The last person to be publicly executed 1939 (Versailes, France)

Eugen Weidmann.

Let's be clear shall we? I know there are some nasty vicious evil people in the world but please this is the site of authorities chopping the guy's head off in the street! The public hysteria and almost uncontrollable febrile blood lust was such that they merely adjourned indoors and continued to send convicts to the guillotine until 1977!!

 Eugen Weidmann (February 5, 1908 – June 17, 1939) was a German criminal and serial murderer who was executed by guillotine in France in June 1939, the last public execution in that country. (Executions by guillotine continued in private until Hamida Djandoubi's execution on September 10, 1977)

On June 17, 1939, Weidmann was beheaded outside the prison Saint-Pierre in Versailles. The "hysterical behaviour" by spectators was so scandalous that French President Albert Lebrun immediately banned all future public executions. Unknown to authorities, film of the execution was shot from a private apartment adjacent to the prison. British actor Christopher Lee – who was 17 at the time – witnessed the event. 

Rare Historical Photos - Weidmann's execution