by marriage Marcel Chevalier, his assistant since 1958. Chevalier performed the final two guillotinings in France, of Jérôme Carrein in Douai and Hamida Djandoubi, both in 1977. Death Obrecht died on 30 July 1985 in a Nice hospital. Four years later, reporter Jean Ker, who interviewed him many times, released a book called Le Carnet Noir du Bourreau (The Executioners' Black Diary), a biography. Obrecht left an image of himself as a normal man albeit a womaniser, quite authoritative at work and, more than anything else, lonely because of his job. References 1899 births 1985 deaths Civil servants from Paris French executioners