Eugene-Francois Vidocq
Notes from Vidocq, Chief of the Paris Secret Police
Preface
To the 1877 edition .
At all times there have existed natures that were richer than others, with more energy and greater inclinations; These people, depending on the sphere into which their fate takes them, become heroes or villains, in both cases leaving a deep mark on themselves. But whatever their role in the world, they are far from ordinary vulgarity and, like everything out of the ordinary, involuntarily attract everyone's attention, arouse curiosity and enslave the imagination of the masses.
The hero of this story belongs to the number of such exceptional, seasoned personalities; this, one might say, is the legendary hero of the French people, so keenly and for a long time fascinated by qualities - bodily strength, courage and a subtle, cunning mind; he is an actor of social comedy, the memory of whom is fresh among the people, while many ephemeral celebrities are consigned to oblivion. This was Vidocq, the chief of the security police.
True, he owes his fame partly to the fact that, among the ranks of criminals, he fought against society. His extraordinary adventures, daring undertakings, cunning and numerous escapes could fill more than one novel. But if the matter had been limited to this, then his fame would not have surpassed the fame of Collet, Coignard and other similar villains, whose names, inseparably associated with prison and prison, are imprinted with shame and serve only as an object of harmful curiosity. Vidocq is incomparably superior to these heroes of the criminal court, who quickly ended their brilliant epic with the gallows, in that he wanted to restore his honorable name, armed himself against his accomplices, and put his exceptional abilities, his dearly acquired experience and undaunted energy in the service of society.
As a result, the second half of Vidocq's life is even richer in adventures, even more interesting than the first. This is a whole story of chasing thieves. Hunting thieves is a very complex science, and it is difficult to imagine what kind of mental effort, what remarkable abilities it requires. What is the struggle between a customs official and a smuggler before this extraordinary struggle? Meanwhile, the customs inspector must imagine in advance everything that the prolific cunning of his enemy can invent; must predict his secret intentions, figure out what he could come up with if he were in this place another, if he himself were a smuggler; must contrast his patience, fearlessness, all his insight with the constancy, will and intelligence of the victim he is pursuing; in a word, he amazes the developed and complete art of smuggling with a more excellent art, daily enriched with new observations and the logic of events.
A real police official must master this highest art to the fullest extent, and in addition, this policeman Proteus must master the dexterous and cheeky manners of the vile inhabitant of dirty basements, his amazing instincts, as if borrowed from a cat and a snake; agility of the fingers, dexterity of the hand, faithfulness of the eye, proven courage, caution, composure, trickery and the impenetrable mask of a true villain - these are the qualities necessary for an artificial agent of public safety. For the successful progress of the case, he needs, on a par with the criminal, to get his hand in fraud, learn the art of snatching secrets from sensitive people, making them cry over imaginary misfortunes, the inimitable art of pretending and changing appearance at any hour of the day or night; he must have an inexhaustible supply of funds, a quick tongue, unshakable dispassion and patience, an inventive head and a hand always ready to act.
Vidocq combined these exceptional qualities, which usually belong separately to different personalities, in himself to the highest degree: not a single actor could compare with him in the art of putting on makeup and playing any role; for him it was a toy to instantly change age, physiognomy, manners, language and pronunciation. Even in daylight, disguised, he fearlessly exposed himself to the experienced eye of the gendarmes, police commissars, prison guards and even former accomplices, people with whom he lived and from whom he had nothing secret. Despite his tall stature and corpulence, he knew how to dress up even as a woman. In addition, this strange man, with an iron temperament, had at his disposal a very patient stomach, which allowed him to endure prolonged hunger and indulge in all sorts of excesses; After a hearty dinner, he could, with feigned greed, consume the strongest drinks and the most indigestible foods.
Whatever they think about Vidocq, who, however, never intended to become a saint, it cannot be denied that, as the head of the security brigade, he provided enormous services, clearing Paris of more than twenty thousand villains of all kinds. To achieve such a result, every day for twenty years he had to make combinations more refined than any diplomat, constantly expose his life to dangers a hundred times more terrible than the dangers of battles, and, moreover, expose them to those fighting in cold blood, without enthusiasm, without any hope of winning the aura. In their carelessness, the happy citizens are unaware of the secret struggle that is continually going on to bring about the security and prosperity that they enjoy.
