The 12 Most Notorious Executioners In History

When state-sanctioned slaughter was big business, networks of professional executioners made a decent living through the ending of others' lives. While the work was far from glamorous, there have historically been times and places in which professional executioners were celebrities of sorts – admired, well-paid, and capable of drawing in a large crowd as they doled out punishment.

Whether their methods were gruesome or merciful, the most notorious historical executioners were just as 9 as they were feared. Some were even given awards for their service from political and religious figureheads. Collected in this list are famous executioners with the most confirmed hits under their belts.

12. John Ketch, Who Botched The Executions Of England’s High Born

While England’s executioner John Ketch, also known as Jack Ketch, may not have the highest body count on his resume, his job performance earned him infamy because of its barbaric nature. He was allegedly wildly inefficient when called upon to man the chopping block.

He botched the execution of Lord William Russell back in 1683, failing to accurately land multiple blows of his axe several times. Then, when executing the Duke of Monmouth, James Scott, in 1685, Ketch took between five and eight swings of his axe to get the job done.

Whether Ketch was simply incompetent or deliberately vicious has been widely debated. Long after his own passing, his name went on to be used as a proverbial term for Satan and the end of life.

11 William Marwood, Who Developed A More Humane Execution Method

British Crown executioner William Marwood preferred to hang his victims. Marwood's attention to his methods and his innovation of a new technique are what really give him a spot in executioner history. 

He perfected the "long drop" hanging technique, which snapped a prisoner’s neck instantly after a 6 –10-foot drop. This ensured a swift and more humane death. 

10 Robert G. Elliott, The Man Of 387 Electrocutions

Robert G. Elliot became Chief Executioner of New York state in 1926 and he went on to take the lives of some of the most notorious criminals in US history. His chosen method of execution: the electric chair.

Over the course of his career, Elliott oversaw the execution of 387 people - including Sacco and Vanzetti and Bruno Hauptmann, who stole Charles Lindbergh's baby. Surprisingly though, in his memoirs, he wrote that he was strongly opposed to capital punishment. According to him, he only took the position because he was an electrician by trade, and could not find another job that had to do with electricity.

9 Anatole Deibler, Who Kept Detailed Accounts Of 395 Decapitations

Famous executioner of France Anatole Deibler, offed over 395 men with a swift slice of the guillotine back in his heyday. Deibler reached celebrity status during his tenure as France's go-to executioner from 1885 to 1939. He was even granted the title "Executioner-in-Chief" in 1899.

At this point in history, photography was becoming more widely available. Because of this shift in potential media accessibility, the press constantly hounded Deibler for interviews and arrived at his public executions in droves.

From the beginning, Deibler's career was on the spotlight. A French newspaper commented on his first execution: 

Young Mr Deibler demonstrated a confident flick of the wrist, and the ease of an experienced practitioner. After this happy trial, we can foresee and wish him a good career, and a number of respectable performances.

After his passing, Deibler's detailed accounts of his executions were located, providing significant insight into 19th- and 20th-century French culture and society. All 14 of his diaries are considered important historical documents and were purchased in 2003 for €85,000.

 After his passing, Deibler's detailed accounts of his executions were located, providing significant insight into 19th- and 20th-century French culture and society. All 14 of his diaries are considered important historical documents and were purchased in 2003 for €85,000.

8 Franz Schmidt, Who Unwillingly Served As Executioner And Tormentor Of Hundreds

Franz Schmidt, an executioner in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1578 to 1618, performed around 400 executions and hundreds of acts of persecution, although he apparently wasn’t too fond of his work.

Much of what is known about Schmidt came from his memoirs. Apparently, Schmidt's father was forced into becoming the town’s executioner, and the job was handed down to Franz, who had few alternatives. He performed his first execution at age 18, his last at 64, and from what is described in his personal journals, he never became numb to the suffering he induced in others.

Like other executioners during the period, Schmidt was excluded from political and social life in his community, and was not even granted citizenship. Fortunately, Emperor Ferdinand II restored his honor and made him a citizen of Nuremberg following his retirement.

7 Albert Pierrepoint, England's Hangman Who Later Campaigned Against Capital Punishment

Albert Pierrepoint was first in the line of a family of executioners, though he was undoubtedly the most famous of the bunch. He was once considered England’s finest hangman. In total, he ended the lives of anywhere between 400 and 600 prisoners before resigning in 1956.

