Accused of earning money on the back of their dead son, Jean-Marie & Christine Villemin published in the spring of 1994 their book 'Le Seize Octobre', -A poignant story with two voices and open hearts,- which brought them back 610,000 francs (around $ 110,000, or € 94,000) entirely paid to Marie-Ange Laroche.
In 1995, Jean-Marie Villemin had to pay a new civil conviction of 450,000 francs, (around $ 81,000 or € 68,000), which this time covered the property damage of the widow of Bernard Laroche and her family.
Christine Villemin wrote a book published in 1986, “Let me tell you”. This book is the testimony of "the ordeal of a father and a mother overwhelmed by sorrow and slander".
"So, for three days, Christine tells about her life, from her childhood in this same house where she waits to know her fate until this day, through the evening of October 16, 1984. Apart from the instruction, the themes current affairs are numerous, even if they are not raised in a contradictory way: the behavior of the press towards her, her stardom, suspicion, money, her wishes and the future. She speaks unvarnished, as always, with her innocent logic. She speaks as if, in this logic, she saw the end of the nightmare. The decryption of the tapes is a unique document, more complete and more burning than all the minutes of Judge Lambert with their summary and one-sided responses. The book and its blameless syntax will not be able to convey this authenticity.
Marianne Orsini - Before the tragedy, what did the journalists represent to you?
Christine Villemin - We did not watch the news, except those from Lorraine. Otherwise, we weren't buying newspapers. But we didn't think journalists were like that. They are really unfriendly people. They destroy a life, incredible! I said to Jean-Marie: "Sometimes there are stars who kill themselves, it's not surprising." If they still have newspapers like that around them. These are the people who would drive people to suicide, with everything they write, with their relentlessness to always be behind you!
- Do you feel like a victim of the press?
Oh yes. Fortunately Jean-Marie was there. Last he was arguing with me, he said to me: “Don't read the papers anymore, you will hurt yourself.” It's true that if I read their bullshit, I would have hurt myself.
It’s not possible that they can invent it all and turn it all their way. And then they took advantage of us. They were taking a picture, posting interviews they weren't given. Bogus interviews. They hurt me a lot. At that time, the press said that it was I who would have killed my child, that I was a monster, that I had pushed Jean-Marie to kill Laroche in order to defend myself. They have gone too far. It hurts anyway!
Marianne Orsini then broaches the subject of prison and the investigation:
- Do you obsess over being able to go back to prison?
When we are between four walls, we wonder how we are going to come out. Especially when we haven't done anything. It’s going crazy.
- The more things drag on, the more we say to ourselves, even if we don't have any evidence against you, anyway, if we can't find anything else, it's her. How does it feel to always feel suspected?
I can not do anything about it. I can't scream. I can't cut my head off to prove my innocence. That's why I avoid going out.
- The other day, you said this phrase to me that impressed me: you are sometimes told: “This is THE Villemin” with all that that implies of contempt, of curiosity.
I read in their eyes: "She was the one who killed her child." That's why I go out as little as possible.
- How do you respond to people who can criticize you by saying: “She takes pleasure in this role of star”?
You would think that people are envious of the misfortune that is happening to you! I was criticized a lot for Paris Match (interview) but before, journalists would take pictures and write anything. I wasn't asking for anything.
When I went out they took pictures of me and every week I was in the newspapers. If the journalists had behaved differently, I think I would rather have agreed to have Julien taken in picture for free. If I made them pay, I could pay the lawyers.
People criticize, I no longer take pictures, I no longer accept reports, journalists will take whatever they want, as long as people pay our lawyers. Nowadays, to defend yourself, to have good lawyers, you have to have money. It's not normal. It's going to take a lot of money for Jean-Marie too. He's going to stand trial. Marie-Ange filed a civil action. She's going to ask for damages, several millions.
- When you are told that the Villemin case is one of the biggest criminal cases of the past five years and that it is exciting, that it thrills a whole country, do you mind?
It bothers me a lot. We lost our little boy. Many other families have also lost a child, rapes, or little girls have been killed. Like this little Algerian ... The journalists talked about it a bit, that's all.
- Are there people you will never forgive?
Murielle is the one I hate the most right now. If Muriel hadn't recanted, Laroche would be in jail. He would have been tried. And Jean-Marie would not be in prison. He would always be by my side and I wouldn't be wrongly accused. But we'll have to know the truth someday. We want to know why Grégory was taken from us. Why were we bothered for two years when we hadn't done any harm.
- How do you imagine the rest of your life?
We must already wait for a 'non-lieu' for me and the judgment for Jean-Marie. It will depend on how many years he will have.
- In your opinion, he will benefit from extenuating circumstances?
Yes, I don't think he will have much.
- When Jean-Marie comes out of prison, you will resume your life with Julien who will have grown up. Do you think you will have a second child?
Oh yes ! We will no longer stay with a single child. We cannot know the future. Illness ... it's too hard to suddenly lose a child and be alone.
- Do you know where to rebuild your life?
The farthest we can go. Abroad. With everything the press has said, if we stayed in France, we would still be recognized. Or else, it would be necessary to have cosmetic surgery. Journalists have always followed us. Later, they will come to see the life that we will have made again. If we succeed in settling abroad, we will only come back to France to be buried with Grégory. That's all. We'll come back because we can't take it.
