French homicide perpetrator, a serial killer in Paris who was given the moniker “The Beast of the Bastille.”
The son of an American soldier, George Cartwright, and a French mother, Hélène Rampillon, he was abandoned soon after his birth. He spent his earliest years in custody of French Social Welfare. At age 6 he was placed in a foster family and eventually was adopted into a family of 12 children, all adopted as well. During his turbulent youth he reportedly showed signs of aggressive behavior; later he was arrested a few times and spent time in prison during the 1980s for theft and other crimes.
On 27 March 1998 he was arrested, a suspect in a long trail of rapes and murders. Charged with four counts of rape and murder, he confessed to three other murders. His trial began on 19 March 2001. Despite DNA evidence found at some crime scenes, his confession, and the testimony of several survivors of his alleged attacks, he changed his plea to “not guilty.” He claimed that his prior confession was made after he was beaten and tortured by police. Nevertheless, during the trial, he confessed once more. On 5 April 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of seven women, all between the years of 1991 and 1997.
A film Flic, tout simplement, about the hunt for this serial killer was shown on 16 May 2018 in French TV.
Link to Wikipedia biography