The following is a list of people who were beheaded, arranged alphabetically by country or region and with date of decapitation. Special sections on "Religious figures" and "Fictional characters" are also appended.
These individuals lost their heads intentionally (as a form of execution or posthumously). A list of people who were decapitated accidentally, including animal-related deaths, can be found at List of people who were decapitated.
Kyaram Sloyan (2016) – KurdishYazidi soldier, posthumously decapitated by Azerbaijani soldiers during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Photos and videos of various soldiers posing with his severed head were widely circulated online after his death.[1]
Jordão da Silva Cantanhede (2013) – a Brazilian amateur football referee,[3] was lynched, quartered, and beheaded by football spectators in Pio XII, Maranhão, after he stabbed a player to death in a match he officiated on 30 June 2013. Spectators then put his head on a stake in the middle of the pitch. A viral video later surfaced of medical officials reassembling his body.[4][5][6]
João Rodrigo Silva Santos (2013) – Brazilian football player, murdered and beheaded by suspected drug traffickers.[7]
Fred Fulton (2005) – stabbed to death along with Veronica "Verna" Decarie by Gregory Allan Despres during paranoid schizophrenia-led delusions. Fulton was additionally beheaded with a homemade sword.
Jun Lin (2012) – fatally stabbed, dismembered, necrophilliaced and possibly cannibalized in a video depicting his murder by Luka Magnotta.[8] His severed head was recovered at the edge of a small lake in Montreal's Angrignon Park.[9]
Tien Ly (2022) – decapitated after being killed by her son, Dallas Ly.[11]
Didier Wangay (2021) - Former acting Mayor of Bambari; Wagner and FACA arrested Wangay and his family in Gallougou on 15 December 2021 and beheaded him, his son, wife, niece, and nephew. Afterwards, their heads were displayed in Bambari as trophies.[12]
Josué Béfio (2024) - Anti-balaka leader in Ouham-Fafa; Béfio, along with his bodyguard, were beheaded at a military base in Bouca.[13]
Mural depicting Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin; the severed head of Huan Yi is in an open box at bottom.
Huan Yi (Fan Wuji) (桓齮, 227 BC) – traitorous Qin general; his severed head was instrumental in Jing Ke's assassination attempt of the Qin king.
Execution of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan in Wiener Neustadt.
Petar Berislavić (1520) – beheaded in combat as he got surrounded by many Ottoman soldiers. His head and body were retrieved by Croatian soldiers and taken first to Bihać and subsequently to Veszprem.[14]
Petar Kružić (1537) – beheaded in combat against the Ottomans. His severed head was then demonstrated to defenders of Klis fortress to persuade them to surrender.[15]
The heads of famous English traitors were customarily spiked on London BridgePiers Gaveston at the feet of the Earl of Warwick, 1312Execution of Hugh Despenser the younger, 1326The execution of Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset at Tewkesbury, 1471
Edmund, Earl of Rutland (1460) – executed by order of Lord Clifford for being a Yorkist (stabbed to death during the Battle of Wakefield and later decapitated)
Sir Richard Smith (1469) – executed for treason at Salisbury for being a Lancastrian; brother of Sir Hugh Courtenay and the 14th and 15th Earls of Devon who were all executed for being Lancastrians (in 1471, 1461 and 1471 respectively)
Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1587Raleigh just before being beheaded in 1618– an illustration from c. 1860This contemporary German print depicts Charles I's decapitation in 1649.Execution of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth by Jack Ketch on Tower Hill, 15 July 1685 (O.S), in a popular print.
John Twyn (1663) – hanged, drawn, quartered and beheaded (and head displayed on a Ludgate spike) for publishing an anonymous pamphlet justifying the right of rebellion against the king
Hamida Djandoubi (1977) – guillotined in Marseille for murder – last execution in France, last execution in Western world to be carried out by beheading, and last execution by guillotine anywhere in the world
Charles Radclyffe, titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater (1746) – executed at Tower Hill as a Jacobite Rebel[18]
Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (1747) – executed at Tower Hill as a prominent veteran Jacobite supporter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Although too old to participate in the 1745 Rising, he was chosen by the British Crown for execution in lieu of his youthful son, who had actually led Clan Fraser for the Jacobite cause[18]
Jeremiah Brandreth (1817) – hanged and beheaded in Derby for treason; followed by William Turner and Issac Ludlam, the last British decapitations by axe
James Wilson, Andrew Hardie, and John Baird (1820) were hanged and beheaded for treason for their involvement in the Radical War. A hatchet was used to perform the decapitation. These were the last three people to be hanged and beheaded in the United Kingdom.
Jolanta Bledaite (2008) – Lithuanian immigrant, tortured and killed in Scotland[35]
Gerald Mellin (2008) – tied a rope around his neck and connected it to a tree before driving away in his sports car to commit suicide.[36]
Gurgen Margaryan (2004) – beheaded in his sleep by Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov during a NATO summit in Budapest. Safarov stated during both his interrogation and trial that he murdered Margaryan because he was of Armenian descent.[37] Safarov was later pardoned upon extradition by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.[38]
János Kádár (2007) – posthumously beheaded by grave desecrater(s).[39]
Mourya Sawant (1912) – last Ranes was beheaded by Portuguese. Mourya Sawant was Hindu martyr who struggled against Portuguese and he also against forced conversion of the Goans to Christianity
Al-Walid ibn Tarif al-Shaybani, was a Kharijite rebel leader. In 794, he launched a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate, but was defeated, killed, and beheaded in 795.
Gaius Trebonius (43 BC) – politician and general, tortured and beheaded by Publius Cornelius Dolabella; his head was kicked around like a football by Dolabella's soldiers
Cicero (43 BC) – politician, lawyer and Rome's greatest orator – executed by order of Marc Anthony
Al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph (744) – killed and beheaded by his cousin Yazid III. Yazid had Walid's head hoisted "on a lance and paraded around Damascus".[43]
Columba Kim (1839) – beheaded for Christian religious convictions
30 Ethiopian Christians (2015) – On April 19, 2015, 30 kidnapped Ethiopian Christians in two groups were killed by ISIS. Half of them were beheaded on a beach in Cyrenaica and the other half in a desert in Fezzan, were fatally shot by AK's, the Christian killed by the ISIS member giving the speech was shot with a pistol. One of ISIS's media wings, Al-Furqan Media released a thirty-minute propaganda video including the killings, titled "until there came to them clear evidence".[45]
The following were all executed by ISIL-inspired terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
Bernard Then (2015)[46] – Malaysian man who was kidnapped from a restaurant in Sandakan, Malaysia, brought over to Parang, Sulu, and beheaded after ransom demands were not met
Robert Hall (2016) – Canadian welder held for ransom, after the resort he was staying at was raided by Abu Sayyaf militants. They demanded 300 million pesos (around $6.5 million) for his release, and when the demand was not met, Hall was beheaded nine months later in Patikul, Sulu
John Ridsdel (2016) – Canadian businessman, also held for ransom at the same resort as Robert Hall. Ridsdel was beheaded on 25 April 2016, nine months after being held hostage
Jürgen Kantner (2017) – German sailor ambushed and held for ransom, while out sailing with his wife, who was shot and killed. Abu Sayyaf militants demanded 30 million pesos ($600,000), and when the demand was not met, Kantner was beheaded
Karađorđe (1817) – Assassinated by order of his groomsman, Miloš Obrenović. The cause of death itself was a substantial chest injuries caused by an axe, however, his body was immediately decapitated.
Juan de Lanuza y Urrea (1591) – "Justicia de Aragón", beheaded by personal order of Felipe II on 20 December 1591, 89 days after swearing in his appointment.[51]
Puviraja Pandaram (1591) – Hindu king who was beheaded by Portuguese. Portuguese, led by André Furtado as commander, mounted a military campaign against the Jaffna kingdom from Mannar and succeed for conquer Jaffna kingdom.[54]
Steven Sotloff (2014) — beheaded in the Syro-Arabian desert by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, one month after the beheading of James Foley. His execution was filmed, and released with the title "A Second Message to America".
Adam Walsh (1981) - abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida and his head was found in a drainage canal two weeks after he was murdered.
Christa Hoyt (1990) – decapitated by serial killer Danny Rolling.
Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton (1995) – decapitated and dismembered by Daniel Lugo and Adrian Doorbal members of the infamous Sun Gym gang in Miami.[57]
Hanny Tawadros and Amgad Konds (2013) – decapitated posthumously, allegedly by murderer Yusef Ibrahim.[59]
Colleen Hufford (2014) – 54-year-old woman was decapitated in Oklahoma by a 30-year-old pro-Jihad, Islamist, Jah'Keem Yisrael, formerly Alton Alexander Nolen.
Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino (2016) – missing youth who was found to have been decapitated by a classmate.[60]
Jennifer Schlecht (2019) – decapitated by her husband Yonathan Tedla in their Harlem flat, he then killed their daughter and hanged himself on a fan. Tedla had put Jennifer Schlecht's head in her own lap.[62]
Cecilia Gibson (2020) – 79-year-old Cecilia Gibson, step-grandmother of her killer, Kenny W. McBride, 45, was bludgeoned in head while in house, then McBride decapitated and placed Ms. Gibson's head in their backyard. Kenny W. McBride was arrested at time of reporting after body was dead for two days. McBride's father had married and his new wife's mother, Cecilia Gibson, all lived in the same residence in Bedford, Michigan where the crime occurred.[63]
America Thayer (2021) – Beheaded with a machete after an argument with her boyfriend.[64]
Shad Thyrion (2022) – Shad Thyrion's mother found his severed head in a bucket in the basement of their home in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Taylor Schabusiness, who had a sexual relationship with Thyrion, beheaded him after killing him.[65]
Karina Castro (2022) – Rafa Solano decapitated Castro, his ex-girlfriend, on a street with a samurai sword in San Carlos, California.[66]
Goliath – after he was killed by David, this example illustrates the aforementioned post-mortem decapitation
Saul – after he fell on his sword at the Battle of Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:3–6); the Philistines cut off his head and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.[67]
Saints Cosmas and Damian (c.287) – executed in purge of Christians in Syria, according to tradition
Saint Cyprian (258) – Bishop of Carthage, North Africa – Christian Martyr executed in the persecution ordered by Emperor Valerian
Saint Denis – according to legend, which states that he carried his head to his final resting place, a familiar hagiographical trope (see Cephalophore)
"Richard III (DNB00)". DNB. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Oberg, Michael Leroy (2010), The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians (Series: Early American Studies), University of Pennsylvania Press
von Lüpke, Marc (9 December 2013). "Scharfrichter Johann Reichhart: Henker im Dienst der Nazis"[Executioner Johann Reichhart: executioner in the service of the Nazi Regime. Nazis]. SPIEGEL ONLINE (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
De Queyroz, Fernão (1930). The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (in Portuguese). Vol.II. Translated by Perera, S.G. A.C. Richards. p.810. ISBN978-81-206-0766-8.