Gaston Leroux’s The Bloody Automaton (1923) and The Machine to Kill (1924) were a lengthy serialized story later published as one novel. Many book sites list 1930s dates for these works, but that was just when they were finally translated into English.
Personally, I would use the title The Clockwork Dead Man or The Clockwork Killer because for modern readers The Machine to Kill sounds like a traditional science fiction tale about technology run amok.
In reality this neglected Gaston Leroux novel is a horror/sci fi hybrid about an android/ cyborg mix whose mechanized body has been outfitted with the brain, eyes and nervous system of a guillotined murderer. The robotic man – called Gabriel – was created by Dr Jacques Cotentin, who needed an absolutely fresh brain, eyes and nervous system, hence having to settle for a just-executed criminal.
And not just any criminal, but Benedict Masson, a monstrous-looking recluse put to death for a series of gory dismemberment killings whose quasi-sexual nature probably shocked readers in 1924. The foolish Dr Cotentin believed the brain and nervous system would simply serve as an operating system for Gabriel, animating his body but with no consciousness of its previous life.
Needless to say he was wrong. Masson’s mind is intact and now resides in a robotic body impervious to pain and stronger than six men put together. In addition he does not need to breathe, sleep or eat and is powered by radium. Continue reading
