Eugène François Vidocq
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2023) |
Eugène François Vidocq | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | May 11, 1857 | (aged 81)
Known for | Innovations in criminology |
Spouses | Anne Marie Louise Chevalier
(m. 1795; div. 1805)Jeanne-Victoire Guérin
(m. 1820; died 1824)Fleuride Albertine Maniez
(m. 1830; died 1847) |
Eugène-François Vidocq (French: [øʒɛn fʁɑ̃nswa vidɔk]; 24 July 1775 – 11 May 1857) was a French criminal turned criminalist, whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, and Honoré de Balzac. He was the founder and first director of France's first criminal investigative agency, the Sûreté Nationale, as well as the head of the first known private detective agency. Vidocq is considered to be the father of modern criminology[1][2] and of the French national police force.[3] He is also regarded as the first private detective.[4]
Life
Eugène François Vidocq was born in Arras, northern France during the night of 23/24 July 1775, in the Rue du Miroir-de-Venise, now the Rue Eugène-François Vidocq.[5] He was the third child of Henriette Françoise Vidocq (maiden name Dion, 1744–1824) and her husband, baker Nicolas Joseph François Vidocq (1744–1799).
Childhood and youth (1775–1795)
Little is known about his childhood; most of it is based on his
Vidocq's teenage years were turbulent. 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 boar"[N 1]). By stealing, he provided himself with some level of comfort.
When Vidocq was thirteen years old, he stole his parents' 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.[N 2] 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 parents' 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 ended up living with puppeteers to get away from them. 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
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-
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.[citation needed]
On 8 August 1794, when he was barely nineteen, Vidocq married Anne Marie Louise Chevalier after a pregnancy scare. No child resulted, and the marriage was not happy from the start. 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 Brussels, 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, still under the alias of Rousseau, he joined 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 Brussels[N 3] who became fond 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 entertaining 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 left him for a real 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 twenty 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 was suddenly released, but the next day, the local inspector noticed that the pardon was forged. 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 the following weeks, Vidocq escaped several times with the help of Francine, but was always captured soon again. After one of his escapes, Francine caught him with another woman. He disappeared for a few days, and when he was finally picked up again by police, he was told that Francine had been found with multiple knife wounds. Now, he was not only accused of forgery but also attempted murder. Francine later claimed 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 of hard labour.
Worn out by the bad treatment of every species which I experienced in the prison of Douai, tormented by a watchfulness redoubled after my sentence, I took care not to make an appeal, which would keep me there some months. What confirmed my resolution was the information that the prisoners were to be sent forthwith to the Bicêtre, and there, making one chain, to be sent on to the Bagne at Brest. It is unnecessary to say that I was relying on escaping en route.
— Eugène François Vidocq, Memoirs of Vidocq, p. 54 [6]
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 later to prove 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. 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 a 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 in his mother's house 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 Rouen in 1802. Vidocq built up 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 retrial. 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 was a man on the run once again.
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 re-evaluation 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 stolen goods for them.
On 1 July 1809, only a few days before his 34th birthday, Vidocq 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.
I believe I might have become a perpetual spy, so far was every one from supposing that any connivance existed between the agents of the public authority and myself. Even the porters and keepers were in ignorance of my mission with which I was entrusted. Adored by the thieves, esteemed by the most determined bandits (for even these hardened wretches have a sentiment which they call esteem), I could always rely on their devotion to me.
— Eugène François Vidocq, Memoirs of Vidocq, p. 190 [6]
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
The Sûreté initially had eight, then twelve, and, in 1823, twenty employees. A 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:
It was with a troop so small as this that I had to watch over more than twelve hundred pardoned convicts, freed, some from public prisons, others from solitary confinement: to put in execution, annually, from four to five hundred warrants, as well from the préfet as the judicial authorities; to procure information, to undertake searches, and to obtain particulars of every description; to make nightly rounds, so perpetual and arduous during the winter season; to assist the commissaries of police in their searches, or in the execution of search warrants; to explore the various rendezvous in every part; to go to the theatres, the boulevards, the barriers, and all other public places, the haunts of thieves and pickpockets.
— Eugène François Vidocq, Memoirs of Vidocq, p. 233 [6]
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 of stories about how he outsmarted crooks by pretending to be a beggar or an old cuckold. At one point, he even faked his own death.
