Dubbed the father of crime detection, and the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, French convicted habitual criminal, Eugène-François Vidocq established the world’s first police detective department in Paris, in 1812. He is alleged to have pioneered many investigative techniques, such as record-keeping and ballistics, as well as footprint analysis.

An inauspicious childhood

As a young man, Eugène-François Vidocq enjoyed a life of adventure, which frequently got him into trouble. Born on 24 July 1775, in Arras, northern France, allegedly during a thunderstorm, his father was the local baker. Eugène had at least six siblings, not all of whom survived infancy. His first brush with the law took place when he was a teenager – he stole and then pawned some of his family’s crockery, for which he spent ten days in the local lock-up, having been shopped by his father. This was the most serious of a number of petty thefts from his home, from which he stole money and provisions on a regular basis. It was also rumoured that he had killed a fencing master during a duel, when he was just 14 years old. Soon after his temporary incarceration, Vidocq left home and took to the road, ending up initially in Ostend. He then joined a travelling circus and eventually the military.

In 1791, Vidocq enlisted in the Bourbon Regiment where, apparently in the first six months, he fought at least 15 duels, killing some of his opponents. He deserted after being summonsed to a court martial for assaulting a sergeant-major, after which he moved around from place to place, using different names to join several regiments before absconding again. During a return to Arras, he challenged the lover of a woman he was seeing to a duel and was promptly arrested and imprisoned. This pattern of committing thefts, assaults, and public disturbances, followed by periods of imprisonment formed the pattern of his life for most of the following decade. During his spells in prison, he attempted to escape many times, with some success, but it was never long before he was back behind bars again.

Recruitment into the police

It was whilst he was on the run from the police that Vidocq developed his skills in disguise, often dressing as a woman. At large yet again, this time in Paris, he became implicated in a series of robberies, for which he was accused of receiving stolen goods. As the net began to close, he took the drastic step of requesting an interview with the head of the criminal department of the Paris police, Jean Henry, to whom he offered to became an informer. Soon after, he was transferred to La Force Prison, in the Marais district of Paris, where he led a double life as a police spy. In 1811, Vidocq was released unofficially from the prison, and continued working for Henry as a thief-taker.

The Préfecture de Police in Paris, dates from 1800, when Napoléon Bonaparte reinstated the capital’s police force, following the French Revolution. The city was divided into districts, each with a commissioner, assisted by ‘officiers de paix’, who were responsible for monitoring criminal activities. However, there was no central office for investigations, and communication was poor between the various branches of the police. This lack of cooperation and efficiency prompted Vidocq to propose that he form a special unit, whose sole duty was the detection of crime and the pursuit of offenders. Permission was granted, and the Brigade de Sûreté was established in 1812, with a team of four men. It was later increased to 12, in 1817. Vidocq remained in charge for the next 20 years.

The first detective

Despite tensions and conflicts with other members of the police force, during his time as head of the Sûreté, Eugène Vidocq developed many skills and techniques for the detection of crime. He often carried out his own investigations in disguise, by donning clothing that denoted a specific occupation – he could also change his manner and behaviour to assume a role. On one occasion, he transformed himself into an ex-convict by blistering his feet and tracing the marks of the fetters on his wrists. He stained his skin with walnut juice and grew a beard, and even applied gum and coffee grounds to his nostrils to change his voice, and acquired some lice to infect his prisoner’s ‘uniform’. Vidocq regularly visited Bicêtre Prison, where he had been incarcerated, to memorise the faces of possible habitual offenders, and it was alleged that he had such a formidable memory that he could identify the likely perpetrator of a burglary solely from the description of a crime.

Whilst in charge of detective policing in Paris, Vidocq created a centralised card index with details of offenders (almost 70 years before Alphonse Bertillon developed his anthropometric system) which amounted to some three million documents relating to tens of thousands of criminals. He also undertook some basic ballistics work by comparing bullets to the size of firearms, and he analysed crime scenes in detail. According to biographer Philip Stead, in 1817, under Vidocq’s command, the Sûreté was responsible for 811 arrests, including 15 for murder, 341 for theft and 38 receivers of stolen property. By the 1820s, Eugène Vidocq was a household name and a police hero.

In 1827, Vidocq resigned as head of the Sûreté. At the age of 52, he was a very wealthy man and had moved out to Saint-Mandé, an eastern suburb of Paris near the Château de Vincennes, where he had built a paper-making factory, in which he employed former convicts. When he was finally pardoned from his prison sentence (from which he had been unofficially released 17 years earlier) in 1828, he published his ghost-written memoirs, which were translated into English. Such was the interest in his adventures that his recollections were transformed into a stage play, first produced in Surrey, UK. In France, Vidocq spent his time managing his business affairs, writing, and inventing crime-prevention equipment, such as forgery-proof paper, indelible ink and a burglar-proof door. In 1832, he returned to the Sûreté, due to financial struggles, and assumed his former position, this time with 28 agents. However, he didn’t stay long and resigned again later that year.

The end of a ‘criminal’ career

Eugène-François Vidocq’s final two decades were spent running a private detective agency and publishing more books. In 1843, he was arrested on charges of fraud, obtaining money on false pretences and illegal arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to five years at the Conciergerie Prison (close to where he had worked as a police officer). However, he appealed and was acquitted after 11 months. In 1845, Vidocq opened an exhibition in London, which included various crime-related objects. He also testified at the Old Bailey in a fraud case. On a subsequent visit, he made tours of Newgate, Millbank and Pentonville prisons.

When his third wife, Fleuride, died in 1847, Vidocq moved back to Paris. By this time, his business had declined but he kept afloat by undertaking commissions from the prosecutor-general. He contracted cholera in 1854, and died on 11 May 1857.

Two hundred and fifty years after his birth, Eugène-François Vidocq’s legacy endures. As the first universally-acknowledged detective police officer, and due to his criminal background, he is said to have inspired the emergence of detective fiction, beginning with Edgar Allen Poe’s detective, C. Auguste Dupin who, in ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, described Vidocq as ‘a good guesser and a persevering man’. The figure of the forensic detective later inspired many other writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The search for the truth of Eugène-François Vidocq remains rather elusive, as most of the biographical studies are based on his memoirs, which have been largely discounted as unreliable. However, I find him such a fascinating figure that I will continue to research him and his sleuthing adventures.

You can join me on my quest by upgrading to a paid subscription, which includes access to my experience of visiting France’s ‘Black Museum’, which features Vidocq and other aspects of French crime history.