Martin Dumollard (June 22, 1810 − March 8, 1862) was a French serial killer condemned to the guillotine after having been arrested and charged with the deaths of maids from 1855 to 1861. His victims were approached in Lyon by Dumollard, who offered them a nice house in Côtière. Convinced, they would eventually follow him and, during their wanderings on foot, he attacked them. All twelve assaults or attempted assaults occurred in the late 1850s and early 1860s until that of Marie Pichon on May 28, 1861. He was quickly arrested, along with his wife and accomplice, Marie-Anne Martinet, who stole the personal belongings and used them for resale. Their trial took place from January 29 to February 1, 1862: Dumollard was sentenced to death and his wife, twenty years of penal labour. This affair, which preceded that of Joseph Vacher by about thirty years, had a great repercussion in France; it is often considered one of the first cases of a serial killer in France. Dumollard is notably mentioned in Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
Biography Youth
Martin Dumollard was the son of Marie-Josephte Rey and Pierre Dumollard. The latter, a native of Pest, Hungary, arrived in France in Salins-les-Thermes where he met Marie-Josephte, who came from the region. The couple moved between Dagneux and Tramoyes, where Martin Dumollard was born in 1810. He was baptized in Mionnay because Tramoyes was not a parish at the time. In 1813, the Dumollards had a second child named Raymond, who died at a young age. Martin was subsequently nicknamed "Raymond" by the villagers of Dagneux.
According to some authors, the surname "Dumollard" is a French version of the Hungarian name of Martin's father: "Demola". In this regard, some sources incorrectly connect the name "Dumollard" to the locality of Dagneux named "Le Molard".
At the time of his trial, Dumollard recalled that his father had fled Hungary because of a criminal past there. When the Austro-Hungarian forces armies arrived in Ain in 1814, Pierre Dumollard feared that he would be recognized and fled to Padua. However, troops were also present there, and after he was recognized by the Hungarian forces as a wanted criminal, he was then arrested and executed by dismemberment. Martin Dumollard, aged four, and his mother attended the event.
His mother died impoverished on April 15, 1842, in Dagneux, while her son fled to Lyon due to thefts.
Dumollard began working as a shepherd at the age of eight. He was a servant under Guichard, owner of Sure castle in Saint-André-de-Corcy,. where he met Marie-Anne Martinet, with whom he married much later, on June 29, 1840. After their marriage, the young couple settled in the village of Le Montellier in Côtière, before resettling in Dagneux.
Known crimes His modus operandi was to approach young girls, especially from Lyon, and pretend to be a master employee looking for a new servant. Dumollard offered significant emoluments for this type of job and then trained the young girls, who usually learned quickly, in the rural region of Côtière de l'Ain. Some of these girls would later become his victims.
The investigation led by Justice Genod de Trévoux revealed only twelve assaults (including three murders), plans for assault and robbery. The attacks were extremely violent, as evidenced by that of Marie-Eulalie Bussod on February 26, 1861, who after being stripped of her clothes, was wounded in the head and raped before being buried alive.
The twelve victims were as following: Marie Baday (murdered), end of February 1855 Olympe Alubert, March 4, 1855 Josephte Charletty, September 22, 1855 Jeanne-Marie Bourgeois, October 31, 1855 Victorine Perrin, November 1855 Unidentified woman in the woods of Montmain (murdered), November or December 1855 Julie Fargeat, January 18, 1859 Unidentified woman in the Sainte-Croix mill, December 11, 1859 The Laborde daughter in the inn, February 1860 Louise Michel, April 30, 1860 Marie-Eulalie Bussod (murdered), February 25 or 26, 1861 Marie Pichon (attempted murder), May 26, 1861
The absence of proven murders between 1855 and 1859 was also examined. Dumollard was seen accompanied by a girl in Vénissieux in 1856 or 1857, before leaving. The body of the same girl was later found in this neighborhood, which became the lieu-dit of "The dead woman". Some of Dumollard's stories portray accomplices who would have killed her in Neyron. Finally, after 648 examined cases, Dumollard's guilt could only be established in the twelve attacks cited above.
Marie Baday
The first proven crime occurred in late February 1855 with the murder of Marie Baday, whose body discovered by hunters in the forest of Montaverne in Tramoyes. Her identification took several months. For help, the examining magistrate Genod asked renowned Lyonnais photographer Camille Bernabé to take photographs of the victim. After first being identified as Marceline Ganelli, the body was finally associated with the name of Marie Baday through the efforts of her family. Her landlady, Madeleine Aussandon said that on the day of her disappearance, she left her room after arguing about her rent, saying she had a better offer somewhere else. The first murder suspect was a man named Jacques Verger, who remained three months in prison after his arrest before being exonerated. A second suspect, Martin Mauriat, was also considered but he was in prison by the time of Baday's murder.
Olympe Alubert Judge Genod received a report of the case of a girl who appeared to have been assaulted in March 1855 before finding refuge at the Barbet family, at their farm in Mionnay. Subsequently, the investigation collected the testimony of the assaulted girl, named Olympe Alubert. Genod thus obtained the modus operandi of the aggressor. Dumollard had approached her on February 25, 1855, at the La Guillotière in Lyon, offering her a good, very well-paid place "between Neuville-sur-Saône and Miribel." The following Sunday, he picked her up, and when they arrived in the Mionnay area, he assaulted her, but Alubert managed to escape.
