The executioners were despised and feared; no one wanted to meet them on their way. For the ending of this meeting was predictable - death. But if executioners in the service of the state were perceived as a necessary evil, then the hired killers of the mafia have always evoked human rejection and disgust.
In the entire history of crime, not a single major criminal group has escaped without murder. Italian, Latin American, Russian, Japanese, Jewish, Chinese any mafia cannot exist without its “angels of death”. For the law of life in these circles sounds simple: “If today is not you, then tomorrow you will be.” And in order for the plan to go without misfires, you need a professional to do the dirty work. Such people knew perfectly well how quickly or painfully, depending on the wishes of the customer, to cause death to a person. All famous killers had one thing in common: the number of victims who died at their hands. As a rule, hired killers could not voluntarily give up their profession. Only two things stopped them: prison or a colleague’s bullet. But they received their share of fame in any case. Books were written about them, films were made, and some of them even gained public sympathy for their activities. After all, “society orderlies” most often killed their own kind...
Abe Reles is considered the most dangerous assassin of all time (about 1000 victims!). His real name was Elkan ben Shimon, but he went down in criminal history under the name Abe Reles. The son of a Jewish immigrant from Austria, Abe was first arrested in 1924 in New York City at the age of 18 for stealing chewing gum from a machine. After this, the short boy’s life was entirely devoted to crime.
Abe committed his first murder for revenge. One day his boss, slot machine holder Meyer Shapiro, called him and his friends to his place. There the guys were beaten and almost shot. In addition, Shapiro took Abe's girlfriend to a field, where he beat and raped her. Two months later, frail Abe tracked down the offender and put two bullets in his face from a pistol. In addition, he killed the two Shapiro brothers who took part in his beating. Reles and his friends buried one of them alive in a grave.
Later, Abe Reles became one of the prominent members of the Murder Inc. that flourished in the 30s under the nickname Kid Twist. His signature style was killing with an ice pick. The killer, with a precise throw, aimed the tip of the ice ax at the temple or ear of the condemned man. The weapon destroyed the brain, but the victim did not die immediately, but after a few minutes, experiencing terrible suffering.
Police believe Abe killed at least a thousand people. Of course, to eliminate victims, he much more often used not an ice ax, but a pistol, which he also mastered perfectly. Due to his psychopathic tendencies, Abe killed not only gangsters, but also ordinary people. So, one day he got angry at a car wash employee for not cleaning the fender of his car, and shot him. Another time, Reles killed an employee in the parking lot just because he was taking too long to drive his car. One day, after dinner at his mother's house, Abe waited until she left the room and killed a guest he didn't like.
In 1940, the police arrested Reles. Realizing that he was headed for the electric chair, the killer opened up. Thanks to this, several major mafia bosses went to death row. But the betrayal did not pass without a trace for the executioner. On the night of November 12, 1941, Reles was found dead under the windows of an apartment on the fifth floor, where he was guarded by police. A tied sheet was hanging from the window, which led experts to believe that the killer tried to escape but accidentally fell. According to other sources, the mafia bought the cops, and they themselves killed the traitor and staged his escape.
Bloody Slipper
Giuseppe Greco rightfully ranks second in the ranking of hired killers, with over 300 victims to his name. This Sicilian killer knew from early childhood that he would kill. He was born in 1952 in Ciaculli, a suburb of Palermo. His uncle Michele Greco was the boss of the Ciaculli family and is closely associated with the Corleone family and its bosses Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. His father was also a mafioso and went by the nickname Scrapa, which in Italian meant Shoe. Therefore, from an early age, Giuseppe bore the nickname Shoe. The super killer's finest hour came during the second mafia war (1981-1983), when he and his assistants shot about 300 people with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Greco was called the commander of the death squad. Among his victims was even Carabinieri General Carlo Alberto Chiesa. One day, the 15-year-old son of a mafioso he killed swore revenge on Greco. Giuseppe kidnapped a teenager, tortured him for a long time, cut off his hand first, and then his head, and dissolved his body in a barrel of acid. This barrel was waiting for other Greco martyrs. His people kidnapped those ordered right on the streets and brought them to a wretched shack on the seashore. There the unfortunate people were tortured, and after the murder they were immersed in a solution of hydrochloric acid. In 1982, Greco personally strangled one of the mafia bosses, Rossario Ricobone. Shortly before this, Ricobone was invited to a barbecue, where he arrived along with his 8 bodyguards. But this did not save him from reprisals. After all the victims were dead, Greco ordered the corpses to be cut into pieces and thrown to the pigs.
Soon Greco himself becomes the boss of one of the families. In this status, mafiosi no longer engage in murders, but Greco still preferred to personally execute the victims. On July 29, 1983, he bombed and blew up a car in which the head of the magistrate, Rocco Chinnici, and three of his men were traveling. Greco’s cruelty and toughness led to the fact that the young mafia began to consider him a greater authority than the top bosses of Cosa Nostra. Realizing this, they decided to get rid of the faithful executioner.
In September 1985, Giuseppe Greco was killed by two killers of his own Death Squad.
