Pierre François Lacenaire

Biography

Lacenaire was born in Francheville, Rhône, near the city of Lyon in eastern France. His parents were Jean-Baptiste Lacenaire, a bourgeois merchant, and Marguerite Gaillard.
Upon finishing his education with excellent results, he joined the French army, eventually deserting in 1829 at the time of the expedition to Morea.  He then became a criminal and was in and out of prison, which was, as he called it, his "criminal university."
While in prison, Lacenaire wrote a satirical poem, "Petition of a Thief to a King, his Neighbor." He also wrote an article titled "The Prisons and the Penal Regime" for a magazine.
To aid him in committing his crimes, Lacenaire recruited two henchmen, Pierre Victor Avril (whom he had met while in prison) and Hippolyte François.
In the months between the beginning of his trial for a double murder and his execution, he wrote Memoirs, Revelations and Poems. During his trial, he fiercely defended his crimes as a valid protest against social injustice. He turned the judicial proceedings into a theatrical event and his prison cell into a salon. He made a lasting impression upon French society and upon several writers, such as Balzac and Dostoevsky.
He was executed on the guillotine at the age of 32.