Latest / Crime and Horror / He worked for the wrong French comedian - MrBallen

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He worked for the wrong French comedian - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One afternoon in December of 1980, one of the most
0:03
Speaker 1: famous comedians in France pulled a stack of letters out
0:05
Speaker 1: of his mailbox in Paris. And as he flipped through
0:08
Speaker 1: the mail, one of the packages caught his eye. It
0:11
Speaker 1: had no postmark or return address, and there was clearly
0:14
Speaker 1: something small and.
0:15
Speaker 2: Hard inside of it.
0:16
Speaker 1: And so intrigued, he ripped open the envelope and he
0:19
Speaker 1: pulled out a bullet, along with a piece of paper
0:22
Speaker 1: that read, the next one is for you.
0:25
Speaker 2: But before we get into today's story.
0:28
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0:30
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0:34
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0:51
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:16
Speaker 1: On the evening of November 23, 1980, a 39-year-old man
1:20
Speaker 1: named René Gorlin sat on a bench at a train
1:22
Speaker 1: station in Paris, France.
1:24
Speaker 2: His 22-year-old girlfriend, Marie-Pierre de Salbry.
1:27
Speaker 1: Was sitting next to him, and the energy between them
1:30
Speaker 1: was tense, because Marie-Pierre.
1:33
Speaker 2: Did not want René to get on the train that
1:35
Speaker 2: was about to arrive.
1:37
Speaker 1: So for the past few years, René had basically been
1:39
Speaker 1: living two separate lives. He spent most of his time
1:43
Speaker 1: in Paris, where he worked as the stage manager for
1:46
Speaker 1: a very famous comedian, and he lived in an apartment
1:48
Speaker 1: with Marie-Pierre. But the train he was waiting for now
1:51
Speaker 1: was about to take him back to his other life,
1:54
Speaker 1: which was on a farm 60 miles away in the
1:57
Speaker 1: town of Chateau-Thierry, where he lived with his longtime partner, Danielle,
2:01
Speaker 1: and their two kids. Now, having a relationship with two
2:04
Speaker 1: different women was often very complicated for Renée, but it
2:08
Speaker 1: really wasn't a secret. Both women knew about each other,
2:13
Speaker 1: so this was all out in the open. So in
2:15
Speaker 1: the beginning, the arrangement had been quite rocky, because Renée
2:19
Speaker 1: at the time had been with Danielle exclusively for years
2:22
Speaker 1: before ever meeting Marie-Pierre and starting the affair. And when
2:26
Speaker 1: the affair began with Marie-Pierre, Danielle had been furious, like
2:31
Speaker 1: she couldn't believe this. But now, she had a boyfriend
2:35
Speaker 1: on the side too, and it seemed to Renée like
2:37
Speaker 1: she'd made peace with the whole situation and was at
2:40
Speaker 1: least reasonably happy with their overall arrangement. But Marie-Pierre, Renée' s
2:46
Speaker 1: girlfriend in Paris who was currently sitting with him waiting
2:49
Speaker 1: for this train, was not fine with the overall arrangement.
2:53
Speaker 2: She'd always been.
