Sûreté
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Sample portrait parlé (“talking portrait”) anthropometric identity card with Alphonse Bertillon’s self-portrait photo, May 14, 1891. Wikipedia Commons: Criminocorpus.org. While Émile Gaboriau enhanced the image of the Paris police by creating the upright fictional Sûreté Detective Monsieur Lecoq, Alphonse Bertillon set out to reform actual practices at the Paris Prefecture of Police. Applying statistics to
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Publicity Poster for the crime novel L’Amour à Paris by Mr. Goron, former Sûreté Chief, serialized in Le Journal (1889) and purportedly drawn from his Mémoires Inédites (“Unabridged Memoirs”). Illustrated by Paul Balluriau. Gallica: Bibliothèque nationale de France. While Vidocq’s Mémoires laid foundations for the police memoir genre, he was not the first to write
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Publicity poster for Vidocq, grand film en 10 épisodes, starring René Navarre (1923). Gallica: Bibliothèque nationale de France. When considering Vidocq’s legacy, it is important to keep in mind he was not a Sûreté detective. The reason is simple: the Sûreté was only created in 1853, shortly before Vidocq’s death in 1857, long after his
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“Portrait of Eugène Vidocq, Adventurer and Security Police Chief,” by Achille Devéria, c. 1828. Wikipedia Commons: Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Note the caricature embellishments. In June 1827, Vidocq resigned from his position as security squad chief, ostensibly because he disagreed with how the Paris Prefecture of Police was being run. Others from within the Prefecture were concerned
Shady Detectives, Elegant Criminals & Dark Avengers 