Louis-Amadeo Brihier Lacroix, better known as Émile Dubois (29 April 1867 – 26 March 1907) was a French

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

and robber, known as a folk hero in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

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 Courrières () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France about northeast of Lens. The Lens canal and the canalized river Deûle forms three quarters of the borders of the commune. Nearest communes ...

for two years, until a foreman was found dead. After two months in prison for theft, he embarked for

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

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.

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 Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

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.

The murders in Valparaíso

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

, 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. 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. Dubois was captured and sentenced to death. During the

1906 Valparaíso earthquake The 1906 Valparaíso earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, on August 16 at 19:55 local time. Its epicenter was offshore from the Valparaíso Region, and its magnitude was estimated at 8.2 . This earthquake occurred thirty minutes after the 1906 ...

, 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.

Popular legend

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 Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonization, canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the ''populus'', they are also called popular s ...

, transforming his grave (located in the Playa Ancha in Valparaiso) into a revered one, full of innumerable gifts and dedications.

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 Iván Patricio Eugenio Manns de Folliot, better known as Patricio Manns (3 August 1937 – 25 September 2021) was a Chilean singer-songwriter, composer, author, poet, novelist, essayist, journalist and writer. Manns has been a prominent represen ...

, who worked to reinterpret, revise and deepen the character of Droguett's novel.

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 Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

. These biographies are the following: * ''Emile Dubois: Relación Verídica de sus crímenes y aventuras'', Imprenta y litografía Universo, Valparaíso, 1907 by Inocencio del Campo *
La verdadera historia de Dubois: las memorias del célebre criminal: su vida en Francia, Inglaterra, Venezuela, Perú, Bolivia y Chile: sus compañeras Ursula y Elcira
', Santiago de Chile, 1907 by E. Tagle M. and C. Morales F.

References

External links

The Enigmatic murderer of Valaparaíso
in escaner.cl

in Culturart.cl
Crime does not pay , Dubois became a legend... (The Fourth)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubois, Emile 1867 births 1907 deaths 20th-century executions by Chile French emigrants to Chile French people executed abroad Executed Chilean serial killers Executed French serial killers People convicted of murder by Chile People executed by Chile by firing squad People from Pas-de-Calais