Although barely literate, Henri Lacoste seems to have had intellectual pretensions. He used to spend hours with an old friend who had two pet projects: designing a revolutionary sort of barometer and solving the vexing problem of squaring the circle. Lacoste considered himself an expert in several fields . . . friends reported that his normal manner of greeting male acquaintances was to leap on them from behind with growling noises and mock biting sounds.

from Victorian Murderesses : A True History Of Thirteen Respectable French And English Women Accused Of Unspeakable Crimes by Mary S Hartman (1977)