Desired Henri Landru

Origins

Landru is the son of a driver and a dressmaker. He attends the school of the Brothers, with Paris and officiates as sub-deacon with the Saint-Louis church in the Island.

He meets there Marie-Catherine Rémy with which he falls in love and who gives him a girl, Marie, on June 4th 1891. He recognizes the child later two years, his completed military service. Three other children are born then: Maurice, Suzanne and Charles.

Swindles

Of 1893 with 1900, it practices ten trades: accountant, contractor of work, cartographer… and found a factory of bicycles with oil with which it makes his first swindle: it organizes a national advertizing campaign, specifying that any order must be accompanied by a mandate representing a third of the price, the orders tributary but it disappears with the money without never delivering the bicycles.

Energy of swindles in swindles, dissimulated under false names, it collects the judgments with sorrows of fine and prison (two years in 1904, thirteen months in 1906) but manages to leave prison thanks to the expertises of psychiatric doctors who declare it in “a morbid mental state which, without being madness, is not at least any more the normal state”.

In 1909, he is condemned to three years of prison firm for swindle: following a matrimonial advertisement, he celebrated his engagement to some Jeanne Isoré . He was made give the titles of the lady, then disappeared.

As of its coming out of prison, it assembles a new swindle: it buys a garage, which it immediately resells without to have paid the first owner. Justice rather quickly identifies it like the author of this offense, and it escapes. In 1914, it is condemned by defect for this business to four New Year's Days of prison. Being its fourth judgment to a sorrow of more than three months, the verdict is decorated additional sorrow of relegation , i.e. it is condemned to be off-set with life with the bagne of Guyana. Landru which already knew the prison knows that detention in Guyana occurs under extremely difficult conditions with a very high death rate among the prisoners. It is consequently possible that this judgment played a part in its transformation into an assassin: he could not allow himself quite simply any more to be recognized by one of his victims.

The Landru business

To provide for the needs for its family, Landru, starting from 1915, being made pass for a man widowed, esseulé and having a certain ease, undertakes to allure woman alones and rich person. Simulating a prosperity which was only of frontage, it makes them gleam the marriage and, for this purpose, invites them to briefly remain in an isolated villa which it rents with Vernouillet then with Gambais (Seine-et-Oise, current department of the Yvelines).

Through eloquence, the weather makes sign with its victims a procuration, then enabling him to be hand-low on their bank accounts. It any more but does not remain to him to assassinate these imprudent ladies, then to make disappear the bodies by burning them in the furnace from the villa. Although being insulated enough, the house is sufficiently close to the other dwellings to on several occasions draw the attention of the vicinity intrigued by certain stenches escaping from the chimney from periods when the intensive heating was not essential. However, like Henri Landru shows itself rather discrete in the achievement of its crimes, these facts will remain in the shade as long as the business will not burst. It profits moreover of the context of the First World War; thus, whereas it is card-indexed like criminal in escape for his preceding judgment, it can be allowed to return from time to time near his wife and of her children who it makes benefit from the product of his crimes, without really being likely to be stopped. When one of its victims requires identity papers of him in order to organize the promised marriage, he claims to be originating in the areas occupied by the Germans, which makes impossible to check its identity. More simply, the war increases the number of woman alones likely to be its victims.

Beginning of the business

At the end of 1918, the mayor of Gambais receives a letter of some Mrs. Pellet , asking for to him news of a Mrs. Anne Collomb who, been engaged to a Mr. Dupont , had been established with him in Gambais; the mayor answers that he does not know this person. Some time later however, the municipal official receives a letter of some Mrs. Lacoste , who asks for to him news of his sister Célestine Buisson , which would have also settled in Gambais with a Mr. Frémyet .

Struck similarity of the requests, the mayor puts in contact the two families which realize that Dupont and Frémyet seems to be the same person and link themselves to carry felt sorry for against X near the parquet floor of the the Seine.

An investigation of police force makes it possible to establish that the house in question belongs to some Mr Tric , which rents it with a Mr Fremyet , resident with Rouen. Research on this person remains vain until, on April 11th 1919, the relationship of the one of disappeared recognizes the mysterious outgoing man of an earthenware store. Alerted, the police force manages to locate the individual, named Lucien Guillet ; this one is stopped by the police officers Braunberger and Belin , the April 12th 1919, in its residence street Rochechouart and is shown Escroquerie and of Breach of trust.

