page_title: Victor Prévost
section_title: Murder of Alexandre Lenoble
hierarchical_section_title: Victor Prévost / Crimes and punishment / Murder of Alexandre Lenoble
caption_attribution_description: English: Victor Prévost scattering the body of Alexandre Lenoble the evening of his assassination. Français&#160;: Victor Prévost dispersant le corps d'Alexandre Lenoble le soir de son assassinat.
context_page_description: Victor Joseph Prévost, also known as The La Chapelle Butcher and The Handsome Man, was a French former butcher, cuirassier, cent-gardes, policeman, murderer and possible serial killer. He killed at least two victims, and tried to hide his crimes by decapitating his victims. Because of Prévost's profession as a policeman in his neighborhood where he committed his crimes, his military past in a renowned elite corps and what he did with the victims' bodies, his case caused a great impact on the contemporary public: "Since the Abadie trial, no criminal case had interested the public as much."
context_section_description: On September 10, 1879, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, Madame Thiéry, a resident of the district which was deserted at this hour, saw at the corner of the Rue de La Chapelle and Rue du Pré maudit the tall figure of a man, dressed in a cattle driver's gown and a silk cap, leaning over the stream that passed there. Intrigued, she watched him from a distance and ended up seeing him walk away towards Ney Boulevard. Madame Thiéry cautiously approached the place he abandoned and discovered, half stuck in a manhole, a packet containing freshly cut meat. At that moment, a peacekeeper named Hardy came by and she asked him for help. They immediately decided to take the package to the police station, but took the advice of a butcher and a pharmacist, who recognized fragments from a skinned human arm. Research was immediately undertaken and 77 additional pieces were discovered, three of which were recovered from a ragpicker who was about to sell them for consumption. Other parts, including a hand and "the parts of a person who belongs to the male sex"were found in a ditch near the fortifications near the Poterne des Poisonniers. At the Paris morgue, where the pieces were transferred, efforts were made to reconstitute the body of the victim by reassembly, as to when they were discovered, that still remained a secret. In the end, only the head was missing, as well as a piece that could never be found because a poor man had probably "picked up it carefully, packaged it, like a piece of veal falling from the net of a housewife, cooked it in his hut and enjoyed it with the family."
  
  The next morning, Madame Thiéry went to the police station to make a statement. When asked to describe the suspect, she said that she did not know him, but using the light from a street lamp, she found that he bore a resemblance to the well-known peacekeeper in the neighborhood, known under the soubriquet of "The Handsome Man". Madame Thiéry was also convinced that he had been her neighbor on Rue des Roses in 1877. Prévost seemed like an unlikely suspect for Commissioner Lefébure, but he still summoned him in the presence of his accuser. Prévost denied involvement, stating the following: 
  Died in Pré-maudit? I do not know where that even is!
  The commissioner immediately responded: 
  You just made your first lie, you know the place as you arrested criminals there last year. What was your schedule last night?
  Embarrassed, Prévost replied that he was at home due to indisposition. This was another lie, as the day before, at around 21 o'clock, wearing a blouse and carrying a bucket covered with a cloth, he met a colleague to whom he said he was tired because he had just helped a friend move. Overwhelmed, Prévost went silent. When Lefébure asked him where is the head, Victor replied "at home, in a cauldron". The victim was a certain Lenoble, a jeweler. Accused, Prévost confessed:
  I have known Mr. Lenoble for some time, to whom I expressed the intetion to buy a gold chain payable in installments. We made an appointment, and yesterday at noon, he was in my room at Number 75 Rue Riquet. On my bed, he spread out his wares, arguing for the price of 240 francs, telling me that it was his best chain and his most beautiful medallion. I took the advantage of the moment he was writing down the bills payable in monthly terms and knocked him out with a ball of tender. A first vigorous blow, with both of my hands, struck him down; the second hit broke the skull; the third was useless. He made no movement, did not utter a cry, gurgling at intervals. I then undressed my victim, put him in a trunk and stripped the body of flesh entirely to prevent recognition. At three o'clock, I began to cut up the corpse, and at five o'clock, my work was finished. I flushed the liquid parts in the lavatories, and I disposed of the solid ones in the sewers, vacant lots and the ditches around the fortifications. My job being done, I had dinner, and at around 10 o'clock I went to bed. This morning, I resumed my work with Lenoble's head, his jewelry box and his clothes at home.
  His guilt being pro
caption: Prévost dispersing of Lenoble's body parts
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