Eugène François Vidocq
Encyclopedia
Eugène François Vidocq (øʒɛn fʁɑ̃swa viˈdɔk; July 23, 1775 – May 11, 1857) was a French
criminal and criminalist whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo
and Honoré de Balzac
. A former crook who subsequently became the founder and first director of the crime-fighting Sûreté Nationale
as well as the head of the first known private detective agency
, he is considered to be the father of modern criminology and of the French police. He is also regarded as the first private detective.
in the Rue du Mirroir-de-Venise.1856 renamed to Rue des Trois Visages
Vidocq's teenage years were a turbulent time period. He is described as being fearless, rowdy and cunning, very talented, but also very lazy. He spent much time in the armories (fighting halls) of Arras and acquired a reputation as a formidable fencer and the nickname "le Vautrin" (wild boarToday's French name is sanglier. Vautrin was a slang word for wild boar in northern France (Artois
and Picardy) and was probably derived from the reflexive verb se vautrer (to wallow in)). By stealing, he provided himself with some level of comfort.
When Vidocq was thirteen years old, he stole his parent's silver plates and spent the proceeds from them within a day. Three days after the theft, he was arrested and brought to the local jail, Baudets.Destroyed in 1944. Only ten days later, he learned that his father had arranged his arrest to teach him a lesson. After a total of fourteen days, he was released from prison, but even this did not tame him.
By age fourteen, he had stolen a large amount of money from the cash box of his parent's bakery and left for Ostend
, where he tried to embark to the Americas. But he was defrauded one night and found himself suddenly penniless. To survive, he worked for a group of traveling entertainers. Despite regular beatings, he worked hard enough to get promoted from stable boy to playing a Caribbean cannibal who eats raw meat. He could not stomach this for very long, so he switched to a group of puppeteers. However, he was banished from them because he flirted with the young wife of his employer. He then worked some time as an assistant of a peddler, but as soon as he neared Arras, he returned to his parents seeking forgiveness. He was welcomed by his mother with open arms.
On 10 March 1791, he enlisted in the Bourbon Regiment, where his reputation as an expert fencer was confirmed. According to Vidocq, within six months he challenged fifteen people to a duel and killed two. Despite not being a model soldier and causing difficulties, he spent only a total of fourteen days in jail. During those two weeks, Vidocq helped a fellow inmate successfully escape.
When France declared war against Austria on 20 April 1792, Vidocq participated in the battles of the First Coalition
, including the Battle of Valmy
in September 1792. On 1 November 1792, he was promoted to corporal of grenadiers, but during his promotion ceremony, he challenged a fellow non-commissioned officer to a duel. This sergeant major refused the duel, so Vidocq hit him. Striking a superior officer could have led to a death sentence, so he deserted and enlisted in the 11th Chasseur
s, concealing his history. On 6 November 1792, he fought under General Dumouriez
in the Battle of Jemappes
.
In April 1793, Vidocq was identified as a deserter. He followed a general, who was fleeing after a failed martial coup, into the enemy camp. After a few weeks, Vidocq returned to the French camp. A chasseur-captain friend interceded for him, so he was allowed to rejoin the chasseurs. Finally, he resigned from the army because he was no longer welcome.
He was eighteen years old when he returned to Arras. He soon gained a reputation as a womanizer. Since his seductions often ended in duels, he was imprisoned in Baudets from 9 January 1794 to 21 January 1795.
On 8 August 1794, when he was barely 19, Vidocq married Anne Marie Louise Chevalier, who was five days his senior, after she had feigned pregnancy. The marriage was not happy from the start, and when Vidocq learned that his wife had cheated on him with the adjutant, Pierre Laurent Vallain, he left again for the army. He did not see his wife again until their divorce in 1805.
, which was then a hideout for crooks of all kinds. There he supported himself by small frauds. One day, he was apprehended by the police, and as a deserter he had no valid papers. When asked for his identity, he described himself as Monsieur
Rousseau from Lille
and escaped while the police tried to confirm his statement.
In 1795, he joined - still under the alias of Rousseau - the armée roulante ("flying army"). This army consisted of "officers" who in reality had neither commissions
nor regiments. They were raiders, forging routes, ranks and uniforms, but staying away from the battlefields. Vidocq began as a lieutenant
of chasseurs, but soon promoted himself to a hussar
captain. In this role, he met a rich widow in BrusselsThe biographer Bruno Roy-Henry suspects it was the Baroness d'Ixelles who became enamored of him. A co-conspirator of Vidocq's convinced her that Vidocq was a young nobleman on the run because of the French Revolution
. Shortly before their wedding, Vidocq confessed to her. Then he left the city, but not without a generous cash gift from her.
In March 1795, Vidocq moved to Paris, where he squandered all his money on loose women. He went back north and joined a group of Bohemian
gypsies, which he later left for a woman he had fallen in love with, Francine Longuet. When Francine cheated on him with a soldier, he beat both of them. The soldier sued him, and in September 1795, Vidocq was sentenced to three months in the prison Tour Saint-Pierre in Lille.
Vidocq was 20 and quickly adapted to life in prison. He befriended a group of men, among them Sebastien Boitel, who had been sentenced to six years for stealing. Then Boitel suddenly was released, but the next day, the local inspector noticed that the pardon was forged. Here begins the biggest controversy around Vidocq: Vidocq always claimed that he was completely innocent in the forgery. Vidocq claimed two fellow inmates, Grouard, and Herbaux, had asked to use his cell (as a soldier, Vidocq had a cell all to himself) to write something of an unknown nature because the common room was too noisy. Both inmates claimed however, that he helped in the fabrication and that the whole thing had been his idea. Thus, Vidocq was not released after the three months.
In following weeks, Vidocq escaped several times with the help of Francine, but always was captured soon again. After one of his escapes, Francine caught him with another woman. He hid from her and when he finally was picked up again by police, he learned that Francine had been found with multiple knife wounds. Suddenly he was not only accused of forgery but also attempted murder. It took some time before Francine conceded that the wounds were self-inflicted and the charge was dropped. Vidocq's contact with Francine stopped when she was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for aiding the escapes.
After a long delay, his trial for document forgery began. On 27 December 1796, Vidocq and a second accused, César Herbaux, were found guilty and sentenced to eight years at hard labour.
In the prison of Bicêtre
, Vidocq was to wait several months for the transfer to the Bagne
in Brest
to toil in the galleys. A fellow inmate taught him the martial art of savate
, which was to later prove often useful to him. An escape attempt on 3 October 1797 failed and precipitated his placement in a dungeon for eight days.
Finally, on 21 November, he was sent to Brest. As soon as he arrived, he had a stroke of luck. On 28 February 1798, he escaped dressed as a sailor. Only a few days later, he was apprehended due to a lack of papers, but the police did not recognize him as an escaped convict. He claimed to be Auguste Duval and while officials checked this claim, he was put into a prison hospital. There he stole a nun's habit
and escaped in disguise. In Cholet
, he found a job as a cattle drover and in this capacity passed through Paris, Arras, Brussels, Ancer and finally Rotterdam
, where he was shanghaied
by the Dutch. After a short career as a privateer
, he was arrested again and taken to Douai
, where he was identified as Vidocq. He was transferred to the Bagne in Toulon, arriving on 29 August 1799. After one failed escape attempt, he escaped again on 6 March 1800 with the help of a prostitute.
in 1802. Vidocq built up for himself a reputation as a businessman and finally felt secure enough to let his mother come live with him and the widow. But finally his past caught up with him. He was arrested and brought to Louvres
. There he learned that he had been sentenced to death in absentia. With the help of the local procurator-general, Ransom, he filed an appeal and spent the following five months in prison waiting for a re-trial. During this time, Louise Chevalier contacted him to inform him of their divorce. When it seemed that there would be no decision concerning his sentence, he decided to flee again. On 28 November 1805, while unattended for a moment, he jumped out of a window into the adjacent river Scarpe. For the next four years, he once again was a man on the run.
He spent some time in Paris, where he witnessed the execution of César Herbaux, the man with whom his life had started a downward spiral. This event triggered a process of reevaluation in Vidocq. With his mother and a woman he called Annette in his memoirs, he moved several times in the following years. But again and again, people from his past recognized him. He again tried to become a legitimate merchant, but his former wife found him in Paris and blackmailed him for money, and a couple of former fellow convicts forced him to fence for them.
On 1 July 1809, only a few days before his 34th birthday, Vidcoq was arrested again. He decided to stop living on the fringes of society and offered his services as an informant
to the police. His offer was accepted, and on 20 July he was jailed in Bicêtre, where he started his work as a spy. On 28 October, he continued his work in La Force Prison
. He sounded out his inmates and forwarded his information about forged identities and unsolved crimes through Annette to the police chief of Paris, Jean Henry.
After 21 months of spying, Vidocq was released from jail on the recommendation of Henry. So as not to raise suspicions among the other inmates, the release (which took place on 25 March 1811) was arranged to look like an escape. Still, Vidocq was not really free, because now he was obliged to Henry. Therefore, he continued to work as a secret agent for the Paris police. He used his contacts and his reputation in the criminal underworld to gain trust. He disguised himself as an escaped convict and immersed himself in the criminal scene to learn about planned and committed crimes. He even took part in felonies in order to suddenly turn on his partners and arrest them. When criminals eventually began to suspect him, he used disguises and assumed other identities to continue his work and throw off suspicion.
de la Sûreté ("Security Brigade"). The police department recognized the value of these civil agents, and in October 1812 the experiment was officially converted to a security police unit under the Prefecture of Police
. Vidocq was appointed its leader. On 17 December 1813, Napoleon Bonaparte
signed a decree
which made the brigade a state security police force. From this day on, it was called the Sûreté Nationale
.
