by Landru's Secret- The Deadly Seductions of France's Lonely Hearts Serial Killer (retail) (epub)
p.178 “a swirl of flowing robes”: Le Gaulois, L’Ouest-Éclair, 20 Nov 1921.
p.178 “followed by Navières”: Le Journal, 20 Nov 1921.
p.179 “a generous concession”: Le Journal, 20 Nov 1921.
p.179 “potential to cause trouble for the defence”: After Lagasse’s death, Moro acknowledged that Lagasse had had the right to finish the questioning of witnesses, as the older and therefore more senior lawyer. Lanzalavi (2011), p.75.
p.179 “adjourned till Monday”: L’Excelsior, 20 Nov 1921.
Chapter 18: You Cannot Live With the Dead
p.181 “the ‘wretched, emaciated’ defendant”: Le Journal, 22 Nov 1921.
p.181 “sleeps like a baby”: L’Echo d’Alger, 20 Nov 1921, quoting L’Éclair.
p.181 “sold her furniture”: Godefroy’s announcement overstated how much the prosecution knew about Berthe’s movements after she left Marcelle’s apartment on 8 October 1915. It is likely that Berthe stayed for a few nights at a hotel on Rue de Rennes, as Godefroy stated. She then moved to the Hotel de l’Union near the Gare Saint-Lazare, where she stayed for at least a week, before moving again to 45 Avenue des Ternes. Curiously, La Presse reported a fortnight before Landru’s trial that Berthe had gone to “a room on Avenue des Ternes”. The newspaper did not give a source for its information. La Presse, 27 October 1921.
p.181 “one of your victims”: Le Journal, 22 Nov 1921.
p.182 “wanted her name in the press”: Juliette Auger letter to Gilbert, 15 Nov 1921, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Héon.
p.183 “deeply shocked by his comment”: Le Journal, Le Petit Parisien, 22 Nov 1921.
p.183 “a marble headstone for Marcelle’s grave”: ‘Déclaration de Mme Oger [sic]’, 20 Nov 1921, Paris Police Archives, Dossier Héon.
p.183 “lived at Avenue des Ternes”: Le Journal, 22 Nov 1921.
p.183 “gaps in the investigation”: Le Journal, Le Gaulois, 22 Nov 1921.
p.183 “I never received a reply”: L’Excelsior, 22 Nov 1921.
p.184 “bring us cakes”: L’Excelsior, 22 Nov 1921.
p.184 “gentle with her”: Le Petit Journal, L’Excelsior, 22 Nov 1921.
p.184 “used her blood”: L’Excelsior, Le Figaro, Le Rappel, 22 Nov 1921.
p.185 “had supposedly vanished”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 22 Nov 1921.
p.185 “testify at Landru’s trial”: Adrienne Poillot letter to Bonin, 20 March 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3652.
p.186 “the bailiff ’s error”: Le Journal, Le Temps, 22 Nov 1921.
p.186 “disappointment from the audience”: Le Journal, 22 Nov 1921.
p.186 “Yvonne shot back”: L’Humanité, Le Figaro, 22 Nov 1921.
p.186 “rackety life than anyone else”: ‘Déclaration de Mlle Yvonne Le Gallo’, 26 March 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U770/3657, Dossier Marchadier.
p.186 “only visit to Gambais”: Mme Jeanne Falque, ‘P.V. de M. Tanguy, Commissaire de Police’, 2 June 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.186 “around their apartment”: Le Journal, 23 Nov 1921.
p.187 “an occasional female tenant”: Le Petit Journal, 23 Nov 1921.
p.187 “through her tears”: L’Excelsior, Le Journal, 23 Nov 1921.
p.188 “are indeed human bones”: Le Gaulois, 24 Nov 1921.
p.188 “to send him to the guillotine”: L’Intransigeant, 21 Nov 1921.
p.189 “‘from head to toes’”: Le Temps, 23 Nov 1921.
p.189 “could not have committed these crimes”: Le Gaulois, 23 Nov 1921.
p.189 “‘False hypotheses,’ Landru remarked”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.190 “smells that are normal,’”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.190 “‘to find the corpses’”: L’Intransigeant, 24 Nov 1921.
p.190 “my supposed victims”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.190 “phosphate of lime”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.191 “heavy package in the water”: Le Gaulois, 24 Nov 1921.
p.191 “I was moving out”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.191 “her original witness statement”: ‘Déclaration de Mme Picque’, 15 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.191 “told him to go away”: Dautel interview with Émile Mercier, 15 April 1919, Paris Police Archives.
p.191 “ladies who visited his house”: Le Matin, 24 Nov 1921.
p.192 “of burning flesh”: Le Figaro, 24 Nov 1921.
p.192 “alleged murders on the charge sheet”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.192 “scandal-mongering and imaginative hindsight”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.192 “the villa from Paris”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.193 “13 April and 25 April”: Le Matin, 24 Nov 1921.
p.193 “‘search’ (‘fouille’) several times”: Dautel report on search of Villa Tric, 13 April 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3690.
p.193 “made during the second”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.193 “summoned to testify”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921. The four diggers were never formally summoned.
p.193 “to produce material proofs”: La Justice, 24 Nov 1921.