Barry Bear Quickie
Killer Bernard Hunwick has about 300 victims. In the 70s of the last century, this man was in favor: he lived in a luxurious house on the Florida coast, wore a Swiss Ro Lex watch and drove a Jaguar. His wife was a former model who owned a clothing store. Bernard Hunwick began his career as a bar bouncer. He was nicknamed Barry the Bear for his tough temperament. Something went wrong and Hunwick used his big fists. But the things he did outside of his day job were much worse. Hunwick was a mafia executioner. He took orders for murders, which he carried out together with his assistants. One day, Hunwick threw a merchant condemned to death through the glass of a shop window and, having collected a fistful of broken glass, forced the man to eat the shards. Then he shot him in the back of the head. Police arrested Hunwick in 1982 after victim Allen Chaffin implicated him as the killer. According to the victim, Hunwick and his partner shot him and left him for dead near the canal. Interestingly, after Hunwick's arrest, investigators reported that he may have been involved in more than a hundred murders. However, the trial showed the instability of the prosecution's position, and the killer was acquitted. However, 15 years later, another killer decided to cooperate with the police and testified against Hunwick. He said that Hunwick killed a drug dealer named Richard Diego Messina. The killer slashed him in the throat with a knife and stuffed the corpse into the trunk of the car. After collecting irrefutable evidence, the police detained Hunwick again. Interestingly, during his arrest they found a 22-caliber pistol with a silencer, capable of firing underwater. In 1999, the court sentenced Bernard Hunwick to life imprisonment for a single murder. Although knowledgeable people said that this executioner had at least 300 lives on his conscience. Barry Bear died on January 2, 2013, at the Butner Inmate Medical Center in North Carolina.
Ice killer
Richard Kuklinski is the undisputed killer with a record (250 victims). He was born in New Jersey on April 11, 1935, into a Polish-Irish family. The alcoholic father often beat and humiliated his children. So Richard Florin’s younger brother, who somehow fell under the hot hand of his father, died from a traumatic brain injury. The family passed it off as an accident. Constantly observing scenes of violence, Richard unwittingly began to manifest it himself in real life. He once seriously beat up six guys from a street gang, and at the age of 13 he committed his first murder. Choosing the craft of a hitman, Kuklinski began collaborating with five gangster families in New York. Such greed for work could be explained simply. The 25-year-old executioner had recently married, had a daughter, and the young family did not have enough money. But most of all he was “attached” to the family of Roy de Meo. Although the cooperation started off poorly. Kuklinski owed money to the mafia and could not pay it back. First, de Meo publicly beat the giant, but he did not resist. Then he said that he had to see it in action. De Meo stopped the car and picked out the first passerby walking his dog. On the orders of the boss, the executioner approached the victim from behind and calmly discharged a revolver into the back of his head. After that, he was adopted into a family where he received the nickname Pole. Kuklinski killed people for 30 years and tried to do it in different ways. His subjects were homeless people in New York. He drowned some corpses in the Hudson, others abandoned them on the spot.
Kuklinski shot, cut, blew up, burned, poisoned and strangled his victims with his bare hands. Sometimes the killer used a chainsaw and cut people while they were conscious. He tore out the tongue of one of his victims and inserted it into the anus. And he received a new nickname, the Ice Killer, due to experiments with the bodies of victims in a refrigerator freezer.
Richard Kuklinski was arrested only in 1986. A police agent embedded in the gang gave evidence against him. The executioner was twice sentenced to eternal imprisonment. At the age of 70, he died in prison from a mental attack.
Liquidator of drug dealers
Thomas (Tommy Karate) Peter is suspected of killing 60 people. He was born on December 10, 1954 in the family of a candy merchant and was a quiet child who was bullied by his classmates. Everything changed when Tommy watched the movie "The Green Hornet" with Bruce Lee. Inspired by the desire to learn kung fu, the American went to Tokyo to study martial arts with an authoritative sen sei. Upon returning to America as a karate master, Tommy found work in the Bonanno mafia family, where he became one of the main torturers and executioners. Tommy could kill with his bare hands, but he preferred to use a pistol.
Most of all, the karateka loved to get even with drug dealers. So, together with his assistants, the karateka killed two Colombian drug dealers and, having stolen 16 kilograms of cocaine, sold it profitably. Another time, a killer shot a heroin supplier from the Middle East named SikSik, dismembered him into six pieces and buried him at different ends of the landfill.
The New York cemetery, Hundred Island, was the most popular among the executioner. He believed (not without reason) that his wet soil would quickly decompose the pieces of flesh. Peter was seriously interested in pathological anatomy in order to correctly dismember bodies, preventing their further identification. He always demanded that his assistants bury the corpses deeper so that the police dogs could not smell them.
Peter's weak point was that he liked to keep jewelry taken from the bodies of victims, and this was his undoing. On June 25, 1992, Thomas Pitera was found guilty by a jury of murdering 6 people. Although witnesses claimed that he killed at least 60. The Brooklyn court sentenced the executioner to life imprisonment, although the shadow of the death penalty loomed over him until the very verdict.
Sasha Soldier
When naming the bloodiest killer in Russia, people mistakenly believe that he is Alexander Solonik (nickname Macedonian). In fact, Solonik’s palm was long ago and irrevocably seized by another killer of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group - Alexander Pustovalov, better known under the nickname Sasha Soldat. By the way, it was he who sent Solonik and his girlfriend to the next world. Sasha Soldat’s criminal career began in 1993, when a demobilized marine tried to get a job in the Moscow riot police. But the guy did not have a higher education, and he was turned away. Deciding to drown his grief with wine, Pustovalov went into a pub and got into a fight with three bandits. The foreman of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group noticed him and offered to work. Quite quickly, Sasha the Soldier turned from a simple fighter into an extra-class killer. In August 1995, in a cafe in the center of Moscow, Sasha Soldat and his partners shot Alik Assyrian and his guards in cold blood. Along the escape route, Pustovalov leaves the killer’s equipment right outside the central office of the Prosecutor General’s Office. In another case, a Soldier single-handedly shot a businessman at the gates of the same Prosecutor General’s Office. He climbed over the department's fence with a pistol and, running through the courtyard, disappeared into the gateway. In 1995, Pustovalov eliminated the leaders of the “Kuntsevo” Skvortsov and Kaligin, in 1996 the leader of the “Sokolniki” Kutepov, in 1997 the leader of the “Koptev” Naumov. The Soldier is responsible for the execution of the senior investigator of the Odintsovo prosecutor's office, Alexander Kerez. Pretending to be a drunken homeless person, the killer spent two days lying in the mud near the road along which the investigator walked to work. And one day, having “sobered up,” he shot him in the head. It is no coincidence that Pustovalov is considered the most effective killer in Russia - he has at least 35 victims. When he was arrested, he told the investigator: “I’ll take on as many wet assholes as you can prove!” In May 2004, the court sentenced the Soldier to 22 years in prison, and in August 2005 added another year. The end result was less than a year for each murder.
