pMinister of Police Joseph Fouche was universally distrusted, feared, and hated in his time, but was nevertheless considered indispensable. In biMedusa's Headib, Rand Mirante recounts the chameleonic and astonishing career of Napoleon's security chief, who created the modern police state and wielded immense power that threatened the other main organs of government. Fouche was one of the most important, fascinating, and controversial figures of the French Revolution, the First Empire, and the Bourbon Restoration, and this biography captures and unravels the highlights of Fouche's life, including his infamous roles as p pA priest-in-training who became a radical Jacobin and de-Christianizerp pA regicide who cast a dramatic swing vote for Louis XVI's immediate execution p pThe grim and remorseless Butcher of Lyon p pMastermind of the conspiracy that sent Robespierre to the guillotine p pThe head of Napoleon's police - privy to everyone's secrets, shaping the media, deploying 10,000 inform