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Christopher Lee Witnessed The Last Public Execution By Guillotine
Sir Christopher Lee led one of the most incredible lives ever, including witnessing the last public execution by guillotine.
Joe Harker
Joe Harker
Sir Christopher Lee witnessed the last public execution carried out by guillotine as just one of the many parts of his incredible life.
On 17 June 1939, convicted serial killer Eugen Weidmann was publicly executed by guillotine in Versailles, France after murdering and robbing six people.
When police tried to arrest Weidmann, he opened fire on them and was only apprehended after wounded officers wrestled him to the ground and knocked him unconscious with a hammer.
I think the answer to that is "probably". He never lied about verifiable things in his autobiography, but some aspects (particularly those he implied about working with the SAS are just a bit too good to be true and inherently a bit fishy.
War is less costly than servitude. The choice is always between Verdun and Dachau. - Jean Dutourd
I don’t think there is much doubt about the Weidemann execution, or at least reason for doubt.
Regarding his war record, Lee would never overtly claim certain things, but would obliquely imply the possibility and let that most scurrilous species of rodentia (journalists) fill in the gaps in a fashion that would lead to them writing or telling the story.
The extent to which he was a liaison officer with SOE as compared to an RAF intelligence officer ‘working’ with them in a general sense is fairly much a fun little thing for the history books and biographers. The worst thing that could be said about Sir Christopher is that he wasn’t forward in correcting embellished stories about and around his record. He had that interesting - nay, incredible - life that people tend to believe the tinsel.