The Sûreté initially had eight, then twelve, and in 1823 twenty employees. One year later, it expanded again, to 28 secret agents. In addition, there were eight people who worked secretly for the Sûreté, but instead of a salary, they received licences for gambling halls. A major portion of Vidocq's subordinates were ex-criminals like himself. He even hired them fresh from the prisons, for example Coco Lacour, who would later become Vidocq's successor at the Sûreté. Vidocq described his work from this period:
Vidocq personally trained his agents, for example in selecting the correct disguise based on the kind of job. He himself still went out hunting for criminals too. His memoirs are full with stories about how he outsmarted crooks by pretending to be a beggar or an old cuckold
. At one point, he even simulated his own death.
During 1814, at the beginning of the French Restoration, Vidocq and the Sûreté tried to contain the situation in Paris. He also arrested those who tried to exploit the post-revolutionary situation by claiming to have been aristocrat
s. During 1817, he was involved in 811 arrests, including those of 15 assassin
s and 38 fence
s. By 1820, his activities had reduced crime in Paris substantially. His annual income was 5,000 francs, but he also worked as a private investigator for fees. Rumors at the time claimed that Vidocq set criminals up, organizing break-ins and robberies and having his agents wait to collect the offenders. Even though some of Vidocq's techniques might have been questionable, there seems to be no truth to this.
Despite his position as chief of a police authority, Vidocq remained a wanted criminal. His forgery conviction had never been fully dismissed, so alongside complaints and denunciations, his superiors repeatedly received requests from the prison director of Douai, which they ignored. Finally, the Comte Jules Anglès, prefect of the Paris police, responded to a petition from Vidocq and requested an official pardon, which he received on 26 March 1817 from King Louis XVIII
.
In November 1820, Vidocq married again, this time the destitute Jeanne-Victoire Guérin, whose origin is unknown, which at that time led to speculation. She came to live in the household at 111 Rue de l'Hirondelle, where Vidocq's mother and a niece of hers, the 27-year-old Fleuride Albertine Maniez (born March 22, 1793), also lived. In 1822, Vidocq befriended the author Honoré de Balzac
who began to use him as a model for several figures in his books. Vidocq's wife, who was ailing throughout their marriage, died in June 1824 in a hospital. Six weeks later, on 30 July 1824, Vidocq's mother died at age 83. She was buried with honours, and her requiem was performed in Notre Dame Cathedral.
Events of the 1820s had an impact on the police apparatus. After the assassination of the Duc de Berry in February 1820, Police Prefect Anglès had to resign and was replaced by the Jesuit
Guy Delavau, who set a high value on religiousness among his subordinates. In 1824, Louis XVIII died. His successor was the ultra-reactionary
Charles X
, during whose oppressive reign
police agents were regularly withdrawn from their original activities. Finally Vidocq's immediate superior, police chief Henry, retired and was succeeded by Parisot who quickly was superseded by the ambitious but also very formal Marc Duplessis. The antipathy between Vidocq and Duplessis was great. Time and time again, Duplessis complained about trivial matters, for example that Vidocq's agents spent time in brothels and bars of ill repute. Vidocq's explanation that they had to do this to establish contacts and gather information was ignored. When Vidocq received two official warnings within a short time, he had had enough. On 20 June 1827, the 52-year-old handed in his resignation:
He then wrote his memoirs with the help of a ghostwriter
.
Vidocq, who was a rich man after his resignation, became an entrepreneur. In Saint-Mandé
, a small town east of Paris, where he married his cousin Fleuride Maniez on 28 January 1830, he founded a paper factory. He mainly employed released convicts - both men and women. This caused an outrageous scandal in society and led to disputes. In addition, the machines cost money, the semi-skilled workers needed food and clothing, and the customers refused to pay marked prices with the argument that he had a seemingly cheaper workforce. The company did not last long; Vidocq went bankrupt in 1831. But in the short time while he was away from Paris, both Delavau and Duplessis had to resign their posts, and the July Revolution
of 1830 forced Charles X to abdicate. When Vidocq delivered a few useful tips which helped to solve a burglary in Fontainebleau and led to the arrest of eight people, the new police prefect, Henri Gisquet, appointed him again chief of the Sûreté.
The criticism of Vidocq and his organization grew. The July Monarchy
caused insecurities in society, and there was a cholera
outbreak in 1832. One of its victims was General Jean Maximilien Lamarque
. During his funeral on 5 June 1832, a revolt erupted and the throne of "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe I was in danger. Allegedly Vidocq's group cracked down on the rioters with great severity. Not all of the police approved of his methods, and rivalries developed. A rumour arose that Vidocq had initiated the theft that led to his reinstatement himself to show his indispensability. One of his agents had to go to prison for two years because of that affair, but Vidocq's involvement could not be proved. More and more defenders claimed that Vidocq and his agents were not credible as eye witnesses since most of them had criminal pasts themselves. Vidocq's position was untenable, and on 15 November 1832 he once again resigned, using the pretext of his wife being ill.
On the same day, the Sûreté was dissolved, then re-established without agents with criminal records, no matter how minor their offenses. Vidocq's successor was Pierre Allard.
s.
His squad, which initially consisted of eleven detectives, two clerks and one secretary, pitted itself on behalf of businesspeople and private citizens against Faiseurs (crooks, fraudsters, bankruptcy artists), occasionally using illegal means too. From 1837, Vidocq quarreled constantly with the official police because of his activities and his questionable relations with various government agencies such as the War Department. On 28 November 1837, the police executed a search and seizure
and confiscated over 3,500 files and documents. A few days later, Vidocq was arrested and spent Christmas and New Year in jail. He was charged with three crimes, namely the acquisition of money by deception, corruption of civil servants, and the pretension of public functions. In February 1838, after numerous witnesses had testified, the judge dismissed all three charges. Vidocq was free again.
Vidocq increasingly became the subject of literature and public discussions. Balzac wrote several novels and plays which contained characters modeled after Vidocq.
The agency flourished, but Vidocq continued to make enemies, some of them powerful. On 17 August 1842, on behalf of Police Prefect Gabriel Delessert, 75 police officers stormed his office building and arrested him and one of his agents. This time, the case seemed to be clear. In an investigation of defalcation
, he had made an illegal arrest and had demanded a bill of exchange for the embezzled money from the arrested fraudster. For the next few months, 67-year-old Vidocq was remanded into custody in the Conciergerie
. On 3 May 1843, the first hearings finally took place before judge Michel Barbou, a close friend of Delessert. During the trial, Vidocq had to give testimony about many other cases, among them the kidnappings of several women who he had allegedly delivered to monasteries against their will at the behest of their families. Also his activities as a money lender and the possible benefits from it were examined. Finally, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 franc
. Vidocq immediately appealed and through the intervention of political friends like Count Gabriel de Berny and the attorney general, Franck-Carré, he quickly got a new trial, this time with the chief judge of the court royale. The hearing on 22 July 1843 took a matter of minutes, and after eleven months in the Conciergerie, Vidocq once again was free.
The harm was done, however. The lawsuit had been very expensive, and his reputation was damaged. Business at the agency suffered. Moreover, Delessert tried to get him expelled from the city for being a former criminal. Although the attempt failed, Vidocq increasingly considered selling his agency. But he could not find a qualified and reputable buyer.
In the following years, Vidocq published several small books in which he depicted his life to directly refute the rumours which were being circulated about him. In 1844, he presented an essay on prisons, penitentiaries, and the death penalty. On the morning of 22 September 1847, his third wife Fleuride died after 17 years of marriage. Vidocq did not marry again, but until his death he had several intimate partners.
In 1848, the February revolution
caused the abdication of "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe. The Second Republic
was proclaimed, with Alphonse de Lamartine
as the head of a transitional government. Although Vidocq always had been proud of his reception at the king's court and had boasted about his access to Louis-Philippe, he offered his services to the new government. His task was the surveillance of political opponents such as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
, the nephew of Napoleon I
. Meanwhile, the new government sank into chaos and violence. In the presidential election of 10 December 1848, Lamartine received less than 8,000 votes. Vidocq presented himself as a candidate in the 2nd Arrondissement
, but received only one vote. The clear winner, and thus president of the Second Republic, was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who did not respond to Vidocq's offer to work for him.
in the presence of his doctor, his lawyer and a priest.
His body was brought to the church of Saint-Denys du Saint-Sacrement, where the funeral service was held. It is not known where Vidocq is buried, though there are some rumours as to the location. One of them, mentioned in the biography of John Philip Stead, claims that his grave is at the cemetery in Saint Mandé. There is a gravestone with the inscription "Vidocq 18". According to information from city officials however, this grave is registered to Vidocq's last wife, Fleuride-Albertine Maniez.
In the end, his assets consisted of 2,907.50 francs from the sale of his goods and a pension of 867.50 francs. A total of eleven women came forward as owners of his testament, a document which they had received for their favours instead of presents. His remaining assets went to Anne-Heloïse Lefèvre, at whose house he had lived at the end. Vidocq had no children, at least none that are known. Emile-Adolphe Vidocq, the son of his first wife, tried to get recognized as his son (even changing his last name for this purpose), but failed. Vidocq had left evidence which ruled out his paternity. At the time of Emile-Adolphe Vidocq's conception, Vidocq had been in prison.
