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VIDOCQ, FRANCOIS EUGENE (1775–1857)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 48 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VIDOCQ, See also:FRANCOIS See also:EUGENE (1775–1857) , See also:French detective, was See also:born at See also:Arras in 1775 (or possibly 1773). After an adventurous youth he joined the French See also:army, where he See also:rose to be See also:lieutenant. At See also:Lille he was imprisoned as the result of a See also:quarrel with a See also:brother officer, and while in See also:gaol became involved, possibly innocently, in the See also:forgery of an See also:order for the See also:release of another prisoner. He was sentenced to eight years' hard labour, and sent to the galleys at See also:Brest, whence he escaped twice but was recaptured. For the third See also:time he succeeded in getting See also:free, and lived for some time in the See also:company of thieves and other criminals in See also:Paris and elsewhere, making a careful study of their methods. He then offered his services as a See also:spy to the Paris See also:police (1809). The offer was accepted, on See also:condition that he should extend his knowledge of the criminal classes by himself serving a further See also:term in See also:prison in Paris, and subsequently Vidocq was made See also:chief of the reorganized detective See also:department of the Paris police, with a See also:body of ex-convicts under his immediate command. In this capacity Vidocq was extremely successful, for he possessed unbounded See also:energy and a real See also:genius for See also:hunting down criminals. In 1827, having saved a considerable sum of See also:money, he retired from his See also:post and started a See also:paper-See also:mill, the See also:work-See also:people in which were See also:drawn entirely from ex-convicts. The venture, however, was a failure, and in 1832 Vidocq re-entered the police service and was employed mainly in See also:political work, though given no See also:special See also:office. Anxious to get back to his old detective post he himself foolishly organized a daring See also:theft. The authorities were unable to trace the thieves, who at the proper moment were discovered " by Vidocq.

His real See also:

part in the See also:matter became known, however, and he was dismissed from service. He subsequently started a private inquiry agency, which was indifferently successful, and was finally suppressed. Vidocq died in See also:great poverty in 1857. Several volumes have been published under his name, the best known of which is Memoires de Vidocq (1828). It is, however, extremely doubtful whether he wrote any of them. See See also:Charles Ledru, La See also:Vie, la mort et See also:les derniers moments de Vidocq (Paris, 1857).

End of Article: VIDOCQ, FRANCOIS EUGENE (1775–1857)

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