It is clear that the life of such a famous person as Vidocq, as told by himself, could not help but be a bait to which the crowd, greedy for sensations, rushed; and indeed, Vidocq's Notes, published by him in 1828, after his resignation, were snapped up with unprecedented speed. This was the first work that amazingly revealed the underside of civilization, the gloomy prison life and the inside of prisons, introducing the expressive language of thieves, which has since been so much distorted. It was vital realism, suddenly presented to a society satiated with sentimental trifles. The electric sheets were read vying with each other and shocked people with refined nerves. There was only talk about Vidocq's Notes.
It is quite natural that such enormous, widespread success was not slow to give rise to selfish imitators. Soon appeared "Notes of a Convict" or "Vidocq Unmasked" a shameful speculation in which two writers did not disdain to connect with a native of the filth of the prison and fraudulent dens. These four volumes of slander, lies and insults, expressed, according to the content, in the flattest, indecent style, instantly gained the trust of the public and entered into fame. But the reaction was not slow to occur, and general contempt rightly fell on this libelous work, now forgotten by everyone and buried in well-deserved mud.
Eugene François Vidocq (July 23, 1775 - May 11, 1857) was a French criminal who later became the first head of the General Directorate of National Security, and then one of the first modern private detectives and the “father” of criminal investigation in its modern form.
Most of the information about Vidocq comes from his autobiography. According to her, Vidocq was born on July 23, 1775 in the French city of Arras. His father was a baker.
At the age of 14, he apparently accidentally killed his fencing teacher and decided to flee the city. Initially, he intended to go to America, but spent all his money on an actress, a lady of easy virtue. In the end, a year later he was forced to join the Bourbon regiment.
He was far from an ideal soldier: he later recalled that he fought 15 duels, killed two opponents, and was subject to numerous disciplinary actions. During the war, Francois was forced to go over to the side of the Austrians, but, not wanting to fight against his own, he pretended to be sick before the battle.
During the French Revolution, Vidocq, according to his own statement, saved two noblewomen from the guillotine, but was subsequently arrested himself. His father saved him by turning to the Chevalier family for help. François fell in love with their daughter Louise and married her when she pretended to be pregnant. Having learned about her officer lover, Vidocq left for Brussels using false documents, where he courted a baroness older than him and was a member of a gang of raiders.
Having moved to Paris, he spent all his money on women of easy virtue and moved to the border city of Lille, where his relationship with a certain Francine began. Once catching her with her lover, Vidocq beat him, for which he was imprisoned for three months in St. Peter's Tower. There he met the peasant Sebastian Butatel, who was sentenced to six years for stealing bread and was having a hard time being separated from his large family. Subsequently, Sebastian was released on a fake petition drawn up by his cellmates Gerbaut and Grouard. Vidocq denied his involvement in this (according to him, Gerbaud and Grouard only used his camera without telling him the essence of the matter); cellmates claimed that it was Francois who was the instigator. Vidocq and Gerbo were sentenced to 8 years of correctional labor, but Francois, with the help of the repentant Francine, escaped from Brest prison, disguised as a police inspector.
In 1798 he moved to the Netherlands, where he helped the privateer Fromentin rob English ships. In Ostend he was again arrested and sent to Toulon prison under strict guard, from where he escaped thanks to the help of another prisoner.
Having tried many professions, Vidocq was imprisoned more than once, escaped and ended up behind bars again, for which he was nicknamed the “king of risk” and the “werewolf.” In 1799, Vidocq escaped from prison once again and lived in Paris for 10 years.
Blackmailed by his former neighbors in a prison cell, he took a decisive step: he went to the police prefecture of Paris and offered his services. In 1811, he formed a special brigade of former criminals according to the principle: “Only a criminal can overcome crime.” Largely for this reason, there were bad rumors about his office, which did not prevent him from enjoying the favor of his superiors. The brigade was named "Surte" ("Security").
Before Vidocq, the detective service actually did not exist, although there were many attempts to create it (one of them was undertaken in England by the famous writer Henry Fielding). Almost immediately after the French “Surte”, such services appeared in other countries.
Under the leadership of Vidocq, 12 people worked, who, together with their tireless boss, achieved unprecedented success in a short time. If you believe the numbers, then in a year he detained 15 murderers, 120 burglars, 73 pickpockets, 38 buyers of stolen goods, 227 vagrants. During the same period, he solved 811 crimes and prevented about a hundred. Vidocq knew his “wards” very well, storing in his memory thousands of faces and names of criminals without any filing cabinet. Although his former colleagues sentenced him to death, he appeared without fear in the most remote slums thanks to the art of changing his appearance. Coming to seedy places, he ingratiated himself with the trust of their visitors, and they believed him - after all, he was a master of thieves' jargon, known only to the initiated. Many times, the creator of the detective agency asked to participate in crimes and even organized them himself, in order to later hand over his comrades to the police. In just 18 years, 17 thousand people were arrested on his tip, more than 400 of whom were sent to the guillotine.
