FRANCOIS

See also:

• EUGENE

EUGENE

See also:

• FRANCOIS EUGENE VIDOCQ (1775–1857)

VIDOCQ (1775–1857)  , French detective, was born at Arras in 1775 (or possibly 1773) . After an adventurous youth he joined the French army, where he rose to be lieutenant . At Lille he was imprisoned as the result of a quarrel with a brother officer, and while in gaol became involved, possibly innocently, in the forgery of an order for the release of another prisoner . He was sentenced to eight years' hard labour, and sent to the galleys at Brest, whence he escaped twice but was recaptured . For the third time he succeeded in getting free, and lived for some time in the company of thieves and other criminals in Paris and elsewhere, making a careful study of their methods . He then offered his services as a spy to the Paris police (1809) . The offer was accepted, on condition that he should extend his knowledge of the criminal classes by himself serving a further term in prison in Paris, and subsequently Vidocq was made chief of the reorganized detective department of the Paris police, with a body of ex-convicts under his immediate command . In this capacity Vidocq was extremely successful, for he possessed unbounded energy and a real genius for hunting down criminals . In 1827, having saved a considerable sum of money, he retired from his post and started a paper-mill, the work-people in which were drawn entirely from ex-convicts . The venture, however, was a failure, and in 1832 Vidocq re-entered the police service and was employed mainly in political work, though given no special office . Anxious to get back to his old detective post he himself foolishly organized a daring theft . The authorities were unable to trace the thieves, who at the proper moment were discovered " by Vidocq .

His real

part in the matter became known, however, and he was dismissed from service . He subsequently started a private inquiry agency, which was indifferently successful, and was finally suppressed . Vidocq died in great poverty in 1857 . Several volumes have been published under his name, the best known of which is Memoires de Vidocq (1828) . It is, however, extremely doubtful whether he wrote any of them . See Charles Ledru, La Vie, la mort et les derniers moments de Vidocq (Paris, 1857) .