15. A Turn to the Horrific
Once he took over the personal management of his estates, it did not take Gilles de Rais long to dissipate his fabulous wealth with a lavish lifestyle that rivaled that of the king of France. Within a year of his retirement, de Rais lost most of his lands, and his family secured from the king a decree that forbade him from mortgaging what was left. To raise more cash, Gilles turned to alchemy, in the hope that he would find a way to turn base metals into gold.
He also turned to Satanism, in the hope that he would gain knowledge, power, and riches, by summoning the Devil. Another thing he turned to was the serial rape, torture, and murder of children. In 1440, an increasingly erratic de Rais got into a dispute with local church figures, and things escalated so badly that he kidnapped a priest. That triggered an ecclesiastical investigation, which unearthed some horrific stuff. It turned out that the once-celebrated national hero had murdered children – mostly boys, but also the occasional girl – by the hundreds.
