Eugene Weidmann
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Eugene Weidmann (February 5, 1908 - June 17, 1939) was the last person publicly executed in France.
Weidmann was born in Frankfurt-am-Main to a member of an exporting business company in Germany and his wife, and went through grade school there. He was sent to live with his grandparents during the First World War. During this time he started stealing, and later served five years in jail for robbery, in his twenties.
During his jail time Weidmann met three men who would later become his partners in crime: Million, Blanc and Fritz Frommer. They, after their release, from jail decided to work together to kidnap rich tourists visiting France and steal money and rented a villa in Saint Cloud, near Paris, for the purpose.
The first kidnap attempt the men made, failed because their victim struggled too hard, forcing them to let him go. Their second kidnap attempt, though, of a New York dancer visiting France named Jean de Koven was a success and Weidmann killed and buried her in the villa's garden in July 1937. The group, then, cashed Koven's traveller's checks. Million's mistress, Collette Tricot was sent to do the task.
On the 1st of September the same year, Wiedmann hired a chauffeur named Joseph Couffy to drive him to the Riviera and then shot him in the back of the head and stole his car. On October 17, 1937, Million and Weidmann arranged a meeting with a young theatrical producer named Roger LeBlond, promising to invest money in one of his shows and instead, shot him in the back of his head and left with his wallet.
Weidmann next shot, in the back of the head, Raymond Lesobre, a real estate agent, who was showing him around a house and stole his car and wallet. Then on September 3, 1937 with Million he lured Janine Keller, a private nurse, who would be his fifth and final victim, with a job offer, into a cave, and killed her to steal her belongings.
The police, at that time, tracked Wiedmann to the villa from a business card left at Lesobre's office and after a shootout, arrested him. He then confessed to all his murders and to that of his accomplices. Weidmann, Million, Blanc and Tricott were tried in the March of 1939, and Weidmann and Million recieved the death sentence while Blance recieved a jail sentence of 20 months and Tricott was acquitted. Million's sentence was later changed to a life sentence and in June of 1939 Weidmann was executed.
He was guillotined in Versailles, outside the prison Saint Pierre. The "hysterical behavior" by spectators was so scandalous that French President Albert Lebrun banned any future public executions on June 17, 1939.
The use of the guillotine for private executions in France continued until September 10, 1977, when the last execution, that of Hamida Djandoubi, occurred.
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