Eugene François Vidocq remained at the head of the "Surte" for over 20 years. However, in 1827 he was forced to resign. He was again called upon to lead the "Surte" during the revolutionary uprisings of 1832, after the suppression of which he was again dismissed.
Vidocq is considered one of the first professional private detectives. The pinnacle of his career was the position of head of the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the de facto head of the government of A. Lamartine during the Revolution of 1848. However, with the coming to power of Emperor Napoleon III, he retired.
As usual, envious police officers disliked Vidocq. They assured that he only extradited small fry, and released criminal “generals” for bribes. They said that his subordinates themselves were engaged in theft - then he dressed his team in white gloves, in which a pickpocket cannot work (employees of the French "Surte" still wear them as a sign of the cleanliness of their uniform).
The former criminal became famous, and King Louis XVIII himself, who came to power after the fall of Napoleon, pardoned him, solemnly canceling his long-standing death sentence.
At the same time, Vidocq had to overcome new difficulties that fate had in store. And there were many of them - the political life of France was still seething, and it was not easy to remain in office. In 1827, Delaveau was appointed prefect of police, who immediately disliked Vidocq. His team was subjected to endless checks and nit-picking. The King was accused of his subordinates behaving immorally, for example, not attending church. Delaveau's calculation was justified - enraged by this nonsense, Vidocq resigned.
He was not given a pension, and soon the detective, accustomed to living in grand style, needed money. Seizing the moment, the publisher Tenon invited him to write his memoirs and paid him a generous deposit - 34 thousand francs. Within a few months, the first of four volumes of Vidocq's Notes was published, which was a resounding success. We can say that this book, published in France alone with a circulation of 30 thousand, became one of the first international bestsellers - in the coming years it was translated into eight languages, including Russian.
Subsequently, a good dozen more books came out from his pen. Among them was the documentary study “Thieves”, and the “Dictionary of Thieves’ Argo”, invaluable for researchers, and the novel “The Real Secrets of Paris”, written in defiance of the sensational “Parisian Secrets” by Eugene Sue. He also created the treatise “A Few Words from the Author,” where the writer-agent proposed his methods of fighting crime, including “re-education through labor” and the humanization of the conditions of detention of prisoners. To prove that he was right, Vidocq opened a paper mill in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Mandé, where former prisoners worked.
But in 1832 this work, useful for society, had to be interrupted. A republican uprising broke out in Paris, and Vidocq was again called to the head of the "Surte" to fight the rebels. He quickly created “flying detachments” that penetrated the rear of the rebels through secret passages known only to him. The uprising was suppressed, and the former convict received personal gratitude from King Louis Philippe, who called him “savior of the throne.” But his enemies did not calm down - already in September Vidocq was put on trial, accusing him of provoking a gang of thieves to commit a crime. The detective was perplexed - he had always used this method, why was he being judged? One way or another, the thief should be in prison, and why not speed up sending him there? This time Vidocq escaped justice, but soon he was dismissed anyway.
In 1833, the tireless Eugene Francois opened his own Bureau of Investigation - the first private detective agency in France, and perhaps in all of Europe. It was engaged not only in searching for criminals, but also, so to speak, in consulting: here, for a fee of 20 francs, businessmen could make inquiries about their business partners in order to find out the degree of their honesty. Over the course of a year, the number of Vidocq's clients reached 4,000; in business circles it became good form to present a certificate from the Bureau when making a transaction. But the enemies from the police did not calm down, bringing one accusation after another against Vidocq - now a detective.
First, they raided his office, confiscating several thousand files. Vidocq did not give up - with his phenomenal memory, he kept the most important facts in his head. Then they tried to put him on trial again, but then the power changed once again - monarchy to republic, then Emperor Napoleon III was on the throne. With all this leapfrog, the police forgot about the competitor.
Vidocq's clientele grew year by year, and the Bureau opened branches in the provinces. Now, in addition to criminal and economic crime, it was engaged in proving adultery - Eugene Francois had considerable experience in this matter. He worked until his death, which overtook him on May 11, 1857, shortly before his 82nd birthday. The “King of Risk” had no heirs, and a considerable fortune, which was vainly claimed by two or three illegitimate sons, went to his brainchild - a detective agency.
Before his death, Vidocq said with regret: “I could have become a marshal if I had not loved women and duels so much.”
