Léon Lacombe
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Léon Lacombe | |
|---|---|
 Lacombe's mugshot in 1911 | |
| Born | 12 April 1885 |
| Died | 5 April 1913 (aged 27) La Santé Prison, Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Movement | Anarchism |
Léon Lacombe (12 April 1885 – 5 April 1913) was a French anarchist, criminal and murderer. After being arrested in March 1913 for the murder of an anarchist newspaper editor, he was incarcerated at La Santé Prison in Paris after confessing to two additional murders, being charged with a total of four counts of murder. The following month, Lacombe committed suicide by diving off the prison roof.
Lacombe was born on 12 April 1885, in Aubin, Aveyron,[1] to Victor Lacombe[2] and Marie-Joséphine Cibié, a coal sorter who raised him as a single mother. Lacombe began working in the coal mines as a 12-year-old and later underwent military service, after which he moved to Decazeville, working at a mine in Cérons. Lacombe began taking interest to anarchism and started participating in anarchist gatherings in the area. Afterwards, Lacombe was fired from the mine in Cérons resulted by accusations of theft. Engineer Albert Artous, the man who fired him, was fatally shot in his home on 12 January 1912. The perpetrator was suspected to be Lacombe, who, due to being an anarchist, struggled to find another job. After moving and finding work in Paris, he began burglarizing and shooting people, including a station dispatcher at Les Aubrais station on 14 September 1912. On 9 November, he reportedly fatally shot a man at a post office in Bezons during a burglary. As he became sought by authorities, Lacombe began suspecting a bookstore seller of being an informant, and shot him at his home during the night of 5 December 1912.[1]