Like ‘Golden State Killer’, French ‘Le Grele’ turns out to be ex-cop, denounced by DNA

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A notorious serial killer who haunted the streets of Paris, France in the 1980s and 90s admitted to a spate of rapes and murders before taking his own life this week. a military police officer.

François Vérove, also known as “Le Grêlé” (“the pockmarked man”) allegedly used his police ID card and handcuffs to abduct and subdue his victims, according to Sky News. His tactics have since drawn comparisons with Joseph DeAngelo – the “Golden State Killer” – a former police officer who was behind rapes and serial murders across California in the 1970s and 1980s.

On Wednesday, V̩rove, 59, confessed to her crimes in a note before committing suicide. Before his death, he was one of 750 gendarmes Рa French paramilitary police officer Рwho was summoned for questioning last month after authorities suspected the killer was working in the security services.

After the discovery of her body, Vérove’s DNA was linked to samples taken from several crime scenes. The 59-year-old has since been charged with multiple counts of rape, murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and kidnapping between 1986 and 1994.

A former French military police officer was revealed to be a notorious serial killer in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. Here, French gendarmes and policemen listen to a speech at the police academy in Roubaix, in the north of France, September 14, 2021.
LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP / Getty Images

One of the most infamous cases linked to Vérove is the rape and murder of 11-year-old Cécile Bloch, who disappeared after leaving her Paris apartment building in May 1986. Bloch’s body was later found in the basement of the building, and it was determined that she had been raped, strangled and stabbed in the chest.

Vérove’s nickname “the pockmarked man” came after Bloch’s brother recalled seeing a man with an acne-scarred face in their apartment building on the day of the crime.

Vérove was held responsible for the murders of Gilles Politi, 38, and his au pair, Irmgard Mueller, 21, both tortured. In the rapes committed on a 26-year-old German woman and two girls aged 14 and 11, Vérove identified herself as a police officer as a method of luring her victims.

“We had this conviction that he was either an officer or a gendarme, both by the violence he exercised against his victims and by the tactics he adopted,” said the lawyer representing the victims, according to the BBC.

Like Vérove, a number of rapes and murders committed by DeAngelo in California have been reported while he was still a serving police officer. DeAngelo was arrested in 2018 for his crimes, decades after they took place. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first degree murder two years later and is believed to be responsible for nearly 50 rapes.

More recently, a cop-turned-killer case rocked the UK after a London police officer was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a woman. On Thursday Wayne Couzens, 48, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Sarah Everard, whom he lured into his car for a false arrest as she drove home after visiting a friend in South London on March 3.

The most recent case sparked public outcry across the UK and raised questions about whether police officers are properly vetted for their work.

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