The amazing fate of Vidocq, reflected in his memoirs, could not help but impress French writers, many of whom were personally acquainted with the famous detective. Vidocq served as the prototype for such characters as:
- Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo;
- Vautrin in “Human Comedy” by Honore de Balzac;
- Auguste Dupin in “Murder in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, etc.
There is also a film directed by Jean-Christophe Comard "Vidocq" (French: Vidocq), released in 2001, in which the famous French detective fights a sorcerer nicknamed the Alchemist. The action of the science fiction film takes place against the backdrop of historical events - the July Revolution.
French criminal, detective and writer Eugene-Francois Vidocq had the most significant influence on the emergence of the detective genre and became the prototype of many literary heroes.
Eugene Francois Vidocq(Eugene-François Vidocq) was born on the night of July 23-24, 1775 in Arras (France). His father was a baker and a very practical person, and therefore quickly put his son to work, entrusting him with delivering bread to customers from the city. Eugene was the third child in the family of baker Nicolas Joseph Francois Vidocq. In total, Vidocq had four brothers and two sisters. Little is known about the childhood of the future celebrity, except that his nickname has been preserved Sword, since he spent a lot of time practicing fencing. But Vidocq grew up as an uncontrollable child and quickly began to steal from his parents. At first, he spent the stolen money on the usual pleasures for young people of that time, but later he began to save, hoping to collect the amount necessary for a trip to the New World. Ironically, the stolen money did not bring him happiness; he was robbed on the way to the port and, after a series of misadventures, he was forced to return to his home. When the money came Vidocq was initially afraid to return home and was forced to work as a juggler in a traveling circus. He also portrayed a cannibal from the Caribbean and eats raw meat in full view of the audience. Unable to withstand the regular beatings, he ran away and joined a group of puppeteers, but was also expelled from there because he flirted with the owner’s wife. Working as a street vendor, he reached his native Arras, asked for forgiveness from his parents and was received with open arms, but out of harm’s way they sent him to the army.
The service was successful, Vidocq took part in the battles of Valmy and Zhammapes and returned to his hometown safe and sound. Here he married Marie-Anne-Louise Chevalier in 1794, but soon abandoned him because he learned about her affair with another man. Failure on the personal front caused a trip to Belgium, where Vidocq got a job as an officer in the active army. There he became known as a bully with a hot temper and a formidable duelist. In six months, he fought 15 times and killed 2 people. After another quarrel with a colleague, he was sent to prison.
From this moment begins a period consisting of a series of imprisonments and escapes. Vidocq seems to find no place for himself in peaceful life. In 1796, he was sentenced to eight years of forced labor for forging a document emancipating laborers. In 1798 he was transferred to Brest, from where he successfully escaped, and the very next year he was caught and imprisoned again. The following year he was transferred to Toulon, after which a series of escapes and imprisonments followed. Vidocq gained a reputation as a successful fugitive among the criminal elements of Paris and entered their circle. The only exact date for this period was the divorce from his first wife in 1805.
Numerous crimes in the form of forgery of documents, escapes and thefts led to the fact that he was sentenced to death, but since he managed to escape once again, his friend was executed, which Vidocq witnessed. This execution had a profound impact on him, and the clever criminal decides to change his lifestyle.
In 1809, Vidocq decided to go legal and offered his services to the police. In his letter to the head of the Surete, he discussed in detail the unprecedented prevalence of crime in Paris and hinted that he knew one person who was well acquainted with the criminal world, since he himself was a former criminal. So Vidocq hinted at his own benefit for criminal investigations. But the police leadership believed that this was just a new sophisticated trick of another swindler, and Vidocq was assigned to begin with as a secret agent of Surte.
To ensure that his cooperation did not arouse suspicion, in 1810, with the approval of the new prefect of police of Paris, with whom Vidocq later became friends, he was arranged another jail break. And in 1811, Vidocq was given police powers and appointed head of the detective department in the Surete. By 1817, Vidocq's department had 17 agents, and under his leadership, 772 arrests were made, which was an absolute record for those years. In 1824, his department consisted of 31 agents, including 5 women.
In 1820 Vidocq married Jeanne-Victoire Guerin (Jeanne-Victoire Guerin), who died in 1824, after which he married his cousin Fluride Magnez (Fleuride Maniez).
By 1827, Vidocq was such a popular figure in Paris that he had many envious people who, through intrigue, forced him to resign. Vidocq bought a paper factory, and in order to reduce the cost of expenses, he used former convicts in his work. The business was so successful that Vidocq turned to writing memoirs. Full of incredible adventures and unprecedented details for that time, Vidocq's books sold in huge numbers.