- Is there something close to your heart today?
If something as horrible as happened to us and our couple should happen to others, the journalists should not go after the parents or the family as they did in our case. They did a lot of harm rather than help us.
- Do you think of Bezzina, of Ker?
There are only four or five that have been correct. That's all. They recounted in their ducks the progress of the investigation without adding any more. Without modeling, without inventing to make sensational like Bezzina, Ker, 'Ici Paris'…
In 1993, Laurence Lacour published "Le Bûcher des innocents", a book in which she notably denounced the incredible media drift of the affair, a phenomenon for which she showed that, for her, the responsibility fell in part to the multi-card journalist Jean-Michel Bezzina (1942-2001) and to his wife at the time, Marie-France Lefèvre, who, taking advantage of the incompetence of Jean-Michel Lambert, the examining magistrate, and acting in concert with the lawyer Gérard Welzer and the principal commissioner Jacques Corazzi, in charge of the investigation into the death of Grégory Villemin from February 1985, impose on RTL and in eight other national media such as 'Le Figaro', 'France-Soir', 'Le Parisien' or 'Le Quotidien de Paris', to which the couple collaborates, the thesis of the mother infanticide.
Jean-Michel Bezzina, who had sued her for defamation, was dismissed by the Paris High Court. His wife, who had filed a complaint on her side for the same reasons, was also dismissed in 1996 by the High Court of Nancy.
Jean Ker has been working alone for thirty years on all major news items and has been very involved in the Bruay-en-Artois affair, where he continues to investigate for the parents of the victim, Brigitte Dewevre. Journalist and photographer for Paris Match, he knows how to search villages and pull, door to door, the confidences and clichés that we refuse to others. Ker belongs to that ancient race of reporters, half cops, half thugs, for whom the end justifies the means. Our generation seems too conformist, too concerned with sticking to official, police or judicial information. As a man of the field, he will soon appropriate the enigma of the Vologne and nothing will escape him. Because Jean Ker behaves like a real detective. He files the witnesses, questions them and remains for hours in an awkward position to take a picture. He can also force a cliché like that of the bouquet of flowers thrown by an anonymous hand in the Vologne region of Docelles. The same hand, hers, then collects the bouquet so that the others do not take advantage of it. His long gray hair hangs over her leather jacket. His marked face betrays his life as an adventurer and his strong voice bends the most recalcitrant. He is proud to precede the investigators in their field.
For example, Jean Ker was able to convince Henri-René Garaud to introduce him to the couple. He immediately asks for pictures of Grégory, then photographs his room, which has been converted into a sanctuary. Intimidated by these two men, including a famous lawyer old enough to be their father, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin open their albums. Ker draws some thirty images from it. He also claims the beautiful portrait of the child to reproduce it. This time they refuse, but agree to reveal to him the name of its author, a photographer from Saint-Dié. To this exclusive harvest, Jean Ker adds photocopies of three of the letters from the crow that Me Garaud gives him when they return to Paris. The lawyer traveled in the journalist's car to save a train ticket. Later, others will have the opportunity to take home Me Garaud, who has an immoderate taste for small economies, a legacy of his peasant origins in 'Ariège'. The publication of these first intimate photographs and those of Grégory’s bedroom increases the bitterness of photographers against Jean Ker. In two weeks, he found the photos of weddings, childhood memories and school groups, even the one from the last school year that has not yet been given to the parents of the students. This is the only document on which Grégory, taken the day before by his mother to the hairdresser, looks like a boy and no longer like a baby. Jean Ker takes or buys everything, even if the photos are not published. Most of them sleep in the archives of Paris Match, made inaccessible to other photographers.
- I guess Judge Lambert was not very brilliant either. Otherwise, we might not be there.
In such a case, a judge should have character, not be intimidated, maneuver. He should take all testimonials into consideration, not just the ones that interest him.
- Will you forgive Judge Lambert?
No. Never. He hurt us a lot from the start, whether it was in the investigation, in the expertise ... He made a lot of mistakes. If Jean-Marie is there too, it's largely his fault. I will never forgive him because he accuses me and if I got down on my knees in front of him he wouldn't believe me. I don't know what to do to show him he's wrong.
- If one day we learn that the truth is Laroche, I suppose he will have some scruples, some remorse towards you and that he will come to be forgiven.
I won't ask him. I don't know if he will.
- Bezzina reportedly said, "If I am shown she have nothing to do with this murder, I don't know what I will do but I will necessarily do something about her."
But he won't have to come in front of me. Nor in front of Jean-Marie. He did a lot of harm. He started it and all the journalists followed him. He really was the head of the herd.
"Marie-Ange Laroche is back in the spotlight. As every time the judicial pressure on Christine is relaxed, her lawyers urge the young widow to speak to journalists. The invitations are always selective, but those who meet her find the same serious and disinterested woman although unemployed with two children: the anti-Christine media 'par
excellence'.
The perfect mirror. To Christine the money, the rumor, the show biz. For Marie-Ange, unemployment, hardship, affirmed principles. At a time when we only speak of 'non-lieu', Marie-Ange calls for justice: "I hope to one day know the truth about Grégory's death when Bernard's innocence has been recognized by justice. I do not understand why the complaint lodged by my lawyers against Christine Villemin for attempted and aiding and abetting murder had so little follow-up."