In her testimony, Olympe gave several elements relating to the yet unidentified Dumollard:
Josephte Charletty Josephte Charletty, a native of Saint-Félix and a servant at Vernaison, testified in September 1855 that Dumollard had approached her in Lyon offering her a place to stay in Côtière. She agreed to meet her new boss on September 22. They left Lyon, walking on the plateau of La Croix-Rousse and through the Fort de Montessuy. Dumollard's repeated questions about any savings she might have on her made Charletty distrustful. She took the initiative to ask for lodging for the night on a farm, agreeing to meet Dumollard the next day, which she did not honour. She returned to Lyon and filed a complaint.
Jeanne-Marie Bourgeois
Dumollard used the same tactic on October 30, 1855. He approached 22-year-old La Chapelle-Thècle native Jeanne-Marie Bourgeois in Lyon, and offered her a nice place in Trévoux. The young woman was convinced and they hit the road the following day. Increasingly suspicious and worried about the journey, she left Dumollard's company and ran towards the first farm she saw. She was found in Polletins field close to the ancient monastery of Polletins in Mionnay. Benoît Berthelier, the farmer who came upon her, immediately linked with the murder of Marie Baday, discovered in the forest of Montaverne in February of that year. In March–April 1856, Mlle Bourgeois was questioned by Judge Genod in the context of the "Marie Baday case". At that time, Jacques Verger was incarcerated; Genod therefore organized a confrontation. The woman's testimony helped clear him as she did not recognize the man.
Victorine Perrin In November 1855, Dumollard managed to persuade 22-year-old Victorine Perrin, from Lons-le-Saunier, to follow him to Côtière, again with the promise of a good place to stay. He also managed to persuade her to put her most precious things in a small trunk that he offered to carry. They left towards Montluel through La Croix-Rousse then to Rillieux. In the neighborhood of Neyron, Dumollard fled, stealing all of her belongings. Perrin was collected by Neyron residents shortly thereafter.
Unidentified woman in the Montmain Woods The case of the woman in the Montmain Woods (near Dagneux) became known after the arrest of Dumollard and his wife. On July 28, 1861, Judge Genod interrogated Marie-Anne Martinet. During the interrogation, she told that her husband had killed a girl four years ago in the Montmain Woods. One evening, he returned with some of the victims' belongings, including gold earrings. He then returned to the victim to bury her, going to the Montluel station the next day with a trunk in which her body was stored. On July 31, Genod, Guillot (a clerk), Messrs. De Piellard (Imperial Attorney) and Raspail (Gendarme Commander of the Borough) accompanied the woman in handcuffs to the Montmain Woods, and after some searching, the girl's body was discovered. Dumollard denied guilt, despite his wife's claims.
Julie Fargeat Dumollard approached Julie Fargeat on January 17, 1859, in Lyon. This girl, originating from Thizy, had just lost her residence due to pregnancy. She was persuaded to accept employment in the area of Saint-André-de-Corcy that Dumollard offered, and travelled towards it the next day. As night fell, Dumollard attacked her, pulling off her apron containing her savings. She screamed so loudly that he fled; her cries attracted two villagers, Simon Mallet and his son Louis. On January 20, she filed a statement with the gendarmes of Saint-André-de-Corcy. Having no document to prove her identity (as it was stolen), her claim was met with skepticism and she was charged with vagrancy.
Unidentified woman in Sainte-Croix On December 11, 1859, a miller from Sainte-Croix named Jean-Pierre Chrétien indirectly witnessed an attack on a woman in Sainte-Croix. As the woman was never found or identified, the attacks was one of twelve cases selected at Dumollard's trial, in which Chrétien was one of seventy-one witnesses. The events were as follows: in the evening, shortly after seeing a young woman accompanied by a man carrying a package, she came running back. She explained that the man had fled with her savings and her parcel containing her personal belongings. Chrétien tried to catch the thief, but was unsuccessful. He let the girl stay at his home for the night before leaving for Lyon on the following morning. In the absence of other details, the young woman is called "The Unknown of Sainte-Croix" in court documents.
The Laborde daughter of the inn Very little is known about this woman. The case concerning the victim has, above all, provided a better understanding of Dumollard's modus operandi. If his method of approach was invariable, it appeared that he also had certain habits every time he came to Lyon: he regularly ate at Marguerite Chorel's restaurant at 7, and usually slept in the Laborde Inn held by Louise-Adèle Fleury, wife of Louis Laborde. In the beginning of February 1860, Dumollard presented himself at the inn, accompanied by a young girl who, he said, was his niece, asking for a room with two beds. A few moments later, the girl fled, pursued by Dumollard. She came at the end of February 1860 to the Laborde Inn, as the survey revealed. It is not known who she was or if Dumollard managed to catch her. However, during the investigation, Ms. Laborde formally recognized the tote and dress of the girl among the objects taken from Dumollard's home, which suggests an additional murder.
Louise Michel