At a moment of political instability in 1831, Vidocq returned to the police force and was even rumored to have played an important role in securing the throne for Louis Philippe. But the new prefect of the Parisian police was one of the secret envious people of the former criminal, and therefore through open confrontation he forced Vidocq to resign once again.
Vidocq was a very sociable person and easily made friends with prominent figures of French culture and literature. In 1832 he met Honore de Balzac, who was delighted with the criminal policeman and described Vidocq in Human Comedy . Vidocq was also familiar with Victor Hugo and a number of poets of that time. He himself wrote crime novels, which became the models that many creators of the first detective stories later relied on.
Vidocq's creativity
Eugene-Francois Vidocq was the first official detective of the Western world. After leading the life of a tramp, actor, soldier, brigand, card player and prisoner, in 1809 he was appointed as a police informer. Two years later, from an agent he became the head of the detective department in the Surete. The phenomenal success of his investigations was vividly described in his memoirs, and Vidocq became a legend not only in France, but also in England and Germany. His books were published even in the USA and Russia.
Vidocq's memoirs played a crucial role in the emergence of the detective genre. It was these memoirs that inspired Edgar Allan Poe to create the first detective stories. But Poe considered Vidocq brilliant guesser It was precisely by pushing away from the intuitive solving of cases that the American writer created Dupin's logic. Edgar Poe's hero is the mask of the writer himself, and the complete opposite of Vidocq. If the French detective is a bourgeois, bourgeois and bureaucrat, Auguste Dupin is an aristocrat, a poet with a mathematical mind.
Vidocq's successes in the investigation are not based on a logical method or harmonious reasoning. They are based on good knowledge of the criminal world. Vidocq is a master of disguise and disguise, and therefore he receives a lot of information from unsuspecting people. In his memoirs, the French detective describes methods that are more suitable for criminals than for police officers. But Vidocq's talent and skill were so strong that they were reflected not only in the stories of Poe, but were also captured in the novels of Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Eugene Sue, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Emile Gaboriau, Maurice Leblanc, G.K. Chesterton and Leslie Charteris. Vidocq became the prototype for many popular criminal heroes - Arsene Lupin, Raffles and the Saint.
Selected bibliography
Notes from Vidocq, Chief of the Paris Secret Police
(Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu’en, 1828)
The thieves
(Les voleurs, 1836)
Reflections on prisons, penal servitude and the death penalty
(Considerations sommaires sur les prisons, les bagnes et la peine de mort, 1844)
The real secrets of Paris
(Les vrais mysteres de Paris, 1844)
Stokers of the North
(Les chauffeurs du nord, 1845)
The name of Eugene François Vidocq is not known to everyone in Russia. The maximum that some people will remember is the film “Vidocq”. This is where, perhaps, all knowledge about this person ends. However, in France this name is pronounced with particular reverence, because Eugene François Vidocq is a star of the criminal world, and French criminologists divide the history of detective work into the “period before Vidocq” and the “period after Vidocq.”
Eugene François Vidocq is not only the “father” of criminology. It was his memoirs, written by a “literary black” in his own words, that laid the foundation for detective novels as a literary genre. The figure of Vidocq itself is very ambiguous. In the past, a criminal who always eluded the police and escaped the death penalty, Vidocq solved as many crimes and caught as many criminals as even the inhabitants of the famous Scotland Yard could not dream of. There were so many rumors and legends around the most famous detective and head of the Main Directorate of National Security that go figure out what is fact and what is fiction. Vidocq himself said that he likes to lie and brag, which is why it is sometimes difficult to trust his memoirs. And if you consider that a huge number of books are sometimes attributed to the authorship of this person, you can get completely confused.
However, researchers authoritatively declare that most of the books attributed to Vidocq’s authorship are just fakes, written by fans of the famous detective. The only work that was written from the words of the famous detective - "Notes of Vidocq, Chief of the Paris Secret Police". Eugene François Vidocq himself not only didn’t know how to write, he couldn’t: he was too unsatisfied and, as a result, not suited for this task. That is why he hired another person as his assistant, who recorded all the adventures of the most famous adventurer of that time.
Today we will try to consider the facts about Vidocq’s personality that have come down to us from the point of view of System-Vector Psychology of Yuri Burlan and try to understand more deeply the personality of this legendary man.
