Criminal Masterminds

by Anne Williams

  Gilles fought by Joan of Arc’s side at Orleans and again at Patay, both times defeating the English army. By the time Gilles was twenty-four he had become a national hero.

  At the coronation of Charles VII, Gilles was bestowed with the honour of collecting the holy oil with which the new king would be anointed. Gilles was appointed Marshal of France and was permitted to wear the fleur-de-lys in his coat of arms, in theory making him France’s highest-ranking soldier. Little did anyone realise that just two years later Gilles’ life of bloodlust and perversion would rear its ugly head.

  gilles the monster

  After the coronation of Charles VII, Gilles retired to look after his estates, but after the life of glory in the army, it appears he found the life incredibly dull. It is thought that his first sexual murder occurred in 1431, and from then on his thirst for blood could not be quenched. Jean d’Craon, who seems to have suspected what was going on, died in 1432, which left Gilles with a completely free rein to do exactly as he wished. Gilles de Rais turned into a monster. He would lure young boys to his castle on some false pretext and then take them down to his ‘chamber’. Here he would hang them from a ceiling on a rope or chain until they were barely conscious. Then he would take them down, assuring them that he meant no harm, and then Gilles would strip and rape them. After the sexual act, Gilles would cut their throat and decapitate them with a special sword called a braquemard. Unable to satisfy his sexual appetite, Gilles would then further abuse the dead body until he finally obtained satisfaction. After he had an orgasm, Gilles would collapse into a faint and had to be carried off to bed by one of his servants, where he would remain unconscious for several hours. While he slept, his accomplices would dispose of the body.

  One of the youths that was brought to the castle was a young lad called Poitou. He was raped, but as Gilles prepared to cut his throat one of his servants pointed out that Poitou was such a handsome boy it would be worth saving his life and keeping him as a servant. Gilles agreed and so the life of Poitou was saved and he became one of his most trusted pages.

  Gilles seemed to be transfixed by the act of dying, and with a macabre fascination he would watch the blood trickle down a child’s neck until he became aroused. This type of depravity continued unabated for years, taking the lives of countless innocent children, until he was on the verge of ruin.

  black magic

  On top of his depravity, Gilles de Rais was also an uncontrollable spendthrift. He loved to hold lavish banquets lording over the proceedings like a Roman emperor. In a period of three years, he had spent what would be the equivalent of millions of pounds, which meant he had to start selling off some of his more valuable estates to fund his excessive life­style. Rene became extremely worried about his brother’s behaviour and went to the king asking him to issue an edict to forbid the sale of any further land. Out of financial desperation, Gilles de Rais turned to black magic and alchemy in an attempt to reverse his fortune. Many years earlier, Gilles had borrowed a book on alchemy from an Angevin knight who had been imprisoned for heresy. Alchemy was outlawed in the fifteenth century, but Gilles thought he could see a way of making money.

  Gilles wasn’t solely interested in alchemy to increase his wealth. He also felt it would be a good way of giving him more power, something that he desperately craved. He felt that if he could harness a demon, it would make him the most powerful man in the whole of France. He asked a priest by the name of Eustache Blanchet to help him find a reliable magician.

  Unfortunately, Gilles was so desperate for money he became gullible and was taken in by several con men. The first man claimed to be a goldsmith who said he had worked out how to convert silver into gold. Gilles met the man at a local tavern where he gave him a silver coin and left him alone to practise his trade. However, when Gilles returned, the man had spent his coin on a flagon of wine and was asleep in the corner of the tavern.

  The second alleged magician, Jean de la Riviere, cost Gilles even more money. He took Gilles into the local woods and told him to wait in a clearing while he went off to summon the devil. When Riviere ran out of the trees with an ashen face saying that he had seen the devil, Gilles was completely taken in. The magician told Gilles that he needed supplies to continue, but of course after he had his hands on the money he was never seen in those parts again.

  Finally, Blanchet introduced Gilles to a man named Fontanelle, who claimed he could conjure up a demon called Barron. Gilles, who despite his sadistic behaviour, had always remained a good Christian, so it must have been hard for him to have to participate in Devil worsip. Aware that he would need the Devil’s help if he were to restore his wealth, he agreed to take part in a black magic ceremony.

  Together with his cousin, Gilles de Sille and Fontanelle, they locked themselves in the dungeon of his castle at Tiffauges. Fontanelle warned them against making the sign of the cross or their lives would be in great danger. Sille, who was dubious about the whole thing, decided to stay by the window so that he could make a quick escape. Gilles, nervously entered the magic circle and watched the magician start to conjure up his demon. Allegedly, the three men were blown clear of the dungeon before the roof collapsed.

  Still desperate for money, Gilles was not prepared to give up on his search for a genuine magician. In 1439, he asked Blanchet to go to Italy to find some-one who was more skilled in the arts of black magic. This time he returned with a man called François Prelati. He was a handsome twenty-two-year-old homosexual, who soon charmed Gilles into believing he was a skilled magician. Gilles was completely taken in by his confidence and charm and could not see that Prelati was simply playing him for a fool. He told Gilles that to please the Devil they would need to offer a child’s blood and parts of its body as a sacrifice. Gilles, who seemed to trust him completely, told him that he didn’t have any trouble with that and soon found him a young boy. Gilles, who was still refusing to sell his soul to the Devil, was subsequently banned from taking part in any further ceremonies and so he left Prelati to his own devices.

