A few examples are enough as an introduction of how the Spanish press reported on executions with the vile garrote at the beginning of the 20th century. It is striking that at a time as advanced as that, they aroused such great expectation among the population and journalists, who gathered outside the prisons to ask relatives and witnesses about the details of the last minutes of the condemned man.
This has been the case since this medieval device was established by Ferdinand VII. In 1922, for example, in ‘La Voz’ you could read headlines like ‘Today’s executions’. A year later, in ‘El Sol’, something similar: ‘The prisoners of Terrasa have been executed.’ “Both prisoners stubbornly refused to receive spiritual help,” the latter newspaper reported. One of them was advised to say goodbye to his mother and he replied: ‘I don’t have her, she died in 1913.’ Then they asked him to do it, at least, for his brother and the rest of his family. ‘No, they will find out about my death from the newspapers.’
Of all the cases that I have found in the ABC newspaper archive and the National Library of Spain (BNE), none are as unusual and surreal as the one involving José González Irigoyen, an 81-year-old executioner. Son, cousin and brother of executioners, who before turning 10 was already helping his father in the sinister art of the vile garrote. He did not lack experience. On his back, in fact, he had accumulated 56 years of service and 191 deaths when he was required to carry out what was going to be his last service: killing Juan Chinchurreta, a soldier who went down in history as one of the most gruesome and shocking executions. of Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries. All this, in the presence of a thousand neighbors in the heart of Zaragoza.
The cause was nonsense from the beginning. Chinchurreta had been sentenced to capital punishment, along with another soldier and a corporal from Jaca, as perpetrators of the Anzánigo crime: the murder of Pascual Abad, 24 years old, to steal the 50 pesetas he had received for working on the construction sites. the railway line from Zaragoza to Canfranc (Huesca). The two cronies always proclaimed their innocence, although they acknowledged that they were with the murderer at the time of the murder.
Corporal Ibargüen was pardoned shortly before the date set for the execution. Guerrero, for his part, did not seem like he would suffer the same fate, but something happened at the last moment: “Moments after confessing to the priest, soldier Chinchurreta called the investigating judge to declare that he was the only author of the crime.” crime. He quickly notified the case to the captain general and the auditor by telephone. The convicted man said that he had committed the murder alone and that Guerrero and Ibargüen (the latter already pardoned) were innocent, since they had neither materially nor morally intervened in the murder. He also recognized that he had imposed himself on them through the terror he instilled,” reported ‘El Correo Español’. ‘El Heraldo de Madrid’ added other details in this regard: «With his companion already executed, Guerrero has been granted a pardon. The news affected him so much that although he wanted to burst into tears, he couldn’t. He was later taken to military prisons, where he testified again. The pardon was received with general joy, which would have been complete if it had also reached the unfortunate man whose corpse still lies warm on the repugnant boards of the dishonorable scaffold.
Concentrations
Chinchurreta, in fact, did not obtain clemency from the Government as the confessed author of the crime, despite the fact that the victim’s family and the City Council of Ayerbe (Huesca) asked for his pardon. His “sloppy and embarrassing” execution, on January 17, 1893, marked a milestone in the rejection of the death penalty by the Aragonese. We must not forget that in Zaragoza the liberal bourgeoisie and anarchism had been taking root for some time, two ideologies opposed to capital punishment.
A year before, in fact, there had been gatherings in the city at the doors of the prison, in the Court and in the Civil Government, with the aim of preventing the vile garrote from being applied to two of the four convicted by the Murder of a hat maker. The other two had already been pardoned, so the protesters were convinced that they could also obtain forgiveness for the other two. Their conviction was such that they even ignored the orders to dissolve and continued protests at the university, in the Captaincy, in the Military Hospital and in the Archbishopric. Even the stores closed and several public workers refused to be hired for such a task. The pressure ended up having an effect and the same afternoon that they were to be executed, these two prisoners finally received a pardon from the authorities.
In the case of Chinchurreta, however, everything continued its course. The octogenarian executioner seemed to be happy that Pascual Abad’s murderer did not receive clemency. Such was the rejection he received from the neighbors that Irigoyen was described by the newspapers as a “sinister character, bent over and ailing.” The same ‘Heraldo de Madrid’ said of him: “He is 81 years old, has completely white hair and has a very unfriendly appearance that makes him extremely repulsive.”
The executioner fulfilled his obligations with pleasure and was even offensive towards his colleagues, whom he accused of being finicky. He forgot his trembling legs when applying the club in recent years. Or that he had shown on some occasion that he killed badly, an unforgivable fact for the rest of the executioners, who considered it a humiliation to take longer than necessary to send the prisoner to the other world.
