Henri Désiré Landru

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Henri Désiré Landru (1869-1922) was a notorious French serial killer.

Landru specialized in seducing lone rich women, abusing their confidence to obtain a procuration (power of attorney) for their financial dealings, strangling them, then disposing of the corpses by burning the corpse and burying the remains in his garden.

In the end, converging complaints from the relatives' victims led to Landru being suspected, initially of mere embezzlement. He was then convicted of embezzling and was executed by guillotine.

He inspired the character of Monsieur Verdoux to Charlie Chaplin.

fr:Henri Landru