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1686: A man and a woman broken on the wheel in Hamburg
The New York Times of Dec. 30, 1900 provides this date’s entry, featuring the unusual scene of a woman being broken on the wheel. In the diary of that remarkable man, Gen. Patrick Gordon, who left...
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1739: Michael Blodorn, “selvmordsmord”
On this date in 1739, Michael Blödorn was stretched out on a scaffold at Copenhagen’s beautiful Kongens Nytorv (King’s Square), where an executioner set about smashing his limbs with heavy wagon...
View Article1788: Not Jean Louschart, rescued by the crowd
On this date in 1788, France’s last attempt at an execution by breaking-wheel was thwarted by a vast crowd sympathetic to the condemned … which stormed the scaffold in Versailles and liberated the...
View Article1721: Jean-Pierre Balagny, Cartouche lieutenant
On this day in 1721, Jean-Pierre Balagny, alias Capuchin, was broken on the wheel in Paris. He was one of the lieutenants and boon companions of legendary French outlaws Cartouche. We have noted that...
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1761: Jacinto Canek, Mayan revolutionary
On this date in 1761, King Canek Chan Montezuma was torn apart in the main square of Merida. This august regnal name was asserted by a shaman previously known as Jacinto Uc de los Santos (English...
View Article1673: The effigy of Charles Alexis dit Dessessards
According to this registry of events in French Quebec before the English conquest, one Charles Alexis dit Dessessards was ordered broken on the wheel by Quebec’s high executioner on this date in 1673....
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1705: The Camisards Catinat and Ravanel
On this date in 1705, two men were burned at the stake and two others broken on the wheel — Camisards all, put to death in Nimes, France. The Camisards* were French Protestants of the mountainous...
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1584: Balthasar Gerard, assassin of William the Silent
“If you succeed in your enterprise, the King will fulfill all his promises, and you will gain an immortal name besides.” – Christoffel d’Assonleville, to Balthasar Gérard After 4 days of torture, on...
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1698: Old Believer popes and Princess Sophia’s petitioners
This entry in our Corpses Strewn series on the October 1698 extirpation of the Streltsy is courtesy of the diaries of Austrian diplomat Johann Georg Korb, an eyewitness to the events. Today was...
View Article1698: The last Streltsy executed in October
This entry in our Corpses Strewn series on the October 1698 extirpation of the Streltsy is courtesy of the diaries of Austrian diplomat Johann Georg Korb, an eyewitness to the events. Again, in front...
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1653: Jasper Hanebuth, robber and murderer
On this date in 1653, the German bandit Jasper Hanebuth was broken on the wheel in Hanover. An illiterate farmer’s son from Groß-Buchholz, Hanebuth came of age during the calamitous Thirty Years’ War...
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1771: Matthias Klostermayr, the Bavarian Hiasl
On this date in 1771, the German outlaw Matthias Klostermayr was broken on the wheel in Dillingen. The “Bavarian Robin Hood” (English Wikipedia entry | German) led a band of poachers (their merriness...
View Article1584: Anders Bengtsson, unchristian man and tyrant
(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.) Sometime in October 1584 in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, one Anders Bengtsson was sentenced to death for his crimes “against...
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1476: Israel, the last execution of the Trent blood libel trial
We have covered in these pages the horrific blood libel trial that sent most of the Jews of Trent to execution for the supposed ritual murder of the child Simon of Trent. The moral panic (and...
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1715: Lips Tullian, outlaw and comic hero
On this date in 1715, the legendary outlaw Filip Mengstein was broken on the wheel in Dresden’s marketplace, along with four henchmen. With the wiseguy nickname “Lips Tullian”, our cutthroat’s gangland...
View Article1290: Alv Erlingsson, the Last Viking
Around the spring of 1290, bad-boy Norwegian nobleman Alv Erlingsson was broken on the wheel by a Danish sheriff. Sometimes remembered as the “last Viking”, Erlinggson (English Wikipedia entry |...
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1589: Franz Seuboldt, broken parricide
We have had occasion to profile the famous Nuremberg executioner (and diarist) Franz Schmidt, who is the subject of a recent book on his life and times. This date in 1589 marked one of executioner...
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1638: Stepan Ostryanin, Cossack hetman
(Thanks to friend of the blog Sonechka for research, translation, and background information touching this post. -ed.) October 14 (October 1 O.S.) is a liturgical feast celebrating the protective...
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1781: Gaspard de Besse, social bandit
The French robber Gaspard de Besse was broken on the wheel in Aix-en-Provence on this date in 1781. From a cave in the Esterel Mountains looming over the French Riviera, Gaspard raided the ample...
View Article1556: A canon’s servant
We’ve touched in these pages on the appealing diary of Felix Platter, a youth from Basel, Switzerland, studying medicine in Montpellier, France. This was published in English as Beloved Son Felix;...
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