Emilio Dubois is the best-known name in the criminal history of Valparaíso. A French-born man who lived under several identities, he was arrested in June 1906 and sentenced to death for killings in Santiago and Valparaíso in 1905 and 1906. He denied the crimes through his trial and appeal and was executed in March 1907.
The man known in Chile as Emilio, or Émile, Dubois was recorded at birth as Louis Amédée Brihier Lacroix, which Chilean writers render as Luis Amadeo Brihier Lacroix. The Chilean national library's Memoria Chilena presents "Emile Dubois" as a pseudonym of that name. The folklorist Oreste Plath gave his birth as April 29, 1867, at Étaples in the Pas-de-Calais, and a 2013 article in the newspaper La Voz gives the same date and department. Library and literary references give the years of his life as 1868 to 1907, so the birth year is not settled.
Plath wrote that Dubois had a hard life in France before he went to South and Central America and worked at many trades there. In Colombia he met a girl of fifteen, who left her home to follow him through Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and finally Chile. He used other names on the way, among them Emilio Dubois Murraley and Emilio Morales Dubois, the last two built on his partner's surname. The couple had a son, whose birth was registered at Iquique in January 1903.
La Voz reported that when he reached Chile he described himself as a mining engineer and carried business cards to that effect, although the papers he arrived with gave Bogotá, Colombia, as his birthplace. It also lists several adventures attributed to him in Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina, each introduced with "al parecer" (apparently); none of these is confirmed in the other accounts. Plath wrote that Dubois held no certificate to practice any profession in Chile and obtained money from various people for purposes he called imaginary. The article in La Voz says he had a reputation as a swindler who borrowed money on false stories. A 2020 essay in the Revista de Humanidades states that he reached the port of Valparaíso in 1903; Plath's record of his son's birth at Iquique in January 1903 points to an earlier presence in Chile.
The accounts name the same small group of people, but they do not agree on every date or on who died.
Ernesto Lafontaine was killed in Santiago in 1905. Plath dates this to January 7, 1905; La Voz dates it to March 7, 1905. Plath gives robbery as the motive.
Reinaldo Tillmanns, aged 65, was killed in Valparaíso on September 4, 1905. Plath spells the surname Zillmanns and La Voz spells it Tilmanns; a 2020 literary study spells it Tillmanns. Gustavo Titius, aged 55 and a German citizen, was killed in Valparaíso in October 1905. Plath dates the death to October 4; La Voz gives October 14.
Isidoro Challe, a French citizen living in Valparaíso, was attacked in Valparaíso on April 4, 1906. Plath and a 2020 literary study treat Challe as one of the dead. La Voz says he survived. The difference decides whether the total is four deaths or three.
On June 2, 1906, Charles Davies, an American aged seventy according to Plath, was attacked in Valparaíso. Plath and La Voz agree that he survived. Plath classes it as an assault, not a killing.
The Memoria Chilena page on Dubois says only that he was accused of killing a number of wealthy foreigners and that the number differs by source. The page on "celebrated crimes of the early twentieth century" counts five prominent foreigners and dates the killings from 1904 to 1906; the other accounts do not support those dates.
Plath wrote that, after Lafontaine's death, the Santiago police found three petty criminals, who were arrested, confessed and were sentenced to death. In Valparaíso, according to Plath, the judge later found them not guilty and pardoned them, and some months afterward they were released as fully cleared.
Dubois was arrested in Valparaíso in the days after the attack on Davies. La Voz reports that El Mercurio carried the news on June 16, 1906, and that he was then in his late thirties. El Mercurio de Valparaíso, in its 2024 report, links the arrest to the attack on Davies.
La Voz identifies the decisive evidence as a Waltham watch that had belonged to Lafontaine and had been pawned in the name of Luis Brihier. That name, close to his birth surname, tied the Valparaíso suspect to the Santiago case.
His partner, a Colombian woman, appears in the El Mercurio de Valparaíso article of 2024 as someone who accused him of mistreatment and theft. Plath writes that she remained with him through the trial, and that they married in a civil ceremony in the condemned cell on March 25, 1907.
The case was handled by the Judge of the Crime Court of Valparaíso, Santiago Santa Cruz Artigas. La Voz reports that Santa Cruz attributed the killings to revenge: the judge believed that Dubois had come to Chile with a list of men he blamed for a wrong done to his family. No judgment text is on record.
The 2024 El Mercurio de Valparaíso article argues against the later legend that he stole from the rich to help the poor, observing that the Davies case does not fit the pattern.
