Pierre LaFitte


Jaques Voignier, also known as Jean Pierre LaFitte, was a prolific French and American criminal and confidential informant, eventually operating as an undercover spy for the American Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the pursuit of criminal narcotics and mafia organizations around the world. He also worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track and hunt down white collar criminals and art thieves. Notoriously, Voignier used the connections he made as an undercover operative to participate in the criminal underworld while also investigating it - but some historians suggest this was part of a deception invented by the FBI in 1951. By the year 1955, he had been arrested or detained at least 34 times in 34 years, but spent very little time in prison compared to his official sentences. Controversially, Voignier was also involved in the MKUltra experiments, and was one of the two men in the room with Frank Olson on the night that Olson died.
In 1955, the journalist Bob Considine of the International News Service wrote:
"...one of the most amazing underworld figures of the age. He is a mystery man who chooses to call himself, at times, Pierre LaFitte, and claims that he is descendant of the notorious Nineteenth century smuggler and pirate, Jean Lafitte... Lafitte is an actor who can impersonate any type, from banker to gangster to skilled portrait painter... As artful a liar as he is an imposter... A man who might have made a career on the stage so convincing is he in any role he chooses to assume... The government insists that his real name is Jacques Voignier."

Early life

Voignier was most likely born on the island of Corsica. However, he also once told reporters that he was born in New Orleans. The French newspaper Le Petit Parisien also reported in 1926 that he was born in Paris. Others claimed that he was born in Belgium.
His name at birth is not currently known.
Voignier most likely spent his youth in his mother's house in Marseilles, France, where he moved as an early teenager when she was murdered, her body never being found. However, when he grew up he would often recount the story of his mother being a prostitute in a brothel somewhere in New Orleans, and he would always claim to be the descendant of the famous tax-dodging pirates Jean and Pierre Lafitte.
He was placed in the care of relatives, but ran away from home soon after. In Marseilles, Voignier worked in restaurants and learned to be a chef. By all accounts, Voignier enjoyed cooking, and worked in restaurants around the world throughout his life, under several of his assumed aliases.
Around this time, Voignier met a French-Italian gangster named Francois Spirito, who had started his own gang in Marseilles at the age of 14 and would become the "father of modern heroin trafficking." At this time, Voignier was inducted into the criminal enterprise of the Corsican Brotherhood, where he would eventually earn the Brotherhood Medallion and the Napoleonic Imperial Eagle.
Voignier was involved in the French criminal underworld of Marseilles, selling drugs for Spirito in New York, Montreal, Boston, New Orleans, and Paris. Another person who worked for Spirito at this time was named Joseph Dornay, who went by the alias Joe Orsini. Other members of the gang included Paul Bonaventure Carbone and Antione D'Agostino.

World War I

In 1917, Colonel Dennis E. Nolan, chief of intelligence for the American Expeditionary Forces, became increasingly concerned about security challenges facing U.S. troops deployed abroad. He requested that the Adjutant General provide fifty trained secret service personnel with experience in police work and fluency in French. The request led to the establishment of a new category of intelligence personnel within the U.S. Army, one not previously contemplated by the War Department. In August 1917, authorization was granted to form a fifty-man Corps of Intelligence Police, composed of enlisted soldiers holding the rank and pay of infantry sergeants. Nolan desperately wanted individuals that possessed "strong character, courage, and integrity."
Colonel Ralph H. Van Deman, responsible for assembling the unit, quickly encountered difficulties in recruitment. Private detective agencies were initially considered, but when informed of the need for French-speaking investigators, the head of the Pinkerton Agency dismissed the idea as unrealistic, stating of a French speaking intelligence officer that: "There ain't no such animal."
Despite their desire to find those of good moral character, the men they found were largely a crop of undesirables. The War Department then turned to newspaper advertisements in New Orleans and New York City to attract candidates. Those who passed a basic physical examination and demonstrated minimal ability in French were accepted.
According to the authors of America's Secret Army, these men were:
"...a miniature French Foreign Legion. One candidate had a police record. One was mentally unbalanced. One was a French deserter. One was pro-German. One was a Communist... Several were just morons... a delegation of Cajuns... a sprinkling of French Canadians, a coterie of Harvard men... unlikely lads.... a sharp Creole... an Englishman... a 'Hebrew, very shrewd'.... Any kind of French language would do - Cajun, Canadian or French with any sort of foreign accent. What was remarkable was how well this motley crew was to perform once it got to the war."
These men were trained for a month in infantry tactics at Fort Jay in New York Harbor, and issued distinctive green-corded campaign hats and collar insignia marked “IP.” Without civilian attire or formal instruction in intelligence methods, the new CIP were sent to France to begin their duties.
According to Hank Albarelli, when he was under 16 years old, Voignier was one of the members of this group. None of them really knew how old he was, and none of them really knew where he was born. They suspected that he was a French kid who had somehow wound up in New Orleans. On October 25, 1917, Van Deman's unit landed in France and were almost immediately arrested by the United States Marines because they looked so unsavory.