During 1814, at the beginning of the
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
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
Events of the 1820s affected the police apparatus. After the assassination of the
Depuis dix-huit ans, je sers la police avec distinction. Je n'ai jamais reçu un seul reproche de vos prédécesseurs. Je dois donc penser n'en avoir pas mérité. Depuis votre nomination à la deuxième division, voilà la deuxième fois que vous me faites l'honneur de m'en adresser en vous plaignant des agents. Suis-je le maître de les contenir hors du bureau? Non. Pour vous éviter, monsieur, la peine de m'en adresser de semblables à l'avenir, et à moi le désagrément de les recevoir, j'ai l'honneur de vous prier de vouloir bien recevoir ma démission. [Translation:] For eighteen years I served the police with distinction. I've never received any criticism from your predecessors. I must think therefore that I never earned any. Since your appointment to the Second Division, this is the second time you did me the honor to address me by complaining about my agents. Am I their master in the time they spend out of office? No. To save you, sir, the trouble of sending me further similar complaints in the future, and me the inconvenience of receiving them, I have the honor to solicit you for accepting my resignation.
He then wrote his
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 market prices with the argument that he had a seemingly cheaper workforce. The company did not last long; Vidocq went bankrupt in 1831. 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 that helped to solve a burglary in Fontainebleau and led to the arrest of eight people, the new police prefect, Henri Gisquet, again appointed him chief of the Sûreté.[7][8]
Criticism of Vidocq and his organization grew. The
J'ai l'honneur de vous informer que l'état maladif de mon épouse m'oblige de rester à Saint-Mandé pour surveiller moi-même mon établissement. Cette circonstance impérieuse m'empêchera de pouvoir à l'avenir diriger les opérations de la brigade de sûreté. Je viens vous prier de vouloir bien récepter ma démission, et recevoir mes sincères remerciements pour toutes les marques de bonté dont vous avez daigné me combler. Si, dans une circonstance quelconque, j'étais assez heureux pour vous servir, vous pouvez compter sur ma fidélité et mon dévouement à toute épreuve. [Translation:] I have the honor to inform you that the ill health of my wife is forcing me to stay in Saint-Mandé to monitor my establishment. This urgent circumstance will preclude my ability to steer the future operations of the security brigade. Please accept my resignation and my sincere thanks for all the marks of kindness with which you deigned to grace me. While, under any circumstances, I was happy to serve you, you can count on my loyalty and devotion by any means.
— Vidocq in his resignation from 15 November 1832
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 a detective agency and a private police force. It is considered to be the first known detective agency.[8] Once again, he predominantly hired ex-convicts.
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, and bankruptcy artists), occasionally using illegal means. 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.[clarification needed] 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 that 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
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 that were being circulated about him. In 1844, he presented an essay on prisons, penitentiaries, and the
In 1848, the
Last years (1849–1857)
In 1849, Vidocq briefly went 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. Unwise investments had also cost him a large portion of his assets, requiring him 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. On 11 May 1857, Vidocq died at the age of 81 in his home in Paris in the presence of his doctor, his lawyer and a priest.
Je l'aimais, je l'estimais ... Je ne l'oublierai jamais, et je dirai hautement que c'était un honnête homme! [Translation: 'I liked him, I appreciated him I will never forget him, and I can just say he was an honest man!'
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 Philip John Stead, claims that his grave is at the cemetery in Saint Mandé.[10] 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.[8] 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 of his life. Although Vidocq had no known children, 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: he had been in prison at the time of Emile-Adolphe Vidocq's conception.
Criminology legacy
Vidocq is considered by historians as the "father" of modern criminology.
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 received the answer that Vidocq had never 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 agency whose agents were responsible for the detection of conspiracies and intrigues; on the other, the normal police, who investigated common crimes such as theft, fraud, prostitution, and murder. Since the Middle Ages, those constables wore identification insignia that, 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 in 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,[11] studied the works of Vidocq and the Austrian criminal jurist Hans Gross for his reform of the Berkeley police force.[12] 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.[13] After Robert Peel established Scotland Yard in 1829, he sent a committee to Paris in 1832 to confer with Vidocq for several days.[citation needed] In 1843, two commissars[clarification needed] 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[citation needed]. Then they went to Vidocq's private agency and, for one week, accompanied him and his agents in their work.[14]
Identification of criminals
Jürgen Thorwald stated in his book Das Jahrhundert der Detektive (1964) that Vidocq had a photographic memory that 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,
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 that he solved by applying forensic methods decades before they were recognized as such.
- Chemical compounds
- In the France of Vidocq's time, there already existed cheques and promissory notes. Counterfeiters purchased those cheques and altered them to their advantage. In 1817, Vidocq addressed this problem by commissioning two chemists to develop a tamper-proof paper. This paper, for which Vidocq filed a patent, was treated with chemicals that 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. Therefore, 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 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 operandi. As a concrete example, Moreau named a burglary in the Bibliothèque nationale de France 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. The police chief, Lecrosnier, who was also present, told them that Fossard had escaped eight days before. Two days later, Vidocq arrested Fossard, who had in fact committed the burglary.