On August 16, 1906, a major earthquake struck Valparaíso. Dubois was among 598 prisoners in the city's jail, according to Plath. After the shock he was believed to have escaped and was found within the prison. Plath writes that he said fellow prisoners had prepared his escape, but that he himself had no intention of fleeing.
By Plath's account, the Crime Court of Valparaíso under Judge Santa Cruz sentenced Dubois to death "por cuatro crímenes y un asalto" (for four killings and one assault). La Voz, by contrast, says that he was sentenced to death for the killing of Ernesto Lafontaine, and does not describe the other charges.
His lawyer, named by Plath as Sanz Frías, argued that Dubois was mentally ill and not responsible for his acts. Dubois rejected that line, dismissed the lawyer and conducted his own defense for three days before the appeal tribunal. He denied the killings throughout: the Memoria Chilena page records that he refused counsel, took on his own defense and denied the crimes. On the night of the final hearing, a public meeting was held in a city square in his favor; asked whether it would help him, he answered "Vox populi, vox Dei." A petition to annul the judgment was refused, according to Plath, and so was a request for a pardon addressed to President Pedro Montt.
Dubois was executed in Valparaíso in March 1907. The day is reported three ways: Plath records press coverage dated March 26, 1907, and describes the execution as taking place in the early morning after he had coffee and met his partner and their son; El Mercurio de Valparaíso, writing on the 110th anniversary on March 25, 2017, places it on the morning of March 25, 1907; and La Voz gives March 27, 1907. Plath adds that he refused the help of the religious ministers who came to his cell shortly after seven in the morning, saying he would confess to God and not to them.
His reported last statement was that he died innocent. In Plath's text he said: "Muero, pues, inocente, no por haber cometido yo esos crímenes sino porque esos crímenes se cometieron" ("I die, then, innocent, not for having committed those crimes but because those crimes were committed"). Several novels have since drawn on his case; the 1971 novel by Carlos Droguett and a 2004 novel by Patricio Manns are among them.
A popular devotion to him grew up after his death. The El Mercurio de Valparaíso article of 2024 says that his legend has many versions and that a television program on Chile's hidden history helped to spread the picture of him as a Robin Hood figure, which the article rejects. It also notes that the same program gave air to a claim that he was a French agent in the dispute over the Panama Canal, a claim the author treats as absurd.
The newspaper coverage at the time of his case was unusually heavy for Chile, and El Mercurio de Valparaíso calls its treatment of the story a journalistic revolution. The article suggests that part of the public sympathy for him came from his appearance as a well-dressed European, which cut against what the public expected of a defendant.
Number of killings: the accounts give three, four or five victims depending on whether Challe and Davies are counted and on which dates the author accepts.
Counts of the sentence: Plath says four killings and one assault; La Voz says the Lafontaine killing alone.
Dates: Lafontaine, January 7 or March 7, 1905; Titius, October 4 or 14, 1905; the execution, March 25, 26 or 27, 1907.
Birth: April 29, 1867 in Plath and La Voz; 1868 in literary and library sources.
Identity: the name Brihier Lacroix is given by Plath, La Voz, Memoria Chilena and El Mercurio de Valparaíso; the papers he carried in Chile gave Bogotá as his birthplace.
Motive: revenge for a wrong done to his family is the judge's reported view; the Robin Hood legend and the claim that he was a French agent are rejected by the 2024 El Mercurio de Valparaíso article.
His innocence: he maintained it to the end. No court found it, and no review of the judgment is on record.
April 29, 1867: Birth at Étaples, Pas-de-Calais, as given by Plath and La Voz (the birth year is given as 1868 in other sources).
January 1903: The birth of his son is registered at Iquique.
1905: Ernesto Lafontaine is killed in Santiago (January 7 or March 7).
September 4, 1905: Reinaldo Tillmanns is killed in Valparaíso.
October 1905: Gustavo Titius is killed in Valparaíso (October 4 or 14).
April 4, 1906: Isidoro Challe is attacked in Valparaíso.
June 2, 1906: Charles Davies is attacked in Valparaíso.
June 1906: Dubois is arrested in Valparaíso; El Mercurio reports it on June 16.
August 16, 1906: The Valparaíso earthquake; Dubois is found within the jail.
1906: The Crime Court of Valparaíso sentences him to death; he defends himself on appeal for three days.
March 25, 1907: He marries his partner in a civil ceremony in the condemned cell.
March 1907: He is executed in Valparaíso (reported as March 25, 26 or 27).