This page presents, in a non-exhaustive manner, notorious or significant French criminal cases whose developments that took place in the 20th century. Types of crime include murders, rape, theft, kidnappings, sex crimes, assassinations, poisonings, drug crimes, war crimes, missing person cases, terrorism, high-profile criminal trials and miscellaneous organised crime.
1901–1910 YearDepartmentCaseSummaryConvictions and comments1905–1908DrômeChauffeurs de la DrômeFrom 1905 to 1908 in the Drôme, acts of banditry followed by assassinations by Urbain Liottard, Octave David and Louis Berruyer.Urbain Liottard was sentenced to death on 10 July 1909, Octave David to death, and Louis Berruyer to death by the Drôme Assize Court. They were guillotined on 22 September 1909 in Valence.1907SeineOn 31 January 1907 in Paris, eleven-year-old Marthe Erbelding was murdered after being raped and stabbed.Albert Soleilland was sentenced to death on 23 July 1907. He was pardoned and died in prison in 1920 after 13 years of detention.1907GirondeOn 6 February 1907 in Langon, heinous murder of an insurance agent, Jean-Théodore Monget, strangled with a towel, committed by Jean-Eugène Branchery and Henri Parrot.Jean-Eugène Branchery was sentenced to death on 29 February 1908, and Henri Parrot to death by the Assize Court of Gironde. They were pardoned on 18 July 1908.1909Seine-et-OiseOn 22 October 1909 in Le Vésinet, the Belgian tenor was poisoned by Marie BouretteMarie Bourette was sentenced on 13 July 1910 to forced labor for life by the Seine-et-Oise Assize Court.1910SeineJean-Jacques LiabeufOn 8 January 1910 in Paris, a police officer was murdered by anarchist Jean-Jacques Liabeuf.Jean-Jacques Liabeuf was sentenced to death on 4 May 1910 by the Assizes of the Seine. Executed by beheading on 1 July 1910 in Paris.1910Seine-InférieureOn 8 September 1910 in Le Havre, Louis Dongé was killed during a fight during a strike.Jules Durand was sentenced to death on 25 November 1910, by the Seine-Inférieure Assize Court. He was pardoned and released on 15 February 1911, after one year of detention.
1911-1922 YearDepartmentCaseSummaryConvictions and comments1911–1912Paris, Val-de-Marne, Val-d'Oise, Oise Bonnot Gang of Jules BonnotSeries of robberies and murders.The gang's misdeeds notably inspired a released in 1968.1913Loire-InférieureMurder of seven people on 30 September 1913, in the village of Bas-Briacé, commune of Le Landreau. A fifteen-year-old adolescent, Marcel Redureau, admitted to being the perpetrator of the acts.« » sur le site Guillotine.The affair particularly interested Gide, who published a on the subject in 1930.1914ParisHenriette CaillauxAssassination of the director of Le Figaro , Gaston Calmette, on 16 March 1914, by the wife of Joseph Caillaux, irritated by a press campaign directed against her husband, Minister of Finance in the Doumerguegovernment.The president of the republic gave a statement during the trial. Henriette Caillaux was ultimately acquitted, her crime being considered a crime of passion.1914ParisAssassination of Jean JaurèsAssassination of socialist leader Jean Jaurès, on 31 July 1914 by Raoul Villain.Tried five years after the events, Raoul Villain was acquitted on 29 March 1919 by eleven votes out of twelve, while Jaurès' widow was ordered to pay the costs of the trial.1915–1919YvelinesHenri Désiré LandruMurder of eleven women between February 1915 and January 1919 in Vernouillet and Gambais by Henri Désiré Landru.The affair inspired a film in 1947 by Charlie Chaplin, and more explicitly Landru (film, 1963) by Claude Chabrol in 1963.1916French AlgeriaMurder of Charles de FoucauldKilling of Charles de Foucauld, a 58-year-old hermit priest on 1 December 1916 in the Algerian Sahara slaughtered by looters.1917–1922CorrèzeA wave of anonymous letters signed "The Eye of the Tiger" and denouncing the actions of one and all, caused one death in December 1921 and suicides.This case had national repercussions. Trapped during a group dictation, Angèle Laval was sentenced. She died on 16 November 1967, at the age of 81. The case inspired Le Corbeau by Henri-Georges Clouzot.1920–1922ParisAssassination of commissioner Georges Bassarabo on 31 July 1920, whose body was discovered in a trunk sent to Nancy. His wife, born Louise Grouès, writer and feminist activist known under the pen name of Héra Mirtel, defended by Vincent de Moro-Giafferri, is being tried in June 1922 at the Seine Assizes at the same time as her daughter, Paule Jacques. At the end of a trial rich in dramatic twists, Paule Jacques was acquitted, and her mother, benefiting from mitigating circumstances, was sentenced to twenty years of forced labour. She died in Rennes on 21 March 1931.The crime and the trial made headlines because of the accused's personality and the strangeness of the so-called "bloody trunk" procedure. Several books and television documentaries have echoed this.
