Emily Chan
Crowds of people attended the beheadings. Spectators could purchase souvenirs, skim programs with lists of the victims’ names, and enjoy a bite to eat at a restaurant called “Cabaret de la Guillotine.”
Countless songs, poems, and jokes made mention of the machine. Guillotin’s family was so mortified that they eventually changed their name.
According to an Instagram post, guillotine earrings were also popular, as the guillotine became the symbol of the French Revolution.
They depicted the machine with Phrygian caps on top to represent liberty. On the bottoms of the earrings hung the decapitated heads of the king and queen.
Between June 1793 and July 1794, around 16,594 people were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.
The last person to meet his end by the guillotine was Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer, in 1977. France finally abolished capital punishment in 1981.