This article by Arkady Sushansky was originally published in the newspaper "Secret Materials of the 20th Century", N3, February 2014 under the title "Mastery of Backpack Cases."
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In our Fatherland, the first known chronicle news of the introduction of the death penalty dates back to 996. They were executed for robbery resulting in human casualties. Even before the formation of legislation, the first international agreements in the field of law and order appeared in the Russian principalities. In the Treaty of the Russians with the Greeks under Prince Oleg in 911 there is the following phrase: “If a Rusin kills a Christian (i.e. a Greek) or a Christian kills a Rusin, let the killer be detained by the relatives of the murdered man and let them kill him.” The peace agreement of 944, concluded during the reign of Prince Igor between Russia and Greece, stipulated, for example, the following conditions: “XI. If the Greeks, being in the Russian land, turn out to be criminals, the Prince has no power to punish them; but may they suffer this execution in the Kingdom of Greece... XII. When a Christian kills a Rusin or a Rusin Christian, the neighbors of the murdered man, apprehending the murderer, may put him to death.”
Thus, at first the death penalty among the Russians was associated with blood feud. It is no coincidence that it was the relatives of the murdered who had to carry it out. And such a narrow specialist as an executioner was not really needed. But soon legal consciousness began to change, and the scope of application of the death penalty expanded. It should be noted that the Russian word “executioner” in its modern understanding appeared relatively late, and in the Middle Ages the executioner was called “swordsman” - the bearer of the sword, the squire of a militant prince, his bodyguard and, in certain cases, the executor of death sentences.
The profession of executioner exists in the cultures, laws and customs of almost all peoples and social classes. The issue of the “culture of deprivation of life” cannot be considered without analyzing the culture of execution of punishment - the professional culture of executioners. This profession can be considered one of the oldest, born simultaneously with the first proto-state formations, power and laws prohibiting something, and, accordingly, punishments for their violation. At first, the functions of executioners were performed by ordinary warriors, who killed the victim in the same primitive manner as the enemy on the battlefield. But when executions began to differ from simple murder and turned into qualified public procedures, it turned out that this required especially qualified specialists. With the strengthening of central government and the development of cities, a more professional court system arises, and punishments become more complicated. Along with old forms, such as fines and simple execution, new ones are appearing - scourging, branding, cutting off limbs, wheeling... In some places, the idea of “an eye for an eye” was preserved (if, for example, a criminal broke the victim’s arm, then he also needs was to break my arm). Now a specialist was needed who could carry out the punishment procedure so that the convicted person would not die unless he was sentenced to death or before all the torture ordered by the court was carried out. Here is a short list of what a professional executioner should have been able to do: master several dozen methods of torture, be a good psychologist and quickly determine what the victim fears most (a person often gives testimony not so much from pain as from fear of the upcoming torture), competently compile scenario of torture and apply these tortures so that the victim does not die before execution (or vice versa - dies during interrogation, if such a task is set), master several methods of execution, carry out this procedure “jewelly” - with precise actions, so as not to cause unnecessary torture to the victim, or vice versa - to make the execution extremely painful if the verdict or the authorities required it. As an illustration, we can recall the execution of the Comte de Chalet, accused of an attempt on the life of King Louis XIII. The executioners were not found that morning, but they managed to persuade one soldier, who was sentenced to death, to act in this role, promising to spare his life for this. The execution of the Comte de Chalet was a most terrible sight. The inexperienced executioner failed to finish off his victim not only with the first blow, but also with the tenth. After the twentieth blow he moaned: “Jesus! Maria!" After thirty-two it was all over.
The profession of an executioner has acquired an incredible number of myths and legends. For example, his traditional headdress is a fiction. In fact, the executioners did not hide their faces. The only exception is the execution of some medieval kings. The executioners had the right to conduct weddings and received income from those executed. At first they were allowed to take only what was under the belt, then - all the clothes of the convicts. The executioner took food for free from the markets. This right was granted so that he could have food, which he could not buy, since many refused to accept money from his hands.
An executioner in the Middle Ages could engage in exorcism (the procedure for expelling demons that had possessed a person). The fact is that torture was considered one of the most reliable ways to expel an evil spirit that has taken possession of the body. By inflicting pain on the body, people seemed to torture the demon, forcing it to leave. In church, the executioner had to stand behind everyone, right at the door, and be the last to approach communion.
In France, women were also executioners. The decree of King Louis the Saint of 1264 states: “... anyone who has slandered or acted unlawfully will, by judicial decision, be whipped with rods by a person of his sex, namely: a man by a man, and a woman by a woman, without the presence of men.”
If the executioner retired, he was obliged to propose a candidate to his post to the city. In terms of his position in society, he was close to such lower strata of society as prostitutes and actors. The executioner often provided services to the townspeople - he sold parts of corpses and potions made from them, as well as various details related to execution. Things like the "hand of glory" (a hand cut off from a criminal) and the piece of rope with which the criminal was hanged are often mentioned in various books on magic and alchemy.
