Executioner is called the person whose job is the execution of people who are sentenced to death or, failing that, execute a physical and quite severe punishment, in a few words it can be said that an executioner is the one who murders the person doomed. This work is closely related to past times since death as a form of punishment was something of the day to day, which was sometimes carried out in public, in ancient times it was the executioner who was in charge of starting the gallows or the guillotine.
Through the centuries the people who have exercised this role have been very varied, but generally, this office was passed from generation to generation, inherited to the children by their parents and even from family to family, it was common for celebrations such as marriages were carried out between families who exercised the office of the executioner, since they enjoyed a very bad reputation. In ancient Rome the role of executioner was exercised by the so-called lictors (public officials of the time), however in some cases the slaves were forced to perform executioner functions, for their part in the Israelite towns the penalties were carried out by all the members of the town, including family members and even the same judge who handed down the sentence.
To protect the identity of these people were assigned a special dress consisting of a robe colored black that covered most of his body and a hood to cover his face, only holes in the face.
At present, this work is not a pleasant job at all, it is special for the mental health of those who exercise it, as it is well known that it can leave considerable marks on people's minds, such as sleep disorders, depression, etc. The result of working as an executioner for very long periods, for this reason the competent authorities in States where the death penalty is still legal usually subject their executioners to intense psychological treatments on a constant basis to prevent them from presenting the aforementioned problems.
