I've read that when the Ceausescus were executed in 1989, the firing squad directed many more shots at Elena than toward her husband. Is this true?

by JournalofFailure

Supposedly, Elena Ceausescu (widely seen as a Lady Macbeth figure, and very much Nicolae's second in command) was so hated that the executioners really took it out on her corpse. Is there any truth to this, or is it just an urban legend?

Prufrock451

The Ceausescus' hands were tied together during their execution, so it's impossible to say who was aiming at who.

Early reports said that a firing squad of 80 volunteers pumped 120 bullets into the couple, but that information was put out by the new government - which was riddled with former loyalists trying to establish anti-Ceaucescu bona fides.

It's since come out that there was a three-man firing squad; one of the soldiers froze, and another was nervous and didn't place his weapon on full automatic. The third, Ionel Boeru, fired several bursts into both Ceausescus, and the vast majority of their wounds came from his emptied clip - source and source.

Continuing debate over the facts led the Romanian government to exhume the bodies in 2010, confirming the essential truth of this firsthand account.

EDIT: To expand, other soldiers did fire into the corpses after the execution. It's impossible to know exactly how many bullets were fired at who, because the Ceausescus were hastily buried in their bullet-riddled clothes. The state of the bodies 20 years later was so bad it was difficult to verify Elena's DNA, let alone perform a decent autopsy.