Eugène-François Vidocq was a French criminal who became a detective. Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, and Honoré de Balzac were all influenced by Eugène-François Vidocq's life. The former criminal went on to develop and lead the first known private detective agency as well as the first director of the crime-detection Sûreté nationale. Vidocq is revered as the founder of contemporary criminology.

Source Materials:

https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/eugene-francois-vidocq-french-criminal-detective/

https://thrillingdetective.com/2019/05/10/eugene-francois-vidocq/

https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/The-Father-of-Criminology-Eugene-Francois-Vidocq

http://scihi.org/eugene-vidocq/