The pride of the executioner
At that moment in his life, and clinging to his position despite his eighty chestnuts, Irigoyen had problems even climbing the scaffold. And that day was not going to be different, which did not stop him from showing his temper and being demanding. «Contrary to what is customary, the executioner, under the pretext of his advanced age, has expressed his desire to raise the stage during the day. When they tried to dissuade him, he responded that if this was not done, he would refuse to work. Given their attitude, their requests were granted and they began to raise the scaffold, with a group of infantry soldiers standing guard to avoid any eventuality,” ‘El Liberal’ said.
The day started badly and would end worse. Irigoyen was testing the club before Chinchurreta arrived. Everything was ready, with the journalists and about a thousand neighbors gathered in the Central Market square to witness the absurdity that ‘El Heraldo de Madrid’ described in the following way: “First he took off Chinchurreta’s military jacket, then immediately put his clothes on him. and tying his hands and feet. He spent a lot of time on this task, doing it with such cynicism that it made a painful impression on those present. The prisoner remained silent the entire time and automatically obeyed everything the executioner ordered. When the supreme moment arrived, thousands of people gathered around the scaffold defended by the military. The snow fell in tiny flakes that hurt the face as if they were artillery and the cold, which was already extraordinary in itself, increased.
The entire ritual followed the same pattern of the time. The prisoner was transported by car or mule to the place where he had committed the crime for which he was convicted. Afterwards he was sent to prison for a day, what is known as “being in chapel.” During that time, the executioner had to be as close to him as possible, often in an adjoining cell, because when the time came he had to dress him and ask for forgiveness. Finally, the prisoner was allowed to choose the last meal and later went in procession to the scaffold, together with the priests, the hooded brotherhoods and, sometimes, even with a military band. “May God grant that Zaragoza is free from such a tremendous spectacle!” cried ‘El Diario de Huelva’, without its words being heard.
The “horror”
The description of what happened varied in detail depending on the newspaper, but they all agreed on the “horror” of the scene. «The crowd eagerly followed the slightest movements of the prisoner. He went up to the scaffold nervously agitated, moved. Without saying a word, he took his place on the bench. The executioner, meanwhile, quietly concluded the preparations. The priest then covered the prisoner’s face with a black handkerchief. The executioner then tightened the screw and the people screamed in horror. The condemned man, seized by nervous convulsions, shook several times in the dock and suffered a horrible death due to the ineptitude of the executioner and his advanced age,” reported ‘El Heraldo de Madrid’.
The version of ‘La Época’ was so rich in details that it was impressive: «Chinchurreta’s expression when he ascended the scaffold was one of indifference, the same one he had shown before in the chapel. The executioner tested the device and the prisoner then sat on the bench so that the ring could be tightened around his neck. He stayed in this position for three minutes, until he finally made up his mind. Then he put a black handkerchief over his face and turned the screw, but something horrible happened: since Chinchurreta’s feet were not tied, they were thrown into the air in convulsive movements. To this we had to add that the executioner was not capable of carrying out his task and had to turn the device five and a half more times, which made the unfortunate soldier suffer desperately. Rumors of protest were heard among the public.
It was ‘El Correo Militar’ that was most critical of the actions of our octogenarian protagonist: “After Chinchurreta willingly granted his forgiveness to the executioner, the priest said: ‘As a token of charity, my son, hug him.’ When the condemned man was about to do so, the executioner withdrew and responded in a dry tone: ‘No, I don’t allow it.’ Since the prisoner did not promptly take off his jacket to be dressed, González Irigoyen added: ‘Come on, come on, come on.’ Regarding the execution, the rudeness and harshness revealed by the aforementioned details, the executioner added the lack of strength and aptitude to carry out his sad mission as a consequence of his age. “Our colleagues in the capital of Aragon protested what happened and asked for his replacement.”
When the details of that episode reached the ears of the president of the Zaragoza Court, he opened a file and asked that the appropriate medical tests be carried out. They concluded that, since he was already 81 years old, he was not in a position to practice his profession and was suspended. Seven years after that episode, the brothers Mariano and Lorenzo Ara, convicted of a robbery with homicide in the Plaza del Justicia in Zaragoza, were pardoned on the eve of their execution, while the Army rebuilt the scaffold that someone had destroyed.
#oldest #executioner #Spain #botched #public #execution #cry #horror