2:54
Speaker 1: Very jealous of his relationship with Danielle. And things really
2:58
Speaker 1: had only gotten even messier lately, because Marie-Pierre was now
3:02
Speaker 1: seven months pregnant. René had promised Marie-Pierre that he was
3:06
Speaker 1: going to leave Danielle and marry her, Marie-Pierre, as soon
3:10
Speaker 1: as the baby was born. But secretly, he wasn't sure
3:13
Speaker 1: if he'd actually go through with it. After all, Marie-Pierre
3:16
Speaker 1: had already left René twice before, and he was afraid
3:20
Speaker 1: to abandon his long-term family for a relationship that seemed
3:24
Speaker 1: somewhat unstable. But he still had time before he had
3:26
Speaker 1: to make a decision about any of that. Right now,
3:29
Speaker 1: he really was not looking to add any more drama
3:31
Speaker 1: into his personal life. He was already dealing with quite
3:35
Speaker 1: enough at work. So the very famous comedian that René
3:38
Speaker 1: worked for, whose stage name was Calouche, had announced a
3:41
Speaker 1: month ago that he was going to run for president
3:44
Speaker 1: of France. And even though the campaign was essentially a joke,
3:48
Speaker 1: the current president took Calouche really seriously. He viewed this
3:52
Speaker 1: comedian who, I mean, to everybody else, it seemed like
3:55
Speaker 1: a shtick. He viewed this campaign as an actual threat
3:58
Speaker 1: to his re-election. And now, a month after Coluche has
4:02
Speaker 1: announced this run for being the president, he was actually
4:05
Speaker 1: doing quite well in the polls, which was only increasing
4:08
Speaker 1: the paranoia by the current French political establishment. And so
4:12
Speaker 1: now it's like, You know, the powers that be in
4:15
Speaker 1: France were having this extreme reaction to Kalush, like, this
4:19
Speaker 1: guy is a threat to us. In fact, government agencies
4:23
Speaker 1: were now actually tapping Kalush's phone, and the state-run TV
4:27
Speaker 1: and radio stations now suddenly wouldn't let him on the air.
4:31
Speaker 2: And on top of that, perhaps.
4:32
Speaker 1: The most sort of frightening aspect of Kalush's political rise here,
4:37
Speaker 1: was that at least one person had been sending him
4:40
Speaker 1: death threats. And so for Rene, it was sort of
4:42
Speaker 1: amazing to see Kalush's rise that started as sort of
4:46
Speaker 1: a joke and became something much more serious. But it
4:49
Speaker 1: was also sort of scary. Rene was worried that just
4:52
Speaker 1: in virtue of being Kalush's employee, he might be in
4:55
Speaker 1: danger too. And so now, as the train to Chateau
4:58
Speaker 1: Thierry finally pulled up to the platform, the only thing
5:01
Speaker 1: on Rene's mind was just holding his life together for
5:04
Speaker 1: another day. He kissed Marie-Pierre goodbye and told her to
5:08
Speaker 1: remember to lock the apartment door while he was gone.
5:11
Speaker 1: Because again, you know, he's sort of worried about safety
5:13
Speaker 1: for him, safety for others near him. And then he
5:16
Speaker 1: said that if anything went wrong, she knew where the
5:19
Speaker 1: farm was where he was staying and she knew how
5:21
Speaker 1: to get ahold of him. A couple hours later, after
5:26
Speaker 1: the train ride, Renee sat in the passenger seat of
5:29
Speaker 1: Danielle's car as she drove him back to the farm
5:31
Speaker 1: from the train station. It was now pretty late. and
5:34
Speaker 1: their two young kids were falling asleep in the back seat,
5:37
Speaker 1: so Rene and Danielle were not talking much. Up ahead,
5:40
Speaker 1: Rene saw their farm come into view. It was on
5:43
Speaker 1: a big plot of land in the countryside with dozens
5:45
Speaker 1: of horses and a little white stone farmhouse.
5:48
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.
5:49
Speaker 1: And as soon as he saw it, Rene breathed deeply
5:51
Speaker 1: and let his shoulders relax. You know, he was glad
5:54
Speaker 1: to be back here, away from all the chaos of Paris.
5:57
Speaker 1: They pulled onto the property, and Danielle parked the car
5:59
Speaker 1: in the driveway. And as she was getting the kids situated,
6:03
Speaker 1: Rene got out and the first thing he did is
6:05
Speaker 1: he walked over to the stables to check on the horses.
6:08
Speaker 1: And as soon as he poked his head inside, he
6:10
Speaker 1: noticed that Danielle clearly had not groomed any of them
6:14
Speaker 1: while he was gone. And so Rene, he walked back
6:17
Speaker 1: to the house feeling kind of irritated. And once he
6:20
Speaker 1: was inside with Danielle and their kids, he couldn't help it.
