10 Creepy Stories About Real Life Executioners

The 17th century Dijon executioner Simon Grandjean and his wife learnt the hard way that people don’t take well to botched executions. They were assigned to execute Helene Gillet, a woman who was sentenced to death for murdering her baby. Simon Grandjean was set to behead her with a sword, but on the day he made a complete mess of the job.

The first swing of his sword only clipped her shoulder, and the second swing also failed to behead her. This made the crowd furious, and Grandjean retreated to a nearby chapel whilst the crowd pelted him with whatever they had to hand. His wife, who was his assistant, tried to save the situation by moving the prisoner beneath the platform so that she was shielded from the crowd. She then tried to finish the beheading with a pair of shears, but the crowd got to her before she could.

Both Grandjean and his wife were targeted by the angry crowds, and they were both killed in the attacks. The prisoner Helene Gillet got lucky though, as her injuries were minimal and the strange situation led her to be pardoned from the death sentence.