Talk:Eugène François Vidocq

Some dates
The death of his mother was 30th Juli 1824 (and not 1820), the marriage with Guerin was 6th November 1820, her death 16th June 1824, the marriage with maniez (his cousin from mothers side) was 28. January 1830. -- CecilK 07:49, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Help
Hi. I started to translate the article I did for German Wikipedia. It gained featured status there. But my mother language is not english so some stuff will probably sound weird. Also I'm not familar with how to do format stuff (like literature, dates, wikilinks ...) here in this project. So I could need help. If somebody feels that the translated sections need extra citation from the books, please tell me so I will check the pages in the books. Main source were the Morton- and Savant-biography. The Stead-biography was not so much my style since it was formulated like a novel. -- Cecil (talk) 17:56, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Concerning "clarification needed":

 * On the same day, the Sûreté was dissolved and re-established. Maybe a colon at the end of the sentence instead of the point would help here. What basically happened: the Sûreté was dissolved and then recreated with a few changes. Those were: that no one with a previous conviction, however minor, should be allowed in the service. Pierre Allard was appointed Head and Louis Canler became his Chief Inspector. Members of the Sûreté were now given the title of inspector of police, a rough equivalent of detective constable. New offices were found in 5 rue de Jérusalem. (James Morton, page 214)
 * … because of his activities and his diffuse relations with various government agencies …. Not sure if there is a better word or if it should be described more in detail. The background is: Vidocq had a quite active money-lending service. Most of his business was done with government employees. It was highly suspected that instead of interests he quite often got documents, permissions, certificates and favours like that. The raid from 28 November 1837 was done four days after the arrest of four employees of the War ministry. Morton on page 222-223 cites an article from The Times from 7th December 1837 who in turn is quoting the newspaper Le Commerce. In this article it is described that they suspected that he not only got papers in exchange but also important information and maybe even state secrets. They knew he had a lot of contact with governments from other countries (e.g. mentioned in the last paragraph of 'Remodelling of the police force') and feared that maybe he also did some spying for them.
 * and the pretension of public functions. There is no more information in the books I still have. Morton on page 225 just cites from Charles Ledru's (Vidocqs lawyer) book La Vie, la mort et les derniers moments du Vidocq après sa confession à l'heure suprême those three charges. Then he still describes that before the proceedings a few people made a campaign against Vidocq in the newspapers publishing lies and then how many witnesses. Then he mentions a few important witnesses. And the next sentence is that Legonidec (the judge) ruled in Feb 1837 that there was no case. Details about the three charges were not mentioned. I suspect that it is pretty much the same as with the next trial (him every now and then acting as if he was official police).

I hope somebody can put that information in the text in a way that clarifies those parts. -- Cecil (talk) 15:10, 4 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I've gotten rid of a few of my clarify tags, but also added a couple. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:34, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Question
We learn that his father was well to do. Then we read that he, the subject Vidocq, as a teenager was able to achieve some comfort for himself by stealing. One is left to surmise why his father did not provide those comforts for his son. Was he pushed out on his own due to his rowdiness? Because it was customary and expected? Were the 'comforts' beyond (or of an other sort than) those is father did provide? Is the reason documented in that autobiography? Bn (talk) 02:26, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

The next two paragraphs certainly suggest why his father might well have withheld support; but they come after the assertion, and the reader is left to make inferences. Later, the mother welcomes him, the father is not mentioned. Bah! It's a minor stumble for the reader attentive enough to notice. Bn (talk) 02:51, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Date of pardon
Either the date given for Vidocq's pardon (1817) or the name of the King (Louis XVIII) is incorrect. Jperrylsu (talk) 15:21, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Dates
The article describes Vidocq as being imprisoned from January to January of 1794 to 1795. It goes on to describe his "wandering" years and describes events in the autumn of 1794. These two are not compatible. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.129.163.138 (talk) 23:45, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Criminology?
The footnotes 1 and 2 are not supporting the claims. The first footnote is just a mention with no significant information about Vidocq. The second footnote however, refers to a "quote" in the book not a claim presented by the book itself. Thus the first and second footnotes should be replaced by a new footnote referring to http://www.vidocq.org/ which is the source of claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:240:CB01:229F:C0C5:27FC:2474:3F19 (talk) 04:28, 24 August 2015 (UTC)