In essence, the city executioner was a hired employee of the magistrate, in our opinion, an official. He entered into the same contract and took the same oath as all employees. From the city authorities, the executioner received the salary due to him by law for each execution or torture, sometimes the house where he lived, and in some German cities he was even required to wear the insignia of an employee of the magistrate on his clothes. In some cases, executioners, like other employees, were also paid for uniforms. Sometimes it was the uniform of city employees, sometimes it was special, emphasizing its importance. Most of the “working tools” were paid for and owned by the city. The symbol of the executioner in France was a special sword with a rounded blade, intended only for cutting off heads. In Russia - a whip.
Who could become the executioner? The most common case is the inheritance of a “profession” from father to son. This is how entire clans of executioners arose. Families were closed, because the son of an executioner could not marry a girl from a “normal” family - this would tarnish the reputation of the bride’s entire family. As a rule, the children of executioners married or were married to representatives of the same profession from neighboring cities. In Germany, in the list of the Augsburg city law of 1373, the executioner is called a “son of a whore,” and for good reason: often the wives of the executioners were prostitutes.
However, despite such a low position on the social ladder, highly professional executioners were relatively rare and were literally worth their weight in gold. They quickly became very wealthy people (the payment for this “labor” was quite large), but mastering the “art of torture and killing” turned out to be very difficult. Very few people reached real heights. Some highly qualified executioners also gained international fame. It happened that the famous executioner was invited abroad for a large reward to carry out a particularly qualified execution.
In our Fatherland, city government was not very developed. Therefore, only in the 17th century in Rus' they decided to join Western European practice and hire specially trained people to carry out death sentences, of which there were more and more. The Boyar Duma, by its resolution of May 16, 1681, determined “that in every city there would be no existence without executioners.” The governors had to select volunteers as masters from the city and townspeople. If there were none, it was necessary to staff the executioners with tramps, enticing them with a constant income. During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, executioners were entitled to a salary of 4 rubles per year. But despite this, the governors complained every now and then that “there are no willing people to be executioners, and those chosen by force run away.” This “personnel problem” became especially acute during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. As a result, the Senate Decree of June 10, 1742 was born, which ordered local authorities to ensure the presence of two full-time executioners in each provincial city, and one in the district. The capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg - were required to constantly maintain three master craftsmen. Their wages were indexed and made equal to soldiers' wages - 9 rubles. 95 kopecks per year. Under Emperor Paul I, another indexation of the salaries of executors took place: the amount of monetary allowance increased to 20 rubles. 75 kopecks per year.
But with the advent of executioners recruited from among prisoners, the authorities discovered a wonderful opportunity to save public funds. It is known that domestic executioners have not received salaries for years. If a civilian executioner could, with a clear conscience, demand money from his superiors, then the convicts preferred the right not to pump and kept silent. However, sometimes the executioners were overwhelmed by happiness (usually this happened with the threat of a large-scale audit), and then the provincial treasury chamber, which was in charge of maintaining prisons in the territory under its jurisdiction, began feverishly to pay off debts. For example, the St. Petersburg executioner Yakovlev in 1805 unexpectedly received a salary for 8 years of service without any requests on his part. However, raising wages did not solve the problem. In 1804, there was only one full-time executioner in all of Little Russia. Governor General Kurakin sent a proposal to St. Petersburg with a proposal to officially allow the recruitment of criminals convicted of minor crimes as executioners. By decree of the Senate of March 13, 1805, it was allowed to entrust executions to prison inmates. The decree clearly defined the categories of criminals who could be recruited as executioners. It is curious that after the announcement of this decree on prisons, there were no people willing to become executioners. No one! In 1818, the situation repeated itself, this time in St. Petersburg. Then, with an interval of several months, both capital executioners died. This almost caused paralysis of the entire legal system of the state - there was no one to carry out court sentences in terms of imposing penalties. The prisoner could not leave the capital's prison and go to the stage until he received the corporal punishment and branding due to him. The stupor into which the capital's administration fell, unable to find anyone willing to fill the position of executioner, caused a discussion of the problem at the highest level. In St. Petersburg they remembered Kurakin’s performance and decided that they should go the same way. On December 11, 1818, Count Miloradovich ordered the provincial government to officially recruit executioners from among criminals.
Under Nicholas I, another, more radical, indexation of executioners' salaries took place. On December 27, 1833, the Emperor approved a resolution of the State Council to increase the salaries of civilian executioners. For Moscow and St. Petersburg, the payment amount was set at 300-400 rubles per year, for provincial cities - 200-300 rubles. In addition, the executioners were entitled to so-called “fodder” money (for food), which could be received in food, as well as clothing at government expense. By the way, if they did not want to take government clothes, the executioner was paid money - 58 rubles a year (quite a lot, if you keep in mind that a pair of boots cost up to 6 rubles). If the executioner left for execution in another city, he was paid a travel allowance of 12 kopecks per day.
But even this increase in monetary remuneration did not cause an influx of applicants. Not a single volunteer who wished to sign up as an executioner was found either in Moscow or St. Petersburg.
From that time on, all executioners in Russia were criminals.
At first they were kept in ordinary prison cells. But it soon became clear that they needed to be kept separate. During the day they executed, and at night their fellow prisoners could well execute them. In addition, prison visitors began to complain about meetings with these “specialists,” who terrified them with their bloody clothes and “working” tools in their hands. Special rooms began to be built for executioners in prison courtyards.
A few words should be said about the lifestyle of executors. Despite the special status acquired with the transition to the category of prison employees, they remained prisoners and served their sentences. Often, even after serving time, they remained in prison, since life in such conditions was familiar to them, familiar and in many ways convenient.
The executioners had the right to engage in crafts in their spare time - some were good tailors and shoemakers. But, of course, these activities were not what consumed their time.
