History Daily - The Execution of France’s “Lonely Hearts Killer”

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

February 25, 1925. French serial killer Henri Landru is executed after being convicted of killing 11 people.  Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

It's a still summer night in 1916 in the countryside west of Paris, France. Jean Montaille curses under his breath as he pedals hard through the darkness. He stayed too long while visiting his aunt and missed his train home, so now he's got a lot farther to go on his bike than he was anticipating. But as he rounds a corner, Jean wrinkles his nose. There's a terrible stench in the air, like nothing he's smelled before. He looks around for where it might be coming from. The only building in sight is a two-story brick house with a red automobile parked outside.

As he rides closer, he can see a tower of black smoke billowing from its chimney. Jean bikes faster, eager to distance himself from the smell. He cycles down a dirt trail heading for a forest, but he hasn't gone very far, for he feels his bike buckle beneath it. He's got a flat. Frustrated, he rolls to a stop. Kneeling down, he peers at the tire. but it's too dark among the trees to see anything.

He looks around and wonders what to do. There's a large pond off to the side of the path, so Jean wheels his bike down to the water's edge where it might be a little brighter. And in the moonlight, reflecting off the pond, Jean can see enough to start patching his tire. He's just finishing the repair when he hears an engine. He looks up, and it's the same red car

that he saw in front of the house earlier. It's driving down the road that runs by the far side. of the pond. The car then stops and a man gets out. He's probably in his 40s with a bald head and scraggly beard. John watches as the man grabs something out of the trunk of his car and trudges down to the pond. He then disappears behind some rushes and Jean hears a splash. He thinks the man is probably a poacher throwing a net into the water. So Jean ducks low and wheels his bike back toward the trees before peddling through the forest. Whatever this man is doing by the pond, he doesn't want anything to do with it.

It won't be until years later that Jean Montier will truly understand what he saw. The man by the pond was not a poacher. He was a murderer, Henri Landreux, one of France's most prolific serial killers. And when he is finally caught and put on trial, John's memories of that strange summer night will help ensure Londru pays the ultimate price for his crimes

on February 25, 1922. I just got some good news about my first ever live show in Dallas. Sections 101, 201, 301, and 601 are all sold out. Seats are still available, but if you want one of the good ones left, you may want to buy your tickets soon. But of course, not everyone who wants to see the show lives anywhere near Dallas. I see you, Austin from Salmon Arm British Columbia,

Peter from Dublin, Divacha from the Netherlands. So to be the first to know when we do announce new dates, go to HistoryDaily Live.com to register for details. That's historydailylive.com. From Noisor and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is February 25, 1922, the execution of France's lonely hearts killer.

It's May 1915 in Paris, just over a year before Jean Montier rode his bike past Henri-Landreau's house. A warm spring breeze blows through the windows of Celestine Buisin's apartment. 44-year-old Celestine twirls her chestnut hair as she leaps through a newspaper. She flips quickly past the news of the French Army's latest battles with the Germans, but then she sees something that catches her eye. It's a lonely heart's ad from a man named George Fremier. He's a 45-year-old, well-to-do businessman who's looking to meet someone new. Celestine's pulse quickens.

She's been a widow for a few years. years now and knows that she can still make a good wife to someone, but she's found it hard to meet anyone with so many men away fighting the Germans. This Georges might be perfect. So Celestine rushes to pen a response before she has to leave her work. She's not very good at writing, but she puts her best foot forward, saying she's a hard worker with modest savings and a son who's on the front lines fighting for his country. Then sealing the envelope, she raises out the door to mail it with a spring in her step. It's not long before Celestine's gets a reply. George says that he's a factory owner from Lille, but as the city is currently under

German control, he has little access to his money or papers. He hopes that once the war is over, he'll be able to settle down and enjoy a comfortable and prosperous life. He just wishes he had someone to share it with. This is all music to Salasstein's ears. She soon meets George in person, and is even Morseman. He's powerfully built and darkly handsome. And before long, there's talk of marriage. Celestine is ecstatic, but there's one person in her life who's not so happy. Her younger sister, Marie Lacoste, doesn't like Georges. Marie has been suspicious of him from the beginning. She just doesn't understand the relationship.