Chapter 19: A Veritable Puzzle
p.195 “at being Landru,’ they explained”: Le Petit Parisien, 24 Nov 1921.
p.195 “decapitated head of a sheep”: In September 1929, Bayle was assassinated outside the Palais de Justice by a criminal he had helped to convict. Le Petit Parisien, 17 Sept 1929.
p.195 “as the vulgar expression goes”: Le Journal, 25 Nov 1921.
p.195 “somewhat grumpy silence,’ Moro declared”: L’Excelsior, 25 Nov 1921.
p.196 “confuse the two professions”: Le Journal, 25 Nov 1921.
p.196 “Dr Paul’s deposition”: L’Excelsior, 25 Nov 1921.
p.196 “stands up again and smiles”: Le Petit Parisien, 25 Nov 1921.
p.197 “impassive, mysterious face”: Le Figaro, 25 Nov 1921.
p.197 “the real and the certain”: Le Temps, 26 Nov 1921.
p.197 “deliver ‘in all conscience’”: Le Populaire, 25 Nov 1921.
p.197 “to a young woman”: Journal des Débats, 26 Nov 1921.
p.197 “‘industrial’ enterprises at the villa, Landru said”: Le Journal, 25 Nov 1921.
p.198 “washed away rapidly”: Le Journal, 25 Nov 1921.
p.198 “in the summer of 1918”: L’Echo de Paris, 26 Nov 1921. The prospective subtenant, a man called Lambert, had not gone to the police until after Landru’s arrest nine months later, casting some doubt on his story.
p.198 “could not testify in person” Jean Monteilhet, witness statement, 6 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013).
p.199 “get his name in the papers”: Le Petit Parisien, 26 Nov 1921.
p.199 “interruption to his labours”: Journal des Débats, 27 Nov 1921.
p.200 “‘Till Monday, messieurs’.”: Journal des Débats, 27 Nov 1921.
Chapter 20: You Have Death in Your Soul
p.201 “Le Journal reported in dismay”: Le Journal, 29 Nov 1921.
p.201 “looked down at his script and began”: L’Echo de Paris, 29 Nov 1921.
p.201 “a criminal Charlie Chaplin”: Le Journal, 29 Nov 1921.
p.202 “utterly uninterested in Godefroy”: L’Excelsior, 29 Nov 1921.
p.202 “L’Excelsior remarked”: L’Excelsior, 29 Nov 1921.
p.202 “terrible events in Vernouillet and Gambais”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 29 Nov 1921.
p.202 “as packed as in the gallery”: Le Petit Journal, 29 Nov 1921.
p.202 “fascinated by Landru”: L’Excelsior, 30 Nov 1921.
p.203 “settled on his forehead”: Le Gaulois, 29 Nov 1921.
p.204 “adjourned for the day”: Le Petit Parisien, 29 Nov 1921.
p.205 “‘beyond scientific certainty’”: Le Journal, 30 Nov 1921.
p.205 “with a feline polites
se”: Le Petit Parisien, Le Journal, 30 Nov 1921.
p.206 “Terrible words!”: Le Journal, L’Ouest-Éclair, 30 Nov 1921.
p.206 “charged with felony”: Le Journal, 30 Nov 1921.
p.207 “reproach your silence”: Le Journal, 30 Nov 1921.
p.207 “you will reply, Non!”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 30 Nov 1921.
p.207 “he shook the hand of his avocat”: Le Petit Parisien, 30 Nov 1921.
