The Gifted Complex: Book 1 of the Gabriel Green Files

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Gilles de Rais, Charles Sobhraj, Marie Lafarge, Charlotte Corday, Marcel Petiot, Henri Charrière, Balthasar Gérard, Christine and Lea Papin, Michel Fourniret, Francis Heaulme, Jean-Claude Romand, Edme Castaing, Hélène Jégado, Jeanne Weber, Joseph Vacher, Bertrand Cantat, Hamida Djandoubi, Guy Georges, Patricia and Emmanuel Cartier, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite D'aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, Pascal Payet, Charles Brunier, Robert Macaire, Marc Cécillon, Antoine François Desrues, Pierre François Lacenaire, Jean de Poltrot, Antoine le Blanc, Christine Malèvre. Excerpt: Antoine François Desrues (17441777) was a French poisoner .He was born at Chartres , of humble parents. He went to Paris to seek his fortune, and started in business as a grocer. He was known as a man of great piety and devotion, and his business was reputed to be a flourishing one, but when, in 1773, he gave up his shop, his finances, owing to personal extravagance, were in a deplorable condition.Nevertheless he entered into negotiations with a Madame de la Motte for the purchase from her of a country estate, and, when the time came for the payment of the purchase money, invited her to stay with him in Paris pending the transfer. While she was still his guest, he poisoned first her and then her son, a youth of sixteen. Then, having forged a receipt for the purchase money and taken on the aristocratic name "Desrues de Bury," he endeavoured to obtain possession of the property.But by this time the disappearance of Madame de la Motte and her son had aroused suspicion. Desrues was arrested, the bodies of his victims were discovered, and the crime was brought home to him. He was originally sentenced to life in prison, but was retried and condemned to be torn asunder alive and burned. He...