Their professional skills, so to speak, required continuous improvement. To improve and maintain their flogging skills, they made dummies of human bodies from birch bark, which they practiced on daily. For this purpose, either their living quarters or the neighboring one were properly equipped. The main condition of such a room was the possibility of free movement of the executioners around the “mare” with a dummy tied to it and a high ceiling, which allowed them to swing correctly. Flogging with a whip required special art (rods and whips were much easier to use), which was explained by the uniqueness of its design. A whip was attached to the wooden handle - narrow long straps twisted like a woman's braid, and the striking part, the so-called “tongue,” was tied to it. The length of the scythe was 2-2.5 meters and was selected individually to suit the height of the executor. The tongue was made from a strip of thick pork skin, soaked in a strong salt solution and dried under a press in such a way as to give its cross-section a V-shape. The “tongue” was about 0.7 meters long, and the blow was delivered from its very end. A flat blow was considered weak, unprofessional; the master had to hit only with the sharp part of the “tongue”. The tough pig skin cut through the human body like a knife. The executioners usually flogged together, with blows applied alternately from the right and left sides. Each one placed his blows from the prisoner’s shoulder to the lower back so that they did not intersect. The marks of the whips on the man's back left a pattern that resembled a herringbone. If the execution was carried out by one executioner, then he had to move from one side to the other in order to alternate blows from the right and left. Masterly use of the whip made the executioner the master of human life. An experienced executor could beat a person to death with literally 3-4 dozen blows. To do this, usually, the executioner deliberately placed several blows in one place, tearing into pieces the internal organs - liver, lungs, kidneys, causing extensive internal hemorrhages. And, conversely, if the executioner needed to save the life of the person being punished, he could flog him so that the person remained completely unharmed.
Over time, things got worse and worse with the executioners in Russia. In April 1879, after military district courts were granted the right to pass death sentences, there was only one executioner in the whole country named Frolov, who moved under escort from city to city and hanged convicts.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the shortage of executioners continued. Thus, for political executions, the executioner Filipyev was used, who each time had to be brought from Transcaucasia, where he permanently lived, in order to hang the next revolutionary. They say that in the past the Kuban Cossack Filipev himself was sentenced to death, but exchanged his life for agreeing to become an executioner. He was not the most skilled master of backpack work, but in a difficult situation his physical strength helped him out. Filipyev’s life ended quite naturally. After the next execution of his sentence, he was transported home to Transcaucasia under the guise of a tramp. The prisoners who followed him found out who he was and killed him.
In the 20th century, changes in society’s attitude towards shoulder craftsmen occurred almost everywhere. Nowadays journalists consider it a blessing to interview them. Books are written about them, films are made. For example, in 2005, the film “The Last Executioner” was released, telling about the life of the British state executioner Albert Pierpoint, who in the period from 1934 to 1956 hanged 608 convicts, receiving 15 pounds sterling for each. He also became famous for being able to carry out an execution in a record time of 17 seconds. But the scriptwriters and director were attracted to something else: Pierpoint was forced to execute even his friend, but after that something broke in his soul and he asked to resign.
France also has its own star of executioner art - Fernand Meyssonnier, who from 1953 to 1957 guillotined about 200 Algerian rebels. He was also famous for not letting his head fall into the basket, managing to catch it in order to demonstrate that the job was done properly. Mensonnier was the successor of the executioner dynasty, but he was attracted to this profession by the purely material side - high salaries, free trips around the world, the right to have military weapons and even benefits for running a pub. He still makes money from his guillotine, exhibiting it in various museums.
In Saudi Arabia, the executioner Mohammed Saad al-Beshi is known, who carries out the most important sentences. His tool is a traditional Arab sword - a scimitar - with a curved blade, more than a meter long, with which the government awarded him for good work.
One of the most famous executioners in modern US history was Robert Greene Elliott, who was listed as a “regular electrician” at the Dannemora prison. From 1926 to 1939, he sent 387 people to the next world using the electric chair. For each person executed he received $150. In his autobiography, Eliot described his professional know-how: “Over the years I have succeeded in perfecting electrocution. Before me, a voltage of 500 volts was used, which after one minute rose to 2000 volts. In this case, the condemned man died painfully within 40-50 seconds. “I first turned on a strong voltage of 2000 volts, which instantly burned all the internal organs of a person, and only after that I gradually lowered the discharge.”
And the most famous American executioner was Junior Sergeant John Woodd, who was entrusted with carrying out executions based on the sentences passed at the Nuremberg trials. And although he had previously carried out 347 death sentences against murderers and rapists at his home in San Antonio, he became famous for his executions of the leaders of the Third Reich. Woodd noted that the convicts turned out to be very resilient. Ribbentrop, Jodl, Keitel suffered in the noose for several minutes. And Streicher had to be strangled with his hands.
In the Soviet Union until the 1950s, the function of executioners executing execution sentences was usually performed by employees of state security agencies. The most famous executioners in the USSR: Blokhin - head of the commandant's office of the OGPU-NKVD, who led the executions of convicts in the 1930s and 1940s, Colonel Nadaraya - commandant of the internal prison of the NKVD of Georgia in the 1930s, Pyotr Maggo and Ernst Mach. During the period of the Great Terror of 1937-1938, operatives, police officers and even civilian party activists were also involved in executions. But the most famous executioners of the Stalin era were the Shigalev brothers. The eldest, Vasily, having received a four-year education in his native Kirzhach, studied to become a shoemaker, joined the Red Guard, was a machine gunner, and then suddenly became a warden in the notorious Internal Prison. After serving for some time in the NKVD commandant's office, in 1937 Vasily received the position of employee for special assignments - this was another way to encrypt executioners. Over time, he became an Honorary Chekist, a holder of several military orders and, of course, a member of the CPSU (b). Vasily is also known for the fact that he was the only performer who was “worthy” of denunciation from his colleagues. It’s hard to say how he annoyed them, but in his personal file there is a report addressed to the Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Frinovsky, which reports that “the employee for special assignments Vasily Ivanovich Shigalev had a close acquaintance with the enemy of the people Bulanov, often visited him at apartment." In 1938, such a report was enough to fall into the hands of his colleagues at the commandant’s office, but the NKVD chief Frinovsky, apparently, decided that it was not worth throwing away such personnel, and left the denunciation without consequences. Apparently, this story taught Vasily Shigalev something, and he, impeccably fulfilling his direct duties, for which he soon received the Order of the Badge of Honor, after 1938 tried not to be exposed anywhere: not a single piece of paper from his signature.
