A Tribute to Eugene Vidocq: If Looks Could Kill

[caption id="attachment_59736" align="alignnone" width="229" caption="Eugene Francois Vidocq (downloaded from www.mtholyoke.edu on 24 jan 2010)"][/caption] History has recorded that Eugene Francois Vidocq was a notorious French criminal who later became one of the gratest police officers and established the famous  "Surete Nationale",  the first modern detective  unit in the world. Being a criminal made Vidocq’s life a mixture of happiness and misery and this has also influenced Victor Hugo in creating Jean Valjean, the main character in Les Miserables (Karen Lotter, http://criminalistics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_vidocq_society, last viewed on 19 Feb 2010).  Yet, unlike  Vidocq, Jean Valjean  was  not depicted  as a police  officer. Vidocq’s service as a police officer started in 1809 when he proposed to be a police spy  in exchange for an amnesty ( (http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/7083/Eug%C3%A8ne-Fran%C3%A7ois-Vidocq.html, last viewed on 19 Feb 2010). Prior to that year, he was imprisoned for many times due to various criminal conducts. Later, he was proven to be a successful detective as he succeeded in arresting a large number of French criminals. One thing that led to his success was his skillful disguise method. It is said that Vidocq could turn himself to be anything he wanted. This was why he was also known as the master of disguise.  Nowadays,  Vidocq’s method in carrying out his duties is preserved and developed by plainclothes units in all police departments around the world. The fact that Vidocq’s success was mostly due to his skillful disguise as a plainclothes officer is interesting. It is undeniable that Vidocq was successful in manipulating one weakness of human. Usually, we tend to judge someone by his/ her look and appearance. How one looks like and what one wears are usually the basics to judge one’s status. To a certain extent, this is understandable because social values or norms tell us how to appear "properly" in daily life. Consequently, our eyes and mind are "socialized" to judge a person by  what we can look. On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that human is a "complex being". I mean, human has more than just clothes and looks. It is not clothes nor looks that drive one’s intention. Human’s mind does it. One may wear an expensive suit and look handsome or pretty, but he or she has a criminal intent. On the contrary, there maybe someone wearing "vagabond’s suit". It is not because he/ she is a vagabond, but his/ her job might require  that.  Vidocq often wore vagabond’s suit to catch criminals. In short, an appearance may be a standard in telling one’s status. But, in my humble opinion, it is usually "mind" that reveals the real status of someone. Then, French criminals who were arrested by Vidocq were not actually cheated by this police officer’s look. It was Vidocq’s mind that cheated them.