Intoduction by Étienne Sesmat, "The two Grégory cases"
"Generally speaking, the Vologne valley, where the villages that interest us are located, offers a pleasant living environment. The inhabitants have a decent level of income. The industrial fabric is dense, even if companies do not belong to the high-tech sector and do not practice staggering salaries. Contrary to a too common journalistic cliché, we are not here "in a moldy province", in the "deepest of the lugubrious Vosges valleys". We are not dealing with socially marginalized families ravaged by alcohol or consanguineous marriages, nor with crazy people with shameful mores. No more than boors, men of the woods, if not "towering hairy Moselle mountaineers inherited from the ancient Burgundians", as some have dreamed.
The geographic and social context of this case is ordinary. Recent economic changes have seen many factories shut down or downsized, but at the material time in the early 1980s, none of the protagonists in history were unemployed. There again the climate is not that of 'Germinal' and there is no matter in making a novel, even if, in this singular story, many actors will strive to dramatize the facts and make themselves more Machiavellian although the scenario did not allow it to be predicted ... If the decor is not sordid and if it shelters people whom we meet everywhere else, the "family stories" are nonetheless present. But which family does not have one? Which one does not contain secrets behind appearances? Even the most united and the most concerned about respectability. In this family, where we live less than 30 minutes by car from each other, we are very "family". We spend our time taking and exchanging news from loved ones. Sundays almost always offer the opportunity to get together over a meal taken with parents. At least when good understanding reigns because, proximity helping, intrigue, unspoken or "too much said" create more or less lasting conflicts, with their share of connivance, suspicion, "rabibochages" - reconciliations - or grudges. Besides this direct kinship live in the neighborhood the cousins Jacob. Monique Villemin is the eighth in a family of thirteen children - five girls and eight boys. This family has spread in and around the village of Aumontzey."
Grégory's paternal grandparents, Albert (1930) and Monique Villemin (born Jacob, 1931) were 54 and 53 years old respectively at the time of the drama.
They live in Aumontzey, in a small village nestled in the heart of a valley surrounded by the forests.
Monique Jacob, actually pregnant, married Albert Villemin in 1953. He worked at night, she by day. For a long time, the secret about their first son, Jacky, will remain buried. He is not Albert's child, but his mother did not reveal it to him until he was 17, "because he had heard about it at the factory". With the Jacob, the parents are "not happy" with this out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
And little more than she married Albert. The latter confirms: "I did not get on particularly well with my father-in-law, Leon. He reproached me my father's suicide". Others say that Albert "came home drunk" more than usual. In any case, he denies having been "once" unfaithful.
Albert, very sensitve and irascible, suffers from recurrent nervous breakdowns and works at the Walter Seitz spinning factory near his home. He grew up in an unstable family: In the 1930s, his mother, Jeanine Hollard, hit his eldest son Étienne, then three years old. His head violently hits the edge of a stove. The little boy was fatally injured and died a few days later in hospital. Pregnant with a little girl, she is then sentenced to a few years in jail. When Gaston Villemin, Albert's father, found himself mobilized on the front in 1939, Jeanine finally left her husband taking one of their daughters, nevertheless leaving behind her, their son Albert. Finally, his father, overwhelmed with sorrow, committed suicide tragically, hanging from a tree behind the church of a neighboring commune of Aumontzey, when the latter was only 12 years old. This event will pursue and torment him his whole life; the raven will also express a sordid satisfaction at the idea that Albert end his life.
Monique, who has a strong personality, sometimes experiences violence from her husband. During Albert's tantrums, she often took refuge, with their children, with her own parents Léon and Adeline Jacob. Born into a family of 13 children, she too grew up in a singular atmosphere: her father Léon, a (violent) man with a tempestuous character maintained a "relation" with his young daughter, Louisette, mentally handicapped. A little girl, Chantal, will be born from this incestuous union.
