Was Sweeney Todd a real person? Could it be that the fictional Sweeney Todd was based on a real serial killer? That he was not from Victorian London, but from Medieval Paris? Yes, it could be true. Legend has it that the City of Lights and Love had its very own demon barber during the 14th century. If this is true, that would mean Paris was the home of cannibalistic pastries from a murderous barber-butcher relationship.
The famed, fictional Demon Barber of Fleet Street may in fact have been a real person and if you ask the people of Paris, he was no Londoner.
In Notre Dame, before the relocation of the Hotel Dieu Hospital, the Rue des Marmousets was famous for its mouthwatering pâtés and meat pies. The baker of these magic meat pies was right next door to a barbershop. Not just any barbershop, one connected with the disappearances of tourists.
In addition to charming shops and apartments that would draw visitors in, the Rue des Marmousets was located right by the Notre Dame Cathedral – So many people passed through the area for weddings.
In 1427 the incessant wailing of a dog outside the barbershop attracted quite a bit of attention. After three days of this animal’s howling, one of its owners finally discovered it. As it turned out, the dog belonged to a foreign student who had gone missing three days before. His wife found the dog and sent for the police to find her husband.
The barber gave the man an extra close shave and tossed him down into the basement he shared with the bakery. He chose foreigners because theoretically, it would be a while before anyone noticed they were missing. He figured by the time someone reported a disappearance, there’d be no reason to connect him it. But this foreigner had a wife and loyal dog looking for him on day one.
Since the missing man’s dog spent three days howling in this area, they expected to find a trace of him somewhere. What they didn’t expect was finding piles of human bones under the barbershop and bakery.
Turned out the demon barber was in cahoots with the baker. The flesh of his victims was that certain je ne sais quoi that had even King Charles VI craving those famed meat patties!
Whether or not the demon barber’s victims were on the menu can’t be definitively proven. But he certainly knew about the murders going on inside their shared basement. It’s believed the “meat” was also prepared in the basement. The butcher would grind it up, and turn it into spreads and bake meat pies for the community.
This diabolical duo was in operation for three years before a faithful dog foiled their plans, a real-life Scooby doo.
The barber and butcher were burned for their crimes, the shops were destroyed. A bronze statue was erected honor of the heroic dog. It stood on the corner until the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, it was all that remained of this grisly bit of Parisian history.
The entire area was mostly abandoned until the mid-nineteenth century when King Francis ordered its renovation.
Today the shop is long-gone, leaving the rest of the world to wonder if it ever existed in the first place. Which was no doubt the point. But the Parisians stand by the dark tale’s authenticity. They swear the murderous barber and cannibal chef existed right there, in Paris, and that they were the real inspiration for the tale of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
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