Instruction

The examination of the personal papers of Landru - and in particular its notebook of accounts, méticuleusement held - reveal an immense operation of swindle to the marriage: not less than 283 women came into contact with Landru following matrimonial advertisements passed by this one newspapers. The discovery, in the notebook, of the names of ten women declared officially disappeared leads the examining magistrate Dautel to accuse Landru of murder.

Searchings take place at Landru but also in the two villas which it rented successively, in Vernouillet then with Gambais, leading to discovered human remains in a heap of ashes found in a hangar, the chimney, the cooker; one also finds fasten, of the pins, the buttons partly flarings. In all, the police force finds 4,176 kg of remains of calcined bones, including 1,5 kg coming from human body, like 47 teeth or fragments of teeth.

June 28th, 1919, the investigators Kling and Beyle make burn in the cooker a head of sheep and a leg of 7 books: they note that pulling is excellent and that the drippings ensure a perfect combustion.

In the same way, the investigators find in a furniture depository rented by Landru of the pieces of furniture having belonged to the one of the victims.

The personal papers of Landru are examined, partly its accountancy, which reveals the purchase of several and buck-saw hacksaws; the names of been engaged there are even associated with hours which appear, for the investigators, to constitute the hours of the crimes ( April 12th, 1917 Miss Babelay 4:00 evening; September 1st, 1917 Mrs. Buisson 10:15; November 26th, 1917 Mrs. Jaume 5:00; April 5th, 1918 Mrs. Pascal 17:15 ).

One of the evidence more overpowering is provided by receipts of train tickets: Landru bought, during its displacements in the train with Vernouillet or Gambais, a return ticket (for him) and an one-way ticket (for been engaged).

It seems acquired today, as well by the analysts as by the historians, than the victims were cut out and than the bodies (trunk, legs, arm) either were buried in wood, or thrown in ponds while the heads, hands and feet were incinerated (probably in the cooker of the villa).

December 19th, 1919, Mrs. Landru and her Maurice son are accused of concealment qualified as well as forgery and use of forgery. Interned with the Saint-Lazare prison to have helped her husband to carry out titles having belonged to one of the victims, Mrs. Landru obtains finally a Non-lieu.

August 18th 1920, the judge Bonin recapitulates all the loads: the file is so bulky that the substitute Gazier , charged to establish the final indictment, benefits from the holidays of Bonin judge to study it in the cabinet of the magistrate. The file contains in all more 5 000 parts without proof nor consent.

Victims

Landru is shown murder of 11 people:

(February 1915) Jeanne-Marie Cuchet born Jamast, linen maid, widow of a tradesman, 39 years, killed in Vernouillet;
(February 1915) Andre Cuchet , wire of Jeanne Cuchet, 17 years, salesman in a linen room, killed in Vernouillet;
(June 1915) Therese Laborde-Line , born on August 12th, 1868 in Chacornus (Argentinian), separated from a husband landlord, killed in Vernouillet;
(August 3rd, 1915) Marie-Angelica Guillin , old controlling, killed in Vernouillet;
(December 1915) Berthe-Anna Héon , 55 years, born in Le Havre, widow, cleaning lady;
(December 27th, 1916) Anne Collomb , 44 years, widow, secretary in an insurance company, killed in Gambais;
(April 12th, 1917) Andree-Anne Babelay , 19 years, domesticates in a fortune-teller, killed with Gambais;
(August 19th, 1917) Célestine Bush , widow, cleaning lady, killed in Gambais;
(November 26th, 1917) Louise-Joséphine Jaume , 38 years, separated from its husband and in divorce pending, killed in Gambais;
(April 5th, 1918) Anne-Marie Pascal , 33 years, divorced, dressmaker, killed in Gambais;
(January 13rd, 1919) Marie-Therese Marchadier , born on October 7th, 1881 in Bordeaux, former prostitute tenancière of a house of master keys street Saint-Jacob, in Paris, known under the name of beautiful Mytèse , killed in Gambais (the police force will find the corpses of its two dogs, strangled).

The lawsuit

The lawsuit, which impassioned the contemporaries, opens the November 7th 1921 in front of the Court of Assizes of Seine-et-Oise sitting at Versailles. The court is chaired by the president Gilbert assisted Misters Schuler and Gloria , assessors; Mr. Godefroy officiates as prosecuting attorney; Landru chooses as lawyer Maître of Moro-Giafferi, assisted of Master Auguste Navières of the Winch while the civil parts are represented by Maîtres Lagasse and Surcouf .

The lawsuit attracts All-Paris: Mistinguett, Raimu, Berthe Bovy, Colette.

