Nicolas Claux, the Vampire of Paris

In short
Nicolas Claux, the “Vampire of Paris”, shot dead Thierry Bissonnier in 1994 after meeting him on Minitel. He was arrested a month later over a forged cheque. He has said he desecrated graves and ate human flesh while working in a morgue. Sentenced to 12 years, he served 7. Today he goes by Nicolas Castelaux, paints and writes books.

Nicolas Claux is a French murderer and self-proclaimed cannibal, necrophile and Satanist. In 1994 he killed a man and he has been free since 2002. He now works as an artist, paints macabre pictures and writes books.

Nicolas Claux

Nicolas was born in 1972 in Cameroon. During his childhood he moved to many countries with his family because of his father’s job. Because of this he never had many friends and, as an only child, he suffered a lot from loneliness.

Nicolas says his childhood was fairly normal, but that his family did not give him enough affection, and that this made him cold and unable to feel empathy. As he grew up he developed an interest in death and the occult.

When he was 10 his grandfather died, a man he had been arguing with a lot at the time, and the boy thought his family blamed him for the death. From then on, according to his own account, he became obsessed with death, funeral rites, burials and the atmosphere of morgues, developing at the same time a hatred of other people.

Once he settled permanently in Paris with his father, he started visiting every cemetery in the city and, when he grew up, looked for work in morgues to indulge his fantasies.

The murder

The murder took place on 4 October 1994 and the victim was Thierry Bissonnier, 34, a classical musician and restaurant owner. Nicolas, who was 22 at the time, lured his victim through Minitel, the French online service that worked as a sort of internet in those years and was also popular with gay men.

Thierry invited him to his home, without knowing that Nicolas was coming with the intention of killing him. When he reached the apartment, Nicolas rang the bell and introduced himself with the fake name he used on Minitel. Thierry let him in and, as he turned to close the door, Nicolas pulled out a .22 pistol.

The victim did not even have time to understand what was happening, because Nicolas shot him in the head and then went to nose around the apartment. When he came back he noticed Thierry was still breathing and shot him again, then looked for something to eat and watched him die.

After eating he stole Thierry’s ID, chequebook and answering machine. Before leaving he noticed Thierry still was not dead, so he shot him once more and smashed his skull with a large vase. He wiped his fingerprints and left. The body was found three days later.

The arrest

Nicolas had covered his tracks well and nobody suspected him. A few weeks after the murder, however, he tried to buy a video recorder with one of Thierry’s cheques, forging the signature. He had replaced the photo on Thierry’s ID with his own and showed it to the shop assistant along with the cheque.

The assistant realised something was wrong and called the police. Nicolas managed to run before officers arrived, but on 15 November 1994 he was arrested outside the Moulin Rouge.

When they searched his apartment, investigators found the pistol under his bed and also fragments of human bone and teeth.

Vampirism and cannibalism

But why is Nicolas called the Vampire of Paris? After all, he killed someone with a gun.

The nickname comes from the killer’s own stories, in which he revealed many anecdotes. For example, he said he loved walking in cemeteries, but that after a while it was no longer enough. So he started breaking into 19th-century mausoleums and opening graves. Once the coffins were open, he desecrated the corpses by stabbing them. When he found only bones, he took them home and decorated his rooms with them.

He also says he got a job as an assistant in a hospital morgue precisely to be close to dead bodies. One of his tasks was sewing up bodies after autopsies, and the vampire claims that before doing so he tore off pieces of flesh and ate them, or took them home, cooked them and ate them. He stressed, though, that he preferred it raw.

When he was asked what he felt the first time he ate human flesh, Nicolas replied:

Wow! Now I’m a cannibal. Cool!

He also claims he stole blood bags from the hospital to drink at home, adding protein and funeral ashes to thicken it.

But did it really happen? Many think part of these stories are exaggerations, a way to get attention and build a persona. It is true, however, that human remains were found in his home, so his passion for the dead was not just a fantasy.

The Vampire of Paris today

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but served only 7. Once out he devoted himself to painting, a passion he developed in prison: he paints portraits of serial killers and autopsy scenes of famous victims.

Today he goes by Nicolas Castelaux, lives in Paris and has written several books, including, in 2021, a “cannibal cookbook” of human-meat recipes from around the world. He keeps talking openly about his crimes and even has a small following of fans on social media.

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