So, on June 23, 1775, in a place called Arras, located near Lille, a baby was born, named by his parents Eugene Francois. They said that the midwife predicted that the child would have a stormy life. However, later Vidocq himself, skeptical about such things, will say: “Be that as it may, one must think that it was not for me, in fact, that nature raged, and although the miraculous is very attractive, I am far from supposing that there, from above, they would care in any way about my birth.”.
Even as a child, Eugene François Vidocq terrified all the neighborhood children. He was very pugnacious and constantly gave blows to other children if something did not suit him. He always stood up for trouble and was not afraid of anyone. This character trait will not serve him well in the future: it is precisely because of his temper and constant duels that Vidocq will more than once get into trouble and be persecuted by the authorities.
Even at such an early age it was impossible to cope with the boy! He was completely uncontrollable - his parents clutched their heads: neither punishment nor affection helped. Eugene is used to doing everything his own way. At the same time, the child constantly got involved in adventures, stole more than once, ran away from home and cunningly achieved what he wanted. “Even then, Vidocq’s main character traits appeared: complete fearlessness, frantic ambition and incredible cunning in achieving his goals.”. Fearlessness, ambition, uncontrollability, a tendency to eternal escape - all this indicates the presence of a urethral vector. A desire for theft and profit, cunning, and a love of adventure are character traits.
Vidocq, without a doubt, was also visual, thanks to his inimitable acting talent, he fooled more than a dozen police officers and criminals.
Eugene was an excellent fencer, despite his powerful physique, and was a very dexterous and active child.
In vain the father tried to instill in his child the values of the anal vector and tried to teach Vidocq to help his parents, so that in the future he could continue the work of his father, the owner of the bakery. The boy constantly stole money and lied that hooligans had taken it. The parents did not know that even the older children looked at Vidocq with fear and reverence in their eyes. Eugene spent the money he received in taverns on alcohol and girls. One day, card sharpers “warmed up” the boy and put him on the counter, which is why he had to steal all the silverware from the house. After this prank, the anal father lost his temper and sent the tomboy to prison for ten days. Maybe he'll become smarter this way!
The desire to steal is an archetypal feature of the skin vector, the main function of which is “to get at any cost.” In childhood, children with the skin vector, especially under stress, can steal and lie left and right. In this case, many parents prefer to “treat” the child with spanking, hoping to beat the crap out of the careless child, but they only make things worse: the properties of the beaten skinner stop developing, and he remains stuck in the archetypal state. It turns out: the more you beat a child with a skin vector, the more stress you create for him, and he only steals more.
It is not known whether Vidocq’s parents beat him, but they certainly could not cope with him. Here you won’t get away with a simple restriction if there is a urethral vector that does not tolerate any restrictions. Imprisonment in prison for 10 days for a urethral specialist is like a red rag for a bull. Very soon after this event, Vidocq steals money from his parents and runs away.
Escape is a typical scenario for a child with a urethral vector, who is constantly limited and whose natural properties are clamped. If he is not allowed to realize his traits as a leader, then he simply runs to where he can realize himself - to the street. Very often, such children become the head of a street criminal gang - they organize their own “pack”, in which they can show their characteristics of a leader.
A slightly different fate awaited our Vidocq. He planned to go to America - a country of freedom and enormous opportunities. But trouble happened. While he was sleeping, he was fleeced to the last penny and, unfortunate, was left broke. He didn’t know what to do next and joined a traveling circus. The circus performers really liked the dexterous young man, and they used his natural properties to their advantage: Vidocq successfully played the role of a “horse”, performing incredible tricks on stage. But very soon such a “role” ceased to suit the boy: his body ached from excessive stress. Then he was asked to live in a cage as a cannibal: wear rags, eat a raw rooster in front of spectators, and sometimes snack on stones. He simply could not tolerate such humiliation and immediately refused.
When the circus owner slapped the boy in the face for refusing, Vidocq grabbed a club and, if not for the members of the circus troupe, who barely pulled the guy, distraught with rage, away from the frightened director, he would have beaten the unfortunate man to death. Uncontrollable anger is a typical reaction of a person with a urethral vector to an attempt to violate the ranking. How dare this director invite him, the leader, to sit in a cage and eat stones and even give him a slap in the face? A urethral in anger is a very dangerous phenomenon. This one can easily kill.
So, the boy was thrown out of the circus. The owner of the puppet theater came to his rescue, inviting the quick-witted Vidocq to be his assistant. And everything would be fine if the sixteen-year-old beauty - the wife of the theater director - did not fall in love with Eugene and he did not reciprocate her feelings. The result is another fight and scandal, after which the boy ends up back on the street. What to do? Where to go? Vidocq, reluctantly, returns to his native Arras and asks for forgiveness from his parents.