With so many women looking for love, a rich factory owner like George could have his pick. And as much as she loves her sister, Marie has to recognize that Celestine isn't rich or well-educated or especially beautiful. And that's not the only thing that bothers her. There's something about Georges that gives her the creeps. He's too affectionate, too effusive, too oily. As much as Celestine seems to like all his compliments, they just seem phony to Marie. So as the months go by and the relationship deepens,

Marie tries her best not to say anything. But when she finds out that George has taken control of Celestine's finances, she can't keep her suspicions to herself any longer. She's now convinced that George is lying to Celestine and trying to swindle her out of her money. She begs her sister to leave him. But Celestine refuses, and the sisters have a furious argument. They stop talking and never see each other. And Marie sadly assumes that Celestine has simply chosen George over her.

But then, 16 months later, Marie gets a letter from Celestine's son. He's been blinded, fighting in the war, and needs help with his medical bills. He's tried riding his mother, but she won't respond. He asks Marie to go to Celestine's apartment and find out what's going on. Reluctantly, Marie agrees. She makes the trek to Salistine's apartment building in Paris. The lock is stiff and she has to jiggle the key before the door will open. When it does, to her horror, the rooms inside are completely empty.

Marie asks around the building and discovers that no one has seen Salistine in over a year. Marie's stomach twists with dread as she realizes that perhaps George Framier was not just a swindler, but something far worse. Determined to help her sister, Marie takes her concerns to the police. They shrug her off. In France, at this time, working-class women are considered little more than children in intellectual capacity. The police officers have no interest in prying into another man's affairs just because Marie and Salistine have had a fight. So in desperation, Marie will write to the mayor of the village,

outside Paris, where she knows Georges Fremei lives. But the mayor's secretary will write back saying that no one by that name lives there, and there's nothing they can do. Only the very end of the letter will offer Maria any hope. Almost in passing, the secretary will point out that another woman recently wrote to the mayor with an almost identical story. Perhaps Marie LaCoste should try talking to her. It's late January 1919 in Paris, a month after Marie LaCoste learned that her sister is missing. Marie shifts uncomfortably on the edge of an ornate armchair as the young woman sitting across from her pulls a postcard out of a folder of documents. This woman is Victorine Reno-Pelah, and she's nothing like Marie. Reno is beautiful, wealthy, and educated, so Marie feels a bit out

of place in the respondent living room. But she has an important thing in common with Reno. Like Marie, her sister planned to marry a man named Georges Framier, and then she went missing. Marie squints at the postcard. It's a photograph of a village. There's an ex marked on one of the houses on the outskirts. Marie listens as Reno explains that this was the home of her sister's fiancé, Georges. Marie recognizes the place. She once visited her sister Celestine there, but there was no sign of another woman.

Reno's sister, Anna, started seeing Georges Framier in 1915. She was married once before, but unhappily, and her husband, drank himself to death. Anna then had a daughter out of wedlock, which was considered shameful. So after that, she just wanted some stability in her life and a new husband who would make her daughter legitimate. That's when she saw George Framier's ad in the newspaper. Just like Salistine Guiseal, Anna quickly fell for the wealthy industrialist and soon there was talk of marriage. But like Marie, Reno was immediately wary of George. Those suspicions deepened around Christmas 1916, when Anna confided in her family that she had lent her future husband all her savings.

Reno and her elderly parents quickly decided that they had to intervene and get Anna out of this relationship. But the following day, Anna left Paris with George. That was more than two years ago, and she hasn't been seen or heard from since. Marie feels her heart ache as she listens to Reno describes circumstances so eerily similar to her own. Reno tried to get the police to investigate too, but just like Marie, she was brushed off. Hearing all this, Marie sets down her teacup. They can't let this go. They have to find their sisters, and now, at least, they each have an ally.

So over the next few weeks, Marie and Reno put together everything they know about George Framier and built a compelling dossier to take to the police. This time, though, they decide not to submit their investigation under their own names. Instead, they enlist the help of Reno's father, and put his name on the complaint, thinking that the authorities surely won't ignore a well-to-do businessman. And just as the women suspect, this time the police do launch an investigation. But it's a half-hearted one. They can find no trace of Georges Frimier and seem eager to close the case before it's even begun.

Marie and Reno are frustrated, but they don't give up. And a few months later, they get a stroke of luck that changes everything. Marie's friend from work, Loll, is window shopping at her favorite crockery store in Paris, when through the glass she sees something that makes her heart stop. Georges Framier is standing not 10 feet away with another young woman who appears to be his girlfriend. Law recognizes him at once. George once turned up at their workplace to talk to Marie, and Law hasn't been able to forget that face.