Maîtres Prompt and Welzer are tightening the noose, especially as they now know what use the Villemin defense would make of this ghostly 'non-lieu': a weapon to demand further investigations into their deceased client. In this perspective, and in order to be able to oppose it, they make yet another attempt to get back into the matter by pushing a great-uncle of Grégory to file a civil suit. The latter accepts to, he says, be of service to Marie-Ange. But, there again, we do not see how this man who barely knew Grégory can assert a prejudice relating to his death.
Jean-Michel Lambert rejects this final request. At that time, the balance of power reached its climax, illustrated by this powerful title from Ici Paris: "Christine Villemin has killed!" On the sidewalks, passers-by unsurprisingly see these posters which reinforce a widespread feeling. The release of her book "Let me tell you" gives the signal for a new confrontation.
Twenty months after the death of her son, she appears on the cover of Paris Match, photographed by Jet-Set, dressed in yellow, hair and makeup by expert hands. With her arms crossed, she is leaning against a white background that projects her out of time and places that are familiar to her. She is no longer a worker but a character apart, halfway between reality and the novel of her life. Her handwriting, dissected six times by the experts in the file, crosses the cover of the newspaper: “Ah! If this book could share with you the ordeal of a father and a mother overwhelmed by sorrow and slander. If you knew Grégory… ”. This work, rather a testimony, wants to restore in two hundred and forty pages a truth following twenty months of lies. But everything gets mixed up, without anyone being able to sort it out; this truth, the error, the authentic sentences, the fiction ... Christine attacks with words that are not her own and on which her accusers will pounce. The book, written in a few weeks but with sincerity by Marianne Orsini ("I cried your tears", the journalist wrote to her), is sold for 58 francs (10$) a copy. The contract signed by Christine includes a deposit of 100,000 francs, half of which goes to Me Garaud. The lawyer read the book, page by page, to Jean-Marie Villemin during the visiting rooms. Grégory’s father corrects and controls everything, unlike his wife, overwhelmed by events. The document could be heard as a cry of revolt if it did not return, like a throbbing pain, to the case of Bernard Laroche. An entire chapter is devoted to him, accompanied by a new appeal to Muriel, suspected of holding part of the truth, just like Michel and Ginette.
Me Garaud pushes the audacity to reproduce in extenso the judgment of the indictment chamber of Nancy which, on December 14, 1984, kept Bernard Laroche in detention. The lawyer seems to forget that Judge Lambert wrote a release order two months later rendering the chamber judgment null and void. Me Prompt expected this assault and immediately asked, by summary, for the seizure of the book. He believes that Christine is trying to influence justice and is "condoning the murder".
The magistrates of Paris order the immediate withdrawal of the sale under penalty of 100 francs (18 $) per copy sold. In the developing crisis, the whole of justice is threatened by Christine Villemin. By recalling the starting point, the young woman's book forces us to look at an unbearable reality. There are three accused in this case, too many for the proper functioning of the judiciary. The authority would have been satisfied with a file closed by any means. This is now impossible. If Christine Villemin obtains her 'non-lieu', justice will still find itself with a dead person charged on the arms.
If she is sent back to the court, she who will bear the responsibility. This is the stake. The decision to seize a "work of the spirit", according to the judges, is serious and exceptional, but they do not accept "the attack on the honor and the consideration of the family of Bernard Laroche". Me Garaud, surprised by the brutality of this sanction, which he did not expect, appealed, more thunderously than ever: - I am sad for the judicial machine. When they have a muscular defense that doesn't flatten out, they don't like it. But me, my vertebrae are not stuck, I will continue my path ...
Attacked in its foundations by Christine, justice receives the support of its best ally in this file: the press - not to say society as a whole. The handful of "bewitchers" of the summer of 1985 have been replaced by hundreds of journalists and millions of readers. The book is vilified. For everyone, except 'Le Républicain lorrain' and… 'Minute', Christine crosses the boundaries of decency. 'L'Est Républicain' criticizes "the royalties of this bestseller" and plays cruelly on a coincidence of the calendar: "Mother's Day: the Memoirs of Christine Villemin in bookstores".
'VSD', in direct competition with 'Paris Match', protests against the "forensic marketing" created around the young woman while displaying her portrait on the cover. The title sounds like a rejection: “Villemin. Enough is enough". "Innocence is not yet judged by universal suffrage. The words "success", "star", "show", "contract", "Jet-Set", "show business", "negotiations" replace those - "monster, witch, Machiavellian, evil", etc. - who, a year earlier, were already slaughtering Christine Villemin long before she was charged.
Patrick Sabatier wishes to invite her to his show "Le Jeu de la Vérité", this media court, but Me Garaud prefers to wait until her client is released by a 'non-lieu'. Everyone reproaches Christine for enriching herself with her misfortune, even enjoying it with the perversity of a culprit. She is overwhelmed because she is after a dead man like only an evil woman can. Those in the press who multiply the criticisms are careful not to count what the "Grégory case" has been reporting to them for nearly two years.
This book, without much scope, is the book of all the taboos entangled in an unnatural alliance: death, child, money and mother. When I ask Jean-Michel Lambert about this strategy, he says: - It's amazing. Maybe that will change things. Everyone is uncomfortable with the money she can make with this book… Everywhere in the hushed courthouses, we only hear the same annoyance on this subject: - The media star, she begins to annoy us ... Five days later, against all expectations, the senior magistrates of the Paris Court of Appeal settle the issue by authorizing the sale of the book with the sequestration, for one year, of its financial product.