6:23
Speaker 1: He had to ask her about it. Like, why didn't
6:25
Speaker 1: you do it? And Danielle instantly snapped back at him
6:29
Speaker 1: saying that the horses being groomed were very low on
6:32
Speaker 1: her list of priorities. She'd been too busy taking care
6:35
Speaker 1: of their kids and the entire farm without him for
6:39
Speaker 1: a whole week. Rene was very defensive, and he argued
6:42
Speaker 1: right back. And pretty quickly, this fight escalated until they
6:46
Speaker 1: were both screaming at each other right in front of
6:48
Speaker 1: their kids. But this actually was not particularly unusual for
6:53
Speaker 1: Rene and Danielle. They had explosive arguments like this all
6:56
Speaker 1: the time, and they always just.
6:58
Speaker 2: Blew over eventually.
6:59
Speaker 1: So at the end of their you know, initial volley
7:02
Speaker 1: of fighting when there was kind of a lull there.
7:05
Speaker 2: Rene, you know, he's heated, he's full of adrenaline.
7:08
Speaker 1: But from experience, he knew the best thing for him
7:10
Speaker 1: to do right now was just to take a beat.
7:12
Speaker 1: So he stormed out of the room and headed to
7:14
Speaker 1: the bedroom to just cool down. Once inside, he sat
7:17
Speaker 1: down on the bed. And at first, he just sat there,
7:20
Speaker 1: you know, seething, you know, still mad. And then he
7:23
Speaker 1: saw there was a phone on the nightstand. So he
7:25
Speaker 1: just picked it up and almost reflexively, he dialed a number.
7:28
Speaker 1: And a moment later, Marie-Pierre answered. Before long, you know,
7:32
Speaker 1: Rene is venting to Marie-Pierre about Danielle. He told her that,
7:36
Speaker 1: you know, hey, we just got in this horrible fight.
7:38
Speaker 1: You know, pretty much the second I walked in the door,
7:40
Speaker 1: we're fighting about all this stupid stuff.
7:42
Speaker 2: Like, oh, you wouldn't believe it.
7:44
Speaker 1: And Rene, as he's venting about Danielle to his mistress
7:48
Speaker 1: of sorts, you know, he expected Marie-Pierre.
7:51
Speaker 2: To ultimately sympathize with him.
7:53
Speaker 1: But instead, when Marie-Pierre responded to this diatribe about Danielle,
7:58
Speaker 1: she just sounded really frustrated. She said that, you know what,
8:02
Speaker 1: if you hate Danielle so much, just leave her already.
8:05
Speaker 2: Like, enough of this talk. Just leave her. And at first,
8:08
Speaker 2: René couldn't help but feel annoyed himself.
8:11
Speaker 1: Like, this suggestion was kind of offensive. Like, you understand
8:14
Speaker 1: how complicated this is. But then he actually considered that
8:18
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre might be right. And then after he hung up
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Speaker 1: the phone, he found himself sitting on that bed, wondering
8:24
Speaker 1: if it was really worth even spending the rest of
8:27
Speaker 1: the night here, just probably fighting some more with Danielle.
8:30
Speaker 2: Like, what good was that going to do?
8:32
Speaker 1: He began to think maybe he ought to just leave
8:34
Speaker 1: right now and go back to Paris with Marie-Pierre. And
8:37
Speaker 1: so for a few minutes, Rene just sat on the bed,
8:40
Speaker 1: weighing his.
8:40
Speaker 2: Options, basically stay or go.
8:43
Speaker 1: And then eventually, he made a decision. Two days later,
8:49
Speaker 1: at 7.30 a.m. on November 25, 1980, a worker walked
8:53
Speaker 1: through a very busy construction site just outside of Paris.
8:56
Speaker 1: It was raining, and the ground was muddy, and as
8:59
Speaker 1: he headed over to his crane, he saw something a
9:01
Speaker 1: few feet away on the ground next to.