  Gilles was conned again and Prelati did nothing to improve his financial position. Gilles realised that supernatural beings were not going to get him out of financial trouble, and with predators hanging around waiting to pounce, his days were numbered.

  During all this time, Gilles had continued to abduct and murder children, unable to give up on his perverse addiction. However, as more and more children went missing, the peasants from the neighbouring villages were starting to get suspicious. They accused Gilles of abduction, as many of the children had gone to his castle to beg for food but had never been seen again. During his years of murder, Gilles had come close to being discovered on several occasions. In 1437, his family seized his castle at Champtoce, when they heard he had threatened to sell it. Gilles was terrified because he had left the mutilated bodies of many children there. Luckily for him the bodies were not discovered, and he was able to remove them before his other lifestyle became public knowledge.

  the fatal mistake

  His fatal mistake came in July 1440, after he had sold Mermorte Castle to Geoffrey de Ferron, treasurer to the Duke of Brittany. For some reason Gilles tried to repossess the castle and flew into a rage when he was denied access to what he considered was still his property. They keys were held by Geoffrey de Ferron’s brother, who was a priest, and this was where Gilles made his big mistake. Instead of waiting until the priest was in his home, Gilles went into the church of St Etienne de Mermorte, grabbed the priest and took him outside, where he was violently beaten.

  This meant at last the authorities had something with which Gilles de Rais could be charged. They had suspected that the nobleman had been leading a secret life for a long time, but up until that time there was simply no proof and nothing they could do about it. Bishop Malestroit seized the chance to bring charges against Gilles and on September 13, 1440, he was summoned before the court. He was charged with being a heretic, an apostate, a conjurer of demons and numerous violations against human
nature, including sodomy, sacrilege and murder – in fact the indictment was forty-nine paragraphs long.

  When the trial started Gilles de Rais was arrogant and defiant, intially repudiating the charges brought against him. He taunted his accusers, stating that he had been pardoned of any crimes because he had made a full confession to the Father Superior of the Carmelites.

  However, as the trial continued his terrified servants finally surrendered their loyalty and spilled the beans. They gave details of the part they had to play in the slaughter of hundreds of young boys, which caused Gilles to change his tune. His once faithful servants described every gory detail of how their master loved to bathe in his victims’ blood, decapitating them himself so that he could cover his face with the gore. They talked of obscene torture and sexual acts, details of which sickened members of the court to their stomach. However, the crime of murder, albeit multiple, was not as serious as heresy. If the judges could be convinced that he committed these crimes as a sacrifice to Satan, then he could be punished by death.

  The following day Gilles de Rais arrived at the court wearing white to indicate his repentence. He stood up in the dock, showing no sign of the former arrogance, he confessed to a long list of crimes, which were so horrific they were almost beyond belief. Bearing his guilt, Gilles turned to the families of his victims and said:

  You who are present – you, above all, whose children I have slain – I am your brother in Christ. By Our Lord’s Passion, I implore you, pray for me. Forgive me with all your hearts the evil I have done you, as you yourselves hope for God’s mercy and pardon.

  Gilles’ plea of contrition had the desired effect, because when he was executed on October 26, 1440, the judges, the victims’ families and hundreds of spectators could not hold back the tears. He was the first one to be put to death, but his associates followed soon after. As Gilles stood under the gibbet he sang De Profundis in a loud voice so that everyone could hear. He asked his henchmen to join him in prayer, and as he got down on his knees and bent his head, the hundreds of spectators prayed with him.

  controversy

  Religion played an important part in the life of Gilles de Rais and evidence of his obvious piety is in direct conflict with the secret life to which he later confessed. This had led many people to doubt the validity behind his grisly reputation. There is no doubt that there were many people who would have stood to gain a tremendous fortune by declaring Gilles a heretic, as he was an exceptionally wealthy nobleman. In fact the Duke of Brittany was so certain of the outcome of the trial, that he disposed of his own share of Gilles lands just fifteen days before the trial started. There was also a good reason for the Church to fabricate a case against Gilles de Rais, because he was a serious challenge to their power over the king and court. If he was found guilty, it meant that the Church stood to gain his lands. There is also evidence that his servants were tortured into providing damning evidence against their master. Of course, the truth about Gilles de Rais will never be known and his reputation as a sadistic killer will probably always outweigh that of the heroic knight.

