True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

The French Maid Killer: Martin Dumollard

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 labor. 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 follows:

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