9:03
Speaker 2: A pile of gravel that just looked out of place.
9:06
Speaker 1: It was like this big, lumpy shape that was covered
9:08
Speaker 1: in what appeared to be fabric, and he thought it
9:11
Speaker 1: actually might be maybe a sandbag that got put in
9:13
Speaker 1: the wrong spot. But, When he walked over and got
9:16
Speaker 1: a better look and actually saw what this was, he
9:19
Speaker 1: immediately began stumbling backwards and began shouting for someone to
9:23
Speaker 1: call the police. This episode is sponsored by Chime.
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Speaker 1: on the morning of November 25th, 1980, Inspector Charles Diaz
10:40
Speaker 1: parked his car at that same construction site right outside
10:43
Speaker 1: of Paris.
10:43
Speaker 2: So Inspector was.
10:44
Speaker 1: Like the equivalent of detective for the Paris police. And
10:48
Speaker 1: Diaz was actually brand new to the title. This was
10:51
Speaker 1: going to be his first major crimes case since joining
10:54
Speaker 1: this department. So Diaz, at this point, as he's showing up,
10:58
Speaker 1: didn't really know much about this crime scene or who
11:00
Speaker 1: the victim was yet. All he knew was that a
11:02
Speaker 1: man's body had been found here by some workers, and
11:06
Speaker 1: apparently it appeared to be a homicide. And for Diaz,
11:09
Speaker 1: you know, in a weird way, this was kind of exciting.
11:11
Speaker 1: You know, since he was a kid, he had been
11:13
Speaker 1: dreaming of solving a real murder. But now, as he
11:16
Speaker 1: walked through the gate into the construction site, he had
11:19
Speaker 1: the sinking feeling that his case was already off to
11:22
Speaker 1: a pretty bad start.
11:23
Speaker 2: Between the rain and all.
11:25
Speaker 1: The workers and police walking around the site, any tire
11:28
Speaker 1: tracks or footprints that were left by the killer or
11:31
Speaker 1: killers were probably long gone. And so Diaz, he was
11:35
Speaker 1: pretty disappointed right off the bat. But, you know, he
11:37
Speaker 1: had to just continue on. So he walked over and
11:40
Speaker 1: he joined the few forensics officers who were all gathered
11:43
Speaker 1: around the body. And when Diaz got over there, he
11:46
Speaker 1: looked down and he saw it was a man who
11:49
Speaker 1: appeared to be in his 40s. And he was lying
11:51
Speaker 1: in the mud right behind this pile of gravel. Diaz
11:54
Speaker 1: immediately asked for an update. And one of the other
11:57
Speaker 1: officers told him that the body had been found that morning.
12:00
Speaker 1: And based on the state of the body, he probably
12:03
Speaker 1: had been dead for maybe a day or maybe two.
12:05
Speaker 1: Diaz knelt down to get a better look. And right away,
12:08
Speaker 1: he saw there were two distinct bullet wounds in the
12:11
Speaker 1: back of this guy's head. And Diaz's first thought was
12:14
Speaker 1: that this looked like an execution. Now, there was some
12:17
Speaker 1: blood pooling around the man's head, but he didn't see
12:20
Speaker 1: any other blood in the area. So Diaz guessed that
12:23
Speaker 1: this victim must have been killed somewhere else, you know,
12:26
Speaker 1: executed somewhere else, and then brought here post-mortem. And so
12:30
Speaker 1: right off the bat, Diaz's best theory was that this
12:33
Speaker 1: was some kind of gang hit. The way he was
12:35
Speaker 1: shot and the construction site dumping ground, Both just sort
12:39
Speaker 1: of felt like this was an organized crime thing or
12:42
Speaker 1: a drug trafficking murder. When he searched the man's pockets,
12:45
Speaker 1: he didn't find any wallet or ID to help figure
12:48
Speaker 1: out who he was. But the victim did have his fingers,
12:51
Speaker 1: and Diaz knew that if the victim was a criminal himself,
12:55
Speaker 1: his prints were very likely already in the system. Later
13:00
Speaker 1: that afternoon, Diaz got back to the police station in Paris.
