[crashryan]

Excellent from start to finish. Not as caption-heavy as many of these stories, which helps make the tale gripping. Fine art by Forrest.


I looked the case up. As they say, "Fiction is often stranger than fact." Alas, in real life Lesurques was executed with the others despite Couriol's protest that the man was innocent. Quoting at length from Wikipedia:


Couriol claimed that Lesurques was innocent and was only arrested because he resembled André Dubosq, one of the actual attackers of the coach. Couriol's last denunciations also helped arrest other accomplices: Joseph Durochat, who travelled aboard the coach as "Laborde"; Pierre Vidal, who came up with the plan to rob the coach; and Louis Roussy, one of the killers. All of them were convicted and executed. Dubosq was also arrested and executed; however, his trial was not enough to overturn the judgement sentencing Lesurques, for all the witnesses who had recognised Lesurques persisted in saying that they had indeed seen Lesurques and not Dubosq.

Lesurques' family spent most of the 19th century trying to rehabilitate him; but none of the various committees assembled to re-examine the case found sufficient grounds to clear Lesurques' name. Nevertheless, Lesurques is widely believed to be innocent and this case is remembered in France for being a famous example of miscarriage of justice.

Link to the book: Thriller Comics 030