

After getting the information, Picaud (who had been faking his death) went on to pursue increasingly vicious revenge quests against the three men who wronged him, saving the most brutal sentence for the man who went on to marry Picaud’s fiancée. Later, on Picaud’s deathbed, he offered a small fortune to one of his friends, Allut, for the name of those who betrayed him. After the man died, Picaud became his sole beneficiary and extremely wealthy. Popular appropriation of the legend of Picaud has him earning the affection of someone wealthy and childless (possibly a priest) he was assigned to serve.

Among the accounts featured was the particularly macabre tale of Nîmes-born shoemaker Pierre Picaud, who was framed for treason by three men who lusted after his wealthy fiancée.

THE PREMISE WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL LIFE STORY OF A VENGEFUL SHOEMAKER.ĭumas’ appetite for action-packed tales led him to the 1838 publication Memoirs from the Archives of Paris Police, a collection of true crime stories arranged by author Jacques Peuchet. But did you know these 15 facts about the classic? 1. Most everyone knows the story of Edmond Dantès, the wrongfully-incarcerated (and consequently revenge-obsessed) hero of Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
