By 1943, Henri Lafont was the most powerful Frenchman in occupied Paris. Once a petty criminal running from the French police, when he found himself recruited by the Nazis his life changed for ever.
Lafont established a motley band of sadistic oddballs that became known as the French Gestapo and included ex-footballers, faded aristocrats, pimps, murderers and thieves. The gang wore the finest clot...