In 1887, the Henri Pranzini affair hit the headlines. A handsome man, cultivated and intelligent, this oriental seducer with languid charm is an adventurer, coupled with an avid gamer. In 1887, he met Marie Régnault, known as Régine de Montille, a famous courtesan of the time. This meeting will end with a bloodbath.

In September 1869, in Pantin, near Paris, the atrociously mutilated bodies of Madame Kinck and her six children were discovered. The father remains untraceable. After investigation, the culprit, Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, is identified. The Troppmann affair is one of the most astonishing and sinister in the French criminal annals of the 19th century. It caught the imagination of public opinion like that of some of the greatest writers of the time: Flaubert, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Tourgueniev or Rimbaud.

Danielle Thiéry returns to the Lafarge affair which, in 1840, divided the experts and kept France in suspense. Married to Charles Lafarge, Marie was not happy. However, her husband refused a divorce and forced her to live in her rat-infested home. To fight against rodents, Marie obtained large doses of arsenic. In December 1839, she sent a cake to Charles on a trip to Paris. Charles fell seriously ill and died a few days later, in January 1840. No traces of poison were found on Charles' body, but Marie was nevertheless charged with murder. Even today, no one knows if Marie had poisoned her husband.