True Crime Cases in France
9 documented cases spanning 1979–2020 . Each case is researched from public sources, with locations, perpetrators, victims and video coverage.
The French cases I've mapped here run from the criminal underworld to the courtroom and the street. Among them is Jacques Mesrine, the country's most wanted fugitive, killed in a Paris ambush in 1979, and the 1981 case of Issei Sagawa, the student who murdered a classmate in Paris and avoided trial after being ruled insane.
Several entries trace serial cases that DNA and patient police work eventually closed, including Guy Georges, the Beast of the Bastille, and Michel Fourniret, the Ogre of the Ardennes. Others mark the wave of attacks Paris and Nice endured in the 2010s, from Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan to the Bastille Day truck attack and the killing of teacher Samuel Paty.
Each case is researched and written by hand. The map below lists every French case I've documented so far, with the city, year, and a short summary for each.
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The Beheading of Schoolteacher Samuel Paty -
The Nice Bastille Day Attack -
The Charlie Hebdo Attack -
November 2015 Paris Attacks (Bataclan) - The Toulouse Serial Killer: Patrice Alègre
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The Beast of the Bastille -
Michel Fourniret: The Ogre of the Ardennes - Issei Sagawa - The Paris Cannibal
- The Mesrine Killings
See every pin on the interactive map, or browse all cases by country.