- Ballistics
- Alexandre Dumas left records that 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 remove the bullet from the head of the noblewoman secretly. 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 fit 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 to the murder.
The first real comparison between a gun and a bullet took place in 1835 by the Bow Street Runner Henry Goddard. On 21 December 1860, The Times reported on a court ruling in which a murderer in Lincoln named Thomas Richardson had been convicted with the help of ballistics for the first time.
The Vidocq Society
In 1990, the
Depictions of Vidocq
This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2017) |
Literature
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 the example of Vidocq's memoirs 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
In Victor Hugo's
In the Sandman Slim series of urban fantasy books by Richard Kadrey, a fictionalized version of Vidocq is a friend and mentor to the protagonist James Stark. Kadrey's Vidocq has become immortal thanks to an alchemical accident and lives in modern-day Los Angeles.[20]
Another contemporary novel that features Vidocq is Louis Bayard's The Black Tower (2008), though it is set in Restoration France.
Vidocq also appears as a major character in James McGee's novel Rebellion (2011)
Vidocq is frequently alluded to in Burt Solomon's 2017 novel The Murder of Willie Lincoln.
Theatre
Vidocq was a friend of the
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 among other things 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 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 a literary template. Especially in England, there was great enthusiasm 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 two acts, produced by Robert William Elliston, was penned by Douglas William Jerrold, and 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,
Film
A film based on Vidocq's memoirs was released in France on 13 August 1909, a short black-and-white silent film La Jeunesse de Vidocq ou Comment on devient policier. Vidocq was played by Harry Baur, who also portrayed him in two sequels: L'Évasion de Vidocq (1910) and Vidocq (1911). Under the direction of Jean Kemm, the silent movie Vidocq based on the memoirs appeared in 1922. The screenplay was written by Arthur Bernède and the main role was played by René Navarre. The first sound film, again entitled Vidocq, appeared in 1939. Jacques Daroy directed André Brulé in the title role. The film focused largely on Vidocq's criminal career.
On 19 July 1946, the first American film about Vidocq appeared – A Scandal in Paris, with George Sanders as Vidocq and direction by Douglas Sirk. It 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, The Cavalier of Croix-Mort, directed by Lucien Ganier-Raymond with Henri Nassiet in the lead.
On 7 January 1967, the French television station ORTF showed the first of two television series, each with thirteen episodes. Vidocq starring Bernard Noël was still in black and white. The second series, Les Nouvelles Aventures de Vidocq, the first in color, premiered on 5 January 1971 and starred Claude Brasseur.
In 1989, the pilot episode "Trail" was devoted to Eugène Vidocq. The series was called Adventure of Criminalistics and was filmed in a Czechoslovakian–German co-production.
In 2001, under the direction of Pitof, Gérard Depardieu played Vidocq in the French science fiction film Vidocq.
In 2018,
Comics
Vidocq's life inspired a comics series by Dutch artist Hans G. Kresse, which was published in the magazine Pep between 1965 and 1969. It was a realistic adventure series set during the Napoleonic era, where Vidocq is portrayed as a detective with a criminal past.[23]
Video games
Vidocq appears as a playable character in the adventure mystery game Inspector Javert and the Oath of Blood.[24][25]
Writings
Around 1827, Vidocq wrote an autobiography, which he planned for the bookseller Émile Morice to publish in summer 1828.
- Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu'en 1827, ghost-written autobiography, 1828
- Memoirs of Vidocq in English Vol III
- Memoirs of Vidocq in English Vol IV
- Les voleurs, a study of thieves and imposters, 1836, Roy-Terry, Paris
- Dictionnaire d'Argot, a dictionary of argot, 1836
- Considérations sommaires sur les prisons, les bagnes et la peine de mort, deliberations on reducing crime, 1844
- Les chauffeurs du nord, a memoir of his time as a gang member, 1845
- Les vrais mystères de Paris, a novel published under Vidocq's name, though authored by Horace Raisson and Maurice Alhoy, 1844
See also
- The Gouffé Case
- Jonathan Wild
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 0-8493-2132-8, S. 12.
- ^ ISBN 0-7637-8352-8, S. 39.
- ISBN 0-7546-3948-7, S. 3.
- ISBN 3-476-00383-3, S. 17.
- ^ https://www.arras.fr/en/node/11669 Ville d'Arras municipal information
- ^ a b c Memoirs of Vidocq: Principal Agent of the French Police Until 1827. Carey, 1834
- ^ Metzner, Paul: Crescendo of the Virtuoso. Spectacle, skill and self-promotion in Paris during the age of revolution
- ^ a b c James Morton: The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq: Criminal, Spy and Private Eye
- ^ Savant, Jean: La vie aventureuse de Vidocq. Librairie Hachette, Paris 1973, p. 299.
