How Was Serial Killer Guy Georges Finally Caught?

Guy Georges is one of France's most infamous and prominent criminals, a convicted serial killer and rapist who terrorized Paris in the 1980s and '90s. After a troubled childhood growing up with a foster family, Georges was already violent by the age of 14, attempting to strangle an adoptive sister (via Daily Star). Imprisonments and new foster families followed, along with assaults, including stabbings, strangulations, and rapes throughout his teenage years. After a decade behind bars, Georges was released and his murder spree began.

Georges' first murder came about when he earned a few days of furlough from prison for good behavior. He traveled to Paris, killed a woman, and returned to prison with little to connect him to the crime. After his release from prison, Georges killed at least seven women between 1991 and 1997, along with several other incidents of violence and sexual assault. The media dubbed him "The Beast of Bastille," in reference to the Parisian neighborhood he regularly prowled until his capture in 1998.

According to The Guardian, Georges kept his sinister second life hidden while remaining sociable and normal to others. He had a handful of simultaneous romantic relationships and befriended left-wing political protesters and drifters who squatted — and often partied — together. Since all of his friends came from rough backgrounds, no one questioned who he really was or what he got up to when he disappeared. He was helped by a combination of lax police work and misleading testimony. A survivor of one of Georges' attacks described him as "North African," while rival police squads entered a race to solve the murders in apartments and car parks without discovering a link between the two.

Eventually, DNA evidence was Georges' undoing, linking him to the murders as well as multiple rapes and sexual assaults years earlier. On March 27, 1998, police apprehended Georges outside of a Parisian subway station after he had been identified as chief suspect, tackling him to the ground. Georges was initially cooperative, fully admitting to the murders and providing details to the authorities. He was sentenced to life in prison three years later, and will be up for parole in 2023. Having recently changed his tune and pleading his innocence despite a mountain of evidence against him, it is unlikely to be granted, keeping the Beast of Bastille imprisoned for now.

The documentary "The Women and the Murderer," telling the story of Georges, streams September 9 on Netflix.