Women executioners are a rare breed, but here is an article from 1899 listing two women who become public executioners.
Women Executioners
Belgium Had One Recently And Virginia Had One Years Ago
What do you think of a woman who voluntarily offered herself to the government as the public executioner? A few years ago the official public executioner at Brussels died and a substitute was temporarily appointed , says the New York Herald. On one occasion this person was ill and unable to attend. But at the appointed hour a stout middle aged woman presented herself at the central police station and quietly remarked to the assembled functionaries: “I’ve come for the execution. My husband is not very well this morning and has asked me to take his place. Please let us get to business.”
The general stupefaction may be more easily imagined than described, which, being noticed by the would be lady executioner, she added in a reassuring tone: “Oh, this is not by any means the first time.” It afterward transpired that the woman, whose name was Marie Rege, had officiated on several occasion in lieu of her husband. Dressed up in his clothes and her face masked, she had been the public executioner at several executions, and never had the proceedings been interrupted by a single hitch.
It is needless to add that the police authorities were unable to avail themselves of her offer on this occasion, however. It will be a surprise to most people to learn that there has actually been a woman executioner in this country.
In olden times few cared to undertake the office of executioner and occasionally death sentences were respited on condition that the criminal should perform this office. A case of this sort occurred in the pre-revolutionary days, when a woman was sentenced to death for a murder she had committed in Virginia. The death sentence was respited on her offering to become public executioner, and known as “Lady Betty” she performed these duties for many years. She officiated on the scaffold without any mask or disguise and flogged criminals through the streets with enthusiastic vigor.
Source: The Philipsburg Mail. Newspaper. August 25, 1899.