Chapter 21: Do You Feel Nothing in Your Hearts?
p.209 “one reporter grumbled”: L’Echo de Paris, 1 Dec 1921.
p.209 “sentenced to death”: La Lanterne, 1 Dec 1921.
p.209 “remarked sourly to one of his guards”: Le Petit Parisien, 1 Dec 1921.
p.210 “your famous thesis?”: Le Petit Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.210 “human or animal matter”: ‘Gambais, Examen des Os: Rapport Médico-Légal’, 19 July 1920, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/4898, pp.3–4.
p.210 “I do not believe it”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “observed with distaste”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “budged from their story”: Le Petit Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “the alleged corpse”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “Landru was sane”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “with all his heart”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “the words of his barrister”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.211 “secrets of Landru’s house?”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.212 “to start a new life”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.212 “until the very end”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.212 “an artist’s pet monkey”: The artist was the well-known painter and sculptor Aimé Morot (1850–1913).
p.213 “Look to yours”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.213 “I have killed no one”: Le Matin, 1 Dec 1921.
p.213 “shouted above the din”: L’Ouest-Éclair, 1 Dec 1921.
p.213 “all around the courtroom”: Le Rappel, 1 Dec 1921.
p.214 “hear the verdict”: La Presse, 11 June 1922. The article concerned Gilbert’s reasons for not allowing photographers in court during the trial of Mme Bessarabo, accused of murdering her husband.
p.214 “his emotion or his nerve ”: L’Excelsior, 1 Dec 1921.
p.215 “you shameless scum!”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.215 “your head sliced at the neck”: Le Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.215 “looked on helplessly”: Le Figaro, 1 Dec 1921.
p.216 “until the morning”: Le Petit Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
p.216 “my final protest”: Le Petit Journal, 1 Dec 1921.
Chapter 22: A Terrible Doubt Came to You
p.217 “complained to his guards”: Le Petit Parisien, 1 Dec 1921.
p.217 “column for La Presse”: La Presse, 3 Dec 1921.
p.217 “washed their hands of the case”: L’Echo d’Alger, 2 Dec 1921.
p.218 “Psst! Montez-vous?”: Le Journal, 6 Dec 1921.
p.218 “to sign his appeal for clemency”: La Lanterne, 6 Feb 1922.
p.218 “for the coming battle”: La Lanterne, 17 Feb 1922.
p.218 “collect his latest submission”: La Lanterne, 20 Feb 1922.
p.218 “to be brave”: Le Petit Parisien, 23 Feb 1922.
p.218 “listened carefully to his points”: Le Figaro, La Lanterne, Le Matin, 24 Feb 1922.
p.219 “Deibler had guillotined”: As a young man, Deibler had assisted at a further 96 executions under his grandfather and father.
p.219 “would be erected”: The street is now called Rue Georges Clemenceau.
p.219 “the bedrooms upstairs”: Le Journal, 26 Feb 1922.
p.219 “sensed that I understood”: The full text was published by Le Matin, 9 March 1922.
p.220 “an innocent man to have courage”: Auguste Navières du Treuil, ‘L’Affaire Landru’, Personal Collection of Dominique de Moro Giafferri.
p.220 “bowler-hatted executioners”: Le Journal, 26 Feb 1922.
p.221 “a music hall in north-west Paris”: L’Echo d’Alger, 27 Feb 1922.
Chapter 23: The Signpost
p.225 “I am taking with me”: La Presse, 13 Sept 1922.
p.225 “grunted ‘adieu’”: Moro interview with Henri Martin, reproduced in Lanzalavi (2011), p.84.
p.225 “something more than pebbles”: Le Petit Parisien, 18 Dec 1922.
p.226 “another private collector”: Le Petit Parisien, 29 Jan, 30 Jan, 20 Feb 1923. I have not been able to establish what happened to the oven.
p.226 “Landru-themed restaurant”: Paris-soir, 4 Nov 1930.
p.226 “his other fiancées”: Paris-soir, 4 Nov 1930, 2 Dec 1934.
p.226 “Britain and the United States”: Landru’s brand was also retroactive. George Smith, Britain’s “Brides in the Bath” murderer, who was hanged in 1915, became known in France as the “English Landru”.
p.226 “Welles’s script”: Chaplin possibly first heard about Landru in the autumn of 1921, shortly before the trial, when he visited Paris to promote his film The Kid.
p.227 “she still called ‘Lucien’”: Fernande’s last known stage appearance was in a light opera called Le Roi d’Amoir, which closed after six performances. La Lanterne, 19 Nov 1922.
p.227 “in the freezing water”: Some accounts of Fernande’s suicide suggest she left a short note in her room, saying she still loved Landru but was suffering too much. Pierre Darmon, Landru (1994), p.291.
p.227 “did not live with me”: Le Matin, 8 Aug 1924.
p.228 “on the other side of the cemetery”: Le Matin, 1 May 1927.