13:03
Speaker 1: He'd already gotten word from ballistics that the victim at
13:06
Speaker 1: the construction site had been shot twice, and they were
13:08
Speaker 1: from bullets from a. 22 caliber long rifle, which was
13:12
Speaker 1: not an especially powerful weapon, but it was quieter than
13:16
Speaker 1: a lot of other guns. And now, as Diaz walked
13:18
Speaker 1: into his office and sat down, he saw there was
13:21
Speaker 1: a report waiting for him on his desk. So he
13:23
Speaker 1: walked over, he sat down, he picked it up, and
13:26
Speaker 1: he began to look through it, And he read that
13:28
Speaker 1: the victim's fingerprints had been run through the database, and
13:31
Speaker 1: he had been identified. This was apparently 39-year-old Rene Gorlin.
13:36
Speaker 1: But as Diaz scanned the page, he realized his initial
13:40
Speaker 1: gang theory hit here was not nearly as solid as
13:43
Speaker 1: he thought it was. Because Rene was not a gangster.
13:48
Speaker 1: He had been arrested once, and it was for petty
13:51
Speaker 1: theft when he was 18. And since then, he'd stayed
13:54
Speaker 1: completely out of trouble. Like, this is not a career
13:56
Speaker 1: criminal here. And so Diaz leaned back in his chair
13:59
Speaker 1: and tried to make sense of how a seemingly law-abiding
14:02
Speaker 1: man found himself shot execution-style and then dumped at a
14:07
Speaker 1: construction site.
14:08
Speaker 2: And while Diaz was thinking, his phone rang.
14:11
Speaker 1: So he picked it up, and it was an officer
14:13
Speaker 1: from a precinct in another part of Paris. And this
14:16
Speaker 1: officer said that a woman had just come into their
14:18
Speaker 1: station to report Rene Gorlin missing. An hour later, Inspector
14:25
Speaker 1: Diaz walked into an interrogation room at a precinct across town,
14:29
Speaker 1: where a woman who appeared to be in her 20s
14:31
Speaker 1: was sitting at the table. She seemed very worried, and
14:34
Speaker 1: she seemed a little bit nervous because she kept fidgeting
14:36
Speaker 1: and shifting around in her chair. Diaz walked in, took
14:39
Speaker 1: a seat across from her, and introduced himself, and then
14:43
Speaker 1: he asked the woman to go over what she had
14:45
Speaker 1: told the other officers about Renee Gorlin. The woman, who
14:48
Speaker 1: again appeared to be very nervous... She told Diaz that
14:51
Speaker 1: her name was Danielle Blondel and that she was Rene's
14:54
Speaker 1: longtime partner and was actually the mother of their two kids.
14:57
Speaker 1: And she told him that two nights earlier, Rene had
15:00
Speaker 1: come home from Paris, but before they'd even settled in
15:04
Speaker 1: and had dinner, Rene.
15:05
Speaker 2: Had told her that he needed to go back to
15:07
Speaker 2: the city right away.
15:08
Speaker 1: And so Danielle and her sister had ultimately driven Rene
15:12
Speaker 1: back to the train station that night so he could
15:14
Speaker 1: go back to his apartment in Paris. Now, Danielle said
15:17
Speaker 1: they had been arguing pretty much immediately when he had
15:19
Speaker 1: come home, and so she was just kind of annoyed
15:21
Speaker 1: with him in general, and so it was like kind
15:23
Speaker 1: of a a good riddance, like go back to Paris
15:26
Speaker 1: type of thing. But now she said that she hadn't
15:28
Speaker 1: heard from him in a couple of days, but she
15:30
Speaker 1: said after a couple of days when she hadn't heard
15:33
Speaker 1: from him, she got worried. And so she said she
15:35
Speaker 1: literally went to Paris to check on him. He had
15:37
Speaker 1: an apartment in Paris. And what she found out is
15:40
Speaker 1: he wasn't at his apartment. Like she had no idea
15:43
Speaker 1: where he was. And so that's what prompted her to
15:46
Speaker 1: walk down here and report him missing. It just felt
15:48
Speaker 1: like something was off. Now, Diaz knew that as Renee's
15:51
Speaker 1: partner and one of the last people, apparently, to see
15:54
Speaker 1: Renee alive, Danielle was clearly an obvious suspect here.
