by Landru's Secret- The Deadly Seductions of France's Lonely Hearts Serial Killer (retail) (epub)
p.75 “from Moreau’s lawsuit”: Marie Lacoste, civil complaint, 3 Feb 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3141, Dossier Buisson.
p.75 “some money to go away”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 1 June 1933.
p.75 “she recalled tartly”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 1 June 1933.
p.75 “nature of her business”: ‘Audition de Mme Jeanne Falque’, 2 June 1919, ‘Audition de Mlle Segret’, 12 April 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.76 “might well be a spy”: Report by Jules Hebbé, 16 March 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3291, Dossier Collomb. ‘Enquête à Gambais’, Procès-Verbal de la Gendarmerie de Houdan, 22 March 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.76 “dubious tenant at the Villa Tric”: Report by Inspector Belin, 12 April 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.77 “by a young woman”: ‘Audition de Marie Lacoste’, 12 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/3157, Dossier Buisson; ‘Déclaration de Marie Lacoste’, 16 Dec 1919, Yvelines Archives, 2U769/3195, Dossier Buisson.
p.77 “Lucien Guillet, 76 Rue de Rochechouart”: Belin’s version of this part of the story was corroborated by Marie Lacoste’s testimony.
p.77 “three weeks to make the arrest”: Le Matin, 18 Nov 1935.
p.77 “introduced himself as Lucien Guillet”: ‘Rapport de l’Inspecteur Deslogères’, 4 June 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/5125.
p.78 “before about 11.30 am”: Report by Inspector Belin, 12 April 1919, Paris Police Archives; Report by Inspector Belin, 26 March 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3662.
p.78 “stark naked on the floor”: Dennis Bardens, The Ladykiller (1972), p.83.
p.78 “to empty his pockets”: ‘Renseignements sur Landru’, 12 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3855.
Chapter 9: The Enigma of Gambais
p.81 “answering lonely hearts adverts”: ‘Renseignements sur Landru’, 12 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3855.
p.81 “Fernande along as a witness”: ‘Renseignements sur Landru’, 12 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3855.
p.82 “fell ill with food poisoning”: ‘Audition de Fernande Segret, 12 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3829.
p.83 “adjoining the kitchen”: Dautel report on search of Villa Tric, 13 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3690.
p.83 “to put them to death”: Le Siècle, 25 Nov 1921.
p.83 “prosecutor’s office by noon”: Dautel report on search of Villa Tric, 13 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3690.
p.84 “‘don’t follow up’, and so on”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 29 May 1933.
p.85 “in trouble with the law”: ‘Audition de Gabriel Grimm’, 17 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 30, Dossier Général.
p.85 “any headway with Landru”: Le Journal, 15 April 1919.
p.86 “my respectful assurances”: Landru to Moro, undated note, personal collection of Dominique de Moro Giafferri, reproduced in Dominique Lanzalavi, Vincent de Moro Giafferri (Ajaccio, 2011), p.77.
Chapter 10: Why Would I Have Killed Them?
p.87 “born on that day”: G. Sinclair, ‘Comment ils se sont découverts’, France-Soir, undated article, personal collection of Dominique de Moro Giafferri.
p.87 “a taste for fighting duels”: Moro fought two duels in 1909 and 1910, against a Corsican politician and a regional newspaper editor, whom he accused respectively of insulting him and his mother’s family. He lost the first and abandoned the second, with no one seriously injured. Le Journal, 9 July 1909, Lanzalavi, Vincent de Moro Giafferri (Ajaccio, 2011), p.77.
p.88 “on the street at 2.30 pm”: Le Journal, 7 March 1912. Dieudonné was living in Paris in December 1911 but had gone to Nancy to work for a contractor. The prosecution argued that when he finished the job he returned to Paris, shot the bank messenger on 21 December, and then caught a train to Nancy in time to meet his friend for a drink at about 2.30 pm.
p.88 “she informed the press defiantly”: Le Journal, 8 March 1912.
p.89 “an astonishing, prodigious man”: Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013), p.251.
p.89 “acquisition of the mass circulation daily Le Journal”: Humbert was acquitted in May 1919. Humbert’s friends accused the army of inventing the charges in revenge for a series of articles in Le Journal in 1916 that deplored the state of France’s defences.
