Louis‑Amadeo Brihier Lacroix was born on  April 29, 1867 in Étaples, nestled in the Pas‑de‑Calais region of northern France. The son of Joseph Brihier, a tailor, and Marie Lacroix, young Louis‑Amadeo’s early life was marked by tragedy and turbulence. At just 15 years old, he committed his first known murder—killing the father of his girlfriend, a retired policeman.

He spent the following two years laboring in the coal mines of Courrières, a humble miner in a harsh, gritty world. Whispers of suspicious deaths followed him, including that of a foreman under mysterious circumstances. After only two months behind bars for theft, he vanished from France, reinventing himself under the alias Émile Dubois and boarding a ship bound for Venezuela when he was about 20.

In South America, Dubois drifted between Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and finally Chile. In 1903, with the twisted aid of his lovers Ursula Morales and her friend Catalina, he lured and murdered a young Peruvian engineer in a brothel in Ouro, robbing him of his savings in a cold, calculated move.

Dubois was suave, educated, and spoke with decorum, his elegant attire and refined manners gave the illusion of a gentleman rather than a predator. In Chile, he posed as a mining engineer, distributing calling cards that bolstered his forged identity.

Dubois' crime spree in Chile began with a flourish of brutality. On January 7, 1905, the mutilated body of Ernesto Lafontaine, a French merchant and former mayor of Providencia, was found in his office in Santiago by his friend Roman Díaz. Several items—a gold watch, safe keys, and cash—were missing. That gold watch later became pivotal evidence linking Dubois to the crime during his trial.

He then moved to the port city of Valparaíso, where the killings escalated. On September 4, 1905, Dubois killed Reinald Tillmanns, a German trader—stabbed for profit. Exactly a month later, on October 4, he murdered Gustave Titius, a German businessman, in a grotesque display that included mutilation of the victim’s hands.

The spree continued into 1906. On April 4, near the entrance of his shop, Dubois and Isidore Challe, a French merchant, crossed paths—Challe reportedly denied him financial help and humiliated Dubois. Revenge turned lethal: six knife wounds ended Challe’s life.

The final blow came during a failed attempt—a June 26, 1906 attack on Charles Davies, an English dentist. Dubois slashed at him, but Davies survived and raised the alarm, prompting a public chase. Citizens cornered and captured Dubois, ending his reign.

During the Valparaíso earthquake of 1906, the prison where Dubois was held had its walls crumble. Amid the chaos, Dubois was discovered under a pile of canned goods, clean-shaven, shackles gone, skin seemingly peaceful. He denied any escape attempt, claiming confinement even through the devastation.

He married his partner, Ursula Morales, the day before his execution and formally acknowledged their son, Luis, born in January 1903. 

On 26 March 1907, facing a firing squad. He told the judge to "abrevie y llegue al final" (“make it quick and get to the end”), refused a blindfold, and personally instructed soldiers to aim for his heart before giving the final nod toward execution.