, ballistics
, criminology
and a record keeping system to criminal investigation. He made the first plaster cast
impressions of shoe prints. He created indelible ink and unalterable bond paper
with his printing company. His form of anthropometrics is still partially used by French police. He is also credited with philanthropic
pursuits – he claimed he never informed on anyone who had stolen out of real need. At the same time, his work was not acknowledged in France for a long time because of his criminal past. In September 1905 the Sûreté Nationale exhibited a painting series with its former heads. However, the first painting of the series showed Pierre Allard, Vidocq's successor. The newspaper L’Exclusive reported on 17 September 1905 that on obtaining information concerning the omission, they had gotten the answer that Vidocq never had been head of the Sûreté.
whose agents were responsible for the detection of conspiracies and intrigues; on the other, the normal police, who investigated common crimes like theft, fraud, prostitution, and murder. Since the Middle Ages, those constables wore identification insignia
which over time had developed to full uniforms. Unlike the often covertly operating political police, they were easy to spot. For fear of attack, they did not dare to enter some Parisian districts, limiting their efforts at crime prevention
.
Vidocq persuaded his superiors to allow his agents, who also included women, to wear plain clothes and disguises depending on the situation. Thus, they did not attract attention, and as former criminals also knew the hiding places and methods of criminals. Through their contacts, they often learned of planned crimes and were able to catch the guilty red-handed. Vidocq also had a different approach to interrogation. In his memoirs, he mentions several times that he did not take those arrested to prison immediately, but invited them to dinner, where he chatted with them. In addition to information about other crimes, he often obtained confessions this non-violent way and recruited future informants and even agents.
August Vollmer
, the first police chief of Berkeley, California
and a leading figure in the development of criminal justice in the United States studied the works of Vidocq and the Austrian criminal jurist Hans Gross
for his reform of the Berkeley police force. His reform ideas were adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) and as a result also affected J. Edgar Hoover
and the FBI
. After Robert Peel
established Scotland Yard
in 1829, he sent a committee to Paris in 1832 to confer with Vidocq for several days. In 1843, two commissars of Scotland Yard traveled to Paris for further training. They spent only two days with Pierre Allard, who was head of the Sûreté by then. Then they went to Vidocq, and for one week accompanied him and his agents in their work.
Jürgen Thorwald
stated in his book Das Jahrhundert der Detektive (1964) that Vidocq had a photographic memory
which allowed him to recognize previously convicted criminals, even in disguise. Biographer Samuel Edwards reported in The Vidocq Dossier about a trial against the fraudster and forger Lambert, in which Vidocq referred to his memory of the accused. Vidocq regularly visited the prisons to memorise the faces of the inmates, and made his agents do the same. The English police adopted this method. Until the late 1980s, British investigators attended court hearings to observe the spectators in the public galleries and become aware of possible accomplices.
As Vidocq said at Lambert's trial, while his memory was phenomenal, he could not require the same of his agents. Therefore, for each arrested person, he carefully set up an index card with a personal description, aliases, previous convictions, modus operandi
, and other information. The card of forger Lambert contained among other things a handwriting sample. The index card system was retained not only by the French police but also by police units in other countries. However, it soon revealed its weaknesses. By the time Alphonse Bertillon
came to the Sûreté as clerk in 1879, the descriptions on the cards were not detailed enough anymore to really identify suspects. This caused Bertillon to develop an anthropometric system for personal identification called the bertillonage. The sorting of the card boxes, which by then already filled several rooms, was converted to body dimensions, the first of many attempts to improve the structure of the sorting. With the advent of information age
, the cards were digitised and the card boxes were replaced by database
s.
Chemical compound
s
Crime scene
investigation
Ballistics
, Victor Hugo
and Alexandre Dumas
were of the opinion that the story was too short, so Vidocq looked for a new publisher, which he found in Louis François L'Héritier. In December of the same year, L'Héritier published the memoirs, which had increased to four volumes through the help of some ghostwriter
s. The work became a bestseller and sold over 50,000 copies in the first year, according to biographer Samuel Edwards. The success inspired imitators. In 1829, two journalists under the pseudonym of a criminal named Malgaret published the book Mémoires d’un forçat ou Vidocq dévoilé to expose criminal activities Vidocq allegedly had committed. Other police officers followed Vidocq's example and published their own autobiographies in the following years, among them the prefect of police, Henri Gisquet.
Vidocq's life story inspired many contemporary writers, many of them his closest friends. In Balzac's writings, he was regularly the model of literary figures: his experiences as a failed entrepreneur were used in the third part of Illusions perdues, Les Souffrances de l'inventeur; in Gobseck, Balzac introduced the policemen Corentin; but most clearly the connection to Vidocq can be found in the figure of Vautrin
. This character first appears in the novel Le Père Goriot
, then in Illusions perdues, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (as the main character), La Cousine Bette, Le Contrat de mariage and finally as the main character in the 1840 theatre play Vautrin. Not only Vidocq as a person but also his methods and disguises inspired Balzac in his work.
In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
(1862), both main characters, the reformed criminal Jean Valjean and his pursuer, Police Inspector Javert, were modelled after Vidocq; the same is true of the policemen Monsieur Jackal in Les Mohicans de Paris (1854–1855) by Alexandre Dumas. He also was the basis for Rodolphe de Gerolstein, who secured justice in the serial newspaper novel The Mysteries of Paris of Eugène Sue
in the weekly newspaper Journal des débats
. And he was the inspiration of Émile Gaboriau
for Monsieur Lecoq
, one of the first scientific and methodical investigators who played the lead role in many adventures, who in turn then was a major influence for the creation of Sherlock Holmes
. It is also believed that Edgar Allan Poe
was prompted by a story about Vidocq to create the first detective in fiction, C. Auguste Dupin, who appeared for example in the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue
" which is considered the first detective story
. Vidocq is also mentioned in Moby Dick and "{White Jacket}" {White Jacket - Chapter VI: The Quarterdeck Officers,etc.} of Herman Melville
and Great Expectations
of Charles Dickens
.
In James Joyce
's story "Araby", the protagonist - an adolescent boy in Dublin at the turn of the 20th century - finds among old papers a yellowed copy of The Memoirs of Vidocq.
In the 2009 novel Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey, Francois Eugene Vidocq is an immortal thief and alchemist who searches for a cure for his immortality. He also appears in the sequels, Kill the Dead and Aloha From Hell.
, a road with several theatres which regularly presented crime stories in form of melodramas, was quite popular. One of these theatres was the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique
, which was sponsored by Vidocq to a great extent. According to the biographer James Morton, Vidocq also submitted a play, but it never was produced. He also had plans to dabble in play-acting but never carried them out.
Not only were many of Vidocq's paramours actresses, but many of his friends and acquaintances were also from the theatre scene. Among them was the famous actor Frédérick Lemaître
who inter alia played the main role in Balzac
's Vautrin, a play which debuted on 14 March 1840 at Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
after numerous problems with the censorship. Lemaître tried to adapt his appearance to that of Vidocq, on whom the character Vautrin
was based. At the premiere there were commotions because the wig
Lemaître had used was also similar to the one of King Louis-Philippe. The play was banned by the French interior minister after that and not performed again.
It was not only plays inspired by Vidocq that were shown in the theatre. His one life story also made it on stage several times, usually with his memoirs as literary template. Especially in England the enthusiasm was great for Vidocq. The memoirs had been rapidly translated into English and a few months later, on 6 July 1829, the premiere of Vidocq! The French Police Spy was held at Surrey Theatre
in the London Borough of Lambeth
. The melodrama in 2 acts, produced by Robert William Elliston
, was penned by Douglas William Jerrold
, the main character was played by TP Cooke. Although the critics
, among them one from The Times
, were quite positive, the play was performed only nine times in the first month and then dropped.
In December 1860, some years after Vidocq's death, another play about him, written by F. Marchant, was presented in Britannia Theatre
in Hoxton
under the title Vidocq or The French Jonathan Wild. It was included in the theatre program for only one week.
In 1909 Émile Bergerat
wrote the melodrama Vidocq, empereur des policiers in five acts and seven scenes. The producers Hertz and Coquelin rejected it but Bergerat sued them successfully for 8,000 francs damages. The play debuted in 1910 in Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt. Jean Kemm, who years later would also participate in a movie about Vidocq, took over the lead role.
La Jeunesse de Vidocq ou Comment on devient policier. Vidocq was played by Harry Baur
who also portrayed him in the two sequels, L'Évasion de Vidocq (1910) and Vidocq (1911)
Under the direction of Jean Kemm, the silent movie Vidocq was next in 1922. The screenplay was written by Arthur Bernède
, based again on Vidocq's memoirs. The main role was played by René Navarre
.
The first sound film
, albeit still in black and white, was published in 1938. Jacques Daroy shot the film, which once again was named Vidocq after the main character, with actor André Brulé
. The film mostly displayed Vidocq's criminal career. Compared to other contemporary crime films, it was rather unglamorous, but still played in some movie theatres outside of France.
On 19 July 1946, the first American film about Vidocq made by Americans appeared – A Scandal in Paris
, still in black and white. George Sanders
portrayed Vidocq in the highly fictionalized biopic by Douglas Sirk
, which showed the rise of a rogue in society coupled with a love story. It was followed in April 1948 by the next French version of Vidocq's life story. Le Cavalier de Croix-Mort was shot by Lucien Ganier-Raymond with Henri Nassiet in the leading role.
On 7 January 1967, the French television station ORTF
showed the first of two television series, each with 13 episodes. Vidocq, with Bernard Noël
, was still in black and white. This changed with the second series, Les Nouvelles Aventures de Vidocq, which premiered on 5 January 1971. Claude Brasseur
was the first to portray Vidocq in colour.
