Francis Heaulme

Francis Heaulme (born 25 February 1959 in Metz) is a French serial killer dubbed the "Criminal Backpacker" ("Routard du crime").

Heaulme's father brutalized him until the age of 17, leading him to become an alcoholic and attempting suicide.

However, he had a good relationship with his younger sister and held a boundless adoration for his mother, who died of cancer when he was 23 years old.

At the age of 20, he suddenly picked up a passion for cycling.

Eight years later, he left home to travel erratically around France on foot, by hitchhiking, cycling, and via train (often without a ticket), staying in Emmaüs shelters, psychiatric institutions, and detoxification centres.

He occasionally found odd jobs as a mason or metal worker, and spent his meagre earnings on drinking, sometimes mixing alcohol and tranquilizers.

As someone with untreated Klinefelter's syndrome, Heaulme was at the time incapable of committing rape in the "standard" manner.

However, in at least two instances he was accompanied by other men (one a distant cousin), who violated the victims themselves while Heaulme killed them.

He confessed the murders to medical personnel who did not reveal the information because of medical confidentiality.

In many police stations, he did in fact recount false assaults.

He was arrested on 7 January 1992 at Bischwiller.

The law enforcement agencies (police and gendarmerie) had great difficulty proving their cases because the acts were done without apparent reason or motive by a person who was highly mobile, and had alibis due to negligence.

The shortcomings and poor coordination of the police organizations were also contributing factors.

Despite the lack of support from his superiors, gendarme Jean-François Abgrall quickly understood the basic rule about who he is responsible for tracking down: "It's when you ask him nothing that he says the most."

Francis Heaulme recounted murder scenes with incredible precision.

For example, he showed officers how to kill a sentry by having a firm grip on the back of his head with one hand and stabbing him in the carotid artery with the other, drawing, and then retracting.

According to Abgrall, "He doesn't lie. He never makes anything up. But he deliberately covers his tracks by mixing the crimes, dates and locations."

The cases in which he is suspected, accused or convicted are many.

There are reportedly dozens in 87 departments in France.

Among them:

Chief Warrant Officer Gendarmerie, Jean-François Abgrall, the Research Section of the gendarmerie in Rennes, is the specialist for cases in which Francis Heaulme was convicted, accused or suspected.

He arrested Heaulme on 7 January 1992 at Bischwiller in Alsace.

Behind the face of a madman hides a manipulative and calculating mind.

His morbid game consists of releasing bits of information to police to make it clear that he had "hit a snag" (pépin), a term he uses to describe his murders.

This occurred in each new case and is evident throughout the course of his dialogues.

According to one of his successive string of lawyers, Gonzalez de Pierre Gaspard, Heaulme is not to be confronted by an authority, whether a policeman, a police officer or a judge, because he feels like they can make him say whatever they want.