p.90 “‘subsidence’ in the cellar”: ‘Visite domiciliares: Villa des Lodges [sic] à Vernouillet’, 19 April 1919, Paris Police Archives. Le Gaulois, 14 May 1919.
p.90 “yielded nothing of interest”: Some bone fragments also examined by the laboratory were entirely of animal origin. ‘Vernouillet, Examen des Os: Rapport Médico-Légal’, 5 July 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4875.
p.90 “she remarked darkly”: ‘Déclaration de Mme Picque’, 15 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.90 “no reason to enquire further”: Dautel interview with Émile Mercier, 15 April 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.91 “we were not particularly worried”: Le Journal, 16 April 1919.
p.91 “I was a mother”: Mme Fauchet letter to Bonin, 18 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 770/3542, Dossier Pascal.
p.91 “a fantasist who loved change”: ‘Enquête Générale’, 14 June 1919, statement of Mme Colin, 24 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 29, Dossier Babelay.
p.92 “pleading pressure of work”: Le Journal, 15 April 1919.
p.92 “he immediately rectified”: Le Matin, 24 Nov 1921.
p.92 “putting Riboulet in his place”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 3 May 1933.
p.93 “Lombroso [an Italian criminologist]”: Le Journal, 28 April 1919. These photographs were later incorrectly described as showing Landru arriving at the court in Versailles during his trial in November 1921.
p.93 “missing women so far identified”: By 27 April 1919, the police had identified nine of the ten women on the list in Landru’s notebook. The tenth, Thérèse Laborde-Line, codenamed “Brésil”, was identified in May 1919.
p.93 “you will find them”: Reconstruction of Landru’s interrogations on 27 April 1919 from Le Journal, Le Petit Parisien, 28 April 1919.
p.94 “not yet received a reply”: La Presse, 27 April 1919.
p.95 “nothing more out of Landru”: Le Journal, 28 April 1919.
p.95 “initial interview with Landru”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 30 April 1919.
p.95 “staring perfectly well”: Navières, ‘L’affaire Landru’.
p.95 “to ‘guarantee’ Landru’s rights”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 30 April 1919. The same newspaper reported that Landru had been left at the Santé because he was meeting his lawyer.
p.96 “department of Seine-et-Oise”: Le Figaro, 30 April 1919.
p.96 “Paris police laboratory he headed”: For a dissection of Spilsbury’s strengths and flaws, see Jane Robins, The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath (London, 2010).
p.96 “from the wall of the oven”: Gaston Bayle, a forensic chemist in the search team, told the press it was “very likely” that the blood stain was of human origin. Le Journal, 30 April 1919.
p.97 “as proved by the four roots”: Le Journal, 30 April 1919. The newspaper mistakenly reported that more charred bits of haberdashery were found in the other locked shed.
p.97 “the sexton stated authoritatively”: Le Journal, Le Gaulois, 30 April 1919.
p.97 “in less than three days”: Le Gaulois, 30 April 1919.
Chapter 11: I Will Tell You Something Horrible
p.99 “People can judge for themselves”: Le Journal, 21 May 1919.
p.99 “end of the Franco-Prussian War”: In police and judicial documents, Marie-Catherine’s maiden name was sometimes also spelt ‘Remy’, without an accent.
p.100 “did not reveal to Le Journal”: Marie-Catherine told the police that she only got pregnant because Landru lied to her about his true age, implying that she did not real
ise he was about to perform his military service. ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 7 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 30, Dossier Général.
p.100 “prey on the new recruits”: The Ministry of War prosecuted Desclaves for his attack on the army but a civilian jury acquitted him.
p.100 “a skirt chaser”: ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 7 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 30, Dossier Général.
p.101 “the Tuileries gardens”: ‘Salon du Cycle et de l’Automobile (Palais des Machines)’, La Justice, 17 Nov 1898.
p.101 “to manufacture the motorcycle”: Le Journal, 31 May 1904.
p.101 “in custody at the Santé”: L’Echo de Paris, 9 Nov 1921.
p.101 “an ambivalent diagnosis”: Information on Vallon from http://psychiatrie.histoire.free.fr/pers/bio/vallon.htm
p.101 “had not yet crossed them”: Le Gaulois, 22 Aug 1919.
