The king of Nazi Paris : Henri Lafont and the gangsters of the French Gestapo

By 1943, Henri Lafont was the most powerful Frenchman in occupied Paris. Once a petty criminal running from the French police, when he found himself recruited by the Nazis his life changed for ever. Lafont established a motley band of sadistic oddballs that became known as the French Gestapo and included ex-footballers, faded aristocrats, pimps, murderers and thieves. The gang wore the finest clothes, ate at the best restaurants and threw parties for the rich and famous out of their headquarters on the exclusive rue Lauriston. In this vivid portrait, Christopher Othen explores how Lafont and his criminal clan rampaged across Paris through the Second World War – until the Allies liberated France, and a terrible price had to be paid. Henri Lafont was a petty criminal who became the most powerful crook in Paris thanks to the Nazi occupation of France. A chance encounter in a prison camp led to a life of luxury running a ruthless mob of gangsters who looted the city on behalf of the Nazis who recognised Lafont's talent for treachery and deceit. Lafont recruited 'the French Gestapo', a motley band of sadistic grotesques that included faded celebrities, ex-footballers, pimps, murderers, burglars and bank robbers. They wore the best clothes, ate at the best restaurants and did whatever they pleased. They lived on the exclusive Rue Lauriston, where they mixed with celebrities and Nazi officers, while down in the cellar of their building, the rest of the gang tortured resistance prisoners. The unbalanced 'Crazy Pete' did it for information. Bisexual athlete Violette Morris, with her short hair and men's clothes and love of frail blondes, just liked to watch people in pain. By 1944, the gang ran a paramilitary outfit of Algerians and Moroccan nationalists in the south of France, raping, robbing and murdering the locals under the cover of fighting the resistance. Then the Allies came, and a terrible price had to be paid Henri Lafont was a petty criminal who became the most powerful crook in Paris thanks to the Nazi occupation of France. A chance encounter in a prison camp led to a life of luxury running a ruthless mob of gangsters who looted the city on behalf of the Nazis who recognised Lafont s talent for treachery and deceit. Lafont recruited the French Gestapo , a motley band of sadistic grotesques that included faded celebrities, ex-footballers, pimps, murderers, burglars and bank robbers. They wore the best clothes, ate at the best restaurants, and did whatever they pleased. They lived on the exclusive rue Lauriston where they mixed with celebrities and Nazi officers, while down in the cellar of their building, the rest of the gang tortured resistance prisoners. Then the Allies came, and a terrible price had to be paid. A fascinating, evocative portrait of occupied Paris that proves that life is often stranger than fiction.