Landru denies until the end being the author of these crimes, conceding however to have stolen and have swindled its supposed victims. It often shows with various recoveries an eloquence provocante before the court, going, for example, until exclaiming: “ Show me the corpses! ”. The cooker in which it had made burn its victims is even transported in the courtroom.

Its lawyer defends it with eagerness but, vis-a-vis a series of damning testimonies and a beam of convincing presumptions, being condemned to dead the November 30th 1921 cannot avoid to him.

The February 24th 1922, Alexandre Millerand, president of the Republic, rejects the recourse in grace deposited.

Landru is guillotine at the entry of the prison of Versailles at the dawn of the February 25th 1922 by the torturer Anatole Deibler.

Anecdotes

A memorable scene took place during the lawsuit: during his pleading the lawyer of Landru affirmed that victims had been found and were going to come to present itself before the Court of Assizes. The public and sworn turned the head towards the door, and the lawyer, after having let plane suspense, stressed that the fact that all those which had turned the head towards the exit had thus shown their lack of conviction concerning the reality of the assassinations charged to its customer, highlighting the little of evidence against Landru fault of found corpse. The prosecuting attorney rétorqua of TAC with TAC that Landru, it, had not turned the head towards the door, which undoubtedly influenced the judgment.

Landru remains also famous for some of its distributed:

with the usher charged to give the list to him of sworn: “ it is not really useful to get out of order Sunday especially, for if few things ”.

with the president: “ My memory is overworked by these long debates ” - “ Each time one sees on my notebook a figure in top of a page, one of deduced that it was the hour when I achieved a crime! ” - (the president) “ Let us see Landru, all these women… your children did not say anything? ” (Landru) “ When I give an order to my children, me, Mister Juge, they obeys. They do not seek it why nor it how. I wonder how you raise yours! ”

“ You always speak about my head, Mister the prosecuting attorney. I regret having not several of them to offer to you! ”

“ Me? I made disappear somebody? If you believe what tell the newspapers! ”

(the president) “ You cry Landru: you test the need to release your conscience? ” (Landru) “ Yes, I cry my faults, I repens… I have myself remorses… I cry because I think that with all the scandal made around my name, one learned with my poor wife that I had misled it . ”

“ If the women whom I knew have something to reproach me, they has to only deposit felt sorry for! ”

Whereas Landru has just started the hilarity of the public by a news distributed, the president threatens: “ If the laughter continues, I will ask each one to return at home! ”, it with what Landru retorts: “ For my account, Mr. President Président, it is not refusal. ”.

Others

Survivors

Fernande Segret , last mistress of Landru, with which he lived conjugally during his arrest, opera singer, made career in a Parisian cabaret then left to work as teacher with the Lebanon.

In 1968, it was thrown in the ditches of the castle of Flers, not far from the old people's home where it had been withdrawn. In its room, there were two photographs: one of his/her mother, the other of Landru.

the family Landru had to change name to carry out a quiet life. Maurice Landru, victim of a Master singer, had to change three times them.

Relics

the Villa Tric of Gambais was plundered by the crowd then sold to a restorer who renamed it With the Cricket of the Hearth and arranged part of the masonry in museum. The restaurant closed its doors in 1940 and the house was then resold with private individuals.

the cooker of the villa of Gambais was acquired by an American collector. Since, it was repurchased by the organizer, producer and humorist Laurent Ruquier. Impassioned by the character, it, in 2005, put itself in scene at the theater the Landru business.

the ashes found in the garden of Gambais were buried with the foot of a weeping willow of the Botanical garden of Paris.

Landru in works of fiction

Charlie Chaplin took as a starting point the Landru business to compose the main character of his film Mr Verdoux (1948), adding to the original history a social screen inspired of the economic crisis of 1929, introducing its hero like a kind of victim of the crisis, by giving him outside sympathetic nerves in addition.

Fifteen years later, Claude Chabrol carried out in his turn a film entitled Landru , left the January 25th 1963. The scenario, inspired of the most plausible reconstitutions of the business, was signed of Francoise Sagan. The role of the criminal was reserved for Charles Denner.

on September 19th 2005, TF1 presents a Téléfilm Pierre Boutron with Patrick Timsit in the main role.

In December 2005, a part written by Laurent Ruquier, Landru , is played on the boards of the Théâtre Marigny with in the role titrates Régis Laspalès.

the author of Cartoon Christophe Chabouté publishes in 2006 a work entitled Henri Désiré Landru where it reveals the character like victim of odious and complex machination.

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