THE LADY KILLER The Life of Landru, the French Bluebeard

Hardback. In 1919 a short, bearded Frenchman was convicted of murder and sent to the guillotine. The case of Henri Desire Landru remains one of the most baffling in the annals of crime, for no satisfactory traces of his victims have ever been uncovered and no-one, not even his devoted mistress, has ever revealed the nature of this modern Bluebeard's lethal charm. Landru began his criminal career as a petty crook on the fringes of the Paris underworld. Taking advantage of chaotic conditions during World War I, he posed under various aliases as a solid bourgeois citizen, and was soon consorting with scores of lonely spinsters and widows. He sent them love-letters, recorded their marriage proposals, and relieved them of their worldly goods, dutifully supporting his own wife and family all the while. Eventually, ten of his 'fiancees', unlucky enough to be invited to his villa outside Paris, disappeared for ever from the face of the earth. The author has mounted an exhaustive investigation into the man, his victims and their world, drawing much material from French police archives untouched for half a century. Vividly, with the help of contemporary photographs, he recreates Landru's notorious career, arrest, interrogation and sensational trial. The result is a crime classic, with a subject more elusive and more dramatic than any fiction. Illus., Epilogue, Appendices and Index. 221pp. 8vo. h/back. Jacket Design by Mike Dempsey. Review copy with loosely inserted slip. From the library of crime historian, Jonathan Goodman, with his personal label to ffep. V. lightly browned edges, o/w Nr. F. in`sl. chipped Vg. dw.