In 2001, under the direction of Pitof
, Gérard Depardieu
played Vidocq in the French science fiction film Vidocq
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
criminal and criminalist whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
and Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
. A former crook who subsequently became the founder and first director of the crime-fighting Sûreté Nationale
Sûreté
Sûreté is a term used in French speaking countries or regions in the organizational title of a civil police force, especially the detective branch thereof.-France:...
as well as the head of the first known private detective agency
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
, he is considered to be the father of modern criminology and of the French police. He is also regarded as the first private detective.
Biography
Eugène François Vidocq was born in the night from 23 to 24 July 1775 as the third child of the baker Nicolas Joseph François Vidocq (1744–1799) and his wife Henriette Françoise Vidocq (1744–1824, née Dion) in ArrasArras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
in the Rue du Mirroir-de-Venise.1856 renamed to Rue des Trois Visages
Childhood and youth (1775-1794)
Little is known about his childhood; most of it is based on his ghost-written autobiography and a few documents in French archives. His father was well-educated and for those days very wealthy since he was also a corn dealer. Vidocq had six siblings: two older brothers (one of whom had died before he was born), two younger brothers and two younger sisters.Vidocq's teenage years were a turbulent time period. He is described as being fearless, rowdy and cunning, very talented, but also very lazy. He spent much time in the armories (fighting halls) of Arras and acquired a reputation as a formidable fencer and the nickname "le Vautrin" (wild boarToday's French name is sanglier. Vautrin was a slang word for wild boar in northern France (Artois
Artois
Artois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...
and Picardy) and was probably derived from the reflexive verb se vautrer (to wallow in)). By stealing, he provided himself with some level of comfort.
When Vidocq was thirteen years old, he stole his parent's silver plates and spent the proceeds from them within a day. Three days after the theft, he was arrested and brought to the local jail, Baudets.Destroyed in 1944. Only ten days later, he learned that his father had arranged his arrest to teach him a lesson. After a total of fourteen days, he was released from prison, but even this did not tame him.
By age fourteen, he had stolen a large amount of money from the cash box of his parent's bakery and left for Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
, where he tried to embark to the Americas. But he was defrauded one night and found himself suddenly penniless. To survive, he worked for a group of traveling entertainers. Despite regular beatings, he worked hard enough to get promoted from stable boy to playing a Caribbean cannibal who eats raw meat. He could not stomach this for very long, so he switched to a group of puppeteers. However, he was banished from them because he flirted with the young wife of his employer. He then worked some time as an assistant of a peddler, but as soon as he neared Arras, he returned to his parents seeking forgiveness. He was welcomed by his mother with open arms.
On 10 March 1791, he enlisted in the Bourbon Regiment, where his reputation as an expert fencer was confirmed. According to Vidocq, within six months he challenged fifteen people to a duel and killed two. Despite not being a model soldier and causing difficulties, he spent only a total of fourteen days in jail. During those two weeks, Vidocq helped a fellow inmate successfully escape.
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
, including the Battle of Valmy
Battle of Valmy
The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the army of France during the French Revolution. The action took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris...
in September 1792. On 1 November 1792, he was promoted to corporal of grenadiers, but during his promotion ceremony, he challenged a fellow non-commissioned officer to a duel. This sergeant major refused the duel, so Vidocq hit him. Striking a superior officer could have led to a death sentence, so he deserted and enlisted in the 11th Chasseur
Chasseur
Chasseur [sha-sur; Fr. sha-sœr] is the designation given to certain regiments of French light infantry or light cavalry troops, trained for rapid action.-History:...
s, concealing his history. On 6 November 1792, he fought under General Dumouriez
Charles François Dumouriez
Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General François Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revolutionary Army and became a royalist intriguer during the reign of Napoleon.-Early life:Dumouriez...
in the Battle of Jemappes
Battle of Jemappes
The Battle of Jemappes took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Belgium, near Mons. General Charles François Dumouriez, in command of the French Revolutionary Army, defeated the greatly outnumbered Austrian army of Field Marshal Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and his second-in-command...
.
In April 1793, Vidocq was identified as a deserter. He followed a general, who was fleeing after a failed martial coup, into the enemy camp. After a few weeks, Vidocq returned to the French camp. A chasseur-captain friend interceded for him, so he was allowed to rejoin the chasseurs. Finally, he resigned from the army because he was no longer welcome.
He was eighteen years old when he returned to Arras. He soon gained a reputation as a womanizer. Since his seductions often ended in duels, he was imprisoned in Baudets from 9 January 1794 to 21 January 1795.
On 8 August 1794, when he was barely 19, Vidocq married Anne Marie Louise Chevalier, who was five days his senior, after she had feigned pregnancy. The marriage was not happy from the start, and when Vidocq learned that his wife had cheated on him with the adjutant, Pierre Laurent Vallain, he left again for the army. He did not see his wife again until their divorce in 1805.
Years of wandering and prison (1795-1800)
Vidocq did not stay long in the army. In autumn 1794, he spent most of his time in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, which was then a hideout for crooks of all kinds. There he supported himself by small frauds. One day, he was apprehended by the police, and as a deserter he had no valid papers. When asked for his identity, he described himself as Monsieur
Monsieur
' is an honorific title that used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It is also a customary French title of respect and term of address for a French-speaking man, corresponding to such English titles as Mr...
Rousseau from Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
and escaped while the police tried to confirm his statement.
In 1795, he joined - still under the alias of Rousseau - the armée roulante ("flying army"). This army consisted of "officers" who in reality had neither commissions
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
nor regiments. They were raiders, forging routes, ranks and uniforms, but staying away from the battlefields. Vidocq began as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
of chasseurs, but soon promoted himself to a hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
captain. In this role, he met a rich widow in BrusselsThe biographer Bruno Roy-Henry suspects it was the Baroness d'Ixelles who became enamored of him. A co-conspirator of Vidocq's convinced her that Vidocq was a young nobleman on the run because of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Shortly before their wedding, Vidocq confessed to her. Then he left the city, but not without a generous cash gift from her.
In March 1795, Vidocq moved to Paris, where he squandered all his money on loose women. He went back north and joined a group of Bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
gypsies, which he later left for a woman he had fallen in love with, Francine Longuet. When Francine cheated on him with a soldier, he beat both of them. The soldier sued him, and in September 1795, Vidocq was sentenced to three months in the prison Tour Saint-Pierre in Lille.
Vidocq was 20 and quickly adapted to life in prison. He befriended a group of men, among them Sebastien Boitel, who had been sentenced to six years for stealing. Then Boitel suddenly was released, but the next day, the local inspector noticed that the pardon was forged. Here begins the biggest controversy around Vidocq: Vidocq always claimed that he was completely innocent in the forgery. Vidocq claimed two fellow inmates, Grouard, and Herbaux, had asked to use his cell (as a soldier, Vidocq had a cell all to himself) to write something of an unknown nature because the common room was too noisy. Both inmates claimed however, that he helped in the fabrication and that the whole thing had been his idea. Thus, Vidocq was not released after the three months.
In following weeks, Vidocq escaped several times with the help of Francine, but always was captured soon again. After one of his escapes, Francine caught him with another woman. He hid from her and when he finally was picked up again by police, he learned that Francine had been found with multiple knife wounds. Suddenly he was not only accused of forgery but also attempted murder. It took some time before Francine conceded that the wounds were self-inflicted and the charge was dropped. Vidocq's contact with Francine stopped when she was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for aiding the escapes.
After a long delay, his trial for document forgery began. On 27 December 1796, Vidocq and a second accused, César Herbaux, were found guilty and sentenced to eight years at hard labour.
In the prison of Bicêtre
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe....
, Vidocq was to wait several months for the transfer to the Bagne
Bagnio
A Bagnio was originally a bath or bath-house.The term was then used to name the prison for hostages in Istanbul, which was near the bath-house, and thereafter all the slave prisons in the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary regencies...
in Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
to toil in the galleys. A fellow inmate taught him the martial art of savate
Savate
Savate , also known as boxe française, French boxing, French kickboxing or French footfighting, is a French martial art which uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of western boxing with graceful kicking techniques. Only foot kicks are allowed unlike some systems such as Muay...
, which was to later prove often useful to him. An escape attempt on 3 October 1797 failed and precipitated his placement in a dungeon for eight days.
Finally, on 21 November, he was sent to Brest. As soon as he arrived, he had a stroke of luck. On 28 February 1798, he escaped dressed as a sailor. Only a few days later, he was apprehended due to a lack of papers, but the police did not recognize him as an escaped convict. He claimed to be Auguste Duval and while officials checked this claim, he was put into a prison hospital. There he stole a nun's habit
Religious habit
A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...
and escaped in disguise. In Cholet
Cholet
Cholet is a commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire department. It was the capital of military Vendée.-Geography:Cholet stands on an eminence on the right bank of the Moine, which used to be crossed by a bridge from the fifteenth century...
, he found a job as a cattle drover and in this capacity passed through Paris, Arras, Brussels, Ancer and finally Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, where he was shanghaied
Shanghaiing
Shanghaiing refers to the practice of conscripting men as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps. Until 1915, unfree labor was widely used aboard American merchant ships...
by the Dutch. After a short career as a privateer
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
, he was arrested again and taken to Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
, where he was identified as Vidocq. He was transferred to the Bagne in Toulon, arriving on 29 August 1799. After one failed escape attempt, he escaped again on 6 March 1800 with the help of a prostitute.
