Prison in Marseille. But there was no crowd. In September 1981, France formally abolished the death penalty under President François Mitterrand, ending 189 years of the “National Razor”.
5. A Notable Witness: Christopher Lee, Age 17
Weidmann is led to the guillotine, passing by the trunk that will be used to transport his body.
Among the thousands watching Weidmann’s execution was a 17-year-old youth. His name was Christopher Lee. He would later become one of the most legendary actors in cinema history, famous for his roles as Dracula, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, and Count Dooku in Star Wars. Lee recalled that he had been taken to the execution by friends as a “spectacle”. He stood in the crowd, watched Weidmann climb onto the guillotine, and saw the blade fall. The image, he said, haunted him for the rest of his life.
Era Ends
A crowd awaiting Weidmann’s execution gathers around the guillotine outside the Prison Saint-Pierre.
Eugène Weidmann was neither France’s most notorious criminal nor its most brutal serial killer. But his death holds a special historical significance: it marked the end of an era in which death was staged as public theatre. From 1792, when the guillotine began its operation as the “humane” and “egalitarian” tool of the French Revolution, tens of thousands of people died beneath its blade. But it was the frenzied crowd rushing to collect Weidmann’s blood as souvenirs that finally forced even the French government to intervene. Public execution was no longer seen as a deterrent or an act of justice. It had become a disgrace. And since June 17, 1939, no one has been publicly beheaded on French soil. Eugène Weidmann was the last.
The guillotine in action
Primary sources:
Archives Nationales de France – Weidmann case files and execution records of June 17, 1939.
Paris-Soir newspaper, edition of June 18, 1939.
Historical studies of the guillotine and public executions in France.
Memoirs and interviews of actor Christopher Lee.
Documents on the abolition of the death penalty in France (1981) under François Mitterrand.