Francis Heaulme (born 1959), nicknamed “the crime drifter,” is a French serial killer responsible for several murders committed mainly during the 1980s and 1990s. A marginal figure, often homeless, he managed to evade authorities for a long time by constantly moving across France, which complicated investigations and delayed his arrest.

His case gained considerable media attention due to the number of crimes, their wide geographic spread, and the many unanswered questions surrounding certain investigations. Heaulme eventually admitted responsibility for several murders, while denying or remaining vague about others, contributing to an image of an elusive and deeply unsettling individual. His trial, which began in the 2000s, was extensively covered by the media and reignited debates about judicial and police failures in handling serial crime cases in France.

In 2017, Francis Heaulme was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 22 years, notably for the double murder in Montigny-lès-Metz (1986). Unlike Richard Ramirez, he is still alive and incarcerated. His mental health—marked by psychological disorders, heavy alcoholism, and an unstable personality—has often been discussed during psychiatric evaluations, without however calling his criminal responsibility into question.

Today, Francis Heaulme remains a central figure in French true crime, featured in numerous documentaries, books, and podcasts, and is often cited as a symbol of judicial missteps, delayed confessions, and the difficulty of establishing the truth in complex criminal cases.