But his brother Ivan acted less carefully. Either it was his three-year education, or the fact that for some time he worked as a salesman and was used to being in the public eye, but after serving in the army, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother: a guard in the Internal Prison, then a watchman, the head of the pass office, and finally an employee for special instructions. He quickly catches up with his brother in the number of executions, and even surpasses him in the number of awards: having become a lieutenant colonel, he receives the Order of Lenin and, most strangely, the medal “For the Defense of Moscow,” although he did not kill a single German. But their compatriots...
Colonel General (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) Pavel Batitsky, who was present at the execution of Lavrentiy Beria (according to the official version), himself volunteered to carry out the sentence with his personal award pistol, thus acting as a volunteer executioner.
Since the 1950s, execution sentences in the USSR have been carried out by employees of pre-trial detention centers.
The justice system employs police officers, investigators, and judges. Like a relay baton, they pass the criminal to each other. The last one in this chain is executioner.
ONE OF THE OLDEST PROFESSIONS
As soon as they formed a flock, people began to establish certain rules of life within the community. Not everyone liked it. When violators were caught, they were dragged to trial and punished. For a long time, people knew only one type of punishment - death. It was considered quite fair to cut off a head for a stolen bunch of radishes.
Every man was a warrior, knew how to wield a sword or, in extreme cases, a club, and could always personally execute a thief who encroached on the most sacred thing - property. If it was a case of murder, then the sentence was carried out with pleasure by the relatives of the murdered person.
As society developed, legal proceedings also improved; the punishment had to correspond to the gravity of the crime; for a broken arm, the arm should also be carefully broken, and this is much more difficult than killing.
Fantasy awoke in man, he experienced the torment of creativity, types of punishment appeared such as scourging, branding, cutting off limbs and all kinds of torture, for the implementation of which specialists were already needed. And they appeared.
There were executioners in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This is, if not the oldest profession (let’s not encroach on the sacred), then one of the oldest, that’s for sure. And in the Middle Ages, not a single European city could do without an executioner.
Execute a criminal, interrogate with passion a suspect of high treason, carry out a demonstrative execution in the central square - you can’t do it without an executioner!
MAGISTRATE OFFICER
Officially, the executioner was an employee of the city magistrate. A contract was concluded with him, he took an oath, received a salary, the magistrate provided the worker with “working tools.”
The executioner was given a uniform and allocated official housing. The executioners never put any robe with slits for the eyes on their heads. They were paid by the piece for each execution or torture.
Invoice dated March 25, 1594 from the executioner Martin Gukleven to the Riga magistrate: executed Gertrude Gufner with a sword - 6 marks; hanged the thief Martin - 5 marks; burned a criminal for false weight of firewood - 1 mark 4 shillings, nailed 2 posters to the pillory - 2 marks.
As you can see, the most expensive thing was cutting off the head (this required the highest qualifications), hanging was cheaper, and for burning they paid sheer nonsense, like for nailing 1 poster to a bulletin board.
As in any craft, among the executioners there were their masters and virtuosos. A skilled executioner mastered several dozen types of torture, was a good psychologist (quickly determined what the victim feared most), drew up a qualified torture scenario and knew how to conduct it so that the interrogated person did not lose consciousness and did not die before the end of the investigation (this was already considered a defect in the work ).
Both young and old gathered at the execution in the medieval city, just like at a show. There were no cinemas, no televisions, visits from traveling actors were rare, the only entertainment was executions. In the morning, heralds walked around the city and called people.
The poor crowded the square, the nobility bought places in houses with windows on the block. A separate box was built for the high-born. The executioner, like a real artist, gave his best to please the audience with the heart-rending cries of the condemned man and make the spectacle unforgettable, so that it would be remembered for a long time.
Such a highly qualified specialist was very rare, so the executioners were paid well and their salaries were not delayed. There were also a kind of “premium”: the clothes of the executed person belonged to the master of the axe. Receiving a high-born gentleman sentenced to death on the scaffold, the executioner assessed whether his trousers were strong and whether his shoes were too worn out.
However, the “axe workers” also had additional sources of income.
SIDE PRODUCTS
The executioner was not only involved in executions and torture. Initially, he supervised the city's prostitutes from the magistrate. The disgraceful position of brothel keeper was very lucrative. City officials soon realized what a fool they had made by entrusting the city's sex industry to the wrong hands, and by the early 16th century the practice had been widely discontinued.
Until the 18th century, the executioner was responsible for cleaning the city's public latrines, that is, he performed the functions of a goldsmith. In many cities, the executioner also performed the functions of a flayer: he was engaged in catching stray dogs. The executioner also removed carrion from the streets and drove out lepers.
However, as the cities grew, the executioners began to have more and more main work, and gradually they began to be freed from functions unusual for them, so as not to be distracted.
In private, many executioners practiced healing. By the nature of their work, they knew anatomy very well. While city doctors were forced to steal corpses from cemeteries for their research, executioners had no problems with “visual aids.”
There were no better traumatologists and chiropractors in Europe than the masters of torture. Catherine II mentioned in her memoirs that her spine was treated by a famous specialist - an executioner from Danzig.
The executioners did not disdain illegal earnings. For their studies, warlocks and alchemists needed either a hand cut off from a criminal or a rope on which he was hanged. Well, where can you get all this if not from the executioner?
