Gilles de Rais (also spelled Retz was a French noble, soldier, and one time brother-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He was later accused and ultimately convicted of torturing, raping and murdering dozens, if not hundreds, of young children, mainly boys. Along with Erzsébet Báthory, another sadistic aristocrat acting more than a century later, he is considered by some historians to be a precursor of the modern serial killer. Wikipedia
This includes an extended treatment of the case of Giles de Rais, the notorious associate of Joan of Arc, who was convicted and executed for necrosadistic crimes. www.sacred-texts.com/goth/bow/index.htm
Gilles de Rais, a French nobleman in France during the 1400's accused of murdering boys to satisfy his sexual impulses, from The Crime Library www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/rais/index_...
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Gilles de Rais. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais
