Vidocq and the Sansons

An Interview with the Chief Executioner of France

The following curious and apparently authentic details of an interview with the Chief Executioner of France, and one of the greatest thief-catchers, appears in an English magazine, the Cornhill:

“Among my Parisian acquaintances was M. Appert. He was the almoner to the Queen of the French. In the discharge of his duties, he was brought into contact with all the vagabondism and profligacy of Paris; he was familiar with the haunts of rascaldom when out of the hands of justice, and with the most distinguished of the representatives of rascaldom when justice had seized them for its prey. In his company I visited and associated with some of the fiercest ruffians and most daring burglars of the French Capital. Through him I was brought into personal contact with Sanson, the executioner, and Vidocq, the spy. I will record a few reminiscences connected with his name and history. I dined with him on one occasion (it was about the a third of a century ago), when among the invited guests were Vidocq and the two Sansons (father and son—the headman’s office being an inheritance.)  Several gentlemen known in the literary world were present. In no other place than Paris could there have been such service du table. And the meeting was more remarkable, as it was the first time that Sanson had ever seen the man who had furnished him so much food for the guillotine; and it gave Vidocq the opportunity of making many inquiries as to the deportment of illustrious victims in the moment supreme of violent death.

“Sanson, the father, was a man of huge size—in stature more than six feet—of a placid and serious expression of countenance. He might have passed for a country gentleman, ‘at ease in his possessions.’  I could have pointed out a ‘turtle-loving’ Alderman or two to whom he bore a… Read More