Jules-Henri Desfourneaux (French pronunciation: [ʒyl ɑ̃ʁi defuʁno]; 17 December 1877 – 1 October 1951) was a French executioner who served as the 5th Monsieur de Paris from 1939 until 1951. He was the last executioner to officiate in public. Desfourneaux participated in around 350 executions and officiated as the chief executioner among 190 of them.
Early life and family Desfourneaux was born in Bar-le-Duc to Nicolas Ernest Desfourneaux and Catherine Jeannot, as the youngest of three children; a fourth brother was stillborn in 1879. His father was a shirt tailor and carpenter while his mother was a homemaker. Following the death of his mother on 16 May 1892, Desfourneaux's father moved the family to the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Desfourneaux's paternal family have acted as executioners for several prefectures and subprefectures in central France, the earliest known being Jean Desfourneaux from 1706 to 1747 in Vierzon. There have been at least twelve Desfourneaux executioners between the 18th and 19th century in Vierzon, Issoudun, Bourges, Moulins, Metz, Blois, and Châteauroux, sometimes as many as three generations. Nicolas Ernest Desfourneaux, however, had chosen not to pursue the family profession in the mid-19th century, not long before local executions were abolished in 1870 and restructured to be performed by a national chief executioner office.
Career As a youth, Desfourneaux gained a keen interest in the make and design of velocipedes, particularly those powered by internal combustion engines. Desfourneaux became a motorboat mechanic and worked abroad as a teenager, including Russia and India. On 30 December 1895, he enlisted in the Troupes de marine for four years, not including eleven months of training. Desfourneaux was stationed in French Indochina between 1897 and 1899. He was secretive about his life before becoming an executioner, but it is known that he got a tattoo on his left hand during this time, a snake coiling around a dagger. It was noted that this was a common motif amongst mariners, specifically to convey a desire for vengeance, but Desfourneaux refused to tell anyone his reason for this design choice.
Substitute assistant Returning to France in the early 1900s, Desfourneaux entered an affair with Parisian woman Juliette Foussadier, who gave birth to his son Fernand in 1905. In 1907, he became the fiancée of Georgette Rogis, a common-law niece of chief executioner Anatole Deibler and member of another prominent executioner family. Two distant cousins of Desfourneaux, Edouard and Léopold Desfourneaux, were working as assistants under Deibler. After they were formally introduced, Deibler, who did not have a son to serve as a potential successor to the chief executioner title, recruited his prospective nephew as an occasional substitute executioner's assistant in late 1908. He attended his first execution on 11 January 1909 in Béthune, when the four leaders of the Pollet Gang were executed. On 17 April 1909, the couple married in a ceremony held at the high-class Le Pré Catelan restaurant in Bois de Boulogne, after which Desfourneaux partook more often in Deibler's executions, though keeping his primary work as a mechanic. Desfourneaux's domestic life was tumultuous. Desfourneaux had been secretly caring for his illegitimate firstborn, which he continued to do after the birth of his son René in 1910. His wife Georgette, despite being 12 years his junior, was controlling of the household's finances, which influenced Desfourneaux's spending habits. Georgette also made Desfourneaux go by Henri rather than Jules as she "hated the name" and forced him to burn off his snake tattoo. Desfourneaux's son René also seemed disinterested in becoming an executioner.
Second assistant After serving during World War I, Desfourneaux received the title of second executioner's assistant in 1919. In May 1922, Desfourneaux met André Obrecht, his common-law cousin, when Deibler hired him as a second assistant. Both men instantly disliked one another, as Obrecht criticised Desfourneaux for his perceived slowness and clumsy performance during executions. Desfourneaux himself grew increasingly uneasy after each execution and would not be on speaking terms for some time. In 1926, Desfourneaux began operating an auto repair shop with René in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
First assistant On 7 February 1930, Desfourneaux was named first assistant after the death of its previous holder, his father-in-law Louis Rogis. The position made it so that he was to replace Deibler in case of death, unless Deibler explicitly named a different successor. On 2 November 1934, René Desfourneaux died by suicide in Le Havre, aged 24, following a failed romantic relationship. The death of his son caused Desfourneaux to become depressed and he began abusing alcohol in order to cope with the loss. He closed down his auto shop during this time and instead took a job as a delivery driver for an electronics manufacturer. On 14 January 1938, Desfourneaux performed his first direct execution in Saint-Brieuc, as Deibler was unavailable due to illness. 23-year-old Lucien Boulay was executed for the rape and murder of 9-year-old Thérèse Rouault.
Chief executioner When Anatole Deibler died of a heart attack in February 1939, it was yet undecided who would take the chief executioner office. On 4 February, two days after Deibler's death, Desfourneaux executed Maurice Pilorge for the murder of his lover Néstor Escudero. Pilorge was meant to be executed by Deibler on the day of his death as his 300th beheading in the chief executioner role and had been given a stay of execution as a result. Given the choice between Desfourneaux and Obrecht, Deibler's widow Rosalie spoke in favor of Desfourneaux, since he had amassed a large debt and would be unable to repay her if he did not earn a high salary. Desfourneaux's official appointment followed on 15 March, with Obrecht became Desfourneaux's first assistant. In total, he performed 190 executions in this position. Over the next three months, Desfourneaux presided over the final three public executions in France:
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