The shame of this family secret which is no longer one, will however never be evoked by the crow. Probably because this "secret" affects him personally. Monique: "Louisette became pregnant when I was 27 years old. It was my mother who told us that she was pregnant with my father. What do you want us to say? It was not easy. My mother did not leave home but she no longer slept with my father, it was Louisette who took her place in the bedroom and it lasted until the death of my father." Faced with this situation, Adeline, her mother, a loving woman, slowly sank into alcohol. In her youth, Monique therefore became pregnant, the result of a fleeting affair. She found herself grappling with the shame of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and the embarrassing consequences it entailed at the time. The dubious conception of the "bastard" - or Jacky - will also be a painful memory that the crow will systematically highlight. Monique also worked in the factory (until 1975) and now does household cleaning with private individuals. They have six children.
Jacky, the eldest, 31, is not Albert's biological son and was raised mainly by his maternal grandparents - the Jacob -. Albert never accepted him. Albert and Monique don't like his wife Liliane (born Jacquel); his relationships with his parents will be strongly affected. They live in Granges-sur-Vologne and have a son, Eric.
Jacky is a worker at the Aumontzey factory and Liliane is a correspondent for a local newspaper and a seamstress at home. The contrasting relationships they have with Albert and Monique do not help their position. Indeed, Jacky and Albert are not particularly close. They have no affinities, no common hobbies, nor even the same personality. And Liliane, an assertive woman who fights for the evolution of thoughts on the role and place of women in society, with difficulty endures the constant contempt of her father-in-law Albert. He called her "The Jacquel girl" and absolutely did not carry her in his heart. They were excluded from their marital union. Jacky and Liliane will be quickly suspected and then openly accused by the members of their family "to play the crows". This event will cause the breakdown of already extremely strained family ties. In addition, Liliane's father, Roger Jacquel, working in the same company as Jean-Marie openly expressed a certain animosity towards him. When Jean-Marie started working, he refused to join the CGT1. He was fired by his previous employer - Walter & Seitz Factory - for participating in a workers' strike. And due to a misunderstanding with his boss about a few days off. Moreover, Roger Jacquel's respiratory problems logically designated him as the ideal suspect acting out of pure revenge behind the slander of the hoarse and breathless voice. However, Jacky is a sensitive, nervous and even naive man who will try, on numerous occasions, to reconnect any existing family bond, however small it may be. He will try to convince Jean-Marie of their innocence without being heard. The suffering of being accused and denied by his loved ones, the constant worry of fearing a misfortune that would happen to his own family, the insidious anguish of hearing the hoarse voice on the phone ... considerably affected his health already brittle. He was a depressed and sad young man who simply wanted to live an ordinary life. The crow then maneuvers to direct suspicion towards this unloved, fragile and depreciated son (Jacky) and towards his in-laws, dividing the siblings a little more and weakening everyone's certainties.
1. CGT : 'La Confédération Générale du Travail' / 'The General Confederation of Labor', more commonly known as CGT, is a French trade union / organization responsible for protecting the rights of employees and improving their working conditions.
Michel, 29, is illiterate and suffers from being neglected by his parents; he is petrified by his lack of self-confidence Michel takes writing and reading lessons, he tries to fight his handicap which undermines him so much. He is also very jealous and envies the dazzling success of his brother Jean-Marie. Michel is sometimes violent with his wife Ginette (29, born Lecomte). They have two children, Christelle and Daniel.
Michel, Ginette and their two children live in Aumontzey in a small house next to the Villemin parents, 15 meters away. They also work in the factory, at Walter spinning mills. He is the victim of lightning nerve attacks identical to those of Albert. Michel is the « anti-Jean-Marie ». His brother expresses himself with ease, with a rich vocabulary, Michel finds difficult to organize his ideas. His language is confused, almost incomprehensible.
Ginette, a young woman with a cold and distant personality, was not the last to add fuel to the fire. She does not speak much, but her remarks are harsh. Michel seems to have played a "predominant role of informant", by providing details on each event (dispute, conflicts, reconciliation, etc.) that occurred within the family, to Bernard Laroche, his cousin and best friend who will later be suspected.
