For many of us, it is hard to believe that any woman has ever been an executioner. It seems that throughout history, the role of executioner has always been taken by a man. Research shows that this is far from accurate. Women have always taken a role in the execution of people, from ancient history to the present day.
Traditionally, the identity of the executioner has almost always been held a secret. This is done to protect the executioner from those who might seek revenge. Besides, who would want to be associated with an executioner in their day to day life? Probably no one, and this is why it is so difficult to find the names of executioners and even harder to find the names of women executioners.
Mafdet
Where does the idea of women executioners come from? It almost feels like something new that could be found in a video game or some of the newer comic books. However, female executioners have been around since ancient times.
While there are few records on ancient executioners, we need only take a look at religion to see that there were goddesses who took on the role of executioner.
In ancient Egypt, there was Mafdet, a goddess of justice and the executioner of evil doers. She was portrayed as either cat with a woman head or a woman with the head of a feline. Her role was to protect the pharaoh from the wicked and would rip out their hearts and place the hearts at the feet of the pharaoh.
This cat goddess, like the more well known Bast, was worshipped in Bubastis with other feline deities. Her other duties included slaying serpents and helping the souls of the dead find their way to the Netherworld. [SOURCE 11]
Nemesis
The ancient Greeks also had a vengeful goddess executioner. Nemesis, daughter of Nyx (goddess of night), brought balance among people. She was the protectress of the wronged and the humble. She punished wrong doers, the proud, and ruthless criminals. She brought balance to the system as an all powerful female deity and she was called upon by her followers whenever they needed her help.
Nemesis was also worshipped by the ancient Romans and had her own cult following. She was the vengeful goddess of the gladiators and shrines were built for her inside the amphitheaters where the gladiators would ask her to act through them to exact righteous vengeance upon their enemies.
Today the goddess Nemesis is merely a word that means archenemy. A nemesis is someone or something who will bring about your downfall. She no longer brings about justice and a balanced social order, but has been made insignificant over the centuries. [SOURCES 12, 13]
Lady Betty
Lady Betty is probably one of Ireland’s most infamous of women. Born in 1750, she married and poor farmer and had three children with him. After her husband’s death, Lady Betty left County Kerry to go to Roscommon. On the way, she lost her two youngest children to starvation.
With only her son left, the two reached Roscommon only to find themselves in the same situation as before. Her son could no longer stand being so destitute and left for America. Lady Betty stayed behind and years passed by. She rented out space in her room to travelers for extra pennies.
One night a young, wealthy man came to stay. Lady Betty saw the man had a lot of cash on him and in a mad desire to go see her son, she killed the man for his money. Sadly enough, the young man had been her son and Lady Betty turned herself in. She was sentenced to hanging.
Lady Betty’s background, a mother who lost three children, one by her own hand, was surely what formed her into the woman she would become. On the day of her hanging, there were 25 other people who were also to be hung and no hangman could be found to do the job.
No doubt, out of desperation, Lady Betty volunteered to do the job. She killed all the prisoners that day and the next day she executed some more.
Horrible stories surrounded the frightful Lady Betty who showed no reserve when it came to executing prisoners. For her own safety, she lived inside the Roscommon Jail and was buried there in 1807. [SOURCES 1, 2]
Marie Rege
Marie Rege seems to have been skipped over by the history books, but you can find brief mention of her in a few newspapers from over 100 years ago. In 1899, a newspaper article announced that Brussels had a women executioner a few years previous to publication.
According to the story, Marie Rege’s husband was the executioner. One day her husband was to ill to show up for work, so Marie showed up instead. The people in charge were in shock that a woman was willing to perform the day’s executions, but she assured the men that this wasn’t her first time. In fact, her husband had been sick on more than one occasion and Marie simply put on his clothing, covered her face with a cloth mask, and performed the executions while pretending to be a man. No one would have been the wiser, but she obviously got tired of dressing up as her husband and showed up as herself. [SOURCE 3]
Elisabeth Volkenrath
Elisabeth Volkenrath started out working in a hairdressing salon, but it wasn’t long before she was called into the national service of the Nazi regime. She began working to make sure that the Nazi prisoners did their work and that they did not escape. She was eventually transferred to the infamous Auschwitz camp and oversaw the mending of prisoner uniforms.
According to Elisabeth Volkenrath, she had nothing to do with the selection or deaths of the prisoners held in the camps. Eyewitnesses, however, told a different story.
At her trial, it was learned that she not only held a position over the prisoners, but that she may have also took part in the selection of prisoners for the gas chambers. In one accusation, it was pointed out that she was allowed to pick who would go to the gas chambers and that one day, out of 1400 prisoners, she left only 300 prisoners to live. The rest were sent to their deaths. She was also accused by a witness of beating prisoners, some to their death. She particularly liked to beat other women, perhaps because she did not like the female competition for the affection of the male guards and officers.
