Word: desfourneaux
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...single Monsieur de Paris to perform the function. In 1879 the honor fell to one Louis Deibier, heir of a long line of Breton headsmen. Deibler was succeeded by his son Anatole, who ruled the guillotine with honor until 1939. He was succeeded by his nephew, Jules Henri Desfourneaux...
...unlike his great predecessors, Jules Desfourneaux lacked the grand manner. After each job, he economically removed the cords that bound his victims and stuffed them in his pocket for use on further occasions. His work made him nervous, and he often took roundabout routes to a date for fear of assassins or kidnapers. He was a quiet little man, known to few, but those few always noticed that when he took Communion at church, he pulled on his gloves to receive the host while others took theirs off. In 1934, his only son was drowned. Some...
...eight men, France's labor troubles last week brought a few more days of life. They were murderers, condemned to die by the guillotine. The official executioner, Jules Desfourneaux, went on a one-man strike and refused to execute them. Desfourneaux was holding out for a 15% raise and a bonus for each severed head...
When 76-year-old "Papa" Deibler, who as Monsieur de Paris had pressed the button at more than 400 guillotinings in his 40-year career, died last February, his 80-year-old Uncle Léopold Desfour-neaux was appointed temporary successor. Connoisseurs complained that Desfourneaux lacked his nephew's finesse, at his first execution took ten seconds to Deibler's customary three or four. Last week, after six weeks' cogitation, the prisons director pronounced Uncle Léopold's initial effort a complete success, thus making him France's new official high executioner...
...well-known to French newspaper readers as Edouard Daladier, "Papa" Deibler was latest of a 68-year-long line of Deibler-executioners. He rarely appeared in public except in his official capacity, traveled incognito in a private compartment. Few days after his death, his 80-year-old uncle, Leopold Desfourneaux, was appointed his temporary successor, to execute one Maurice Pelorge, murderer, who had refused the traditional pardon (always offered to the first victim of a new executioner). Connoisseurs complained that Desfourneaux took ten or 15 seconds to Deibler's customary three or four, lacked his nephew's finesse...
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