Landru also killed at least three other women and a young man in the house he rented from December to August in the town of Vernouillet , a town 35 kilometres 22 mi northwest of Paris. The true number of Landru's victims is suspected to be higher. Landru was arrested on 12 April at an apartment near Paris's Gare du Nord , which he shared with his year-old mistress Fernande Segret.
The police eventually concluded that Landru had met or been in romantic correspondence with women during the First World War. Seventy-two were never traced. Both denied any knowledge of Landru's criminal activities. Maurice was released on the same day because the authorities could not establish his guilt. Landru continued to protest his innocence during the yearlong investigation. He was charged with the murders at Vernouillet and Gambais.
This included the murders of ten women and his first victim's teenage son. Landru's trial in November at Versailles was attended by leading French celebrities, including the novelist Colette , and the actor and singer Maurice Chevalier.
On 30 November, Landru was found guilty by a majority verdict of all eleven murders and sentenced to death. He was executed by guillotine on 25 February Henri Landru was born in Paris , the son of a furnace stoker and a laundress, who were both ardent Catholics. By his late teens, Landru had graduated to sub-deacon , a secular post that involved lighting candles and helping a priest with his vestments.
According to his future wife Marie-Catherine, she first set eyes on the young Landru at Mass one Sunday in Landru and Marie-Catherine's first child, Marie, was born illegitimately in , shortly after Landru began three years' obligatory military service in the northern French town of Saint-Quentin , rising from private to the position of deputy quartermaster. In the autumn of , he returned to Paris and married Marie-Catherine, who was already pregnant with their second child, Maurice.
