Léon Lacombe
Léon Lacombe was a French anarchist, criminal and murderer. After being arrested in March 1913 for the murder of an anarchist newspaper editor, he was incarcerated at La Santé Prison in Paris after confessing to two additional murders, being charged with a total of four counts of murder. The following month, Lacombe committed suicide by diving off the prison roof.
Life
Lacombe was born on 12 April 1885, in Aubin, Aveyron, to Victor Lacombe and Marie-Joséphine Cibié, a coal sorter who raised him as a single mother. Lacombe began working in the coal mines as a 12-year-old and later underwent military service, after which he moved to Decazeville, working at a mine in Cérons. Lacombe began taking interest to anarchism and started participating in anarchist gatherings in the area. Afterwards, Lacombe was fired from the mine in Cérons resulted by accusations of theft. Engineer Albert Artous, the man who fired him, was fatally shot in his home on 12 January 1912. The perpetrator was suspected to be Lacombe, who, due to being an anarchist, struggled to find another job. After moving and finding work in Paris, he began burglarizing and shooting people, including a station dispatcher at Les Aubrais station on 14 September 1912. On 9 November, he reportedly fatally shot a man at a post office in Bezons during a burglary. As he became sought by authorities, Lacombe began suspecting a bookstore seller of being an informant, and shot him at his home during the night of 5 December 1912.Arrest
Lacombe was sought after by French authorities since December 1911. While on the run, he crossed in and out of the border to Belgium, and continued to evade authorities until being arrested by detectives on 11 March 1913, during a street fair on Boulevard de la Vilette in Paris. He was noticed by detectives for his distinctive heart tattoo on his right hand. While being subdued by authorities, Lacombe made an unsuccessful attempt to reach for his coat pocket. Authorities later found that he had been in possession of dynamite, two revolvers loaded with ammunition, and two fuzes. As Lacombe was escorted to the police station, a mob tried to physically attack him.Lacombe had been further sought after for a three-month period for the murder of M. Ducret, an anarchist newspaper editor of L'Idee Libre. During interrogations, Lacombe confessed to murdering Ducret. He additionally made confessions for the murder of a Bezons postmaster as well as the murder of a Fleury-les-Aubrais railroad worker. According to Lacombe, he "suspected Ducret... of trying to betray him." In total, he received four murder charges. While he was incarcerated at La Santé Prison, prison officers took extra steps in monitoring Lacombe. He was expected to be executed by guillotine.