The complaints will be withdrawn in favor of discreet transactions amounting to 800,000 francs (143,000$) for Marie-Ange Laroche and 70,000 francs (12,500$) for Albert and Monique Villemin and their children. In the grip of the insults of a whole society, Christine Villemin begins to measure the risks of the strategy of Me Garaud. When the Jet-Set team returns home for the third time, she rebels, stand up to Denis Tarento, and refuses the clothes and makeup. It was without regret that she and her family saw the photographer's car leave, bringing Me Garaud and Michel Lafon back to Paris. Jean-Claude Hauck and I attend this scene, relieved, with the feeling that this unhealthy one-upmanship is finally over. Christine is about to spend a second summer in limbo, but this time in relative calm. She always receives many letters of support and tries to respond to each one.
In the evening, to clear her mind, she works her correspondence courses on the life of horses and the care to be given to them. Julien pierced his first four teeth. Her grandmother has found a four-leaf clover which she hastens to send to Jean-Marie, hoping it will bring him luck. While in Baccarat, she enters the church with her son and burns a candle making three wishes, which she will entrust to Jean-Marie at the next visitation room. Christine is now just waiting for one thing: her fate to be resolved so that she can finally see her husband tried and possibly soon released. On July 22, 1986, Jean-Marie Villemin was referred to the Vosges Court by the Nancy indictment chamber, which rejected all the requests filed by Bernard Laroche’s defenders.
They demanded the indictment of Christine for complicity in assassination and attempted assassination, but the answer of the high magistrates is definitely clear: “On March 29, 1985, she did not bring the slightest help and assistance to her husband. : that day, Jean-Marie made his decision alone without even notifying his wife, who gave nurse Annick Freiheit the impression of being surprised and sincerely upset at the announcement by her husband of the crime that he had just committed: it is not without interest to add that Christine Villemin was still crying when the judicial police arrived". The chamber orders the cancellation of all records of telephone tapping by the SRPJ for a year and a half at Christine's grandmother, calling the process "completely unacceptable." A short sentence slipped into the body of the text specifies that: “The Attorney General gave assurances at the hearing that Jean-Marie Villemin will not be tried before the decision to intervene in the proceedings against his wife". In July 1986, nobody can measure the scope of this a priori commitment without great consequences and imagine that this trial would not start, in fact, until seven and a half years later ..."
-Laurence Lacour.
As the journalist Denis Robert details in 'Libération' of February 14, 1995, this lawsuit for property damage brought against Grégory's father makes it possible to "financially identify this affair which generated tremendous economic activity".
'Paris Match' has transferred, in transactions or fines, to the account of the Villemin lawyers nearly 2 million francs (approximately $ 360,000, € 305,000). The sums paid to the Bolle by the weekly are close to 1.5 million francs (around $ 270,000 or € 230,000).
Then came 'France Dimanche', 'Ici Paris', 'Détective' ... In total, the turnover of this incredible news item which made revenue amounts to 6.8 million francs:
3,5 million francs (around $ 630,000 or € 530,000) for the Villemin family,
3,3 million francs (around $ 595,000 or € 500,000) for the Bolle-Laroche family.
Paris Match is a French weekly news and image magazine, born in 1949 and known for its motto: "The weight of words, the shock of photos". In 2008, however, the weekly adopted a new motto, "Life is a true story".
France Dimanche is a French people press magazine.
Ici Paris is a magazine created in 1945. It is one of the oldest French celebrity weeklies of the CMI France group.
Le Nouveau Détective is a French weekly news magazine created by Gaston Gallimard in 1928 under the original title 'Détective'.
To arrive at these additions, Jean-Marie Villemin listed the some eighty defamation proceedings, violation of privacy or image rights.
Of the 3.5 million francs earned thanks to the press, M° Garaud was compensated to the tune of 1.16 million francs (around $ 210,000 or € 176,000), not to mention 700,000 francs in miscellaneous costs (around $ 125,000 or € 106,000).
The two other lawyers of the couple, M° Thierry Moser and M° François Robinet, respectively touched 60,000 francs (around $ 11,000 or € 9,000) and 50,000 francs (around $ 9,000 or € 7,500): "The technique of M° Garaud consisted in being compensated thanks to the lawsuits against the newspapers, mainly against Paris Match", asserts 'Liberation' which compares him to an "impresario". These calculations show that the Villemin couple did not get rich.
The 800,000 francs (around $ 145,000 or € 122,000) which, in the end, are due to them do not cover the loss of earnings on the sale of their Vosges house and the loss of wages linked to the business.
As for the 660,000 francs (around $ 119,000 or € 100,000) paid by the compensation commission to victims for the death of Grégory, they are then stuck at 4 / 5th, pending future judgments.
For the Bolle family, the financial results are more positive. Marie-Ange received 2.2 million francs (around $ 395,000 or € 335,000) Her sister Murielle Bolle has won 860,000 francs (around $ 155,000 or € 130,000) in various lawsuits, the other members of the family, about 500,000 francs (around $ 90,000 or € 76,000)..
