In the footsteps of Bluebeard: a marriage swindler, retrain as a maniac (11 photos)

Of course, money is important. And everyone loves them. But some love for financial well-being takes on perverted forms.





Such was also Henri Landru, who got acquainted with ladies of elegant age, contributed to their departure to the next world and became the owner of the remaining property.



Henri Landru

Henri operated during the First World War, when men fought, and women experienced an acute attention deficit. All of Landru's youth vegetated in a small church in a grassroots position. Until he wandered into life of a young man, a ray of hope: at the age of 24, he married a young and beautiful Marie-Catherine Remy. In an effort to provide for his family, he grabbed a variety of projects, from the design of a motorcycle to railway line near Paris.

Then he turned his attention to a non-dusty way to earn money on widows hungry for male attention. And one even almost successfully spun, but at the last moment the plan failed, and Henri went to jail. Where he had time to think about the problems of being for three whole years.



Henri received an inheritance after the death of his father and set about implementation of their plans. Family life after liberation ended: the wife and children lived separately. And a 45-year-old man, although not he was handsome, enjoyed the attention of ladies. I felt some kind of magnetic charisma, which, coupled with elegance, conquered women's hearts.

Putting on the image of a politician or a businessman, she pulled console widows by diligently selecting suitable candidates from advertisements in newspapers.

In the approach to selection, he showed himself to be the most meticulous recruitment officer. For poor ladies, he immediately did it with a pen, and more promising in terms of finance began to process using individual approach.

So, the unfortunate Jeanne Cuche promised to smear her teenage son from being drafted to war. Together with the young man she came to "benefactor". But he delivered them from valuables, life and burned the remains in ovens. Neighbors subsequently recalled that near the house of the eternal groom often there was a strange unpleasant smell. It was a mixture of smoke and burning flesh.

Bluebeard's bloody path



Henri painted a rosy picture for the candidates: moving to a colony far from the horrors of war, a quiet, calm life in a luxurious house. The greedy maniac urged the next candidate to get rid of all assets and transfer all proceeds to his account.

At the same time met with several women and led strict accounting. An exemplary order reigned in the "accounting department": who, where, how, what are the prospects. Strictly calculated expenses, up to the issuance alms to the poor at the church, where Henri went with another mistress.



The man had more than a hundred false names alone. AND several well thought out biographies. At some point attracted case of his wife, who was engaged in forgery of signatures. And began to change handwriting, killing not only for profit, but simply for the sake of killing, as it was, to for example, with the young prostitute Andrea, whom he took her life after 10 days of joint leisure, although the wind was walking in her wallet.

Exposure and inevitable outcome



Maniac felt at least a demigod. But the clouds are already began to thicken over his head. Relatives of several missing women contacted the police. During the investigation, they found a marriage con man, and in 1919 Landru was arrested in his Parisian house. Right in the height of a love affair. The girl subsequently defended her lover on court. He behaved defiantly and denied everything. But the entries in his diaries talked about the opposite: at least 10 episodes and the unfortunate son of the first victims.



Victims

From the testimony of a witness present at the hearing:

The chairman comes to the notorious black notebook. Then Landru is asked to explain what ten female names are in it. appear, he answers without the slightest hesitation:

Every merchant keeps such records. This is a list of persons with which I made trades. There is no mystery here. Strange thing: it is enough for a man to disappear, as everyone imagines that he dead! But inThis list is not accompanied, for example, by the following words: “The undersigned Henri-Désiré Landru certifies that he killed ...



The case of the criminal swelled like a snowball. received widely publicized, but into the existence of a maniac, despite the testimony testimonies, not everyone believed. The public believed that way the authorities want to divert the attention of society from the post-war negotiations. And Jeanne is alive, and her son is saved from the horrors of war. And the bones in Henri's stoves are not human, but belong to animals.

If there was real evidence for 11 episodes, then fate others with whom the perpetrator was in active contact remained unknown. In court, Andri was defended by a brilliant lawyer of that time. Vincent de Moro-Giaffery. He tried to get the client out of the blow, proving his insanity. Doctors tried to prove the opposite, so that everything send the killer to the scaffold, and not behind bars.



On the day of the verdict, there was a full house in the courtroom. Among those present noted Rudyard Kipling and the writer Sidonie-Gabriel Colette (the last defendant even asked for an autograph). By court order, the killer went to the guillotine. The head was embalmed and transferred to the Museum of Death. And a few years later relatives reburied the body in an unmarked grave to avoid desecration side of the victims' families.



Charles Denner as Henri Desiree Landru in Landru, 1963

At the beginning of the last century, a popular restaurant. It was rumored that the furnace in which Bluebeard burned the remains victims, sold at auction. The new owner wanted to make it public exhibit, but the authorities banned it. To avoid unnecessary inspiration, so to speak. A few years ago, the mansion was put up for sale with a note about its rich history, but no specifics. Apparently so that the story will be a surprise for the new owner.