Guillotine
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Real Identity: Not Applicable
Appearances (BTAS): The Worry Men
Powers/Skills: Execution
Voiced By: Not Applicable
In the late 18th century, Louis XVI ended the use of the breaking wheel and a new form of capital punishment was sought out. The National Assembly decided this device would offer a quick and painless death. After researching the Italian Mannaia, the Scottish Maiden, and the Halifax Gibbet, the Assembly replaced the blunt blade with a crescent one and added a lunette to hold the head in place. Laquiante, Tobias Schmidt, and Antoine Louis are credited with designing the prototype guillotine. The first execution by guillotine was of a highway robber named Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on April 25, 1792. It soon became the only legal execution method in France. The execution by guillotine became a public event during the French Revolution. It is believed anywhere between 16,000 and 40,000 were killed by the device. The last public execution was of a murderer named Eugen Weidmann on June 17, 1939.
Guillotines were used in other European countries such as Belgium and Germany and were even used by the Nazi Party, whom killed 16,500 with them. The guillotine remained as the method of execution in France until 1981, when the death penalty was abolished. The last criminal to be executed was Hamida Djandoubi, murderer, on September 10, 1977. Through some means, a guillotine came into the possession of the Mad Hatter, one of many homages made to the story Alice in Wonderland. While stealing from the Gotham elite with Worry Men, the Mad Hatter attempted to kill Batman with the device. Batman managed to stop the blade with his feet while shorting out the circuitry controlling Hatter's henchmen. After defeating the villain, the guillotine was likely confiscated by the Gotham City Police Department.