Claude-Antoine Chrétien, a member of one of the longest line of executioners in France, successively stationed in Chalon and then in Lyon, left behind more than 140 notarial deeds and numerous documents on the exercise of his profession coupled with an occupation of healer. The examination of this evidence allows us to retrace his life and career and especially his investments which grew as his enrichment. Having become the owner of a land estate of over 140 hectares with a fortune of at least 170000 francs, he became part of the Lyon’s bourgeoisie and reached the standard of living of the last Sansons, the Paris executioners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His case, thus allows, for the first time, to study the affairs and the social ranking of public executioners, too often described as characters stricken with poverty.