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Henri Clément Sanson

Also known as: Henri Clément Sanson; primary name: Sanson, Henri Clément; other name: Sanson, Henry Clément
Details: individual; author/poet; French; Male
Life dates: 1799-1889
Biography: The last in a dynasty of public executioners (he was the grandson of Charles Henri Sanson, q.v.), he held the post from 1840 to 1847; he was dismissed when it transpired he had pawned the guillotine to pay off his debts. Afterwards he published his family's memoirs, 'Sept générations d'exécuteurs, 1688-1847: mémoires des Sanson' (a reworked version of the apocryphal memoirs of his grandfather).