Monsieur Mystère, or Man of Mystery, this is the nickname Landru was given during the trial. As he faced the accusation of having killed and incinerated eleven hapless victims in his oven, the man retreated behind an impenetrable wall of silence. While he vehemently denied all the charges, the accused invoked a “right to privacy” when the presiding judge asked him where all his sweethearts were!
Landru’s trial took place between November 7 and 30, 1921, and revolved around the question of how a petty crook became the Bluebeard of Gambais. Receiving unprecedented media coverage, this trial was exceptional for several reasons. All Paris flocked to the courtroom as to a theater, to attend one of the hearings that produced the most notorious criminal of the 20th century.
Using over sixty vintage photographs, which faithfully render the uncanny atmosphere of the court proceedings over those three weeks, Charles Borrett retells the trial that shook France. You will discover the Landru case, just as it was presented to the jury, through a day-by-day account of the hearings.
BOOK
Affaire Landru : Le récit du procès en images
Charles Borrett
Editions Mazeto Square
21 x 15 cm, 128 pages
Price (France) 15 euros
ISBN : 978-2-919229-28-4
http://www.mazeto-square.com/affaire-landru.html