According to Jean-Marie Villemin's disillusioned expression, this compensation puzzle is akin to a “Grégory Lotto”.
Launched into his infernal mechanics, M° Prompt can no longer stop the fight against the clients of the lawyer of 'Légitime Défense', and assigns them to the courts for their book, 'Le seize Octobre', their participation in 'La Marche du siècle', a 'Paris Match' article independent of their will, etc., and claimed a total of 6 million francs (almost $1,100,000 or €915,000) from Jean-Marie & Christine Villemin in 1995 !
Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin parted with the sulphurous Henri-René Garaud to rely on the dashing Arnaud Montebourg. M° Montebourg then finds the miracle solution which will erase the slate: he proposes to the opposing party the immediate balance of the total amount of the convictions, that is to say 1 million 350 000 francs (around $ 243,000 or € 205,000), in exchange for the withdrawal of all the complaints and procedures in progress. Suddenly, the Communist lawyer and his socialist colleague accept this deal, and a memorandum of understanding is finally born for a final clearance of accounts. On July 5, 1995, ten years after her imprisonment,
Christine Villemin was awarded the highest sum ever allocated by the commission for abusive detentions: 410,000 francs (around $ 74,000 or € 62,500). Of course, this sum is not only used to repair eleven days in prison, but also the injustice of eight years of indictment for infanticide. It is with this money that Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin were able to buy a farmhouse in Essonne to restore it. And try to rebuild their life.
"Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin are gradually bringing together the scattered pieces of their life to rebuild it. When Me Garaud drops them off on a sidewalk at the foot of an HLM in Évry (Essonne), the new town, they discover a world in which they had never imagined living one day.
Towers, pyramids, concrete and inlets between the vaults of the shopping arcades. Overcrowded highways like they've never seen before. Nothing in common with the grocery store or the bakery in Lépanges, the Chemin du Faing-Vairel on the edge of the meadows and the wind from the hill which lifted Grégory's inflatable swimming pool to send him among the cows in the Claudon field. The couple, who don't own much, spend their first night on the ground, in a sleeping bag. They have to buy and organize everything. So begins a game of hide and seek with freedom. A false name on the mailbox, objects and furniture paid for in cash only, a scarf on the head to buy bread and newspaper, glasses to go to the supermarket, fear of being insulted, recognized or photographed in the street or in the square with Julien.
Jean-Marie is gradually integrating into his work in a factory in 'Essonne' where employees were prepared on his arrival in a more or less friendly environment. Villemin’s name sounds bad, and many HLM offices have refused them a housing, officially for fear of the nuisance caused by journalists. During a medical appointment, when Grégory’s mother has to state her identity, a secretary leaning over a form asks her: "Do you mind calling yourself like Christine Villemin?"
Years later, she will agree to speak of these humiliations with the same formula and a gesture of disgust to push back "all this mud..." But the couple, too happy to meet again, overcomes these hassles, so insignificant compared to their respective paths for more than three years. Mistrustful and fearful, the Villemin do not allow themselves to be approached, and it will take all the patient generosity of the director of the office of the 1% employers of 'Essonne', Claude Brou, to reverse their prejudices towards men and the society. He believed to discover two media
“monsters”, gradually tames “two frightened little birds”.
Thanks to him and his wife Colette, Grégory’s parents will find, year after year, a human and family base. Claude Brou soon gave them access to a low-cost housing estate pavilion located at the end of a dead end, on the edge of the RER railway line. It is in this house, endowed with a piece of garden and so different from that of Lépanges-sur-Vologne, that over time life will return to them. Since the Christmas 1987 release, the couple have clung to what they call the "Investigation of Hope."
For Christine, however, the interrogations continue to follow one another, tight, detailed, stopping for the necessary time on the slightest error, the slightest contradiction or the slightest lie, even by omission. The magistrate Maurice Simon always opposes her the same facade, smooth and impenetrable. According to a well-established ritual, he lays his watch flat on his desk and conducts the interrogation, aided by a piece of paper with ten key words on it. Endowed with a great capacity for listening, he lets her speak at length, dictates her entire sentences to the clerk and then has each item checked by investigators from the Dijon Research Section, led by Commander Lamy. And so on until things fit together without a day between them. All without giving way to a personal comment. Little by little, Christine Villemin frees herself. After three years of harassment, she has the right to make mistakes, to hesitate, without being immediately crushed under the weight of a charge. Maurice Simon sprinkles his interrogations, like those of witnesses, with unsettling questions unrelated to the subject of the hearing.
Starting from the principle that "no one has enough memory to succeed in a lie", he leads them to repeat themselves from one hearing to another, to question themselves, to think aloud and to compare their opinions to the information garnered elsewhere. This method forces her to relive painfully all the stages of the investigation of Épinal that the magistrate was told by his main actors. When he submits to her the deposition of Commissioner Corazzi, Christine protests: "I must tell you that when the arrest warrant was notified, I refused to sign it, but I never specified that Me Garaud had recommended not to sign anything. I didn't kill my child, I still couldn't sign something that meant that I was accused of having killed my child." It should be noted that in saying this, Ms. Villemin shows strong emotion.