Having found the strength to forgive the “prodigal son,” the father and mother hoped in vain that during their wanderings their offspring had become wiser and settled down. Instead of working, Vidocq just vegetates in taverns and plays tricks with visiting actresses and milliners. By the way, actresses, milliners - owners of the visual-cutaneous ligament - are the dream of any man, and especially the urethral one. After all, the skin-visual female is the leader’s female. This is his muse, his inspiration, the only weakness of the uncontrollable urethral, for the sake of which the leader is ready to move mountains and lead the entire flock into a trap. He even decided to run away with one married actress, disguised as a girl. But very soon he returned back and told his parents that he was going to join the army for exploits (at that time the neighbors decided to attack revolutionary France).
Army
It is very difficult for people with the urethral vector in the army, because... The army is, first of all, discipline and following clear rules. Vidocq constantly missed roll calls, merchants - the fathers of girls in love with the young man - hired guards for him, and he himself constantly got involved in scandals and arranged duels with other soldiers. “Thus I was in the most brilliant position and had almost no sense of discipline,”- Vidocq will say and add: “ Many took pleasure in pushing me into quarrels, so in six months I managed to kill two people and fought fifteen times in duels.”.
Vidok took great pleasure in the battles in which he fought without fear. For failure to comply with discipline, the young man was sent to prison more than once. During his first arrest, Vidocq felt sorry for his colleague, who was awaiting punishment for theft. With his friend, the young man organized an escape for the unfortunate man, and when he was about to give up, he pushed him into the ditch. The rescued man, of course, remained lame, but was able to escape punishment and return to his family.
After another arrest for a duel, Vidocq and his second were forced to flee, cunningly disguised. Then the young man crosses the border and continues to serve on the side of the Austrians, teaching soldiers fencing. But even here, our hero’s eternal tendency to get involved in a squabble with higher ranks plays a cruel joke on him. Vidocq is sentenced to twenty lashes in public, after which he escapes, unable to bear such punishment.
Despite the fact that, according to the rules, defectors are subject to the death penalty, Vidocq manages to avoid such a fate. At the age of 18, he returns to Arras, where the Jacobins are raging with might and main, and every second person is sent to the guillotine. Passions are raging around our urethral cavity. Either a woman twice his age falls in love with him and almost frames the young man by accusing him of complicity in a robbery, then young Marie feigns pregnancy and forces Vidocq to marry. But the family hearth is not able to keep the urethral leader in place. Having learned that he was deceived, the young man runs away, taking his belongings with him.
Vidocq's further life is a series of stories from the life of a traditional trickster, when the hero gets into trouble either because of love, or because of anger, or because of the desire for profit. Each time he is sent to jail and each time he manages to escape, leaving the police with their noses. During these times, Vidocq fully demonstrates his acting abilities of the visual vector and the incalculability of the urethral, fooling the guards of the law, disguised as a tramp, then a priest, then a police inspector, or someone else.
“...no actor could compare with him in the art of putting on makeup and playing any role; for him it was a toy to instantly change age, physiognomy, manners, language and pronunciation. Even in daylight, disguised, he fearlessly exposed himself to the experienced eyes of gendarmes, police commissars, prison guards and even former accomplices, people with whom he lived and from whom he had nothing secret. Despite his tall stature and corpulence, he knew how to dress up even as a woman. In addition, this strange man, with an iron temperament, had at his disposal a very patient stomach, which allowed him to endure prolonged hunger and indulge in all sorts of excesses; after a hearty dinner he could, with feigned greed, consume the strongest drinks and the most indigestible foods.”
All adventures, of course, turn out to be in one way or another connected with the ladies of his heart, who follow him wherever the young man goes. So Vidocq, making another attempt to escape, takes with him a beautiful cocotte, whom he brings to his hometown and, having given shelter, runs away again towards adventure. And because of the skin-visual beauty Francine, who constantly spent evenings with other men, our urethral leader again flies into a frenzy and beats his lover half to death, for which he once again ends up in prison.
Vagrancy with gypsies, rampant attacks with the pirate Jean Bart, participation in a secret society, endless adventures... The tireless daredevil is caught and sent to hard labor, from where he constantly escapes. The police no longer know what to do with Vidocq: every time he is caught, he manages to fool everyone and slip out from under their very noses. In the end, he receives a well-deserved nickname - "King of Risk", is considered the most dangerous criminal and is sentenced to death in absentia. They're trying to catch Vidocq all over France! He is constantly on the run, posing as completely different people.