The turnaround (1800-1811)
Vidocq returned to Arras in 1800. His father had died in 1799, so he hid at his mother's home for almost half a year before he was recognized and had to flee again. He assumed the identity of an Austrian and spent some time in a relationship with a widow, with whom he moved to RouenRouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
in 1802. Vidocq built up for himself a reputation as a businessman and finally felt secure enough to let his mother come live with him and the widow. But finally his past caught up with him. He was arrested and brought to Louvres
Louvres
Louvres is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France.-References:** -External links:* * *...
. There he learned that he had been sentenced to death in absentia. With the help of the local procurator-general, Ransom, he filed an appeal and spent the following five months in prison waiting for a re-trial. During this time, Louise Chevalier contacted him to inform him of their divorce. When it seemed that there would be no decision concerning his sentence, he decided to flee again. On 28 November 1805, while unattended for a moment, he jumped out of a window into the adjacent river Scarpe. For the next four years, he once again was a man on the run.
He spent some time in Paris, where he witnessed the execution of César Herbaux, the man with whom his life had started a downward spiral. This event triggered a process of reevaluation in Vidocq. With his mother and a woman he called Annette in his memoirs, he moved several times in the following years. But again and again, people from his past recognized him. He again tried to become a legitimate merchant, but his former wife found him in Paris and blackmailed him for money, and a couple of former fellow convicts forced him to fence for them.
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
to the police. His offer was accepted, and on 20 July he was jailed in Bicêtre, where he started his work as a spy. On 28 October, he continued his work in La Force Prison
La Force Prison
La Force Prison was a French prison located in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, what is now the 4th arrondissement of Paris.Originally the private residence of the Duke of la Force, the structure was converted into a prison in 1780....
. He sounded out his inmates and forwarded his information about forged identities and unsolved crimes through Annette to the police chief of Paris, Jean Henry.
After 21 months of spying, Vidocq was released from jail on the recommendation of Henry. So as not to raise suspicions among the other inmates, the release (which took place on 25 March 1811) was arranged to look like an escape. Still, Vidocq was not really free, because now he was obliged to Henry. Therefore, he continued to work as a secret agent for the Paris police. He used his contacts and his reputation in the criminal underworld to gain trust. He disguised himself as an escaped convict and immersed himself in the criminal scene to learn about planned and committed crimes. He even took part in felonies in order to suddenly turn on his partners and arrest them. When criminals eventually began to suspect him, he used disguises and assumed other identities to continue his work and throw off suspicion.
The Sûreté (1811-1832)
At the end of 1811, Vidocq informally organized a plainclothes unit, the BrigadeBrigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
de la Sûreté ("Security Brigade"). The police department recognized the value of these civil agents, and in October 1812 the experiment was officially converted to a security police unit under the Prefecture of Police
Prefecture of Police
The Prefecture of Police , headed by the Prefect of Police , is an agency of the Government of France which provides the police force for the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne...
. Vidocq was appointed its leader. On 17 December 1813, Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
signed a decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
which made the brigade a state security police force. From this day on, it was called the Sûreté Nationale
Sûreté
Sûreté is a term used in French speaking countries or regions in the organizational title of a civil police force, especially the detective branch thereof.-France:...
.
The Sûreté initially had eight, then twelve, and in 1823 twenty employees. One year later, it expanded again, to 28 secret agents. In addition, there were eight people who worked secretly for the Sûreté, but instead of a salary, they received licences for gambling halls. A major portion of Vidocq's subordinates were ex-criminals like himself. He even hired them fresh from the prisons, for example Coco Lacour, who would later become Vidocq's successor at the Sûreté. Vidocq described his work from this period:
Vidocq personally trained his agents, for example in selecting the correct disguise based on the kind of job. He himself still went out hunting for criminals too. His memoirs are full with stories about how he outsmarted crooks by pretending to be a beggar or an old cuckold
Cuckold
Cuckold is a historically derogatory term for a man who has an unfaithful wife. The word, which has been in recorded use since the 13th century, derives from the cuckoo bird, some varieties of which lay their eggs in other birds' nests...
. At one point, he even simulated his own death.
During 1814, at the beginning of the French Restoration, Vidocq and the Sûreté tried to contain the situation in Paris. He also arrested those who tried to exploit the post-revolutionary situation by claiming to have been aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
s. During 1817, he was involved in 811 arrests, including those of 15 assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s and 38 fence
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
s. By 1820, his activities had reduced crime in Paris substantially. His annual income was 5,000 francs, but he also worked as a private investigator for fees. Rumors at the time claimed that Vidocq set criminals up, organizing break-ins and robberies and having his agents wait to collect the offenders. Even though some of Vidocq's techniques might have been questionable, there seems to be no truth to this.
Despite his position as chief of a police authority, Vidocq remained a wanted criminal. His forgery conviction had never been fully dismissed, so alongside complaints and denunciations, his superiors repeatedly received requests from the prison director of Douai, which they ignored. Finally, the Comte Jules Anglès, prefect of the Paris police, responded to a petition from Vidocq and requested an official pardon, which he received on 26 March 1817 from King Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
.
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
who began to use him as a model for several figures in his books. Vidocq's wife, who was ailing throughout their marriage, died in June 1824 in a hospital. Six weeks later, on 30 July 1824, Vidocq's mother died at age 83. She was buried with honours, and her requiem was performed in Notre Dame Cathedral.
Events of the 1820s had an impact on the police apparatus. After the assassination of the Duc de Berry in February 1820, Police Prefect Anglès had to resign and was replaced by the Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
Guy Delavau, who set a high value on religiousness among his subordinates. In 1824, Louis XVIII died. His successor was the ultra-reactionary
Ultra-royalist
Ultra-Royalists or simply Ultras were a reactionary faction which sat in the French parliament from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration...
Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
, during whose oppressive reign
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
police agents were regularly withdrawn from their original activities. Finally Vidocq's immediate superior, police chief Henry, retired and was succeeded by Parisot who quickly was superseded by the ambitious but also very formal Marc Duplessis. The antipathy between Vidocq and Duplessis was great. Time and time again, Duplessis complained about trivial matters, for example that Vidocq's agents spent time in brothels and bars of ill repute. Vidocq's explanation that they had to do this to establish contacts and gather information was ignored. When Vidocq received two official warnings within a short time, he had had enough. On 20 June 1827, the 52-year-old handed in his resignation:
He then wrote his memoirs with the help of a ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
.
Vidocq, who was a rich man after his resignation, became an entrepreneur. In Saint-Mandé
Saint-Mandé
Saint-Mandé is a commune of the Val-de-Marne department in Île-de-France in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.-History:...
, a small town east of Paris, where he married his cousin Fleuride Maniez on 28 January 1830, he founded a paper factory. He mainly employed released convicts - both men and women. This caused an outrageous scandal in society and led to disputes. In addition, the machines cost money, the semi-skilled workers needed food and clothing, and the customers refused to pay marked prices with the argument that he had a seemingly cheaper workforce. The company did not last long; Vidocq went bankrupt in 1831. But in the short time while he was away from Paris, both Delavau and Duplessis had to resign their posts, and the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
of 1830 forced Charles X to abdicate. When Vidocq delivered a few useful tips which helped to solve a burglary in Fontainebleau and led to the arrest of eight people, the new police prefect, Henri Gisquet, appointed him again chief of the Sûreté.
The criticism of Vidocq and his organization grew. The July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
caused insecurities in society, and there was a cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
outbreak in 1832. One of its victims was General Jean Maximilien Lamarque
Jean Maximilien Lamarque
Jean Maximilien Lamarque was a French commander during the Napoleonic Wars who later became a member of French Parliament. As an opponent of the Ancien Régime, he is known for his active suppression of Royalist and Legitimist activity...
. During his funeral on 5 June 1832, a revolt erupted and the throne of "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe I was in danger. Allegedly Vidocq's group cracked down on the rioters with great severity. Not all of the police approved of his methods, and rivalries developed. A rumour arose that Vidocq had initiated the theft that led to his reinstatement himself to show his indispensability. One of his agents had to go to prison for two years because of that affair, but Vidocq's involvement could not be proved. More and more defenders claimed that Vidocq and his agents were not credible as eye witnesses since most of them had criminal pasts themselves. Vidocq's position was untenable, and on 15 November 1832 he once again resigned, using the pretext of his wife being ill.
On the same day, the Sûreté was dissolved, then re-established without agents with criminal records, no matter how minor their offenses. Vidocq's successor was Pierre Allard.
Le bureau des renseignements (1833-1848)
In 1833, Vidocq founded Le bureau des renseignements ("Office of Information"), a company that was a mixture of detective agency and private police. It is considered to be the first known detective agency. Once again, he predominantly hired ex-convictConvict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
s.
His squad, which initially consisted of eleven detectives, two clerks and one secretary, pitted itself on behalf of businesspeople and private citizens against Faiseurs (crooks, fraudsters, bankruptcy artists), occasionally using illegal means too. From 1837, Vidocq quarreled constantly with the official police because of his activities and his questionable relations with various government agencies such as the War Department. On 28 November 1837, the police executed a search and seizure
Search and seizure
Search and seizure is a legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime.Some countries have...
and confiscated over 3,500 files and documents. A few days later, Vidocq was arrested and spent Christmas and New Year in jail. He was charged with three crimes, namely the acquisition of money by deception, corruption of civil servants, and the pretension of public functions. In February 1838, after numerous witnesses had testified, the judge dismissed all three charges. Vidocq was free again.
Vidocq increasingly became the subject of literature and public discussions. Balzac wrote several novels and plays which contained characters modeled after Vidocq.