In spite of denying all the accusations for her role in the mass execution of prisoners, Elisabeth Volkenrath was sentenced to death and hanged in 1945. [SOURCES 7, 8]
Antonina Makarova
Born in the Soviet Union, Antonina was 19 years old and living in Moscow when she volunteered to fight the Nazi’s, along with the other young people who were eager to fight for their country. Not long after, she was taken prisoner by the SS. No doubt as a way to preserve her own life, when she was asked if she would become the German’s executioner and be willing to execute other Russians, she agreed to do the task.
When it was time to perform the executions, a group of 27 prisoners were set before a pit and Antonina killed them one by one. She would often take the best clothing from her victims, wash the items clean, and add them to her heap in her quarters. It was believed that she had executed 1,500 people.
After the fall of the Nazis, Antonina managed to escape and was not found again until 1976. It is believed that she was executed by shooting in 1978. [SOURCE 6]
Huda Ben Amir
In 1984 Colonel Gaddafi promised the people of Libya a grand trial in Benghazi’s basketball court. Children and students showed up for the event, including Huda Ben Amir, a low end Gaddafi loyalist. Instead of a trial, the event turned out to be Gaddafi’s first hanging of a political enemy.
The political enemy, Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy, an aeronautical engineer, was strung up and left to swing and kick at the end of the rope. Knowing that Gaddafi promoted not only loyalty, but ruthlessness as well, Huda walked up to the condemned man, grabbed his kicking legs, and pulled down on the man’s body until he was dead. Gaddafi saw the young woman on his television and shortly thereafter she rose up through the ranks. By 2011 she was the most powerful woman in Libya. Hated and feared, she would tell people that what Libya needed was more hangings.
To the people of Libya she is known as Huda Al-Shannaga which means Huda the executioner. [SOURCE 4]
Nisreen Mansour al Forgani
In Libya, men felt that it was better to have their throats slit than to be killed by a woman. This is why Colonel Gaddafi liked to use women as executioners. It was a final insult to the man who was about to be killed.
In 2011, the news exploded with pictures and accounts of then 19 year old Nisreen Mansour al Forgani who was coined the “girl executioner.” Chained to a hospital bed and held as prisoner to the rebels, Nisreen was able to tell her story.
According to her account, she was pulled into Gaddafi’s all-female militia by her mother’s friend, one of the leaders of this militia. She was taught how to shoot and was trained as a sniper. While there, she was also raped by the higher up men.
During the rebel uprising, she claims that she was forced to execute 10 to 11 captured rebels. The men, supposedly her comrades, held guns to her and told her that if she did not execute the rebels, they would kill her. She complied with their demands until she was able to jump out of the second story window and limp her way out of the compound. [SOURCE 5]
Jeanne Woodford
If you were required by law to carry out the execution of another human being, could you do it? Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin and the prison’s first female warden, oversaw the executions of four men.
Woodford is neither a cold blooded executioner nor someone who was forced against her will to follow out the executioners. All four men had been sentenced to death by the state of California and it was her responsibility to carry out the will of the people.
Woodford said in an interview that she still has nightmares about the executions. Since leaving her position as warden, she has worked hard to get the death penalty abolished in California. In her own words, “Imagine going to work every day…planning to kill someone.” Fortunately, most of us will never know that feeling, and Woodford saw firsthand that capital punishment solves nothing. It doesn’t stop future crimes from happening and it doesn’t prevent anyone from committing those same crimes. Instead she recommends that we switch to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. [SOURCE 10]
ISIS Girl Executioner
Most of us cannot imagine using a child to carry out violent executions, so when the news broke out in March of 2016 that a 12 year old girl executed several people in Mosul, Iraq, most of the world was shocked and disgusted. The account states that the girl executed a doctor and four other women because they refused to provide treatment to ISIS fighters who had been injured in an air strike.
While this incident marks the first known time that ISIS has used a young girl to carry out its executions, ISIS is known for training young boys to shoot, fight, and kill. Girls, on the other hand, are well known to be mistreated inside the ISIS strongholds, living brutal lives of fear and pain. To learn that girls, along with the boys, are being desensitized to death, it leaves one scared as to the future of these brutalized children. [SOURCE 9]
Sources:
3. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025320/1899-08-25/ed-1/seq-7/
6. http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/08/11/1978-antonina-makarova-nazi-executioner/
7. http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Trial/Trial/TrialDefenceCase/Trial_032_Volkenrath.html
8. http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2014/09/female-camp-guards.html
9. http://www.clarionproject.org/news/12-year-old-girl-latest-executioner-islamic-state
10. http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/the-repentant-executioner