New life
Risk is a favorite word for owners of urethral and skin vectors. The former simply do not feel danger and are used to going ahead, while the latter love the feeling of adrenaline in the blood. If the urethral system does not receive proper development, it constantly experiences a craving for unjustified risk. Such boys are unconsciously drawn to walk on rooftops, ride motorcycles and poke around wherever danger awaits them. Unfulfilled in the pack, Vidocq only miraculously survives all the troubles.
However, Vidocq longs for a different life. He always wanted to be an honest guy and do something for the good of society. He increasingly thinks that he could be, for example, a secret agent... When our hero turns forty, he already lives in Paris and is forced to provide for the family of his first wife. Despite all the troubles, Vidocq does not refuse the backbiters that have fallen on his neck, but helps them as much as he can. But because our hero is not used to living within the law, he again ends up in prison, where he writes a letter to the head of the First Department of the Parisian police. In the letter, Vidocq speaks of his desire to serve justice and announces his intentions to become a secret agent. To prove his loyalty, the King of Risk reports an impending robbery of a jewelry store. The robbers are caught, and Vidocq becomes a special agent.
Because The king of risk was idolized by all people from the world of crime; he very easily lured out the necessary information. And no one could ever have thought that Vidocq had betrayed them! He himself perfectly knew thieves' jargon and prison customs, so he could not arouse suspicion among criminals.
At the same time, the head of the First Department of the Parisian Police - Mr. Henri - Vidocq comes up with "Surte"(“Security”) is the world’s first criminal investigation organization. The organization is headed by the skinny Henri, and Vidocq heads a special detective team, which includes 12 people - all former criminals. Eugene Francois believed that only criminals can fight crime, because... only people from the criminal world know all the features of thieves, cheaters, robbers, etc. The detective team solves a huge number of crimes in the shortest possible time. In just one year, more than a thousand people end up behind bars! “If you believe the numbers, then in a year he detained 15 murderers, 120 burglars, 73 pickpockets, 38 buyers of stolen goods, 227 vagrants. During the same period, they solved 811 crimes and prevented about a hundred.”.
A French criminal who later became the head of the Brigade de sûreté - a police detachment made up of pardoned criminals. Eugene-Francois Vidocq He is also considered the “father” of criminal investigation and the first private detective.
Since childhood, he was very hyperactive... At the age of 14, probably by accident, he killed a fencing teacher and decided to run away from the city. Later he was repeatedly imprisoned.
In 1799 Eugene-Francois Vidocq escaped from another prison, after which he lived quietly in Paris for 10 years.
But in 1809, his former cellmates recognized him and blackmailed him... Therefore, Vidocq decided to voluntarily report to the Paris police and offered to use his knowledge of the criminal world to fight criminals.
For appearances, the police arrested him, but he was allowed to select employees, for which E.-F. Vidocq professed the principle: “Only a criminal can overcome crime.” At first, 4, then 12, and eventually 20 former criminals worked for Vidocq. The brigade was called Sûreté/Security.
During the first year of work with the help of the Sûreté brigade, the following were arrested: 812 murderers, thieves, burglars, robbers and swindlers.
Vidocq - “... a former thief and robber, who in his new capacity contributed greatly to the reduction of criminal crime in the French capital, deserved Pushkin the title of “an out-and-out rogue, as shameless as he is vile” (one can, however, assume that these expressive epithets were intended more Thaddeus Bulgarin- “Vidoc Figlyarin!” - to whom Pushkin generously appropriated the spy talents of his Parisian brother).”
Volgin I.L., The Missing Conspiracy. Dostoevsky and the political process of 1849, M., Liberey Publishing House, 2000, p. 36.
Myself Eugene-Francois Vidocq had a photographic memory and demanded the same from his employees; in addition, in his unit, a card was created for each criminal, which described in detail his appearance, name, number of convictions, etc. – as a result, the file cabinet accumulated about 5 000 000 cards with descriptions of criminals.
In 1818 E.-F. Vidocq received a long-awaited pardon from the authorities.
In 1828, having been sent into retirement by the police authorities, Eugene-Francois Vidocq published a book: Notes of Vidocq, Chief of the Paris Secret Police / Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu’en.
Vidocq's memoirs inspired Edgar Allan Poe to create the first detective stories.
In 1836 Eugene-Francois Vidocq established the Bureau de renseignements in Paris - a private agency that found stolen things for a reward, monitored wives or husbands, etc., but the bureau was soon closed by decision of the authorities.