The Villemin are rebuilding their homes by being forgotten by the press and appreciated by their neighbors, while Marie-Ange announces her remarriage at the end of the summer. To everyone's surprise, she married a Jacob, Denis, another first cousin of Jean-Marie and Bernard. Bernard's father was Jean-Marie's godfather, Denis's mother is his godmother… In a crinoline dress of lace and white ruffles, she offers herself a star wedding in her new village located a few kilometers from Aumontzey. Radiant on her husband's arm, she goes up the main street to the applause of onlookers.
Beside them, Murielle, flamboyant in a green outfit, laughs out loud. The two sisters, very happy, did not notice, hidden in the crowd of curious and familiar, a few plainclothes gendarmes, who had come to observe the audience and the sunny party. Press photographers, already present during Bernard Laroche's arrest, his funeral and that of Jeanine Bolle, kindly take the photos for the family members who hand them Instamatics. At the end of the procession, suspended from a broom wagon, a mannequin swings at the end of a rope, like a dark premonition ..."
- Laurence Lacour.
Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin have rebuilt their lives, saved by their love and their three children. But they never gave up on bringing out the truth.
Almost 40 years later, Christine and Jean-Marie still do not have their answer. And yet… they have their 'revenge': their children are happy. They saved Grégory's brothers and sister from the hatred that destroyed their family in 1984.
Julien is born in 1985 while his father is imprisoned for the murder of Bernard Laroche. When Christine cries at night, the infant lying next to her consoles her. Now, at 36, himself a father, he runs a franchise of several optical stores. “Julien's presence saved us,” writes Jean-Marie."The arrival of Emelyne brought us back to balance." "Emelyne is an intellectual who has the cheerfulness of Christine," confides a relative.
At 31, she is an associate professor of life and earth sciences. She went through "Maths Sup" and "Maths Spé"1, where she was the only child of a worker, whose parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts never passed third grade. The youngest, named Simon in honor of the judge who gave them hope, obtained his Scientific Baccalauréat2. He is now 23 years old. Last I heard, he wanted to become a sports educator.
All three live near Paris, far from the damned Vologne. When, in 1988, Christine and Jean-Marie moved to the Paris region, they knew no one there. However, the whole of France knows their name. So, in 'Evry', they first call themselves Dintinger, like a brother-in-law. The new city with HLM bars3 is a shock.
“Huge and cold, concrete everywhere,” says Christine. Very quickly, the couple found a house near a forest, still in 'Essonne'.
It’s not their dear 'Lorraine' countryside, but it’s beautiful.. This is where the children will grow up. Julien, Emelyne and Simon know everything about their brother's murder.
Director Raoul Peck remembers the day he came to present to the family "The Villemin case"4, the documentary he had just completed for the channel France 3: "We watched six hours straight. We all cried at the end." The Haitian filmmaker and the Villemins have kept a strong bond of friendship. "I found a couple in love and not bitter," he says. "If Christine and Jean-Marie didn't love each other, they would have died," adds Laurent, a friend.
A love that allows them to last nine years, until 1993, when, at the end of the additional investigation, the court pronounces against Christine a 'non-lieu'5 for "total absence of charges".
An unprecedented verdict which gives back to Grégory's mother her innocence and her honor. She can find a normal life, a new job, she has not worked since October 16, 1984.
A publisher friend thinks of her to manage her customer relations. A position she still holds today. "She's good at people relationships, she writes and talks over the phone to clients who have no idea who she is. And she manages to forge real links,” says her boss. Every morning, the former textile worker takes the RER to go to the left bank in Paris, where no one recognizes her. "Christine and Jean-Marie are aware that, in their misfortune, they had access to knowledge, an art of living, new circles", continues an office colleague.
Rehabilitated by the courts, compensated by the State, reintegrated into professional life, in 'Lorraine', Christine Villemin is still guilty. "She is not clear," hiss those who do not want to hear about the 'non-lieu' and "total absence of charges".
The poison of slander continues to spread. "The mother... she is fishy ..." Christine knows this and that is also why she is fighting, so that the justice system continues the investigation. The name of a culprit will weigh more heavily in public opinion than his 'non-lieu' in 1993. Jean-Marie knows it too. In 'Essonne', thanks to his former boss in the Vosges, he found a job with an automotive supplier. He became a foreman again, promoted several times. But, to demonstrate the innocence of his wife, he helps justice.
As early as the 1990s, he began writing a white book, aimed at their children. It reads the entire investigation file, lists and classifies all the testimonies. He wants to understand the hatred that robbed them of Grégory, wants the culprit, even if he has to unmask him within his own family. He succeeded in reopening the investigation in 2000 and 2008. Several DNA analyzes gave hope…
In vain. But he continues to regularly report his findings to investigators.
With only one theory: his cousin Bernard Laroche kidnapped and then killed Grégory. However, in June 2017, the Villemin's learned that Bernard was probably not solely responsible ... A devilishly family web has been woven around a 4-year-old boy. And a mystery remains: who killed Grégory ? In her office in 'SaintGermain-des-Prés', Christine told a friend she had only one dream: "Let the investigation succeed."
1'Math Sup' & 'Math spé' : In France, the class of higher mathematics (Sup) is the name of the first year of a former stream of preparatory classes. The special mathematics (Spé) class is the name of the second year of a former stream of preparatory classes. (replaced by the scientific preparatory classes stream after the 1997 higher education reform). The preparatory classes Math Sup Math Spé are, as their name suggests, preparations for the competitive examinations of the engineering schools, teacher training colleges, Polytechnic schools, etc.
