At the beginning of the 20th century, the definition of evil was being debated.
For generations, heinous criminals were thought to have been influenced by the devil. But a new science called forensic neurology was changing that assumption.
In labs, brains were cut from the bodies of murderers and anomalies found, such as lesions and tumours, gave useful insight into the true mind of a killer. When French authorities heard of forensic neurology in 1916, they decided to put one of their own criminals forward – a murderer called Louis Lefevre.
‘Lefevre was the head of a gang in France,’ explains Joel Griggs of the True Crime Museum in Hastings. He tells Metro: ‘He had a huge walrus moustache and, as we can see in his mugshot, was quite fierce looking. He was a pretty unpleasant character.
‘Lefevre’s gang’s modus operandi was to pitch up in a town in France and hold up a bank, casino or jeweller. They would then make off in a stolen car. The gang would vary in size between six and 12 people depending on the size of the job or the money involved. They weren’t heavily hunted down, but they were seen as a nuisance. This was the First World War period, so authorities were a little distracted by other issues.’
Lefevre and his accomplices would whittle away their takings in taverns, entertaining themselves with ‘ladies of the night’ [sex workers] and indulging in drinking games.
But on one night in a village near Tours, near the Loire Valley in France, an evening of merriment transformed into a night of brandy-infused chaos. One gang member told Lefreve complained they were not making enough money with their criminal activities. He then casually informed the Frenchman that his wife was upstairs in bed with another man.
‘This did not go down well,’ Joel says. ‘Lefreve had a tiny pistol called a calibre, about the size of a lighter. He shot the guy who was taunting him and he died four days later from blood poisoning. Lefreve then went upstairs where he saw the gang member in bed with his wife. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a revolver to shoot the man dead. Then he raped his own wife and shot her in the head.
‘Lefreve then gathered up any cash he could see and made a getaway from the tavern. But he fell down, drunk out his head, in a barn just 100 yards away from where he had tried to escape from. Farm workers discovered him the next morning and he was carted off to the police station.’
Lefevre was swiftly found guilty of the triple murder and executed by guillotine on April 16, 1916 at Tours prison by executioner Anatole Deibler. But his story didn’t end with his death. In fact, he went from low-level criminal to front page news.
French police, who had heard of forensic neurology developments in England, wanted to find out if Lefevre had something wrong with his brain which triggered his violent reaction in the Tours tavern. Officers headed to a local butcher to buy wax paper and twine and then simply wrapped up the criminal’s head, popped it in a hatbox and sent it to Scotland Yard in London with hopes it would arrive safely.
It did, luckily. Once in England scientists removed the cap of Lefreve’s skull and got to work analysing his brain. However, nothing untoward was discovered. A full report and series of photos were sent back to France that revealed, despite his evil crime, there was nothing physically wrong with the killer’s brain.
Meanwhile in France, a rumour mill had churned out a completely inaccurate story about Lefreve’s final moments at the guillotine.
‘One of the photos sent back to France was of Lefreve’s head with the top removed. In reality, this was a cranial insertion to remove his brain so it could be looked at,’ explains Joel.
‘But when a police officer sold the photograph to Paris Match magazine, they assumed something completely different. An article ran a piece with the headline “Botched execution, Lefreve moves head at last moment and blade strikes him across forehead.” It was utter nonsense, but meant thousands of copies of the magazines were sold because people thought the guillotine had cut off the top of his head somehow.’
While Lefreve’s brain didn’t throw up any abnormalities when dissected, forensic neurology went on to become routinely used to glean more about a killer’s potential motives.
For example in 1966, a pecan-sized tumour in the brain was found during an autopsy of Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old man who murdered 15 people at the University of Texas.
While the tumour was not connected to any sensory nerves, some experts believe it may have contributed to ‘violent impulses’ Whitman had exhibited in the years before the massacre.
Evidence since has shown that brain injury or trauma can result in significant behavioral changes and lead to criminal behaviour. However, experts warn that this can’t be a sole explanation for a vile crime such as murder. Because of free will, a human still ultimately has final say over their actions.
When discussing the Whitman case Micah Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the University of South Florida, pointed to the fact that while Whitman’s tumour may have impacted his decisions, hundreds of thousands of other people have brain tumours but do not commit mass murder.
‘The fact that violence can be a symptom of brain disease shows not that free will is an illusion, but that free will can be injured just like other human abilities,’ Michal wrote in a 2018 scientific journal ‘These rare cases of dysfunction allow us to see more clearly that our healthy brains endow us with remarkable capacities to imagine, reason, and act freely.’
Today, Lefreve’s skull sits in the ‘Death chamber’ of the True Crime Museum in Hastings.
Joel adds: ‘We’ve got skull is next to a lethal injection death bed from the Philippines and the Lincoln Noose which was used at Lincoln Prison for executions. We obtained Lefreve’s skull for our exhibit from someone at New Scotland Yard, I won’t reveal the name.
‘We’re really pleased to have it, the story of that skull’s journey really is remarkable.’
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