This couple will systematically throw suspicion on Jacky and Liliane, "the bastard" whose raven often takes the defense, always with the only desire to break the links which unite them and see them tear but also in order to carry the suspicions about Jacky and thus not betray his true identity. Michel and Ginette will be relatively spared.
Jacqueline, 28, is the only daughter in the siblings. She and her husband, Bernard Noël have no known relationship problems with them and live a little apart about 30 min, at Saulcy-sur-meurthe.
The female crow, more cautious, uses her identity - "Albert's daughter" - to commit her petty misdeeds. In the anonymous nauseating letters addressed to Albert and Monique, Jacqueline will be described as a "bitch" and the writer will mention Bernard "the son-in-law Nonoche" who according to him "counts more than her sons" (Monique). We have no more information on this couple, often torn between each other's conflicts, just like Gilbert Villemin.
Jean-Marie (26) and Christine (Blaise, 24) have moved away from the family circle to live away from tensions and preserve their intimate life. They met when Christine was 15 years old. They are the parents of Grégory, 4 years old.
Jean-Marie, "the chef" is an ambitious man and eager to build a heritage for his family, he does not hide his pride from those around him. Without a diploma and belonging to a working class environment, he quickly acquired an advantageous professional situation. From 1978, he was assigned to a laboratory position, a privileged sector of the company. His promotion arouses jealousy, he is only twenty years old. In February 1981, at the age of 22, he obtained a promotion and became foreman at the Auto-coussin factory where he worked and settled with Christine and Grégory in a pretty and isolated chalet on the heights of Lépanges-sur-Vologne, on the edge of the forest. Despite Monique's boundless admiration for her son, her feelings for her daughter-in-law Christine are contrasted, when Grégory's mother is suspected of murdering her own son, Monique will become a civil party and will support the accusation .
In this mainly working environment, his success did not go unnoticed, he managed to get out and rise above his condition. The purchase of the pavilion clearly signifies the success of Jean-Marie, him, a small worker without qualification or diplomas, former trade unionist CGT who became supervisor and manager of a team of 20 people. Christine is a seamstress at the "Manufacture de Confection Vosgienne" in Lépanges-sur-Vologne. Their phone line is installed in the summer 81, in July, and they are soon disturbed by strange anonymous calls, at first, silent or not, in which we sometimes hear various noises in the background - song , hissing - then sprinkled with insults and finally, harassed by a disguised, hoarse and threatening voice.
The appearance of these crows and the content of these handwritten calls / letters will grow crescendo over time. The progressive harassment of these individuals extended to close family members whose sole purpose was to create discord and a perpetual climate of suspicion in this already deleterious context. His specialty lies in his obsessions: reviving buried, painful and shameful family secrets, and dividing the cornered family in an atmosphere of reciprocal paranoia. These hateful crows took turns, separately and / or together by means of appreciably different methods but in a common desire to accentuate the dissensions and to inexorably destroy this family.
Some will be more targeted - such as Albert, Monique, Jacky and Liliane - by the cruelty of the hoarse voice, the most threatening individual. However, the main target is undoubtedly Jean-Marie and "his little family". His money, his comfortable family and professional situation will be at the heart of the personal hatred felt by the crow towards him. Soon damages to their vehicle and home, attempts to intrude when Christine is alone, then threats to rape his wife and finally, explicit death threats targeting his family, notably Grégory, will definitively disturb the peace of mind of this family.
Gilbert, 22, is nicknamed "the little idiot / con of Granges" by the crow. He and his wife Marie-Christine (born Jacques) will often be torn between each other's positions and mutual conflicts.
Gilbert and his wife do not have the phone at home and will be less disturbed by the crow's constant calls.
They will still be affected, notably Gilbert, victims of "jokes" or traps aimed at spoiling their daily lives, playing with their nerves, and destabilizing them.
They will witness an anonymous call to Jacky and Liliane and will try to exonerate them from Albert and Michel, in vain. His brother Jean-Marie was convinced that Roger Jacquel was hiding behind the breathless voice, necessarily an accomplice of Jacky and his daughter Liliane - the raven often defends Jacky, in a manner too rude to be honest.
Comments