And the executioners also took bribes. The relatives of those sentenced to painful execution gave: “For the sake of all that is holy, give him a quick death.” The executioner took the money, strangled the poor fellow and burned the corpse at the stake.
The executioner could kill someone sentenced to scourging: carry out the execution in such a way that the poor fellow died on the third or fourth day after execution (this is how scores were settled). And, on the contrary, he could only rip open the skin on the condemned person’s back with a whip. There was a sea of blood, the spectators were happy, and only the executioner and the executed man tied to the post knew that the main force of the blow of the whip was taken by the post.
Even those sentenced to death paid so that the executioner would try and cut off the head with one blow, and not bale it 3-4 times.
In Germany and France, executioners were very wealthy people. But, despite this, the work of an executioner was considered a low-respect occupation, they were not loved, they were feared and were bypassed by a third road.
CASTE OF THE OUTRAGED
The social status of the executioners was at the level of prostitutes and actors. Their houses were usually located outside the city limits. No one ever settled near them. The executioners had the privilege of taking food from the market for free, because many refused to accept money from them. In church they had to stand at the very door, behind everyone else, and be the last to approach communion.
They were not accepted in decent houses, so the executioners communicated with the same pariahs - gravediggers, flayers and executioners from neighboring cities. In the same circle they were looking for a companion or life partner. Therefore, entire dynasties of executioners practiced in Europe.
The work was dangerous. The executioners were attacked, the executioners were killed. This could have been done either by the accomplices of the executed person or by the crowd dissatisfied with the execution. The Duke of Monmouth was beheaded by the inexperienced executioner John Ketch with the 5th blow. The crowd roared with indignation, the executioner was taken away from the place of execution under guard and put in prison to save him from popular reprisals.
I WANT TO BECOME AN EXECUTIONER
There were few highly qualified executioners. Each city that had its own “specialist” valued him, and almost always a clause was included in the employment contract that the executioner must prepare a successor for himself. How did you become professional executioners?
Most often, executioners became inheritors. The executioner's son actually had no choice but to become an executioner, and the daughter had no choice but to become the executioner's wife. The eldest son took over his father's position, and the younger son left for another city.
Finding a place as an executioner was not difficult; in many cities this vacancy was empty for many years. In the 15th century, many Polish cities did not have their own master and were forced to hire a specialist from Poznan.
Often those sentenced to death became executioners, buying their own lives at such a price. The candidate became an apprentice and, under the supervision of a master, mastered the craft, gradually getting used to the screams of the tortured and blood.
DECLINE OF THE PROFESSION
In the 18th century, European educators regarded the usual medieval executions as savagery. However, the death blow to the executioner’s profession was dealt not by humanists, but by the leaders of the Great French Revolution, who put executions on stream and introduced the guillotine into the process.
If wielding a sword or an ax required skill, then any butcher could handle the guillotine. The executioner is no longer a unique specialist.
Public executions gradually became a thing of the past. The last public execution in Europe took place in France in 1939.
Serial killer Eugene Weidman was executed on the guillotine with the sounds of jazz rushing from open windows. The lever of the machine was turned by the hereditary executioner Jules Henri Defourneau.
Today, more than 60 countries still practice death sentences, and they also have professional executioners who work in the old fashioned way with a sword and an ax.
Mohammed Saad al-Beshi, executioner in Saudi Arabia (working experience since 1998), works with a sword, cutting off an arm, leg or head with one blow. When asked how he sleeps, he answers: “Sound.”
Klim PODKOVA
Antonina Makarova born in 1921 in the Smolensk region, in the village of Malaya Volkovka, into a large peasant family Makara Parfenova. She studied at a rural school, and it was there that an episode occurred that influenced her future life. When Tonya came to first grade, because of shyness she could not say her last name - Parfenova. Classmates began shouting “Yes, she’s Makarova!”, meaning that Tony’s father’s name is Makar.
So, with the light hand of the teacher, at that time perhaps the only literate person in the village, Tonya Makarova appeared in the Parfyonov family.
The girl studied diligently, with diligence. She also had her own revolutionary heroine - Anka the machine gunner. This film image had a real prototype - a nurse from the Chapaev division Maria Popova, which once in battle actually had to replace a killed machine gunner.
After graduating from school, Antonina went to study in Moscow, where she was caught by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The girl went to the front as a volunteer.
Camping wife of an encirclement
19-year-old Komsomol member Makarova suffered all the horrors of the infamous “Vyazma Cauldron.”
After the heaviest battles, completely surrounded, of the entire unit, only a soldier was next to the young nurse Tonya Nikolay Fedchuk. With him she wandered through the local forests, just trying to survive. They didn’t look for partisans, they didn’t try to get through to their own people - they fed on whatever they had, and sometimes stole. The soldier did not stand on ceremony with Tonya, making her his “camp wife.” Antonina did not resist - she just wanted to live.
In January 1942, they went to the village of Krasny Kolodets, and then Fedchuk admitted that he was married and his family lived nearby. He left Tonya alone.
Tonya was not expelled from the Red Well, but the local residents already had plenty of worries. But the strange girl did not try to go to the partisans, did not strive to make her way to ours, but strived to make love with one of the men remaining in the village. Having turned the locals against her, Tonya was forced to leave.
Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg. Photo: Public Domain
Salary killer
Tonya Makarova’s wanderings ended in the area of the village of Lokot in the Bryansk region. The notorious “Lokot Republic”, an administrative-territorial formation of Russian collaborators, operated here. In essence, these were the same German lackeys as in other places, only more clearly formalized.
A police patrol detained Tonya, but they did not suspect her of being a partisan or underground woman. She attracted the attention of the police, who took her in, gave her drink, food and rape. However, the latter is very relative - the girl, who only wanted to survive, agreed to everything.