The agency flourished, but Vidocq continued to make enemies, some of them powerful. On 17 August 1842, on behalf of Police Prefect Gabriel Delessert, 75 police officers stormed his office building and arrested him and one of his agents. This time, the case seemed to be clear. In an investigation of defalcation
Defalcation
A defalcation is an amount of funds misappropriated by a person trusted with its charge; also, the act of misappropriation, or an instance thereof...
, he had made an illegal arrest and had demanded a bill of exchange for the embezzled money from the arrested fraudster. For the next few months, 67-year-old Vidocq was remanded into custody in the Conciergerie
Conciergerie
La Conciergerie is a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes...
. On 3 May 1843, the first hearings finally took place before judge Michel Barbou, a close friend of Delessert. During the trial, Vidocq had to give testimony about many other cases, among them the kidnappings of several women who he had allegedly delivered to monasteries against their will at the behest of their families. Also his activities as a money lender and the possible benefits from it were examined. Finally, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 franc
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
. Vidocq immediately appealed and through the intervention of political friends like Count Gabriel de Berny and the attorney general, Franck-Carré, he quickly got a new trial, this time with the chief judge of the court royale. The hearing on 22 July 1843 took a matter of minutes, and after eleven months in the Conciergerie, Vidocq once again was free.
The harm was done, however. The lawsuit had been very expensive, and his reputation was damaged. Business at the agency suffered. Moreover, Delessert tried to get him expelled from the city for being a former criminal. Although the attempt failed, Vidocq increasingly considered selling his agency. But he could not find a qualified and reputable buyer.
In the following years, Vidocq published several small books in which he depicted his life to directly refute the rumours which were being circulated about him. In 1844, he presented an essay on prisons, penitentiaries, and the death penalty. On the morning of 22 September 1847, his third wife Fleuride died after 17 years of marriage. Vidocq did not marry again, but until his death he had several intimate partners.
In 1848, the February revolution
French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...
caused the abdication of "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe. The Second Republic
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
was proclaimed, with Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
as the head of a transitional government. Although Vidocq always had been proud of his reception at the king's court and had boasted about his access to Louis-Philippe, he offered his services to the new government. His task was the surveillance of political opponents such as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
, the nephew of Napoleon I
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. Meanwhile, the new government sank into chaos and violence. In the presidential election of 10 December 1848, Lamartine received less than 8,000 votes. Vidocq presented himself as a candidate in the 2nd Arrondissement
Arrondissement
Arrondissement is any of various administrative divisions of France, certain other Francophone countries, and the Netherlands.-France:The 101 French departments are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts. The capital of an arrondissement is called a...
, but received only one vote. The clear winner, and thus president of the Second Republic, was Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who did not respond to Vidocq's offer to work for him.
His last years (1849-1857)
In 1849, Vidocq briefly had to go to prison one last time, on a charge of fraud. In the end, however, the case was dropped. He withdrew more and more into private life and accepted only small cases every now and then. In the last years of his life, he suffered great pain in his right arm, which had been broken and had never healed properly. Also, unwise investments had cost him a large portion of his assets, so he had to curb his living standard and live in rented accommodations. In August 1854, despite a pessimistic prognosis by his doctor, he survived a bout of cholera. Only in April 1857 did his condition deteriorate to the point he could no longer stand up. On 11 May 1857, Vidocq died at the age of 82 years in his home in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the presence of his doctor, his lawyer and a priest.
His body was brought to the church of Saint-Denys du Saint-Sacrement, where the funeral service was held. It is not known where Vidocq is buried, though there are some rumours as to the location. One of them, mentioned in the biography of John Philip Stead, claims that his grave is at the cemetery in Saint Mandé. There is a gravestone with the inscription "Vidocq 18". According to information from city officials however, this grave is registered to Vidocq's last wife, Fleuride-Albertine Maniez.
In the end, his assets consisted of 2,907.50 francs from the sale of his goods and a pension of 867.50 francs. A total of eleven women came forward as owners of his testament, a document which they had received for their favours instead of presents. His remaining assets went to Anne-Heloïse Lefèvre, at whose house he had lived at the end. Vidocq had no children, at least none that are known. Emile-Adolphe Vidocq, the son of his first wife, tried to get recognized as his son (even changing his last name for this purpose), but failed. Vidocq had left evidence which ruled out his paternity. At the time of Emile-Adolphe Vidocq's conception, Vidocq had been in prison.
Criminology legacy
Vidocq is considered by historians as the "father" of modern criminology. His approaches were new and unique for that time. He is credited with the introduction of undercover workUndercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
, ballistics
Ballistics
Ballistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
, criminology
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
and a record keeping system to criminal investigation. He made the first plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
impressions of shoe prints. He created indelible ink and unalterable bond paper
Bond paper
Bond paper is a high quality durable writing paper similar to bank paper but having a weight greater than 50 g/m2. The name comes from it having originally been made for documents such as government bonds. It is now used for letterheads, other stationery and as paper for electronic printers...
with his printing company. His form of anthropometrics is still partially used by French police. He is also credited with philanthropic
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
pursuits – he claimed he never informed on anyone who had stolen out of real need. At the same time, his work was not acknowledged in France for a long time because of his criminal past. In September 1905 the Sûreté Nationale exhibited a painting series with its former heads. However, the first painting of the series showed Pierre Allard, Vidocq's successor. The newspaper L’Exclusive reported on 17 September 1905 that on obtaining information concerning the omission, they had gotten the answer that Vidocq never had been head of the Sûreté.
Remodelling of the police force
When Vidocq gave his allegiance to the police around 1810, there were two police organizations in France: on the one side, there was the police politique, an intelligence agencyIntelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
whose agents were responsible for the detection of conspiracies and intrigues; on the other, the normal police, who investigated common crimes like theft, fraud, prostitution, and murder. Since the Middle Ages, those constables wore identification insignia
Insignia
Insignia or insigne pl -nia or -nias : a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction...
which over time had developed to full uniforms. Unlike the often covertly operating political police, they were easy to spot. For fear of attack, they did not dare to enter some Parisian districts, limiting their efforts at crime prevention
Crime prevention
Crime prevention is the attempt to reduce victimization and to deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice.-Studies:...
.
Vidocq persuaded his superiors to allow his agents, who also included women, to wear plain clothes and disguises depending on the situation. Thus, they did not attract attention, and as former criminals also knew the hiding places and methods of criminals. Through their contacts, they often learned of planned crimes and were able to catch the guilty red-handed. Vidocq also had a different approach to interrogation. In his memoirs, he mentions several times that he did not take those arrested to prison immediately, but invited them to dinner, where he chatted with them. In addition to information about other crimes, he often obtained confessions this non-violent way and recruited future informants and even agents.
August Vollmer
August Vollmer
August "Gus" Vollmer was a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He was also the first police chief of Berkeley, California.-Youth:...
, the first police chief of Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and a leading figure in the development of criminal justice in the United States studied the works of Vidocq and the Austrian criminal jurist Hans Gross
Hans Gross
Hans Gustav Adolf Gross was an Austrian criminal jurist and an examining magistrate. He is believed to be the creator of the field of criminalistics; he taught as a professor at the Chernivtsi University, Prague University and the University of Graz, and established the Institute of Criminology in...
for his reform of the Berkeley police force. His reform ideas were adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police
International Association of Chiefs of Police
The International Association of Chiefs of Police was founded in Chicago in 1893 as the National Chiefs of Police Union. The primary goal of this organization was to apprehend and return criminals who had fled the agency jurisdictions in which they were wanted...
(IACP) and as a result also affected J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
and the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. After Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
established Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
in 1829, he sent a committee to Paris in 1832 to confer with Vidocq for several days. In 1843, two commissars of Scotland Yard traveled to Paris for further training. They spent only two days with Pierre Allard, who was head of the Sûreté by then. Then they went to Vidocq, and for one week accompanied him and his agents in their work.
Identification of criminals
Jürgen Thorwald
Jürgen Thorwald was a German writer, journalist and historian known for his great works describing history of Forensic medicine and Second World War....
stated in his book Das Jahrhundert der Detektive (1964) that Vidocq had a photographic memory
Eidetic memory
Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...
which allowed him to recognize previously convicted criminals, even in disguise. Biographer Samuel Edwards reported in The Vidocq Dossier about a trial against the fraudster and forger Lambert, in which Vidocq referred to his memory of the accused. Vidocq regularly visited the prisons to memorise the faces of the inmates, and made his agents do the same. The English police adopted this method. Until the late 1980s, British investigators attended court hearings to observe the spectators in the public galleries and become aware of possible accomplices.
As Vidocq said at Lambert's trial, while his memory was phenomenal, he could not require the same of his agents. Therefore, for each arrested person, he carefully set up an index card with a personal description, aliases, previous convictions, modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
, and other information. The card of forger Lambert contained among other things a handwriting sample. The index card system was retained not only by the French police but also by police units in other countries. However, it soon revealed its weaknesses. By the time Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse Bertillon was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who created anthropometry, an identification system based on physical measurements. Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Before that time, criminals could only be identified...
came to the Sûreté as clerk in 1879, the descriptions on the cards were not detailed enough anymore to really identify suspects. This caused Bertillon to develop an anthropometric system for personal identification called the bertillonage. The sorting of the card boxes, which by then already filled several rooms, was converted to body dimensions, the first of many attempts to improve the structure of the sorting. With the advent of information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
, the cards were digitised and the card boxes were replaced by database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
s.