- ^ Stead, John Philip: Vidocq: A Biography.. 4th edition, Staples Press, London, January 1954, p. 247
- ^ Time.com: Finest of the Finest
- ISBN 0-398-02373-5, p. 53.
- ISBN 0-89774-991-X, p. 265f.
- ^ Coe, Ada. The Detective: A Myth for Our Time. University of California, Davis Press, 2000, p. 10.
- ISBN 0-7910-6173-6
- ISBN 0-06-092331-8.
- ISBN 0-8154-1038-7
- ^ Rzepka, Charles J. Detective Fiction. chapter 3 – From Rogues to Ratiocination
- ^ Melville, Hermann. Schools and Schoolmasters
- ^ "Author Interview: Richard Kadrey of Sandman Slim". Nerdlocker. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
- ^ "Gaumont Boards J.F. Richet-Vincent Cassel Pic 'The Emperor of Paris'". 26 September 2017.
- ^ "The Emperor of Paris (2018)". IMDb.
- ^ "Hans G. Kresse".
- ^ "Inspector Javert and the Oath of Blood". IGDB.com. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
- ^ "About". INSPECTOR JAVERT AND THE OATH OF BLOOD | PC GAME. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
- ^ Samuel Edwards.... [clarification needed]
Bibliography
Biographies
English
- Edwards, Samuel (1977). The Vidocq Dossier: The Story of the World's First Detective (1st ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-25176-1.
- Hodgetts, Edward A. (1928). Vidocq: A Master of Crime. London: Selwyn & Blount.
- Morton, James (2004). The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-190337-4.
- Stead, John Philip (1954). Vidocq: Picaroon of Crime.
French
- Guyon, Louis (1826). Biographie des Commissaires et des Officiers de Paix de la ville de Paris (Goullet ed.). Paris.
- Maurice, Barthélemy (1861). Vidocq. Vie et aventures. Paris: Laisné.
- Savant, Jean (1973). La vie aventureuse de Vidocq. Paris: Librairie Hachette.
Influence on criminalistics
- Emsley, Clive; Shpayer-Makov, Haia (2006), Police detectives in history, 1750–1950 (in German), Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, ISBN 0-7546-3948-7
- Feix, Gerhard (1979). Das große Ohr von Paris. Fälle der Sûreté. Berlin: Verlag Das Neue Berlin.
- Kalifa, Dominique (2000). Naissance de la police privée : détectives et agences de recherches en France, 1832 - 1942. [Paris]: Plon. ISBN 2-259-18291-7.
- Metzner, Paul (1998). Crescendo of the virtuoso : spectacle, skill and self-promotion in Paris during the age of revolution. Berkeley: ISBN 0-520-20684-3.
- Thorwald, Jürgen (1981). Das Jahrhundert der Detektive (1. - 25. Tsd. ed.). Zürich: Droemer-Knauer. ISBN 3-85886-092-1. (earlier title: Das Jahrhundert der Detektive).
Influence on literature
- Rix, Paul G. Buchloh, Jens P. Becker. Mit Beitr. von Antje Wulff u. Walter T. (1973). Der Detektivroman, Studien z. Geschichte u. Form d. engl. u. amerikan. Detektivliteratur (2nd revised and enlarged ed.). Darmstadt: Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellshaft. ISBN 3-534-05379-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Engelhardt, von Sandra (2003). The investigators of crime in literature. Marburg: Tectum-Verlag. ISBN 3-8288-8560-8.
- Messac, Régis (1975). Le "detective novel" et l'influence de la pensée scientifique. Geneva: Slatkine. (Reprint of the Paris edition of 1929).
- Murch, Alma E. (1968). The development of the detective novel. London: P. Owen.
- Rzepka, Charles J. (2005). Detective fiction (Repr. ed.). Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 0-7456-2941-5.
- Schwarz, von Ellen (2001). Der phantastische Kriminalroman : Untersuchungen zu Parallelen zwischen roman policier, conte fantastique und gothic novel. Marburg: Tectum-Verlag. ISBN 3-8288-8245-5. (also thesis, Universität Giessen 2001).
- Symons, Julian (1994). Bloody murder : from the detective story to the crime novel : a history ([4th ed.]. ed.). London: Pan. ISBN 0-330-33303-8.
External links
- Vidocq – Du Bagne à la Police de Sûreté (French)
- Works by Eugène François Vidocq at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Eugène François Vidocq at Internet Archive
- Works by Eugène François Vidocq at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Appraisal by Vidocq's hometown Arras (French)
- Vidocq in CrimeLibrary
- Vidocq Society
- Vidocq – Defrosting Cold Cases