The Demon Tailor of Paris

Paris - La Belle Époque

In the 1500s in France, this unnamed man owned a tailor shop in the heart of Paris. According to historical records, he would lure children into his shop unsuspectingly, where he would then torture, rape, and eventually kill them by slitting their throats. In the form of a butcher, he would dismember and dress the bodies, consuming the remains and disposing of the bones by bleaching them and hiding them in barrels. It was also reported that he would scour the woods looking for victims, purportedly in wolf’s form, where he supposedly killed several dozen more victims. The total number of murders in this case is still unknown but it was definitely a heinous case and he definitely was a serial killer in a time when such a term might not have existed in common language yet.

In December of 1598, the man was arraigned on multiple murder charges. He was convicted quickly and easily, likely because of the superstitious nature of the case. Sentenced to burning at the stake, the man never showed a single ounce of remorse or asked for forgiveness. Even as his body burned, he simply cursed to the very end. The interesting part of this case is definitely the reported werewolf element, but it’s even more interesting that he was convicted with such a lack of proven evidence. Although the bones were presumed to be human, he never confessed and it’s not clear whether officials determined the species or if they were just superstitious and acting on fear or assumptions.

After the Werewolf of Chalons was executed, every single record of his trial, crimes, and his very existence were destroyed. The state decided it wanted no memory of this heinous criminal and the things that he did. For serial killers, after all, the fame and notoriety is what it’s all about. Even in death, remembering and revisiting serial killers and their crimes is giving them exactly what they wanted. Back then, officials considered it very important to dishonor their names by eliminating them -as much as possible – from history.

Source: Sword & Scale (http://swordandscale.com/the-demon-tailor/)