WAITING FOR GUILLOTINE

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3472, 29 May 1934, Page 7

WAITING FOR GUILLOTINE

PUBLIC EXECUTION IN FRANCE. / CONDEMNED MAN’S ORDEAL. With arms bound, Georges Sarret, a murderer, condemned to public execution at Aix-en-Provence at dawn, waited for an hour beside the guillo--tine which was to end his life (says the News-Chronicle). While workmen laboured frantically to repair the machine of death, thousands of spectators howled for the condemned man’s blood. In accordance with French law, Sarret had not been told the date of his execution, and had waited for a week, not knowing which was his last night on earth.

He had a week of sleepless nights, but each dawn he found that the fatal day had not arrived, so he slept soundly till nightfall.

Early one morning Sarret heard the murmur of a vast crowd in the square beneath the window of his cell. The. warders told him that it was market day, and that the noise was made by sellers who were erecting their stands. Sarret smiled derisevly. He said nothing, but immediately began to dress.

Shortly afterwards he was told that he was to die at dawn. He refused the offices of a priest, saying, “Let us finish this quickly.” His wish was not to be gratified. At 4 a.m., with his guards, Sarret reached the stage upon which the guillotine was erected. He was met by M. Deibler, the Official Executioner of the French Republic for the past twenty-five years, wearing the traditional top hat and frock coat. This functionary announced that he could not carry out the execution immediately, as the legal hour of dawn had not yet arrived. At this delay, shouts of “Kill him! Kill him!” came from the crowd of spectators, many of whom had paid for seats at vantage points and were tired of waiting. The mob had begun to collect at midnight. Motor-buses ran excursions from Marseilles, twenty miles away. Ladders had been erected against the walls of the prison. Seats on them were sold at 2s .a rung. A seat on the lop of a bus cos: 10s. Many tree branches collapsed under the weight of the people who clung to them. So dense was the mob that the troops had the greatest difficulty in forcing a passage ,ff>r the condemned man. While this assemblage voiced its impatience, Sarret stood in silence. At last, after thirty minutes, M. Deibler gave the signal, and his assistant strapped the condemned man to the plank. As the plank swung its burden face down beneath the huge knife, the mechanism became slightly deranged. The executioner and his assistant held the condemned mail in position, while workmen repaired the fault. Then Sarret opened his lips for the first time. “Hurry up,” he pleaded, “I am ready for you.” Then the knife fell.

After the execution, M. Deiblev packed up the guillotine and took it to Marseilles, whence he was to sail for Corsica, to keep an engagement. Sarret, who was middle-aged, Italian-born, but of Greek parentage, was charged with having conspired with two German sisters, Catherine and Philomene Schmidt, in a series of murders and swindles. It was alleged that they defrauded insurance companies by taking out policies on the lives of people who “disappeared" —-at the hands of the trio. After considering 197 questions placed before them by the Judge, the jurymen found the three accused guilty.. The women were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.