Henri Landru was born in Paris, the son of a furnace stoker and a laundress, who were both ardent Catholics. He was educated by monks at a Catholic school on the Île Saint-Louis, serving as an altar boy at the adjacent … See more

From the moment of his arrest, when he refused to confirm his identity, Landru was a formidably obdurate suspect. During multiple interrogations in 1919 and 1920, he repeatedly … See more

Landru was eventually persuaded by Moro to sign his clemency appeal, which was rejected by President Alexandre Millerand. Just before his execution, his final request was for a foot bath. He was executed by guillotine just before dawn on 25 February 1922 outside the … See more

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Jeanne and André Cuchet (January or February 1915)
Landru had escaped to a village near the town of Chantilly, 50 km north of Paris, in the company of Jeanne Cuchet, a pretty, 39-year-old Parisian seamstress who had been widowed in … See more

Landru was eventually brought to trial in Versailles in November 1921, after exhausting his appeals against previous convictions. The … See more

The two most famous films that are based on Landru bear little relation to the original case. In 1947, Charlie Chaplin played the title role in Monsieur Verdoux, a black comedy about a … See more