The lecture “Inside the minds of serial killers” took place in Paris on April 29, 2026.
Jean-Luc Ployé has conducted more than 13,000 psychological evaluations of inmates, including some of France’s most prolific serial killers.
In this widely public conference, he wasn’t there to dwell on the horrors, to sensationalize, or to exploit the victims, but to talk about his encounters, his experience, and to tease us about his future marriage to Monique Olivier (which he hopes will take place in 2035, upon her release from prison—jokingly, of course).
The idea is that even those new to the subject could follow along.
I took extensive notes on my phone, including concrete examples, and as I reread them, I realize that being a forensic expert really isn’t a job for just anyone.
During the Q&A, the most common question was about the male-to-female ratio. Unsurprisingly, the result was 85% male serial killers versus 15% female.
Please, raise your hand if you expected that. Yeah, I thought so.
For those of you who don’t know, France has a significant number of serial killers.
They’re not as prolific or famous as the US ones, but they are as sadistic, sadly.
Pierre Chanal
Ployé explained that he accidentally profiled one of them in 1982.
The police were struggling when a bunch of boys were found dead near a military base… He pointed out that the killer might be a middle aged high-ranking officer who struggled with homosexuality and ended up being right.
The meeting with the killer wasn’t great, there was barely any communication, but then, the one right before the trial, he opened up. Fully.
Because he planned to kill himself to stay in control, and succeeded.
He told 3 months prior he would, and how he would do it.
There was no accountability, no guilt. He remained in control right until the very end.
His name was Pierre Chanal and he raped, tortured and murdered 8 people.
That’s the opening of the conference, to let you know how he got started.
Francis Heaulme
He quickly moved on to Francis Heaulme.
He described some of his trauma, his frustration, how he proceeded…
He met him by accident while visiting another inmate.
The scars on his body intrigued the expert and made him proceed with interviews.
Turns out he self mutilated himself after each murder. Not out of guilt, but as part of his own trauma.
He was condemned for 11 murders, but always refused to acknowledge the crimes he committed against children, hiding behind his faith. He only helped finding the bodies by pretending his dreams guided him to certain locations, removing himself from the atrocities….
Jacques Rançon
Then we moved on to the case of the Perpignan Train station killer, Jacques Rançon.
There, Ployé‘s analysis is much more brutal, describing him as a caveman basically.
Rançon was a rapist and serial killer who murdered 3 people (at least).
He pointed out his sexual frustrations as well, never being able to provide orgasms.
He chased it away through murders, and killed depending on how much the victims fought back.
He then removed the breasts and private areas to avoid DNA detection… which caused delays in the case as they thought the killer was a surgeon, they even made a wrong arrest based on that statement.
Nordahl Lelandais
The next one was a tricky one. Nordahl Lelandais was manipulative and unorganized.
He could lie for 8 hours straight and still be coherent.
He was a drug user with an exacerbated sexuality. He tried everything with women, men, animals…
He kidnaped, held captive, raped and murdered people.
What is more disturbing is that he got known in France for the Maylis case, where he attacked an 8 years old girl. Yet, in prison, he still received up to 30 love letters from women a month.
He has parlor sex visits. This is beyond disgusting.
Jean-Luc Ployé explained that these come from the « savior syndrome » and even sometimes comes with Parlor babies. Hybristophilia is something I’ll never understand, I guess.
Michel Fourniret & Monique Olivier
And that’s where it all spiraled. He then proceeded to talk about the Michel Fourniret case.
For those who don’t know, Fourniret is one of France‘s most nefarious serial killers.
Jean-Luc Ployé was one of the experts who got to interview him many times over the years, him and his then wife and accomplice, Monique Olivier.
While Fourniret died in 2021, Olivier is set to be released from prison in 2035.
Hence the joke about their upcoming wedding.
Michel confessed to killing 12 people, young girls, as he had an obssession over their virginity.
There is supposedly a « white time » of 10 years where the murders stopped, but many experts don’t believe it ever happened, and that we don’t know the full extent of the victims yet.
Ployé showed us some tests he ran on Fourniret, his sadistic tendencies growing over time…
As he could no longer release them in jail.
It took him about 2 weeks to get over their first meeting. What he did. The detailed descriptions.
It was emotionnaly draining, even for a professional like himself.
He believes that Monique had equal part in the planing and the murders.
She might even be the manipulative one, as she acts shy, but has in IQ of 131, which represents less than 3% of the population. On the other hand, Fourniret’s IQ is 128.
She even lowered hers on another test to 98 with new experts, to keep her facade up.
He said she could hide between glue and wallpaper if she could.
Fourniret spent hours depicting his crimes with joy. He showed absolutely no sympathy at all, but turned into a coward at his trial. He was gloating prior, but didn’t say a word when the spolight was on him.
On his drawing, it shows that he has to have control over everything.
Not a single spot of the drawing hasn’t been marked by his pencil. There he decpicts his hatred of women, thinking they all care only about money. Rich, coming from a child rapist and murderer, huh ?
When describing his wife, he compared her to a lobotimized chicken. He said she was dumb and submissive.
Yet she helped him, she kept the girls hidden, they even developped a sexual ritual after the murders…
She was his equal, but he doesn’t agree with this. Taking all the credit.
Now that he is dead, she copies his mannerisms, as a strange posthumous hommage of sorts.
The conference ended with a Q&A and most of the questions were about them, as expected.
Jean-Luc Ployé‘s career must be as interesting as it is impossible for a mere mortal with empathy to comprehend. He faced some of the most dangerous people in our country, heard some of the most vile stories, and can dissassociate enough to joke with us afterwards.
All in all, it was a very interesting evening.
