Within Les Misérables, the Patron-Minette gang offers a highly sensationalised depiction of criminality that differs from many of the novel’s other characters. These villains straddle a unique boundary between being genuinely dangerous and horrifying Gothic monsters, while also provoking laughter from readers when they end up in absurd, momentarily comedic incidents throughout the narrative. This presentation will examine how Hugo constructs the grotesque and carnivalesque identities of the gang’s four principal rogues – Babet, Gueulemer, Claquesous, and Montparnasse – by exploring their exaggerated physicalities, monstrous reputations, and performative actions. It situates their depiction within nineteenth-century cultural contexts marked by the rise of the ‘criminal celebrity’ and a broader societal fascination with mythologising the criminal underclass. The presentation also further considers how various TV, film, and musical adaptations of the text have interpreted Patron-Minette’s inherent spectacle over time.