15:58
Speaker 2: But Diaz doesn't know. He can't really read her yet.
16:01
Speaker 1: And so the way she's speaking to him right now
16:03
Speaker 1: is like someone who doesn't know that Renee is actually dead.
16:07
Speaker 2: He's not just missing.
16:08
Speaker 1: And so Diaz, he decided to break the news to
16:11
Speaker 1: her that Renee was found dead and sort of see
16:14
Speaker 1: how she reacted. And so Renee, he leaned in and
16:17
Speaker 1: he looked at her and he said, Rene was found
16:19
Speaker 1: this morning. He was found dead. Diaz expected Danielle to
16:23
Speaker 1: be shocked or devastated. But at first, she just seemed
16:27
Speaker 1: really confused, like she didn't understand how that could be possible.
16:31
Speaker 1: But as Diaz explained what little the police knew so far,
16:35
Speaker 1: Danielle's expression suddenly went completely blank, as if she was
16:39
Speaker 1: just completely in shock. And so as Danielle is just
16:42
Speaker 1: sort of looking off into the distance, sitting there, not reacting...
16:46
Speaker 1: Diaz asked her if she had any idea who could
16:49
Speaker 1: have done this. And Danielle, despite being almost catatonic, she
16:53
Speaker 1: immediately nodded. And then she broke out of her trance
16:56
Speaker 1: and said, actually, there was one person who definitely came
16:59
Speaker 1: to mind. Rene's pregnant mistress, Marie Pierre. Now, when Diaz
17:04
Speaker 1: heard that, he sat up in surprise.
17:06
Speaker 2: It was almost instinctual. He couldn't believe what he heard.
17:09
Speaker 1: If Rene was having an affair, that gave him two
17:12
Speaker 1: very strong suspects here.
17:14
Speaker 2: Danielle... and the mistress.
17:17
Speaker 1: But Danielle very quickly seemed to guess what Diaz was
17:21
Speaker 1: thinking here, because she quickly explained that this was not
17:25
Speaker 1: like a typical love triangle, typical affair here.
17:29
Speaker 2: She said that she knew that Rene had.
17:30
Speaker 1: Been seeing Marie-Pierre, and Rene knew that she, Danielle, was
17:35
Speaker 1: seeing another man on the side as well. She said
17:37
Speaker 1: it was all out in the open, and both she
17:40
Speaker 1: and Rene were fine with it. Now, Diaz heard this,
17:43
Speaker 1: and even though, you know, she's saying it's fine, he
17:45
Speaker 1: had no idea if that was true or not. But
17:47
Speaker 1: for now, Diaz just took down Marie-Pierre's name and her
17:50
Speaker 1: contact information from Danielle, and then he also asked Danielle
17:54
Speaker 1: for the name of that other man that Danielle was
17:56
Speaker 1: seeing on the side. Basically, any of these people in
17:58
Speaker 1: Diaz's mind could easily be Rene's killer. Now, Diaz would
18:02
Speaker 1: have to confirm Danielle's story about dropping Rene off at
18:05
Speaker 1: the train station with Danielle's sister. However, you know, even
18:09
Speaker 1: though he was going to dig into that for sure,
18:11
Speaker 1: Diaz didn't feel like Danielle was a particularly strong suspect.