His career spanned over two decades before he quit unexpectedly. In the following years, Pierrepoint wrote a memoir that suggested he was opposed to capital punishment, although he later argued that it was necessary in order to quell the increasing rate of crime in Britain.

6 Giovanni Bugatti, Papal States Executioner Who Sent 516 Souls To Other Pastures

Giovanni Bugatti spent almost 70 years as the Papal States’s executioner during the 19th century, earning him the local title of Mastro Titta, meaning “Master of Justice.” Unlike many in his profession, he showed empathy for the condemned on occasion, offering a final pinch of snuff to those he called his "patients." 

Bugatti's execution methods varied and included hanging, an axe to the neck, or the guillotine. For those who committed crimes of a brutal nature, he either smashed their heads with a mallet or had them drawn and quartered. He retired at the age of 85 after performing 516 executions. The Pope even gifted him a lifetime pension for his service.

5 Hajj Abd Al-Nabi, Who Loves His Job5 Hajj Abd Al-Nabi, Who Loves His Job

Hajj Abd Al-Nabi, Egypt’s official executioner, was known at a young age for brutalizing innocent animals. He happily referred to himself as “little Satan,” and after honing his skillset, he became a professional executioner. As of 2013, he had carried out 800 professional executions.

Despite this staggering number, Al-Nabi is no stranger to some critical self reflection, saying, "The truth is that my heart is dead, because executing comes from the heart." He has also vowed that he will continue showing up to his post even after retirement in times of emergency when he is needed most.

4 Antonina Makarova, Who Slaughtered 1,500 People During WWII

Antonina Makarova was a Soviet-nurse-turned-executioner during WWII. This switch came as the result of her capture by the S.S, who persuaded her to become an executioner for Germany.

On a daily basis, Makarova executed around 27 people with a machine gun at the edge of a pit. She was eventually nicknamed “Antonina the Machine Gunner” and performed around 1,500 executions, sometimes keeping her victims' clothes as souvenirs.

She married after the war and took on a new last name, but this hardly prevented KGB agents from tracking her down in 1976. While she was implicated in 1,500 executions, she was formally charged for only 200 of her slayings. She initially denied her actions but soon confessed in hopes of leniency, with little success. She was considered a traitor and was sentenced to face a firing squad for her crimes.

3. Johann Reichhart, Who Executed 2,876 People For The SS

For Johann Reichhart, serving as an executioner was in keeping with eight generations of the family business. During the course of his career, he executed 3,165 people.

At first, Reichhart served as the Bavarian State Executioner under the Weimar Republic from 1924 to 1929, after which he fled to Holland to escape his enemies. Hitler's regime desired his skills and put him back to work in the '30s.

2. Charles-Henri Sanson, Who Remorsefully Executed King Louis XVI And 3,000 Others

The Sanson family was a six-generation dynasty of French executioners that spanned over 150 years. Charles-Henri Sanson was the fourth and best-known within his lineage. During the reign of King Louis XVI and throughout the French Revolution, he executed around 3,000 people, including King Louis XVI himself.

While he expressed remorse for all the lives he took, he especially regretted having to execute the King. He was hoping a rescue would be staged, but the execution was carried out. As his health worsened, he retired, handing the reins down to his son, Henri. Henri went on to secure his own place in history by executing Marie Antoinette.

1 Vasili Blokhin, Who Executed 7,000 People In 28 Days

Vasili Blokhin was named Most Prolific Executioner of all time in 2010. On March 5, 1940, Blokhin acted on Stalin's orders to liquidate thousands of Poles. In just 28 days, Blokhin shot and killed 7,000 people, making him responsible for the most organized and protracted mass slaughter performed by an individual.

The Soviet Major-General, equipped with a briefcase full of Walther pistols, executed 250 people each night. He averaged about one execution every three minutes. Blokhin and his team allegedly spent 10 hours each night digging trenches in which to dispose of the bodies.

In April of 1940, he was given a monthly payment and received the Order of the Red Banner, awarded to those who showed “exceptional courage, self-denial, and valor during combat." After Stalin’s death in 1953, successor Nikita Khruschev stripped Blokhin of his rank as well as of all his awards and privileges. 

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