p.228 “moved to Clichy”: Le Matin, 2, 3 March 1933.
p.228 “journalists and blackmailers”: I have found no trace of Marie-Catherine or Maurice in public records and newspapers after 1933.
p.228 “Bonin was only 43”: Le Matin, 14 April 1922.
p.228 “transferred four years earlier”: L’Express du Midi, 14 Nov 1924.
p.228 “none of them remotely true”: See Belin’s interviews in Le Matin, 18 Nov 1935, 23 Dec 1937.
p.228 “cracked open l’affaire Landru”: L’Ouest-Eclair, 23 Sept 1931.
p.229 “has never been seen since”: see Note on Sources, p.287.
p.229 “this astonishing and shocking case”: Le Petit Parisien, 25 Sept 1922.
p.229 “any doubt in the case”: Le Matin, 12 March 1922, quoting interview by Godefroy in L’Éclair.
p.229 “stellar career at the Paris Bar”: Moro’s next client was Mme Bessarabo, who had put her husband’s corpse on the overnight sleeper to Nancy. He lost the case in June 1922, after Mme Bessabaro’s daughter denounced her. Moro managed to save Mme Bessarabo from the guillotine, on the grounds that the murder was a crime passionel. She was sentenced to 20 years with hard labour.
p.229 “even beyond the grave”: Information from Dominique de Moro Giafferri, March 2017.
p.229 “three-page private memoir”: Auguste Navières du Treuil, ‘L’Affaire Landru’, Personal Collection of Dominique de Moro Giafferri.
Chapter 24: The Road to Gambais
p.231 “the importance of facts”: Monteilhet’s professional scruples may explain why he declined to identify Landru formally when he was shown Landru’s police mug shots in May 1919.
p.232 “cast-net in the pond”: Jean Monteilhet, witness statement, 6 May 1919, Paris Police Archives, reproduced in Landru: 6h 10 Temps Clair, Les Pièces du Dossier (Paris, 2013).
p.232 “directed operations from the bank”: Le Temps, 11 May 1919.
p.234 “appear in the carnet”: ‘Réquisitoire définitif ’, p.299, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U772.
p.234 “had not been established”: ‘Liste des femmes ayant été en correspondance ou en relations avec Landru’, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 30, Dossier Général.
p.234 “her fiancé’s country house”: Mme Dalouin letter to Bonin, 17 May 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U7
69/3058, Dossier Héon.
p.234 “identified as Landru”: ‘Audition de Marie Bizeau’, 16 May 1919, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U771/3716.
p.235 “29 March 1918”: Mme Bizeau or her husband may have noted the date in order to make sure he was paid for the job.
p.236 “after Annette’s disappearance”: Mme Bizeau said she saw Landru for the last time in November 1918 in the garden of the Villa Tric.
p.237 “pouring out of his chimney”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.237 “sneered at the women”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
p.238 “at work in the kitchen”: Three women in the hamlet of Boulay testified at Landru’s trial about foul smoke wafting across the fields one winter’s evening from the villa. They could not remember the month or the year. Le Petit Parisien, 24 Nov 1921.
Chapter 25: The Road to Vernouillet
p.241 “fields behind the house”: The area behind The Lodge is now built-up.
p.241 “are reproduced identically”: ‘Interrogatoire Général’, 3 Aug 1920, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.242 “who may have been married”: I cannot find Pierre Capdevieille through census and genealogical records.
p.243 “added to the mournful list”: ‘Réquisitoire définitif ’, 4 Dec 1920, pp.2–3, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 772/4907.
p.243 “volunteer for the army”: Le Gaulois, 11 Nov 1921.
p.243 “it was pointless”: André Cuchet letter to Maxime Morin, 25 Oct 1914, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 769/2755.
p.243 “this is maman who says so”: Le Journal, 11 Oct 1914. The letter was possibly a piece of propaganda, designed to stoke hatred of the Germans as France’s casualty rate increased.
p.243 “speaking little or no English”: US Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (2008).
p.244 “business trips to America”: ‘Audition de Mme Oudry’, 15 April 1919, Paris Police Archives, Carton JA 28, Dossier Cuchet.
p.245 “the ‘poor weather’”: Jeanne Cuchet letter to Mme Morin, 4 Jan 1915, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U 769/2760; ‘Réquisitoire Définitif’, p.50, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U772.
p.245 “dated 20 January 1915”: André Cuchet to Maxime Morin, 20 Jan 1915, Yvelines Archives, Carton 2U769/2745.
p.246 “André’s final letter to Max”: Le Journal, 24 Nov 1921.
