The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo
(Hardback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo
By (Author) Christopher Othen
Biteback Publishing
Biteback Publishing
1st October 2020
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Modern warfare
Biography: general
944.3610816092
Physical Properties
Hardback
356
Width 153mm, Height 234mm
Description
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.
Reviews
"Othen captures the seediness and amorality of Lafont, his men and occupied Paris and makes you thank God that Britain never had to experience the Grand Guignol of Nazi occupation." - Paul Lay, The Times
Author Bio
Christopher Othen is a writer and former legal representative to asylum seekers. He is the author of Franco's International Brigades: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War, Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies, and the African Nation that Waged War on the World, Lost Lions of Judah: Haile Selassie's Mongrel Foreign Legion and Soldiers of a Different God: How the Counter-Jihad Created Mayhem, Murder, and the Trump Presidency.