2'Baccalauréat' : In France, the Baccalauréat, often called 'bac', is a national diploma certifying the end of general, technological or vocational secondary studies.
3'HLM' : A low-rent housing (HLM, Habitation à Loyer Modéré) is a housing managed by a low-rent housing organization, public or private, which benefits from partial public funding. Intended for individuals and families of modest means.
4'The Villemin case' : This mini-series relates the death of Grégory Villemin as well as the judicial progress of this case.
5'Non-lieu', Law : Decision by which the examining magistrate declares that there is no need to prosecute.
Details on the role and influence of Jean Ker
"Jean-Marie's landmarks are starting to capsize. Impressed by this mixture of anger and despondency, I once again alert Judge Lambert. Many other journalists, witnessing similar scenes, warn authorities of the danger. But no one reacts. When Jean Ker arrives at the Lépanges chalet with new information, the Villemin's find with emotion the one they naively call their "detective". The journalist shows them the report of Me Prompt on "The improbabilities and contradictions of the civil party" which accompanied, a few weeks earlier, the second request for release of Bernard Laroche. - But… our lawyer didn't tell us about that! Upset, Jean-Marie grabs the text to photocopy it at the town hall. Christine is left alone with Ker, who gives her a facsimile of the crim letter. The journalist photographs the young woman with this damning paper in her hands. But she is tired and refuses to play the game any longer. Jean-Marie, returned with the photocopies, supports his wife: - We trust you but we are fed up with photos. Ker argues. He gives them information from the file, but in return the couple must be cooperative. He unrolls the portrait of Grégory, which he had enlarged, and gives it to his mother. Above the hill, the wind blows the clouds into a vivid blue sky. Christine, her eyes suddenly full of tears, contemplates the poster and exclaims: - Oh, how beautiful my kid is! The reporter sits it down in the sun on a leather folder and quickly takes some film. She hugs the image of the missing child against her heart without realizing that with his slightly tilted head, his silky curls, his smooth and plump cheeks and his white little teeth, her son embodies this Baby Cadum that France has so cherished and which she struggles to separate.
The reflections of a silver medallion containing the same miniature photo are dancing on her dark sweater. In the almost empty house, the couple settle down on the garden armchairs stored in the living room. Ker puts on a stool a small tape recorder containing his conversations with Judge Lambert and various witnesses speaking of Bernard Laroche, recorded without their knowledge. The Match reporter takes another set of photos from the hallway as the couple are absorbed in hearing the tapes. He ends his report with pictures of Grégory's room.
On February 26, 1985, the movement that would precipitate their downfall and that of their cousin accelerated. In forty-eight hours, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin live decisive moments. It all begins with the visit of two gendarmes who, passing through Bruyères, come to greet them on their return from the cemetery. The conversation turns to the investigation. Jean-Marie would later recount the scene in front of the examining magistrate: “We talked about the case again. I brought up the subject. I asked them what they thought of Laroche's release. They replied that they did not understand but that there was something missing [sic] in the file. It was the little one that said that and the other went on to say, "We would have done that to my son, I would know what remains for me to do." […] I asked them what the consequences would be for me if I killed Laroche and the older one replied: “Whoever would kill him, there would be enough charges against Laroche to defend him". […] Christine, questioned without having been able to consult with her husband, will give the same version of this visit. But the two gendarmes will mitigate these remarks, considering that the Villemin couple misinterpreted their compassion.
Either way, they do not understand that day that Jean-Marie Villemin is now looking in the words and the silences of his interlocutors, in the looks he meets, an encouragement to follow his instinct for revenge. In the afternoon, Isabelle Baechler from Antenne 2 tells them about her meeting with the Laroche family during an interview organized by Me Welzer.
Christine will explain: "She told us that Laroche was soft and that his wife, on the contrary, was very bad and that when there were questions that embarrassed him, it was she who answered and not him. She also told us what Ms. Prompt thought of the case, which was that it was an accident disguised as a crime. So that I was with my lover in bed, that the little one was playing outside and that he fell in the Vologne, located 3 or 4 meters from our house. I then said to Isabelle Baechler: "But he's laughing, because Vologne is at least a kilometer from us." Isabelle Baechler replied: "He hasn't been in the field yet, the main thing is to get his client out of prison." When you hear stuff like that, it moves you. We did not sleep all night from Monday to Tuesday and on Tuesday morning we decided to kill Laroche but wait until Wednesday morning". The Antenne 2 reporter, who sees the Villemin's dismay and anger, dissuades them from doing anything. Then she goes to Nancy, to try to alert Superintendent Corazzi who turns her away without wanting to hear her. She will try again by phone, but to no avail. By virtue of his friendship with the Bezzina, the commissioner does not meet any other journalist. Isabelle, like others like me, is persona non grata at the head office of the judicial police. After these two visits, Jean Ker knocks again on their door. He puts his tape recorder on the dining room table. This time the harvest is substantial. He recorded much of the minutes collected at the start of the investigation in Mr. Welzer's office.
