The Maid Killer

The Maid Killer: Memoirs of Imperial Attorney De Piellard on France's First Serial Killer

Between 1855 and 1861, Martin Dumollard systematically murdered dozens-perhaps more than one hundred-young women seeking domestic service in Lyon, France. Operating with chilling efficiency, he lured desperate servant women with promises of well-paid positions, led them along isolated roads into the C矌i鋨e de l'Ain, and killed them for their meager possessions. For six years, his crimes went undetected.

Imperial Attorney De Piellard narrates this haunting account of France's first recognized serial killer, documenting not only Dumollard's calculated predation but also the catastrophic systemic failures that enabled it. Through De Piellard's increasingly anguished perspective, we witness how the social invisibility of poor women, jurisdictional fragmentation, and class prejudice created perfect conditions for undetected murder.

The discovery of 1,250 items of women's clothing in Dumollard's home revealed the staggering scale of his crimes. The 1862 trial became a national sensation, with Victor Hugo using the case to critique social injustice. Dumollard was executed, but De Piellard's memoirs reveal a prosecutor haunted by missed opportunities, unnamed victims, and the terrible knowledge that justice delivered too late can never be justice enough.

This is the story of systematic murder, investigative failure, and one man's reckoning with the limitations of law and the price of societal indifference.