p.101 “treated leniently by the court”: A fourth psychiatrist, Dr Dubuisson, examined Landru in 1906. Dubuisson concluded that Landru was “unbalanced” and in an “unhealthy state which, while not madness, was no longer normal”. Le Gaulois, 22 Aug 1919, quoting Dubuisson’s report.
p.102 “any means for his projects”: Le Journal, 31 May 1904.
p.102 “eastern edge of the Bois de Boulogne”: Police report on the suicide of Julien Alexandre Sylvain Landru, 23 April 1912, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 771/4818. The prosecution at Landru’s trial misdated the suicide as occurring in August 1912.
p.102 “Marie-Catherine told the police”: ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 7 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 30, Dossier Général. The police investigation of Julien Landru’s later life and suicide was cursory. In the 1890s, Julien Landru got a manual job at a Paris publisher. He retired around 1905, when he and his wife moved to Agen, southern France, to live with their daughter and son-in-law. Julien’s wife died in 1910, when he returned to Paris to live with Marie-Catherine and her children in an apartment on Rue Blomet.
p.102 “Marie-Catherine and her children, not him”: ‘Affaire Cuchet. Instruction’, 13 Aug 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.102 “‘God, will he not have pity?’”: Le Journal, 21 May 1919.
p.103 “under a false name”: Police report on movements of Landru family, 1914–15, 3 June 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 1373W2/788.
p.103 “‘gardening work’ at The Lodge”: ‘Déclaration de Charles Landru’, 14 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013).
p.103 “the false name ‘Frémyet’”: ‘Instruction’, 13 Aug 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.103 “belonged to Jeanne Cuchet”: ‘Commission Rogatoire’, 18 Oct 1915, Pontoise, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet. ‘Bulletin’, 7 April 1916, Paris, ‘Faux en écriture authentique et publique, 1915’, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4862.
p.103 “disappearance of the typist Anna Collomb”: In August 1916, Maurice was released early from the Cherche-Midi military prison in Paris. He was sent to the Somme, along with many other prisoners used as emergency reinforcements.
p.103 “a hotel south of Lyon”: ‘Declaration de Mme Léone Gaujon’, 4 Nov 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3332, Dossier Collomb.
p.103 “she was in southern France”: ‘Audition de Charles Landru’, 4 Nov 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3342, Dossier Collomb.
p.103 “forest near the village”: ‘Audition de Marie Landru’, 6 Jan 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/3241, Dossier Buisson.
p.103 “withdraw Célestine’s savings”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 24 May 1933.
p.104 “forge Louise’s signature”: Riboulet, Le Matin, 24 May 1933.
p.104 “Annette Pascal and Marie-Thérèse Marchadier”: ‘Déclaration de Charles Landru’, 14 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013). Charles originally said he helped move four of the women’s possessions and then increased the number to five. The correct figure was seven.
p.104 “formal interrogation by Bonin”: Journal des Débats, 28 May 1919.
p.105 “his eyes filled with tears”: Le Journal, 28 May 1919.
p.105 “Bonin asked Landru”: After each interrogation with Landru, most or all of the transcript was leaked to the press. I have principally used the following newspapers to reconstruct dialogue: Le Journal, Le Petit Parisien, Le Gaulois, Le Matin, Le Figaro.
p.106 “first intervention in the case”: Le Journal, 28 May 1919.
p.106 “this insensibilité, is significant”: Le Journal, 28 May 1919.
p.106 “about 100,000 francs”: Le Journal, 16 April 1919; ‘Disparition de Mme Cuchet et de son fils’, Georges Friedman interview, 16 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “(literally ‘an affluence’)”: ‘Audition de Mme Friedman’, 16 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “informed about her affairs”: ‘Rapport de l’Inspecteur de Police Peretti’, 2 July 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “‘Fashionable House’ shirt factory”: ‘Rapport de l’Inspecteur de Police Brandenburger’, undated, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “forced to borrow 1,000 francs”: ‘Rapport de l’Inspecteur de Police Peretti’, 2 July 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet; ‘Déclaration de Mme Bazire’, 28 July 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 769/2613, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “had ‘very few savings’.”: ‘Déclaration d’Albert Folvary’, 26 July 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 769/2605, Dossier Cuchet.
p.107 “most successful fraud of his career”: ‘Liste d’escroquéries 1913– 1914’, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4839. At Landru’s trial, the prosecution reduced the total sum to just below 30,000 francs, without explanation.