1923–1930 YearDepartmentCaseSummaryConvictions and comments1922–1929HéraultPierre LagetMurders by poisoning perpetrated by Pierre Laget on his first wife on 28 May 1922, then on his aunt in 1923, as well as on his second wife on 12 August 1929. He also attempted to kill his sister by poisoning between December 1929 and February 1930.The affair inspired a book published in 2015: "The Laget affair, an enigma that shook the South of France".1923Finistère ?, Région parisienne ?Seznec affairThe disappearance of Pierre Quémeneur during the night of 25 to 26 May 1923, during a trip from Rennes to Paris. Guillaume Seznec, who accompanied him, was sentenced in 1924 to life imprisonment for murder and forgery.Following the judgment, around ten requests for review were filed and rejected between 1926 and 2006. The case inspired to write a book, L'Affaire Seznec (Plon, 1988), which received the Human Rights Prize in 1989 and led to a television film adaptation in 1993 by Yves Boisset, with Christophe Malavoy in the role of Guillaume Seznec.1925ParisThe murder of Ernest Berger, treasurer of the Action Française, on 26 May 1925, in the Saint-Lazare station on the Paris Métro, was shot in the back by the young anarchist activist Maria Bonnefoy, allegedly for her resemblance to Charles Maurras.She was declared to have total dementia.1925Bouches-du-RhôneGeorges-Alexandre SarretMurder by a crook lawyer of one of his accomplices and his mistress on 20 August 1925 in the Aix-en-Provence region.The case inspired the 1974 film The Infernal Trio.1926ParisAffaire SchwartzbardAssassination of Symon Petliura, Ukrainian socialist and independence leader on 25 May 1926 by revolutionary activist Sholem Schwartzbard.1927–1949VienneAffaire BesnardDeath in Loudun of several people suspected of having been poisoned with arsenic by one of their relatives or acquaintances, Marie Besnard.1928ParisMurder of Paul Grappe shot dead by his wife Louise Landy on 21 July 1928.The case inspired André Téchiné's Golden Years, released in 2017.1928Alpes de Haute-ProvenceDeaths in Valensole, of five people including two children in an isolated farm. The two assassins (Jules Ughetto and Micha Witkowski) are quickly arrested, tried and sentenced to death
1931–1940 YearDepartmentCaseSummaryConvictions and comments1932Paris, SeineAffaire GorgulovAssassination of President Paul Doumer on 6 May 1932 by Paul Gorgulov.1933SartheChristine and Léa PapinMurder by two sisters, Christine and Léa Papin, domestic employees, of their boss and her daughter on 2 February 1933 in Le Mans.L'affaire, dans laquelle on a pu voir un drame lié à la lutte des classes sociales, aurait notamment inspiré la pièce Les Bonnes de Jean Genet. Elle inspire également le film Les Blessures assassines et, moins directement le film La Cérémonie de Claude Chabrol.1933Paris, SeineViolette NozièrePoisoning of his family members by Violette Nozière on 21 August 1933.The case inspired the 1977 film Violette Nozière by Claude Chabrol.1933Paris, SeineMurder of Oscar Dufrenne, director of Le Palace, in his office on 24 September 1933."The Palace Crime"1934Haute-SavoieStavisky affairDeath in suspicious circumstances of Alexander Stavisky, on 8 January 1934 in Chamonix.The affair led to a political and financial scandal and contributed to the fall of the Camille Chautemps government and the outbreak of the anti-parliamentary riots of 6 February 1934. It inspired the film Stavisky by Alain Resnais, released in 1974.1934MartiniqueAndré AlikerAndré Aliker, a Martinican communist activist, was found dead tied up on 12 January 1934 to Case-Pilote.His death was a detonator for the workers' movement in the overseas territory of Martinique.1934Bouches-du-RhôneAssassination of Alexander I of YugoslaviaAssassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia by Bulgarian nationalist Vlado Chernozemsky on 9 October 1934 in Marseille.Louis Barthou Minister of Foreign Affairs, wounded in the arm by friendly fire, died shortly afterwards.1934VarGiuseppe SasiaMurders of four people in Haut-Var.Italian-born Giuseppe Sasia, nicknamed "the shepherd killer" or "the Haut-Var killer," murdered four people in a few months. He confessed to the murders before admitting to only two. Convicted in December 1935, he was guillotined in Draguignan on 17 February 1936.1935Seine-et-OiseMurder of Henri PélissierMurder of cyclist Henri Pélissier shot dead by his mistress Camille Tharault on 1 May 1935 in Dampierre-en-Yvelines.1937Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-MarneAffaire WeidmannKidnappings and murders of six people, from 21 July to 27 November 1937 by Eugène Weidmann.The last convict to be guillotined in public in France.1938Ille-et-VilaineMurder of a young Mexican, Nestor Escudero, by Maurice Pilorge on 6 August 1938 in a hotel in Dinard. Pilorge was guillotined in Rennes on 4 February 1939.The affair, which seems to have marked the writer Jean Genet, is mentioned – at least the name of Pilorge – notably in Notre-Dame des Fleurs.1940–1943MancheMarie-Louise GiraudTwenty-seven illegal abortions in the Cherbourg region by Marie-Louise Giraud.She is the only woman – but not the only person – to have been guillotined for this reason in France. She inspired the film Une affaire de femmes by Claude Chabrol. Following this affair, a law was passed which promulgated that only a doctor could prescribe an abortion.
1941–1950