  Marquis de Sade

  The flamboyant character of the Marquis de Sade secured literary immortality with his erotic writings, which in turn gave rise to the word sadism. Although the Marquis de Sade was never convicted of any crime, he spent much of his life incarcerated in various prisons and an asylum for the insane. It was during this period that he did most of his writing, elaborating on his unrestrained view of freedom, power, evil and desire and his radical defiance of pre-Revolutionary French morality.

  the young aristocrat

  Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on June 2, 1740 in Paris, France, to a privileged aristocratic family. His father was Jean-Baptiste de Sade and his mother, Marie-Eléonore de Maillé, who was a distant cousin of the Prince de Conde. His father was a diplomat and a notorious, bisexual playboy. His mother was a distant woman, who showed her son little affection, and at the age of five, Donatien was sent off to live with his uncle, the Abbé de Sade. His life with his uncle had a profound effect on the young boy, who learned the true meaning of hypocrisy. Although the Abbé was a man who regularly went to church, he also kept a mistress and, it has been alleged, ran a brothel. The young Donatien soon learned to despise the Church and its morality and to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh.

  His experience at the Jesuit school, Louis Le Grand, where the pupils were regularly beaten, together with joining the army at the age of fourteen, possibly sowed the initial seeds for his love of violence. Until he was twenty-six, de Sade was in active military service, taking part in the Seven Years War. He found it hard to communicate with the other soldiers and remained a somewhat solitary character. Despite this, he managed to achieve the rank of captain by virtue of his bloodline.

  the high life

  After the war, de Sade slipped easily into the aristocratic life in Paris, developing a love of the theatre and the arts. Despite the fact that he had a mistress, La Beauvoisin, de Sade regularly frequented brothels and often invited the prostitutes back to his house.

  In May 1763, according to the wishes of his family, de Sade married a rich young aristocrat by the name of Renée-Pelagie de Montreuil. Despite the fact that he was an unfaithful husband, his wife proved to be surprisingly devoted to de Sade, even when the marriage vows did nothing to stem his debaucheries with the working women on the Paris streets. However, his love of orgies, blasphemy and subversion soon got him into trouble.

  In October 1763, de Sade was arrested for his ‘excesses’ and sentenced to the first of what would be many periods in prison. His indiscretions were such that he wrote to the prison governor begging him not to disclose the reasons for his incarceration, explaining that his reputation would be completely ruined if the truth ever came out. After serving several months in prison, de Sade was released and exiled to live outside Paris, under the watchful eye of the French authorities. However, jail did little to dampen his lust and de Sade returned to his life of debauchery, despite the fact that a Paris police inspector asked the brothel madams not to release any of their girls for de Sade’s pleasure.

  The Marquis de Sade found it hard to settle back into Parisian life following the scandal of 1763. On his release he begged to see his wife, apologising profusely for having offended her. De Sade eventually retreated to live in his chateau at La Coste, accompanied for a short while by his mistress, La Beauvoisin. She played the role of his wife, even going as far as entertaining the Provençal nobility, but this was all to come to an unhappy end in 1768.

  It was Easter Sunday when de Sade met a young widow called Rose Keller on the streets and, finding her attractive, he offered her a job as a maid. Keller went with de Sade to his small house in Arcueil where, according to the widow, he threatened to kill her before tying her to a bedpost and whipping her with a birch branch. Then he made gashes in her buttocks and poured molten wax into the wounds. Keller managed to escape by tying sheets together and climbing out of a bedroom window. She ran straight to the police and told them about her ordeal.

  When the authorities questioned de Sade about what had taken place, he told them that Keller was a willing partner who agreed to be paid for sex and ‘extras’, but he categorically denied having made any cuts to her buttocks. When she was examined by a doctor, it showed that she had been whipped but there were no signs of any other injuries. Once again de Sade paid for his indiscretion and received two rather short prison sentences.

  His wife stood by him, and when he was released they went to live in exile in Provence. For about three years de Sade managed to rein his passions and they played happy families. They had three children and de Sade, who seemed happy to be lord of his manor, produced several plays in his theatre. However, if his wife thought that he was going to play the dutiful husband and father for very long, she was under a serious misconception.

  life of excess

  In 1771, the Marquis de Sade saw the inside of a prison once again, but this time
it was over payment of a debt. It appears that when he was released, he went back to his old way of life and started off by upsetting his mother-in-law. He seduced her younger daughter, Anne-Prospre, who was not only a virgin and a canoness, but of course the sister of his wife.

  In 1772, de Sade received the penalty of death for accidentally poisoning several prostitutes with Spanish fly. This was a drug, which he used for purposes of seduction, but it was dangerous as the amount required was minuscule and the difference between the effective dose and the harmful dose was very narrow. De Sade managed to escape to Italy, accompanied by his loyal servant, Latour, and Anne-Prospre. While in Italy, de Sade and Latour were both sentenced to death in absentia, and Anne-Prospre decided to take refuge in a French convent, where she stayed for the remainder of her life.

  De Sade was caught and imprisoned in the chateau of Miolans, but he was able to make an escape thanks to his ever-faithful wife who, for some unknown reason, still supported him during his life on the run. They returned to live in his chateau La Coste and, with the help of his wife, de Sade hired several handsome valets, an illiterate but attractive secretary, a beautiful cook and several young prostitutes to work as maids. De Sade was in his element and spent the season at his country estate forcing the girls into various acts of humiliation and sexual indignity. However, his activities were soon to come to an abrupt halt as the cook became pregnant, the secretary was taken away by his parents and the girls, whose worried families had contacted the authorities, were dispatched to various convents and safe houses.