1803: Johannes Bückler, “Schinderhannes”

ExecutedToday.com ^ | November 21, 2009 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1803, the famous German bandit “Schinderhannes” and 19 others of his gang were efficiently guillotined in French-occupied Rhineland. As low-born as they come, Johannes Bückler (English Wikipedia link | German) hailed from a family of executioners and knackers (his appellation means “John the Knacker”). But this outcast was born to command, and in the wild Rhineland at the close of the 18th century, his audacity, charisma, and deft cruelty made him a legendary bandit king. He stole, he blackmailed, he slipped his fetters … “he seemed to contest French authority” recently projected by the revolutionary citizen-army, and he preyed heavily on unpopular Jewish merchants, all of which gave Bückler purchase on folk hero status with the boldness to hold a public “robber’s ball” at the ruined castle his band occupied....

[Repeal The 17th]

...
A knacker, knackerman, or knacker man,
is a job title used for the centuries-old trade
of persons responsible in a certain district
for the removal and clearing of animal carcasses
from private farms or highways and rendering the
collected carcasses into by-products such as
fats, tallow, glue, gelatin, bone meal,
bone char, soap, bleach and animal feed.
...Wikipedia

[Gay State Conservative]

later

[Tucker39]

My parents spoke a little PA Dutch, mostly when they didn’t want us kids to know what they were saying. But on a dairy farm you will have the occasional dead animal to get rid of. In which case we’d send for the Schinderhannes, or the dead animal man. Dad always referred to them as “The schinderhannes”. There were 2 rendering plants in York County. They’d send a truck with a ramp and a winch for loading the carcass. After loading, they’d give us a few cakes of bath soap or a box of laundry soap. The term “knacker” or “knackerman” is a Brit term. It was used numerous times in the Brit veterinarian books and videos, “All Creatures, Great and Small”, about the life of Veterinarian James Herriott.