Foreign Legion desertion and theft

On 6 February 1925, Voignier carried out a theft at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. On that date, Colonel Turvil, a British officer, and his wife were preparing to travel to the French Riviera. After checking in their luggage, the couple proceeded to their train compartment. Voignier, dressed elegantly and posing as a fellow passenger, approached a porter who was handling the baggage. Presenting himself as the owner, he claimed the luggage, offered the porter a gratuity, and departed with the suitcases, which contained clothing, personal effects, and jewelry of significant value.
The case was investigated by Brigadier Chollet of the French Judicial Police, who soon identified the suspect as Jacques Voignier, a known recidivist. Following the theft, Voignier had checked into the Hotel Carlton under the name “Colonel James Williams,” remaining there for several days before leaving abruptly. He failed to pay a hotel bill of 2,000 francs and left behind the emptied luggage belonging to the victims. Although police succeeded in locating the jeweler who had purchased some of the stolen items in the Faubourg-Montmartre district, Voignier managed to evade capture for several months.
In early 1926, police received information that a man answering Voignier’s description, using the alias Joseph Gaven, had registered at a hotel on Rue Brey with a female companion. He was arrested on the premises and brought before Commissioner Barthélemy for questioning. Voignier confessed to the theft from Colonel Turvil and provided a detailed account of his criminal activities.
Voignier stated that after the Gare de Lyon theft he had traveled to Saint-Nazaire, where he committed additional frauds before departing for Casablanca. There he was arrested on a warrant from the Saint-Nazaire court and sentenced to two years in prison. During his incarceration, he informed the public prosecutor that he was a deserter from the 4th Marching Regiment of the French Foreign Legion, under the name Joseph Pilcer. He was subsequently transferred to military custody.
Detained at Le Mans, Voignier escaped on 18 March 1926 and returned to Paris, where he reunited with his companion. His reappearance in the capital led to his eventual arrest by the judicial police.

Drug Barons of Europe

In the interwar period, Voignier returned to running drugs for Spirito.
Voignier also learned the craft of smuggling from Jean Voyatzis, Elie Eliopoulos, and August Del Grazio. This was a network known as the Drug Barons of Europe, and at its head sat Elie Eliopoulos and his brothers George and Anavi – three high-class Greeks who eventually dominated the European narcotics markets. Del Grazio, meanwhile, operated as the mediator between the Drug Barons and the Jewish Mafia, especially growing up alongside a man named Lucky Luciano. Jean Voyatis was the man who had formed connections within the Opium Regie in French Indochina to obtain legally-produced wholesale opium to be refined in warehouses in Europe. The Drug Barons of Europe provided the foundations that would eventually become the French Connection.

World War II

When World War II broke out in 1939, Voignier's old associate Francois Spirito wound up working for the Nazis, as did Paul Carbone, while their primary competition from Paris, the gangster Louis Lyon, worked for the Allies. The members of the French Connection used the war as a cover to eliminate their competition, and there are several examples of European gangsters submitting their old associates to the SS as "Secret Jews." Carbone even tried to use the Peruvian diplomat Carlos Fernández Bácula in a pot-boiled scheme to infect North Africa with narcotics in order to cause the Allies there to go into a stupor. Carbone was killed when the Nazi train that he was riding in was derailed by a French Resistance unit commanded by Louis Lyon. After the war, in his book The Murderers, Harry Anslinger lamented the fact that Louis Lyon had earned the French Legion of Honour.
In 1939, Voignier joined the Office of the Coordinator of Information, which became the Office of Strategic Services, to defeat the "Axis powers" in Europe. During this time, Voignier first met agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics which had been tasked by Harry J. Anslinger to the ranks of the COI and OSS for the duration of the war.
One of the FBN agents that Voignier met was Garland H. Williams, who ran the COI and OSS schoolhouses. Williams enrolled Voignier in the program at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, where he became an expert in close quarter infiltration, disguise, and silent killing. His fluency in French, Italian, and German made him particularly useful for training and interrogation purposes.
Voignier was involved heavily in espionage and sabotage operations against the Nazis. His involvement in Operation Underworld is still being investigated.