Henri Désiré Landru: Widows became his victims after the World War

Serial killer from France
He found lonely women in a newspaper advertisement – and made them disappear forever

The post-war confusion made it easy for Henri Landru. Countless people were missing, families were looking for relatives, soldiers for their wives. It was easy for anyone who wanted to immerse themselves in this confusion. And if someone disappeared during this time, the authorities were completely overburdened to really be able to search.

And so it took a long time before the ladies – mostly lonely middle-aged widows – went missing after a trip to the country. Their stories and those of their death were taken up in a book. To do this, the author, Richard Tomlinson, looked through old court files and newspaper articles. And paints a picture of a thoroughly sly man who murdered at least ten women – and in the end makes little secret of how much he despises women, even in court.

Henri Landru’s life began unspectacularly in 1869. He was born the son of a seamstress and a ironworker, attended a Catholic school and was only noticeable for his eagerness to learn. He kept that for himself and, after his school days, took up further training and got a job in an architect’s office. He married his cousin with whom he already had an illegitimate child. Three more children followed.

Fraud, marriage fraud, murder

But Landru was losing his orderly life. It started with a few minor scams, in 1908 he switched to marriage fraud – and promptly ended up in jail. After his release, he carried on happily and was soon wanted by the police. A new identity was needed. That bought him time. He went into hiding in Paris.

In 1914 he placed an advertisement, a marriage advertisement. Even then, according to the author, the resolution had long since been made: Landru wanted to kill and appropriate the ladies’ fortune. He will kill at least ten women, a boy and two dogs over the next five years. According to the files of the French investigators, Landru is said to have met with 283 women. Today one thing is certain: the exact number of his victims will probably never be found out.

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On April 12, 1919, police officers suddenly found themselves in his small apartment near the Gare du Nord train station in Paris. They had found out about the serial killer. The relatives of the victims were jointly responsible. Although the missing persons department was overburdened, families of the dead investigated themselves. Landru recognized a sister of a victim in Paris. The process that followed shook Parisians and generated a great deal of media interest. This was also due to a lack of alternative topics, because the newspapers were not allowed to report on domestic political issues due to the censorship. The Landru criminal case came at just the right time – and attracted many spectators to the courtroom. The places were coveted. Around 150 witnesses were heard from November 7, 1921. But it was not an easy process because the most important evidence was missing – the bodies.

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This is how Henri Désiré Landru killed women

Landru had invited his victim to the country. He presented himself as a wealthy man, sometimes as a senior civil servant, sometimes as a factory owner. He had rented the houses in which he welcomed his victims. The tickets he booked for the trip always followed the same logic: a one-way trip for the ladies, a return ticket for him. The women were never seen again. He murdered them in the houses.

But searches by the police initially revealed precious little. Carcasses of the dogs were found, including women’s stockings, parts of a corset and remains of shoes. Not more. Next. Because in a later investigation, the investigators found bone fragments – parts of three human skulls, five feet and three hands. Apparently Landru had burned his victims in the furnace.

The case was solved, according to Tomlinson, primarily through the persistence of the female victims’ relatives. And it wasn’t easy for them. Because there was an advantage in being a man at that time. Shopkeepers, coachmen, shoemakers – all of them were asked for help by the female relatives. And they all refused. In court, Landru tried to discredit the credibility of the female witnesses, after all it was the “weaker sex”, quoted Tomlinson from the files. The judge also ruled on the ten dead women that they were “stupid, weak, wanton, ignorant and naive”. The newspapers mocked the seamstresses, maids, or prostitutes who had appeared in court. Tomlinson wrote that Landru could hardly stand the “cackling” of women in the courtroom. Landru is reported to have said that you cannot trust them, precisely because they are women, she quotes “Daily Mail”.

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Landru protested his innocence to the end, he rejected all allegations. He preferred to address the prosecutor, judge, and jury with a single question. “Your evidence, Messieurs, where is your evidence?” The jury did not believe his assurances. He was guillotined in the morning of February 25, 1922.

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