In June 1845, an odd assortment of faintly disconcerting objects was drawing large crowds to the Cosmorama in Regent Street. The exhibition catalogue was headed: 'Vidocq, chef de la police de sûreté (detective force) de Paris, which was created by him, and which he directed for 29 years with extraordinary success'. For five shillings, visitors could inspect a collection of disguises worn by M. Vidocq 'in discovering and arresting the criminals obnoxious to justice', a small arsenal of 'sanguinary weapons . . . taken from the perpetrators of crime', and an array of manacles, fetters and lead-lined boots from which Vidocq had freed himself when, as the Times daintily put it, 'he fell under the displeasure of the French government.'

LRB 18 March 2004 | PDF Download