18:16
Speaker 1: It seemed like she had very little to gain from
18:18
Speaker 1: Rene's death, because now she just had to raise two
18:21
Speaker 1: kids and take care of a farm on her own
18:23
Speaker 1: with no additional income. On the other hand, the other woman, Marie-Pierre,
18:28
Speaker 1: who lived in Paris, close to where Rene's body was found,
18:32
Speaker 1: it was possible that she was not nearly as satisfied
18:35
Speaker 1: with this arrangement as Danielle appeared to be.
18:38
Speaker 2: And perhaps she killed Rene in a jealous rage.
18:43
Speaker 1: That evening, Diaz knocked on the door of Marie-Pierre's apartment
18:46
Speaker 1: in Paris, where she had actually been living with Renée.
18:49
Speaker 2: That was Renée' s apartment. And a minute later, a very.
18:53
Speaker 1: Pregnant young woman opened the door, and Diaz asked her
18:56
Speaker 1: if she was Marie-Pierre, and she nodded and said yes.
18:59
Speaker 1: Diaz explained who he was, and Marie-Pierre just seemed really
19:02
Speaker 1: kind of confused and definitely nervous, but ultimately, she let
19:07
Speaker 1: Diaz into the apartment, and then once they'd both sat
19:10
Speaker 1: down at the dining room table, Diaz told her the
19:12
Speaker 1: news that Rene was dead. Now, unlike Danielle, who had
19:16
Speaker 1: sort of gone into a catatonic shock here from this news, Marie-Pierre,
19:21
Speaker 1: when she heard Rene was dead, instantly broke down crying.
19:25
Speaker 1: Diaz watched for any sign that her reaction was fake,
19:29
Speaker 1: but at least at first it seemed pretty sincere. There
19:32
Speaker 1: were actual tears rolling down her face, and she really
19:35
Speaker 1: could barely speak coherently as she was weeping. So Diaz
19:38
Speaker 1: had to wait until she was calm enough to talk,
19:41
Speaker 1: and then when she was, he asked her, you.
19:43
Speaker 2: Know, when was the last time you saw Rene?
19:45
Speaker 1: And Marie-Pierre, she, you know, barely able to compose herself,
19:49
Speaker 1: she stammered out that she had taken him to the
19:51
Speaker 1: train station on the evening of November 23rd, and he'd
19:54
Speaker 1: gotten on a train to go back to his farm.
19:57
Speaker 1: She said they had briefly spoken on the phone later
19:59
Speaker 1: that night, but she hadn't seen or heard from him since.
20:02
Speaker 1: And this surprised Diaz, because from his conversation with Danielle,
20:07
Speaker 1: she had said, That that same night on the 23rd,
20:10
Speaker 1: when Rene had returned to the farm, you know, had
20:13
Speaker 1: come back home again, that that same night he had
20:15
Speaker 1: demanded to go back to the city and Danielle had
20:18
Speaker 1: dropped him off at the train, you know? And so
20:20
Speaker 1: Diaz assumed he had gone back to his apartment in
20:23
Speaker 1: Paris where Marie-Pierre was, but Marie-Pierre is insisting that Rene
20:27
Speaker 1: had not come home that night, that she had seen
20:30
Speaker 1: him off on the train and that was it.
20:32
Speaker 2: And so at this point, Diaz was feeling like.
20:34
Speaker 1: Either one of Rene's romantic partners was lying or about
20:38
Speaker 1: their last interaction with Rene. Or both women were telling
20:42
Speaker 1: the truth and someone else killed Rene. Somewhere in transit,
20:47
Speaker 1: somebody else was involved. So with that in mind, Diaz
20:51
Speaker 1: asked Marie-Pierre if Rene had any enemies or if he
20:54
Speaker 1: had been threatened by anyone. And she said no, but
20:58
Speaker 1: she said Rene's.
20:59
Speaker 2: Boss had been getting lots of threats.
21:02
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre explained that René was the stage manager for Coluche,
21:07
Speaker 1: the very famous comedian who was now running for president.
