Foreign Crimes

March 8, 2009

Grègory Villemin, age 4

The murder of little Grègory Villemin was one of the most mysterious and media-hyped criminal cases of the 20th century. During the 25 years since, the investigation has seen new and surprising developments, throwing light on numerous dysfunctions within both the French judicial system and the media, and leading to repercussions including a second murder, the resignation of a high-ranking gendarmerie office, the destruction of one judge's reputation and another's loss of health and subsequent premature death. Who was the murderer? Who was the corbeau? A quarter of a century later these questions remain unanswered in a story of murder, revenge, bizarre family feuding, strange twists and surprise suspects.

by Anthony Davis

Grègory Villemin would have been 29 years old this year and probably – like his parents before him – happily married, with a good job and a nice house. Instead, an infinitely more cruel fate was reserved for him: On Tuesday, October 16, 1984 his body, tied hand and foot, was found floating in the River Vologne. He was only 4 years old.

As if this wasn't shock enough for the 1,000 inhabitants of the village of Lèpanges-sur-Vologne (Vosges, north-eastern France), a second murder was to follow a mere five months later.

So many rumors, contradictions distortions of the truth have beset the case that it is difficult picking one's way through the files, news reports and books written on the subject to determine what was fact and what supposition, malicious gossip or plain lies.

April 12, 2009 (updated Nov. 15, 2010)

Édouard Stern

 French billionaire banker Édouard Stern, wearing a latex bodysuit, was shot dead in his luxury Geneva penthouse by his mistress, Cécile Brossard, for reneging on the $1 million he gave her.

 by Marilyn Z. Tomlins

It was the last day of February 2005: Monday, 9:15 p.m.

Geneva, in Switzerland, town of Calvin and strict Calvinism, once known as the "Rome of the Protestants," was already silent for the night. The month had been extremely cold and weather forecasts promised further cold and snow for the month of March. The best place was undoubtedly indoors beside a fireplace in which coals sizzled.

Yet, the automatic doors to the underground parking bay of an elegant, modern apartment building on a street in the city's most expensive area swung open and a gray Mini, a woman behind its wheel, pulled out fast and turned north towards the lake – Lac Leman or Geneva Lake as it is known to English speakers.

The woman was on her way to Montreux, a town at the other end of the 45-mile long crescent-shaped lake (72 kilometers). A few moments earlier, she had stepped from the apartment building's basement elevator. She had hurled two bags – one of black leather and the other a white cloth bag – onto the car's rear seat. Her purse, also of black leather, she had put down on the front passenger's seat. Waiting for the parking bay's automatic doors to open, she had tapped her manicured fingernails against the steering wheel. She was obviously in a hurry to be on her way.