Sherlock Holmes, Jean Valjean, and the FBI can all trace their roots back to one Frenchman who turned a life of crime into a life of fighting crime.
SPLIT PERSONALITY
In 1809 a 34-year-old petty criminal named Eugène François Vidocq (pronounced vee-DOCK) was doing yet another stint in a French prison, this time for forgery.
In and out of jail since he was a teenager, there were basically two Eugène Vidocqs: One was a hard-drinking brawler and womanizer who was quick to challenge any man to a duel. The other was a charismatic family man who had a knack for gaining people’s trust…so he could scam them. It was that persona that Vidocq used in prison to win the confidence of some of Paris’s most notorious criminals. And then he ratted out their plans to the city’s police chief, Jean Henry.Why did the crook suddenly turn informant? For one, Vidocq was facing a long prison term and possibly the guillotine. But he was also growing tired of living life as a fugitive. He’d tried to go legit before, and this time he wanted it to stick. So after he proved his worth to Henry, in 1811 the chief arranged for Vidocq to “escape” prison, something he’d done for real many times before. After that, Vidocq became an undercover spy, working the streets of Paris. He burrowed into the city’s criminal underworld, often in disguise, and brought back what he learned to Chief Henry. The information he obtained put dozens of his former accomplices in prison …and sent more than a few to the guillotine. And he was just getting started.
THE WRATH OF CON
Born in 1775 in the northern French city of Arras, Vidocq’s early years were filled with one thrilling adventure after another. That is, if you believe his memoir, which historians say was quite embellished. But what is known: he spent his first stint in jail at age 13 after stealing his father’s silver, and ran away at 14 after stealing 2,000 francs ($6,000 in today’s money) from his parents’ bakery. Then at 15 he joined the circus (where he ate raw meat in a freak show). By this time, the teenager was already a veteran thief and a formidable fencer—a skill he picked up from off-duty soldiers as a boy.
During the French Revolution, Vidocq (now 16) joined the army. He fought bravely in two battles against the Prussian army, but his military career was short-lived. He routinely challenged his fellow soldiers to duels (he was 14–2 by his own count), and once even assaulted his commander. By the time Vidocq was 19, it was clear to him and to his superiors that a military life was not for him.
GLOVES OFF
After spending his 20s bouncing from family life (he married twice) to bachelor life (he was known as a gambler and a ladies’ man) to criminal life (he once masqueraded as Austrian so he could get at a widow’s money), he decided that his 1809 forgery conviction would be his last time in prison.
Once on the outside, Vidocq took to his new job as a spy with great enthusiasm, applying his skills as a keen observer and master of disguise. Those abilities, combined with his superior fighting skills, soon proved he could be even more effective than regular cops …because he wasn’t a regular cop. Whereas Paris police officers were restricted to their own districts, routinely allowing fleeing suspects to get away, Vidocq simply ignored those boundaries and would doggedly hunt down his targets day and night until they were apprehended.
In 1811 Vidocq convinced Chief Henry to let him form a plainclothes police unit that would be free to do their work unhampered. Henry agreed, and Vidocq rallied up a small band of former convicts like himself. Vidocq’s secret division soon began bringing in the worst of the Paris underworld. Vidocq himself single-handedly tracked down a notorious counterfeiter and beat a confession out of him, which led to an execution.
GOOD COP…
Within a year, Vidocq and his secret agents had proven so effective that Henry made them an official unit of the Paris police called the Brigade de la Sûreté (“Security Brigade”). A year after that, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte signed a decree that expanded the brigade. Now it was the official state security police force for all of France, and Vidocq was in charge.
Over the next 15 years, Vidocq laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the modern police detective:
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