Since then, she's heard all about Marie's quest to track him down and find out what happened to her sister. So Law watches him by a blue floral tea set, hand the cashier a card with his shipping address on it, and head for the door. Law hurries to tell Marie what she's seen, and Marie immediately calls the police. They go to the crockery store and retrieve Georges Framier's card. It tells them where to find him.

And on April 12, 1919, investigators go to the address and place George under arrest. He denies any wrongdoing, but the evidence soon tells a darker story. It quickly emerges that this man's name is not George Frumier, but Henri Langer. He's been on the run from police for five years after committing a string of frauds, but now it seems he's turned to more violent crimes.

Among Long Drew's possessions, police find a black moleskin notebook. It's filled with dates and times, profits and expenses, and entries written in some sort of code. Toward the back is a long list of names. Reno and Marie's sisters, Anna and Salistine, are both on it, but so are nine others and all of them are missing. With concern mounting that they're dealing with a serial killer, police search Laundruix's properties. In a rented garage in Paris, they discover women's clothing, jewelry, and identity cards. But what they don't find are any bodies.

Without them, a case against Laundraue is not as strong as the police would like. That will worry Marie LeCost and Reno Pella. They may have finally tracked down the man they believe murdered their sisters, but in their long fight for justice, one more battle still. lies ahead. It's the morning of February 25, 1922, outside a prison in Versailles, almost three years after Henri Londru was arrested. American journalist Webb Miller rubs his hands together and stamps his feet on the damp cobblestones, trying to get some feeling back into them. It's barely dawn and it's freezing outside. But Webb wouldn't miss

this for anything. He's been following the Laundreux case for months. The trial was a sensation. Laundrieu was charged with 11 counts of murder and 37 counts of fraud. But at first, it wasn't clear if he would be convicted. His lawyer was widely regarded as one of the best in France, and he insisted that while his client might have been a criminal who defrauded his victims, there was no proof that he had killed them. The lawyer then exposed the mistakes made by the police in their investigation and portrayed the detectives as incompetent fools.

But then came the evidence from the victim's relatives. On the ninth day of the trial, Marie Lacoste took the stand. Previous witnesses had been intimidated when coming face-to-face with L'Hu and his formidable lawyer, but Marie refused to be frightened by them. So while L'ondrew stared at her, she stared right back. Her testimony was so calm and compelling that Landrew's lawyer didn't even bother trying to cross-examine her. After that, more and more women took the stand, all telling similar stories. And then came Jean Montier, recalling.

that on a moonlit night in 1916, he saw thick, nauseous smoke billowing from Landreu's chimney, and later, Laundrew himself, throwing a heavy package into the pond. It was disturbing testimony, but the prosecution didn't need the pond to prove their case. Two years earlier, when police had searched Laundrew's property, they'd found the real evidence in a garden shed, nine pounds of charred bone fragments, along with scraps of women's clothing and 47. teeth. The bones told the story that the smoke had hinted at all along. Despite all his lawyer's efforts, Henri Laundreux was found guilty of all 11 murder charges and all but two fraud charges.

Now, three months later, it's time for his sentence to be carried out. The huge prison gate swing open, and American journalist Webb Miller watches as two guards emerge with a shackled prisoner between them. After years in prison awaiting his trial, Henri Landrieu is far from the intimidating man he was before. His once thick beard has been cut away and he's stick thin. His bare feet seem to give way as he catches sight of the guillotine. He's carried up the steps of the scaffold to the machine. His head is clamped into position beneath the blade. There's a blur of light and then it's all over. Webb looks down at his watch. Between Laundrew emerging from the prison gates and his head dropping into the wicker basket in front of the guillotine, only 26

seconds have passed. France has rid itself of one of the most prolific serial killers in its history. While millions of other Frenchmen were fighting enemies abroad, Henri Laundrieu was lurede in vulnerable women with promises of a stable marriage in an unstable time. The police didn't even notice his crimes and didn't want to investigate. And if it weren't for a handful of brave and tenacious women, he might never have been caught and executed on February 25, 1922. Next on History Daily, February 26, 1935, Scottish physicist Robert Watson Wan demonstrates radar detection of aircraft,

a breakthrough that will prove decisive in World War II. From Noisor and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham, audio editing by Mohamed Shazi, sound design by Molly Bond, music by Throne. This episode is written in research by Hazel May Brian, edited by William Simpson.

managing producer Emily Burr. Executive producers are William Simpson for airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.