Maybe not fun, but interesting fact: In medieval times in Europe, torturer and executioner were professions regulated by law and there existed executioner guilds. People in them did put years of hard work into getting their torture degree. And getting Master degree at executions were even harder.
Executioners had kinda pariah status, but there were many willing to become one, because there was pretty big money in it, there were official price lists for their services (that is, tortures and executions) and famous executioners even travelled to other countries to perform. They often also supervised legal but “unclean” business in cities like brothels, which also of course bring extra money. They were naturally often involved in underworld too, iirc at least one executioner was publicly tortured and executed because he overstepped the line at this.
I’m not sure whether this was widespread, but I was on holiday once and visited an old prison. The tour guide said that the executioners were prosecuted after each hanging. Even though it was for the state, murder is still illegal. The judge would accept the guilty plea and order the executioner to pay a penny fine. I thought that was strange.
Maybe not fun, but interesting fact: In medieval times in Europe, torturer and executioner were professions regulated by law and there existed executioner guilds. People in them did put years of hard work into getting their torture degree. And getting Master degree at executions were even harder.
Executioners had kinda pariah status, but there were many willing to become one, because there was pretty big money in it, there were official price lists for their services (that is, tortures and executions) and famous executioners even travelled to other countries to perform. They often also supervised legal but “unclean” business in cities like brothels, which also of course bring extra money. They were naturally often involved in underworld too, iirc at least one executioner was publicly tortured and executed because he overstepped the line at this.
I’m not sure whether this was widespread, but I was on holiday once and visited an old prison. The tour guide said that the executioners were prosecuted after each hanging. Even though it was for the state, murder is still illegal. The judge would accept the guilty plea and order the executioner to pay a penny fine. I thought that was strange.
Never heard about that, but customs varied in times and places.