Pierre Loutrel (5 March 1916,

Château-du-Loir Château-du-Loir (; literally 'Château of the Loir') is a former Communes of France, commune in the Sarthe Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. On 1 October 2016, it was m ...

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the ''Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It had ...

– 11 November 1946), better known by his nickname of "Pierrot le fou" (Crazy Pete) was France's first "public enemy number one" and one of the leaders of the '' Gang des tractions''.Une histoire criminelle de la France
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Biography

Born into a peasant family, he engaged in petty theft before profiting from the

German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

and using it to develop his criminal activities. From 1941 to 1944, he was a member of the ''

Carlingue The Carlingue (or French Gestapo) were French auxiliaries who worked for the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and Geheime Feldpolizei during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The group, which was based at 93 rue Lauriston in th ...

'', forging a reputation as a cold-blooded murderer and carrying out more and more

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s. He developed links with the underworld of the era, then set up his own network with Raymond Naudy, Abel Danos known as ''Le Mammouth'', Pierre Giblaise, Fernand "''Le Poulet''" and Jo Attia. However, little by little, his repeated crimes brought him to the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

's attention. Sensing that the tide was changing, "Pierrot le fou" thus decided to join the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, getting them into talks with him by gunning down a German officer on the terrace of a café in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

. Upon the Liberation, he renewed his acquaintance with organised crime, getting involved in

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

and

pimping Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

and gaining a reputation as an unscrupulous crime lord. With his team, he formed the famous '' Gang des tractions'', named after their favoured vehicle, the Citroën 11, the famous ''tractions avant'' (front-drive) cars. Hunted by

Roger Borniche Roger Borniche (7 June 1919 – 16 June 2020) was a French author and detective of the Sûreté nationale. Borniche was born in Vineuil-Saint-Firmin, Oise. He started as a singer, but his fledgling musical career was interrupted by the German ...

, the gang was partly dismantled after a raid in Champigny. It ended up separating and Pierrot le fou, considered to be dangerous and uncontrollable, once again found himself isolated and reduced to petty burglaries. On 6 November 1946, Pierrot was shot in the bladder during a robbery of a Parisian jewellery store on

avenue Kléber Avenue Kléber is an avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, one of the twelve avenues that converge on Place Charles de Gaulle. It was named after Jean Baptiste Kléber, a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. Before 1879, it ...

, after having killed its Armenian owner. He succumbed to his wounds five days later, on 11 November 1946, and his body was buried by his accomplices, being found only three years later by the police on 6 May 1949.

Bibliography

* Grégory Auda, ''Les Belles Années du milieu'', Éditions Michalon, 2002 *

, ''Le Gang'', Fayard, 1975 *

Alphonse Boudard Alphonse Boudard (17 December 1925 – 14 January 2000) was a French novelist and playwright. He won the 1977 Prix Renaudot for ''Les Combattants du petit bonheur''. Boudard's 1995 novel ''Dying childhood '' was awarded and recognised by the ...

, ''Les grands criminels'', Edition du Club France Loisirs, 1989 (chapter 5 : "Pierrot-le-fou ou les lendemains qui flinguent").

References

External links

* In French: (https://www.13emerue.fr/dossier/pierre-loutrel) {{DEFAULTSORT:Loutrel, Pierre 1916 births 1946 deaths People from Sarthe 20th-century French criminals French Resistance members French collaborators with Nazi Germany French gangsters Gestapo personnel Deaths by firearm in France