Scientific experiments
Forensic science did not yet exist during Vidocq's time. Despite numerous scientific papers, the police did not recognize its practical benefits, and this could not be changed by Vidocq. Nevertheless, he was not so averse to experiments as his superiors and usually had a small laboratory set up in his office building. In the archives of the Parisian police are reports of cases which he solved by applying forensic methods decades before they were recognized as such.Chemical compound
Chemical compound
A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...
s
- In the France of Vidocq's time, there already existed chequeChequeA cheque is a document/instrument See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces. that orders a payment of money from a bank account...
s and promissory notePromissory noteA promissory note is a negotiable instrument, wherein one party makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other , either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.Referred to as a note payable in accounting, or...
s. Counterfeiters purchased those cheques and altered them to their advantage. To address this problem, in 1817 Vidocq commissioned two chemists to develop a tamper-proof paper. This paper, for which Vidocq filed a patent, was treated with chemicals which would smear the ink if later amended and thus make the forgeries identifiable. According to the biographer Edwards, Vidocq used his connections extensively, recommending his paper to those who had been deceived, mainly bankers who hired him. Thereby the paper came to be widely used. Vidocq also used it for the cards of his index card system to emphasize their reliability in court. He also commissioned the creation of indelible ink. This ink has been used, among other things, by the French government for the printing of banknotes from the mid-1860s.
Crime scene
Crime scene
A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
investigation
- Louis Mathurin Moreau-Christophe, contemporary general director of French prisons, described in his book Le monde des coquins (The World of Scoundrels) how Vidocq used clues from the crime scene to determine the perpetrator based on his knowledge of specific criminals and their modus operandiModus operandiModus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
. As a concrete example, Moreau named a burglary in the Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
in 1831, where he himself had been present at the investigation. Vidocq inspected a door panel that had been damaged by the offender, and said that, due to the method employed and the perfection with which it had been executed, he knew of only one perpetrator who could have done it. He suggested the thief Fossard, but mentioned that he could not be the culprit since he was still in prison. Thereupon, the police chief, Lecrosnier, who was also present, told them that Fossard had escaped eight days before. Two days later, Vidocq was able to arrest the thief, who had in fact committed the burglary.
Ballistics
Ballistics
Ballistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
- Alexandre Dumas left records which describe a murder case from 1822. The Comtesse Isabelle d'Arcy, a woman much younger than her husband on whom she had cheated, was shot dead, whereupon the police arrested the Comte d'Arcy. Vidocq talked with him and was of the opinion that the 'old gentleman' did not have the personality of a murderer. He examined his dueling pistols and found that they either had not been fired or had been cleaned since then. Then he persuaded a doctor to secretly remove the bullet from the head of the noblewoman. A simple comparison showed that the bullet was too big to come from the guns of the Comte. Vidocq then searched the apartment of the woman's lover and found not only numerous pieces of jewellery, but also a large pistol whose size fitted the bullet. The Comte identified the jewels as those of his wife and Vidocq also found a fence to whom the lover had already sold a ring. Confronted with the evidence, the lover confessed the murder.
- The first real comparison between a gun and a bullet took place in 1835 by the Bow Street RunnerBow Street RunnersThe Bow Street Runners have been called London's first professional police force. The force was founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding and originally numbered just six. Bow Street runners was the public's nickname for these officers, "although the officers never referred to themselves as...
Henry Goddard. On 21 December 1860, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
reported on a court ruling in which a murderer in Lincoln named Thomas Richardson had been sentenced to death with the help of ballistics for the first time.
The Vidocq Society
- In 1990, the Vidocq SocietyVidocq societyThe Vidocq Society is a members-only crime-solving club that meets on the third Thursday of every month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The Vidocq Society is named for Eugène François Vidocq, the ground-breaking nineteenth century French detective who helped police by using the psychology of the...
was founded in Philadelphia by forensic artist/sculptor Frank BenderFrank BenderFrancis Augustus "Frank" Bender was a world-renowned autodidact forensic artist and fine artist. His job was to make facial reconstructions of the dead and of fugitives, many of whom had, or still have, been on the run for a long time...
(obit. 2011). Its members are forensic experts, FBI profilersOffender profilingOffender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
, homicide investigators, scientists, psychologists, coronerCoronerA coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
s, and any other competent professionals. At their monthly meetings, they gather to try to solve cold cases from around the world, free of charge and in accordance with their motto Veritas veritatum (eng. Truth generates truth). The roles of membership are closed, but the number of members is low, as it formerly never exceeded the number of years of Vidocq's life.
Literature
Around 1827, Vidocq wrote an autobiography, which he planned to have published in summer 1828 by the bookseller Emile Morice. But authors Honoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
and Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
were of the opinion that the story was too short, so Vidocq looked for a new publisher, which he found in Louis François L'Héritier. In December of the same year, L'Héritier published the memoirs, which had increased to four volumes through the help of some ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
s. The work became a bestseller and sold over 50,000 copies in the first year, according to biographer Samuel Edwards. The success inspired imitators. In 1829, two journalists under the pseudonym of a criminal named Malgaret published the book Mémoires d’un forçat ou Vidocq dévoilé to expose criminal activities Vidocq allegedly had committed. Other police officers followed Vidocq's example and published their own autobiographies in the following years, among them the prefect of police, Henri Gisquet.
Vidocq's life story inspired many contemporary writers, many of them his closest friends. In Balzac's writings, he was regularly the model of literary figures: his experiences as a failed entrepreneur were used in the third part of Illusions perdues, Les Souffrances de l'inventeur; in Gobseck, Balzac introduced the policemen Corentin; but most clearly the connection to Vidocq can be found in the figure of Vautrin
Vautrin
Vautrin is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin...
. This character first appears in the novel Le Père Goriot
Le Père Goriot
Le Père Goriot is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac , included in the Scènes de la vie Parisienne section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine...
, then in Illusions perdues, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (as the main character), La Cousine Bette, Le Contrat de mariage and finally as the main character in the 1840 theatre play Vautrin. Not only Vidocq as a person but also his methods and disguises inspired Balzac in his work.
In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
Les Misérables
Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...
(1862), both main characters, the reformed criminal Jean Valjean and his pursuer, Police Inspector Javert, were modelled after Vidocq; the same is true of the policemen Monsieur Jackal in Les Mohicans de Paris (1854–1855) by Alexandre Dumas. He also was the basis for Rodolphe de Gerolstein, who secured justice in the serial newspaper novel The Mysteries of Paris of Eugène Sue
Eugène Sue
Joseph Marie Eugène Sue was a French novelist.He was born in Paris, the son of a distinguished surgeon in Napoleon's army, and is said to have had the Empress Joséphine for godmother. Sue himself acted as surgeon both in the Spanish campaign undertaken by France in 1823 and at the Battle of Navarino...
in the weekly newspaper Journal des débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
. And he was the inspiration of Émile Gaboriau
Émile Gaboriau
Émile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...
for Monsieur Lecoq
Monsieur Lecoq
Monsieur Lecoq is the creation of Émile Gaboriau, a 19th-century French writer and journalist. Monsieur Lecoq is a fictional detective employed by the French Sûreté...
, one of the first scientific and methodical investigators who played the lead role in many adventures, who in turn then was a major influence for the creation of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. It is also believed that Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
was prompted by a story about Vidocq to create the first detective in fiction, C. Auguste Dupin, who appeared for example in the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been claimed as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination". Two works that share some similarities predate Poe's stories, including Das...
" which is considered the first detective story
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
. Vidocq is also mentioned in Moby Dick and "{White Jacket}" {White Jacket - Chapter VI: The Quarterdeck Officers,etc.} of Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
and Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
.
In James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's story "Araby", the protagonist - an adolescent boy in Dublin at the turn of the 20th century - finds among old papers a yellowed copy of The Memoirs of Vidocq.
In the 2009 novel Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey, Francois Eugene Vidocq is an immortal thief and alchemist who searches for a cure for his immortality. He also appears in the sequels, Kill the Dead and Aloha From Hell.
Theatre
Vidocq was – probably obvious considering his penchant for disguises – a friend of the theater. During his lifetime the Boulevard du CrimeBoulevard du Temple
The Boulevard du Temple is a thoroughfare in Paris that separates the 3rd arrondissement from the 11th. It runs from the Place de la République to the Place Pasdeloup, and its name refers to the nearby Knights Templars' Temple where they established their Paris priory.-History:The Boulevard du...
, a road with several theatres which regularly presented crime stories in form of melodramas, was quite popular. One of these theatres was the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique
Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique
The theatre was rebuilt to plans by the architects Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Jean-François-Joseph Lecointe on the boulevard Saint-Martin, at the corner of rue de Bondy...
, which was sponsored by Vidocq to a great extent. According to the biographer James Morton, Vidocq also submitted a play, but it never was produced. He also had plans to dabble in play-acting but never carried them out.
Not only were many of Vidocq's paramours actresses, but many of his friends and acquaintances were also from the theatre scene. Among them was the famous actor Frédérick Lemaître
Frédérick Lemaître
Frédérick Lemaître — birth name Antoine Louis Prosper Lemaître — was a French actor and playwright, one of the most famous players on the celebrated Boulevard du Crime.-Biography:...
who inter alia played the main role in Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
's Vautrin, a play which debuted on 14 March 1840 at Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10e arrondissement of Paris.- History :...
after numerous problems with the censorship. Lemaître tried to adapt his appearance to that of Vidocq, on whom the character Vautrin
Vautrin
Vautrin is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin...
was based. At the premiere there were commotions because the wig
Wig
A wig is a head of hair made from horsehair, human hair, wool, feathers, yak hair, buffalo hair, or synthetic materials which is worn on the head for fashion or various other aesthetic and stylistic reasons, including cultural and religious observance. The word wig is short for periwig and first...
Lemaître had used was also similar to the one of King Louis-Philippe. The play was banned by the French interior minister after that and not performed again.