p.107 “Marie-Catherine and her children”: According to Marie-Catherine, Landru also took most of his late father’s legacy when he fled Malakoff in April 1914, leaving her 500 francs. ‘Affaire Cuchet. Instruction’, 13 Aug 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.108 “acted as Landru’s minder”: ‘L’Affaire Landru’, Auguste Navières du Treuil, Private Memoir, Personal Collection of Dominique de Moro Giafferri.
p.108 “his customary silence”: Le Figaro, 24 July 1919.
p.108 “‘Do you hear me – guillotined!’”: ‘L’Affaire Landru’, Auguste Navières du Treuil.
p.108 “as poor old Landru, monsieur le juge’”: ‘L’Affaire Landru’, Auguste Navières du Treuil.
p.108 “handed down to his father”: Le Gaulois, 3 June 1919, Journal des Débats, 4 June 1919.
p.108 “suddenly got his memory back”: Maurice Landru interview, 27 July 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2270/3317, Dossier Collomb.
p.109 “the proof of my crimes”: Le Gaulois, 7 Aug 1919.
p.109 “she is sorry”: Le Journal, 14 Aug 1919.
p.110 “making a fool of me”: Le Gaulois, 21 Aug 1919.
p.110 “a mother to her”: Louise Fauchet letter to Bonin, 9 June 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3547, Dossier Pascal.
p.111 “Marie-Jeanne signed off helpfully”: Marie-Jeanne Fauchet letter to Bonin, no date, Feb 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3547, Dossier Pascal.
p.111 “thoughts and feelings expressed”: Madame Zeegers letter to Bonin, 9 Jan 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3905.
p.111 “completely unaware of this affair”: Mlle Dutru letter to Bonin, 24 Feb 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4016.
p.111 “has she been identified?”: Mme Benoist letter to Bonin, 22 July 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/unnumbered.
p.111 “Mme Romelot began circuitously”: Anseline Romelot letter to Monsieur Roux, Versailles, 19 May 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U772/5291.
Chapter 12: Conscienc
e Recoils Before Such a Monster
p.113 “another psychiatric examination”: Le Gaulois, 29 Aug 1919.
p.113 “‘quite a lot of pain’”: ‘Examen de Landru au point de vue mental’, 25 June 1920, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013).
p.114 “the purpose of his assignment”: ‘Audition de Charles Landru’, 4 Nov 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3342, Dossier Collomb.
p.115 “principal career at the Bar”: Moro lost his seat in 1928.
p.115 “but only rarely”: ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 12 Dec 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4823.
p.115 “brought to his office by the police”: ‘Landru, née Rémy, Marie-Cathérine, Procès-Verbal de première comparution’, 18 Dec 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3350, Dossier Collomb.
p.116 “‘What are they guilty of and why?’”: La Presse, 19 Dec 1919.
p.116 “woods near the village”: ‘Audition de Marie Landru’, 6 Jan 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/3241, Dossier Buisson.
p.116 “Is that correct?’”: ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 10 Jan 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/3249, Dossier Buisson.
p.116 “an unconscious instrument”: Le Gaulois, 11 Jan 1920.
p.116 “faking Célestine’s signature”: Marie-Catherine’s lawyer was Moro’s friend and fellow Corsican César Campinchi (1882–1941), another leading defence barrister.
p.116 “obey her husband”: ‘Audition de Mme Landru’, 17 Feb 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/3250, Dossier Buisson.
p.117 “who had given them to me”: ‘Interrogation de Maurice Landru’, 13 March 1920, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.117 “‘au moment de la chasse’”: “Interrogatoire de la femme Landru”, 3 June 1920, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013).
p.117 “vanished at the villa”: Based on Landru’s notes in his carnet, the police concluded that Célestine Buisson had last been alive at the villa on the previous day, Friday, 31 August. At 10.15 on the morning of 1 September, Landru noted the time in his carnet. He next noted catching a train from Houdan to Paris later on the same day. The family may have come from Ézy-sur-Eure, 24 kilometres north-west of Gambais, where they had stayed in late 1914 and early 1915. A local woman recalled seeing Marie-Catherine and her daughters in Ézy in August 1917. ‘Audition de Louise Lecomte’, 10 Oct 1919, Yvelines Archives, 2U771/4802.