Overview: Pierre-François Larcenaire was born in 1803 in Francheville. This poet and philosopher caused a lot of ink to flow, but also a lot of blood because he was also a crook and a murderer. Arrested in 1835, he entered legend for staging his trial in which he led the proceedings, ridiculed the representatives of the order and demanded the death penalty himself. He had time to publish his memoirs before being guillotined on January 9, 1836 in a final twist: the guillotine stopped, delaying execution by 17 seconds.