Tonya did not play the role of a prostitute for the police for long - one day, drunk, she was taken out into the yard and put behind a Maxim machine gun. There were people standing in front of the machine gun - men, women, old people, children. She was ordered to shoot. For Tony, who completed not only nursing courses, but also machine gunners, this was not a big deal. True, the dead drunk woman didn’t really understand what she was doing. But, nevertheless, she coped with the task.
The next day, Makarova learned that she was now an official - an executioner with a salary of 30 German marks and with her own bed.
The Lokot Republic ruthlessly fought the enemies of the new order - partisans, underground fighters, communists, other unreliable elements, as well as members of their families. Those arrested were herded into a barn that served as a prison, and in the morning they were taken out to be shot.
The cell accommodated 27 people, and all of them had to be eliminated in order to make room for new ones.
Neither the Germans nor even the local policemen wanted to take on this work. And here Tonya, who appeared out of nowhere with her shooting abilities, came in very handy.
The girl did not go crazy, but on the contrary, felt that her dream had come true. And let Anka shoot her enemies, but she shoots women and children - the war will write off everything! But her life finally got better.
1500 lives lost
Antonina Makarova's daily routine was as follows: in the morning, shooting 27 people with a machine gun, finishing off the survivors with a pistol, cleaning weapons, in the evening schnapps and dancing in a German club, and at night making love with some cute German guy or, at worst, with a policeman.
As an incentive, she was allowed to take the belongings of the dead. So Tonya acquired a bunch of outfits, which, however, had to be repaired - traces of blood and bullet holes made it difficult to wear.
However, sometimes Tonya allowed a “marriage” - several children managed to survive because, due to their small stature, the bullets passed over their heads. The children were taken out along with the corpses by local residents who were burying the dead and handed over to the partisans. Rumors about a female executioner, “Tonka the machine gunner”, “Tonka the Muscovite” spread throughout the area. Local partisans even announced a hunt for the executioner, but were unable to reach her.
In total, about 1,500 people became victims of Antonina Makarova.
By the summer of 1943, Tony’s life again took a sharp turn - the Red Army moved to the West, beginning the liberation of the Bryansk region. This did not bode well for the girl, but then she conveniently fell ill with syphilis, and the Germans sent her to the rear so that she would not re-infect the valiant sons of Greater Germany.
Honored veteran instead of a war criminal
In the German hospital, however, it also soon became uncomfortable - the Soviet troops were approaching so quickly that only the Germans had time to evacuate, and there was no longer any concern for the accomplices.
Realizing this, Tonya escaped from the hospital, again finding herself surrounded, but now Soviet. But her survival skills were honed - she managed to obtain documents proving that all this time Makarova was a nurse in a Soviet hospital.
Antonina successfully managed to enlist in a Soviet hospital, where at the beginning of 1945 a young soldier, a real war hero, fell in love with her.
The guy proposed to Tonya, she agreed, and, having gotten married, after the end of the war, the young couple left for the Belarusian city of Lepel, her husband’s homeland.
This is how the female executioner Antonina Makarova disappeared, and her place was taken by an honored veteran Antonina Ginzburg.
They searched for her for thirty years
Soviet investigators learned about the monstrous acts of “Tonka the Machine Gunner” immediately after the liberation of the Bryansk region. The remains of about one and a half thousand people were found in mass graves, but the identities of only two hundred could be established.
They interrogated witnesses, checked, clarified - but they could not get on the trail of the female punisher.
Meanwhile, Antonina Ginzburg led the ordinary life of a Soviet person - she lived, worked, raised two daughters, even met with schoolchildren, talking about her heroic military past. Of course, without mentioning the actions of “Tonka the Machine Gunner”.
The KGB spent more than three decades searching for her, but found her almost by accident. A certain citizen Parfyonov, going abroad, submitted forms with information about his relatives. There, among the solid Parfenovs, for some reason Antonina Makarova, after her husband Ginzburg, was listed as her sister.
Yes, how that teacher’s mistake helped Tonya, how many years thanks to it she remained out of reach of justice!
The KGB operatives worked brilliantly - it was impossible to accuse an innocent person of such atrocities. Antonina Ginzburg was checked from all sides, witnesses were secretly brought to Lepel, even a former policeman-lover. And only after they all confirmed that Antonina Ginzburg was “Tonka the Machine Gunner”, she was arrested.
She didn’t deny it, she talked about everything calmly, and said that nightmares didn’t torment her. She didn’t want to communicate with either her daughters or her husband. And the front-line husband ran around the authorities, threatening to file a complaint Brezhnev, even at the UN - demanded the release of his wife. Exactly until the investigators decided to tell him what his beloved Tonya was accused of.
After that, the dashing, dashing veteran turned gray and aged overnight. The family disowned Antonina Ginzburg and left Lepel. You wouldn’t wish what these people had to endure on your enemy.
Retribution
Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was tried in Bryansk in the fall of 1978. This was the last major trial of traitors to the Motherland in the USSR and the only trial of a female punisher.
Antonina herself was convinced that, due to the passage of time, the punishment could not be too severe; she even believed that she would receive a suspended sentence. My only regret was that because of the shame I had to move and change jobs again. Even the investigators, knowing about Antonina Ginzburg’s exemplary post-war biography, believed that the court would show leniency. Moreover, 1979 was declared the Year of the Woman in the USSR.
However, on November 20, 1978, the court sentenced Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg to capital punishment - execution.
At the trial, her guilt in the murder of 168 of those whose identities could be established was documented. More than 1,300 more remained unknown victims of “Tonka the Machine Gunner.” There are crimes that cannot be forgiven.
At six in the morning on August 11, 1979, after all requests for clemency were rejected, the sentence against Antonina Makarova-Ginzburg was carried out.