French aristocrat, 'playboy' of Paris, dies on guillotine

Son of millionaire is first of clas executed since Revolution; Goes to death calmly

The Pittsburgh Press

December 26, 1931

Paris - Georges Gauchet, 25, son of a millionaire who became a drug addict and murdered a jeweler, died on a guillotine outside Sante Prison this morning, before a large crowd gathered in the fog.

Gauchet went to his death silently. His head dropped into the guillotine basket as the chimes of a nearby church struck 7.

The curious crowd included men and women in evening dress from cabarets, messenger boys and laborers who paused for a few minutes on their way to work.

Gauchet was the first member of high French society guillotined since the French Revolution.

The execution was the second in Paris this year.

A "man about town", Gauchet had a large fortune with which to amuse himself. He passed most of his nights in the cabarets of Montmartre and met a beautiful woman who, police believed, induced him to take drugs and helped him squander his money.

The boy was reduced to poverty and his friends refused to advance him more money. Police say he was under the influence of drugs when he tried to rob a jeweler's shop.

He attacked the jeweler with a hammer and then killed him with a revolver.

"The verdict is just," Gauchet said when he was sentence to die. "Guillotine me as soon as possible".

Frech legal code provides that the guillotine be set up outside the prison so the public may witness the execution. Gauchet was given the customary cigar and glass of rum before he was taken from the prison.

The Widow

Time.com

Monday, Jan. 04, 1932

To U. S. crooks the electric chair is the "Hot Squat." To French crooks the guillotine is "The Widow." Last week the Widow raised her black arms outside the Prison de la Sante in Paris. A morbid crowd of night club habitues in evening dress, messenger boys, street sweepers, workmen and tramps gathered in the grey morning light to see what is said to be the first guillotining of a French aristocrat since the Revolution.

Georges Gauchet, 25, well brought up son of a millionaire, squandered a fortune on Montmartre, became a dope addict, was cut off by his family. Impoverished, he broke into a jeweler's store on the fashionable Avenue Mozart, killed the jeweler with a hammer and a revolver.

"I deserve to die," said he. He refused to apply for executive clemency.

By an old and grim law of the French Republic, the guillotine must be set up in a public place to discourage wrongdoers. Modern French police do everything in their power to make it difficult for the morbid to see an execution. Last week strong police cordons blocked off the street 200 yards on either side of the Widow. Gaping butchers' boys peered over policemen's shoulders to see the tiny figure descend from a horse-drawn van. refuse the traditional cigar and glass of rum. There was a huddle round the base of the guillotine, then the knife crashed down as a church bell struck seven.