The Last Guillotining Execution... in 1977

Video Description

In the early morning hours of September 10, 27-year-old Hamida Djandoubi was awoken by the sound of jangling keys and whispers of a name every condemned prisoner dreaded: “The man from Paris is here.” Prison guards then entered his cell and began the traditional “condemned’s toilette”. Djandoubi was dressed in a red sweater, the collar cut low with scissors to expose his neck, his hands and feet were bound with cords, and he was offered a final cigarette. Stalling for time, he smoked one, then another, but was denied a third. After knocking back a final shot of rum, he was led out of his cell and down the prison corridors, the floors padded with blankets to muffle his footsteps. He soon emerged into the prison courtyard where the guillotine stood waiting, its blade glinting in the floodlights. The end came swiftly and efficiently. Djandoubi was thrown onto the guillotine’s tilting bascule board, a wooden collar was snapped around his neck, and the executioner pressed a button, releasing the falling blade. Within seconds Djandoubi was dead, his severed head tumbling into a wicker basket at the base of the machine. While this might sound like an episode out of 1700s revolutionary France, this scene in fact took place in the year1977, less than five months after the first Star Wars movie debuted in theatres. It was the end of a long and bloody era, for on that day Hamid Djandoubi became the last person in France and the western world to face the justice at the hands of the “national razor.” Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila