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The extensive witness testimony convinced the judges
that there were adequate grounds for establishing the
guilt of the accused.
After Rais admitted to the charges
on October 21, the court canceled a plan to torture him
into confessing. The transcript, which included
testimony from the parents of many of the missing
children as well as graphic descriptions of the murders
provided by Rais' accomplices, was said to be so lurid
that the judges ordered the worst portions to be
stricken from the record.
The precise number of Rais' victims is not known, as
most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of
murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few
have conjectured numbers upwards of 600. The victims
ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both
sexes.
On October 23, the secular court condemned Rais'
accomplices, Henriet and Poitou. On October 25, the
ecclesiastical court handed down a sentence of
excommunication against him, followed on the same day by
the secular court's own condemnation of the accused.
After tearfully expressing remorse for his crimes, Rais
obtained rescindment of the Church's punishment and was
allowed confession, but the secular penalty remained in
place. Gilles de Rais, Henriet, and Poitou were hanged
at Nantes on October 26, 1440.
Gilles de Rais - Controversy
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