It was not only plays inspired by Vidocq that were shown in the theatre. His one life story also made it on stage several times, usually with his memoirs as literary template. Especially in England the enthusiasm was great for Vidocq. The memoirs had been rapidly translated into English and a few months later, on 6 July 1829, the premiere of Vidocq! The French Police Spy was held at Surrey Theatre
Surrey Theatre
The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama...
in the London Borough of Lambeth
London Borough of Lambeth
The London Borough of Lambeth is a London borough in south London, England and forms part of Inner London. The local authority is Lambeth London Borough Council.-Origins:...
. The melodrama in 2 acts, produced by Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston was an English actor and theatre manager.He was born in London, the son of a watchmaker. He was educated at St Paul's School, but ran away from home and made his first appearance on the stage as Tressel in Richard III at Bath in 1791...
, was penned by Douglas William Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold was an English dramatist and writer.-Biography:Jerrold was born in London. His father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Douglass moved to Sheerness, where he spent his childhood...
, the main character was played by TP Cooke. Although the critics
Theatre criticism
Theatre criticism is a genre of art criticism, and the act of writing or speaking about the performing arts such as a play or opera.Most major national newspapers of first world countries cover the arts in some form and theatre criticism may be included as a part of this arts coverage.Specialist...
, among them one from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, were quite positive, the play was performed only nine times in the first month and then dropped.
In December 1860, some years after Vidocq's death, another play about him, written by F. Marchant, was presented in Britannia Theatre
Britannia Theatre
The Britannia Theatre was located at 115/117 High Street, Hoxton, London. The theatre was badly damaged by a fire in 1900. The site was reused as a Gaumont cinema from 1913 to 1940, when this too was destroyed...
in Hoxton
Hoxton
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.Hoxton is also a...
under the title Vidocq or The French Jonathan Wild. It was included in the theatre program for only one week.
In 1909 Émile Bergerat
Émile Bergerat
Émile Bergerat was a French poet, playwright and essayist. He used the pseudonyms l'Homme masqué , Caliban and Ariel...
wrote the melodrama Vidocq, empereur des policiers in five acts and seven scenes. The producers Hertz and Coquelin rejected it but Bergerat sued them successfully for 8,000 francs damages. The play debuted in 1910 in Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt. Jean Kemm, who years later would also participate in a movie about Vidocq, took over the lead role.
Film adaptations
Based on his memoirs, the first film about Vidocq was released in France on 13 August 1909: the short black-and-white silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
La Jeunesse de Vidocq ou Comment on devient policier. Vidocq was played by Harry Baur
Harry Baur
Harry Baur was a French actor. Baur was Jewish and tortured to death by the Gestapo during World War II....
who also portrayed him in the two sequels, L'Évasion de Vidocq (1910) and Vidocq (1911)
Under the direction of Jean Kemm, the silent movie Vidocq was next in 1922. The screenplay was written by Arthur Bernède
Arthur Bernède
Arthur Bernède was a French writer, poet, opera libretist, and playwright.He was born in Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine department, in Brittany....
, based again on Vidocq's memoirs. The main role was played by René Navarre
René Navarre
René Navarre was a French actor of the silent era. He appeared in 109 films between 1910 and 1946.He was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne and died in Azay-sur-Cher, Indre-et-Loire.-External links:...
.
The first sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
, albeit still in black and white, was published in 1938. Jacques Daroy shot the film, which once again was named Vidocq after the main character, with actor André Brulé
André Brulé
André Brulé , born André Gresely, was a French theatre and film actor.He was married to Ghislaine Dommanget, a French comedy actress, but the couple later divorced and she married Louis II, Prince of Monaco.He was the creator of Arsène Lupin for the French Stage in 1908.-Filmography:* Retour de...
. The film mostly displayed Vidocq's criminal career. Compared to other contemporary crime films, it was rather unglamorous, but still played in some movie theatres outside of France.
On 19 July 1946, the first American film about Vidocq made by Americans appeared – A Scandal in Paris
A Scandal in Paris
A Scandal in Paris is a fictionalized 1946 biographical film, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring George Sanders. It depicts the life of Eugène François Vidocq, a French criminal who reformed and became a famous French prefect of police during the Napoleonic era.-Plot:The rogue who would later...
, still in black and white. George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
portrayed Vidocq in the highly fictionalized biopic by Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...
, which showed the rise of a rogue in society coupled with a love story. It was followed in April 1948 by the next French version of Vidocq's life story. Le Cavalier de Croix-Mort was shot by Lucien Ganier-Raymond with Henri Nassiet in the leading role.
On 7 January 1967, the French television station ORTF
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.-Post World War II:...
showed the first of two television series, each with 13 episodes. Vidocq, with Bernard Noël
Bernard Noël
Bernard Noël is a French writer and poet. He received the Grand Prix national de la poésie in 1992 and the Prix Robert Ganzo in 2010....
, was still in black and white. This changed with the second series, Les Nouvelles Aventures de Vidocq, which premiered on 5 January 1971. Claude Brasseur
Claude Brasseur
-Biography:He was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine as Claude Pierre Espinasse, the son of actor Pierre Brasseur and actress Odette Joyeux. He is the godson of Ernest Hemingway and the father of Alexandre Brasseur....
was the first to portray Vidocq in colour.
In 2001, under the direction of Pitof
Pitof
Jean-Christophe "Pitof" Comar is a French visual effects supervisor and director notable for Vidocq and Catwoman.-Career:...
, Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...
played Vidocq in the French science fiction film Vidocq
Vidocq (2001 film)
Vidocq is a 2001 mystery film, directed by Pitof, starring Gérard Depardieu as historical figure Eugène François Vidocq pursuing a supernatural serial killer...
.
Books by Vidocq
- Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu'en 1827 (ghost-written autobiography), 1828
- Les voleurs (a study about thieves and imposters), 1836, Roy-Terry, Paris
- Dictionnaire d'Argot (a ArgotArgotAn Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
-dictionary), 1836 - Considérations sommaires sur les prisons, les bagnes et la peine de mort (deliberations on how to reduce criminality), 1844
- Les chauffeurs du nord. (memories of his time as a gang member), 1845
- Les vrais mystères de Paris. (a novel written by Horace Raisson and Maurice Alhoy, but for promotional reasons was published under Vidocq's name), 1844
Biographies
- Stead, John Philip: Vidocq. Picaroon of Crime. 1954.
- Guyon, Louis: Biographie des Commissaires et des Officiers de Paix de la ville de Paris. Édition Goullet, Paris 1826.
- Hodgetts, Edward A.: Vidocq. A Master of Crime. Selwyn & Blount, London 1928.
- Maurice, Barthélemy: Vidocq. Vie et aventures. Laisné, Paris 1861.
- Savant, Jean: La vie aventureuse de Vidocq. Librairie Hachette, Paris 1973.
About Vidocq's influence on criminalistics
- Feix, Gerhard: Das große Ohr von Paris. Fälle der Sûreté. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1979.
- Kalifa, Dominique: Naissance de la police privée. Détectives et agences de recherches en France, 1832–1942 (Civilisations et Mentalitès). Plon, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-259-18291-7.
- Metzner, Paul: Crescendo of the Virtuoso. Spectacle, skill and self-promotion in Paris during the age of revolution. University of California Press, Berkely, Cal. 1998, ISBN 0-520-20684-3 (online).
- Thorwald, JürgenJürgen ThorwaldJürgen Thorwald was a German writer, journalist and historian known for his great works describing history of Forensic medicine and Second World War....
: Wege und Abenteuer in der Kriminalistik. Droemer Knaur, München 1981, ISBN 3-85886-092-1 (earlier title: Das Jahrhundert der Detektive).
About Vidocq's influence on literature
- Buchloh, Paul G.; Becker, Jens P.: Der Detektivroman. Studien zur Geschichte und Form der englischen und amerikanischen Detektivliteratur. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-534-05379-6.
- Engelhardt, Sandra: The investigators of crime in literature. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2003, ISBN 3-8288-8560-8.
- Messac, Régis: Le „detective novel“ et l'influence de la pensée scientifique. Slatkine, Genf 1975 (Nachdruck der Ausgabe Paris 1929).
- Murch, Alma E.: The development of the detective novel. P. Owen, London 1968.
- Rzepka, Charles J.: Detective Fiction. Polity Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-7456-2941-5.
- Schwarz, Ellen: Der phantastische Kriminalroman. Untersuchungen zu Parallelen zwischen „roman policier“, „conte fantastique“ und „gothic novel“. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8245-5 (zugl. Dissertation, Universität Giessen 2001).
- Symons, Julian: Bloody Murder. From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel; a history. Pan Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-330-33303-8.
See also
- A Scandal in ParisA Scandal in ParisA Scandal in Paris is a fictionalized 1946 biographical film, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring George Sanders. It depicts the life of Eugène François Vidocq, a French criminal who reformed and became a famous French prefect of police during the Napoleonic era.-Plot:The rogue who would later...
- Vidocq (2001 film)Vidocq (2001 film)Vidocq is a 2001 mystery film, directed by Pitof, starring Gérard Depardieu as historical figure Eugène François Vidocq pursuing a supernatural serial killer...
- August VollmerAugust VollmerAugust "Gus" Vollmer was a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He was also the first police chief of Berkeley, California.-Youth:...
- Vidocq societyVidocq societyThe Vidocq Society is a members-only crime-solving club that meets on the third Thursday of every month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The Vidocq Society is named for Eugène François Vidocq, the ground-breaking nineteenth century French detective who helped police by using the psychology of the...