It takes three hours to listen to the tapes, from 6 to 9 p.m. Ker chose testimony from witnesses, family, and especially Murielle's minutes. The Villemins never had direct access to these documents. They never read them in detail. Christine listens to the cassettes, her eyes fixed in space, swinging the chain of her medallion with her fingertips. Looking at her, Ker thinks of a medium seeking truth with his pendulum. The Paris Match journalist believes in the guilt of Bernard Laroche. He is the only one who dares to tell them openly. Grégory's parents, paralyzed, listen to Murielle's last words spoken on the tape with Ker's voice. They believe they see their son disappear. Jean-Marie told him: 'What would you do in my place?' after asking him if he had children. Ker replied, "I can't put myself in your shoes, but he would be my son, I would shoot him." Jean-Marie then showed him the weapon. Ker said, “Think about it, think about your wife."
The couple details their plan, often scaffolded in their heads irrigated by pain: 1) Christine stands in the car at the crossroads to block Laroche; 2) Jean-Marie slips behind the war memorial and when Bernard arrives, he shoots; 3) They constitute themselves prisoners. Their personal effects are ready, stored in two small bags. On the top, the photos of Grégory divided into two equal piles. The plan is slated for execution as early as the next dawn, before 5 a.m., when their cousin leaves for the factory. Jean-Marie will continue the story: “Ker replied, "Don't mess around, don't go now. Don't do this blindly, if you want, I volunteer to see his schedules. "I told him it wasn't worth it, that I knew Laroche's hour". Ker, questioned in his turn, will say that the Villemin "mixed up" on this point and that he tried to distract them from their project. Jean-Marie would have replied: “We will see that". Then the journalist leaves around 10 pm.
He will describe the last scene in the night in the parking lot of the building: "Jean-Marie had tears in his eyes. He said to me, "I hope you don't let us down if we both end up in jail." He shook my hand for at least two or three minutes. Before I left, I told him, "If you don't reassure me about your intentions, I'll warn you, I'm standing there at the foot of the building and I'm not moving from here." Jean-Marie said to me with a little whiny smile: “Jean, you can go to sleep”. In the apartment, the couple discuss their project with Gilberte, Christine's mother. “My mother didn't want to. She said, "You're going to go to jail, let justice be done." She even offered to do it herself, saying she had madeher life. We told her, “Here we go.” She didn't insist and saidthat he was our kid after all." Back at the hotel, Ker doesn't know what makes him dizzy the most: the effects of the alcohol at dinner, the fear, or Jean-Marie's words coming and going. Worried, he asks to be woken up at 4 am and calls his wife. In her house in the forest of Compiègne, far from the passions of Lépanges, she understands the double danger: if the Villemin killed Bernard Laroche, Ker could, because of this particular evening, also be worried. The lucidity of his wife sobers him up. At 4 o'clock, the reporter gets up and telephones Bruyères. As of the second ring, Mme Châtel picks up, her voice clear. He claims Jean-Marie. She objects to him that he is sleeping. He doesn't believe it. Indeed, after a few hours of a sleepless and "excruciating" night, in their own words, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin get up determined. To wait more (and wait for what since in their minds “everything is rigged”?) seems to them a betrayal towards their child. In a childish reflex, they eat what they believe to be their last common breakfast before jail. In his gray BX, Ker has never driven so fast. It devours the road, barely visible between two hedges of dark forests. The fifteen kilometers of straight line to Docelles and then, to the left, the series of dangerous turns that follow the course of the Vologne to Lépanges. He told himself that they were kids and "they weren't going to do such a stupid thing." But he knows that, twice already, they are stationed behind the Laroche house. At the bottom of the building, the white R18 has disappeared. The pounding temples, the journalist rushes towards the village where Bernard and Jean-Marie grew up side by side. Suddenly, in its headlights, the car of Grégory's parents, parked against the small war memorial. Christine at the wheel, engine idling.
Jean-Marie, hidden behind the stele, the weapon at his side. The streetlights crackle in the night. A few spots of light appear on the hills - the workers prepare for the 5 hour hiring. Among them, Bernard Laroche. On a sidewalk, Ginette Villemin, coming to look for another worker to go to the factory. Does she understand that her closest friend is in danger? She doesn't flinch, petrified. Ker walks up and talks as one walks through the middle of a minefield. Jean-Marie tries to push him away, then gives in and pretends to leave in his car. A feint to keep the journalist away, who finds them parked in front of Louisette Jacob's. The couple explode in anger. Christine insults him, "Ker, you're going to screw it up. You're a bastard, you whip us up for four hours and then tell us not to do it!” The journalist has no control. He stays in his car, engine running, camera close at hand. But Bernard Laroche does not come, perhaps alerted by the cries or the fog lights of Ker pointed in his direction. The Villemin leave for Granges where the Ancel factory is located. Ker catches up with them and manages to chat with them. The rifle is already in its cardboard box. It is 5:07 am and Bernard Laroche passes in his 305 in front of the trio. The night of madness is over. The journalist then invites them to have breakfast at the hotel. “Jean-Marie and Christine were calm and relaxed. They were smiling. I then thought to myself that they were kids. I even thought it was a staging maybe meant to scare me. I was reinforced in my idea that they were kids by the fact that Jean-Marie asked me if I knew a hitman. […] We met in my hotel room in Épinal where we had breakfast together. Jean-Marie told me: "You can say that you saved Laroche's life". The three of them are having a coffee and discussing, commenting on the photos of Grégory they have taken with them. Then Christine, exhausted, falls asleep on the bed."
- Laurence Lacour.
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