Émile Dubois (murderer)

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Emile Dubois
Emile Dubois 1867-1907.jpg
Born
Louis-Amadeo Brihier Lacroix

(1867-04-29)29 April 1867
Died26 March 1907(1907-03-26) (aged 39)
Cause of death Execution by firing squad
Other namesEmilio Dubois
Emilio Morales
Emile Murraley
Criminal status Executed
Children1
Conviction(s) Murder
Criminal penalty Death
Details
Victims6
Country France, Brazil, Chile
Undated photograph of Emile Dubois. Emile Dubois foto con autografo .JPG
Undated photograph of Émile Dubois.
Emile Dubois said before his execution: "Execute me and well to the heart". Emile Dubois ejecutadme y apuntad bien al corazon.JPG
Émile Dubois said before his execution: "Execute me and well to the heart".

Louis-Amadeo Brihier Lacroix, better known as Émile Dubois (29 April 1867 – 26 March 1907) was a French serial killer and robber, known as a folk hero in Chile. [2]

Contents

Early life

Louis-Amadeo Brihier Lacroix was the son of Joseph Brihier and Marie Lacroix. At fifteen, he killed the father of his girlfriend, a retired policeman. He then worked as miner in Courrières for two years, until a foreman was found dead. After two months in prison for theft, he embarked for Venezuela at the age of twenty taking the name Émile Dubois. In 1903, aided by his two lovers Ursula Morales and her friend Catalina, he murdered a young Peruvian engineer in a trap laid in a brothel in Ouro, stealing the young man's savings. [3]

Murder of Ernesto Lafontaine

Dubois' first recorded murder in Chile was on 7 January, 1905. The mutilated body of Ernesto Lafontaine, a French merchant who served as the first mayor of Providencia, was found in Santiago by Roman Díaz, an alderman and personal friend of the victim, at the office desk that he had on Huérfanos street. Among other belongings, a gold watch, the keys to a safe and cash were missing. Eventually, this gold watch would be crucial evidence to establish Dubois' guilt in his trial in Valparaíso. [3]

The murders in Valparaíso

In Valparaíso, three more murders occurred over the course of the next. On 4 September 1905, Reinald Tillmans, a German trader was killed. On 4 October of the same year, Gustave Titius, a German businessman, was found murdered with his hands mutilated. On 4 April 1906, Isidore Challe, another French merchant, was killed with six stab wounds at the entrance of his shop. [4] [3] [5]

On June 26, 1906, he attempted to murder an English dentist called Charles Davies. The attack failed and he fled and was pursued and caught by crowds. [6] Dubois was captured and sentenced to death. During the 1906 Valparaíso earthquake, the city's prison was heavily damaged and several prisoners were initially unaccounted for. Dubois was eventually found under a stack of canned food. Dubois was free of his shackles, clean-shaven and covered in a poncho, but did not explain how this happened and denied having made an escape attempt. The day before his execution, Dubois had a common-law marriage to his girlfriend Ursula Morales. He was finally executed by four riflemen on March 26, 1907.

According to the chroniclers of the time, the victims of Dubois were usurers, so that the people termed him the Chilean Robin Hood, considering the murders as acts of justice of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. Popular culture has since elevated him to the status of folk saint, transforming his grave (located in the Playa Ancha in Valparaiso) into a revered one, full of innumerable gifts and dedications. [5]

Fiction

The history of Émile Dubois and his enigmatic personality are treated in the novel All those deaths (1971) by Carlos Droguett, who won the Alfaguara prize that year.

It was also published in The Private Life of Émile Dubois by Chilean singer and writer Patricio Manns, who worked to reinterpret, revise and deepen the character of Droguett's novel. [7]

Biographies

There are at least two biographies of Émile Dubois, both published in 1907, the year of his execution. However, the improbability of the narrated facts, the total discordance between the two and the anonymity of the authors (in the case of the first one it is an alias and in the second the authors claimed to have transcribed a manuscript that arrived anonymously to them) it is presumable that both are apocryphal. These biographies are the following:

See also

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References

  1. Events, No. 226-242 (Jan 3 - April 25, 1907). Available at Memoria Chilena, National Library of Chile http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-124241.html. Accessed on 06-30-2015.
  2. Chili, île de Pâques, Patagonie Dominique Auzias, Jean-Paul Labourdette
  3. 1 2 3 "Municipal Elections: Stories and Comics" (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile: El Mercurio. p. 18. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
  4. Ercilla - Issues 1968-1979 - Page 50 1973 "Ese mismo año, tres crímenes en Valparaíso: Reinaldo Tillmans, alemán, 65, comerciante importador; Gustavo Titius, alemán, soltero, 55; Isidoro Chale, también de ascendencia extranjera y de edad avanzada. Aunque las pistas eran"
  5. 1 2 "Émile Dubois, the French immigrant who became a myth". www.lanacion.cl (in Spanish). La Nacíon. 23 March 2007. Archived from the original on 28 March 2009. Retrieved 28 March 2009.
  6. A memorial to Valparaíso - Page 150 Alfonso Calderón "On June 26, 1905 it witnessed a horrible attack: from the room that today is designated as 1158 the murderer Dubois emerged, bleeding, after he had attempted to kill and rob Mr. Davies, the dentist. He fled by Melgarejo toward the wharf"
  7. Estela Saint André (2005). "About crimes of justice" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.