21:10
Speaker 1: René had told her that Coluche was actually getting death
21:13
Speaker 1: threats over his political campaign, and he was also under
21:17
Speaker 1: government surveillance. And René said that he had been really
21:19
Speaker 1: afraid that he was being watched too, just because of
21:22
Speaker 1: his connection to Coluche.
21:24
Speaker 2: As Diaz listened to this, he was stunned.
21:27
Speaker 1: He knew about Coluche's campaign, and he knew that a
21:30
Speaker 1: lot of politicians were not happy about it. But what
21:33
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre was saying sounded really extreme, and even if she
21:37
Speaker 1: was telling the truth, he had a hard time believing
21:40
Speaker 1: that political operatives would kill a comedian's stage manager as, like,
21:44
Speaker 1: an intimidation tactic. But at the same time, Diaz had
21:48
Speaker 1: been working on this case for less than 24 hours,
21:51
Speaker 1: so at this point, he really had to consider everything
21:54
Speaker 1: until he could rule it out, no matter how outrageous
21:57
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23:03
Speaker 1: A month later, near the end of December 1980, Diaz
23:13
Speaker 1: sat in his office, poring over files and evidence that
23:16
Speaker 1: still didn't add up to a complete picture here.
23:18
Speaker 2: And he was starting to.
23:19
Speaker 1: Worry that his very first murder case was heading towards
23:22
Speaker 1: a complete standstill. A few weeks earlier, he'd brought René' s boss,
23:26
Speaker 1: the very famous comedian-turned-politician Kalush, in for questioning to look
23:31
Speaker 1: into the theory that someone had maybe killed René to
23:34
Speaker 1: intimidate Kalush into dropping out of the election. But Kalush
23:38
Speaker 1: was pretty much completely uncooperative. He refused to answer any questions,
23:43
Speaker 1: not even his name or date of birth. He just
23:46
Speaker 1: seemed really deeply paranoid and pretty obviously fearful that Diaz
23:51
Speaker 1: was working with whatever you know, shadowy intelligence agencies that
23:55
Speaker 1: were surveilling him. And he was worried that if he
23:58
Speaker 1: said anything now that they would find out about it
24:01
Speaker 1: and they would use it against him. And so on
24:02
Speaker 1: the one hand, this was very unhelpful for Diaz. But
24:06
Speaker 1: on the other, it made this lead, this idea that
24:09
Speaker 1: maybe Rene was killed due to politics, it made it
24:13
Speaker 1: feel like it wasn't so crazy after all. I mean,
24:15
Speaker 1: Kalush wouldn't be acting this terrified if he didn't at
24:19
Speaker 1: least suspect that Rene's murder was a warning to him. But,
24:23
Speaker 1: you know, at the same time, without really any cooperation
24:25
Speaker 1: from Kalush, Diaz was going to have a very hard
24:28
Speaker 1: time following this lead any further than this. So he
24:31
Speaker 1: kept this theory alive, but put it on the back burner.
24:35
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, he'd been trying to rule out
24:37
Speaker 1: all the other suspects that he had. Danielle's sister had
24:40
Speaker 1: confirmed Danielle's alibi. She said that she and Danielle had
24:44
Speaker 1: driven Rene to the train station on the night he
24:46
Speaker 1: was killed. That was the last time they saw him.
24:49
Speaker 1: There was no blood or evidence of a shooting or
24:52
Speaker 1: really a struggle of any kind found out at the farmhouse,
24:55
Speaker 1: so Danielle had been ruled out as a suspect. And
24:58
Speaker 1: then Danielle's lover had also been cleared, because he too
25:01
Speaker 1: had an alibi. Marie-Pierre, though, she was looking more suspicious
25:05
Speaker 1: than ever. Diaz had interviewed Renée' s friends and colleagues, and
25:09
Speaker 1: they had a lot of negative things to say about
25:11
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre and Renée' s relationship with her. Diaz had learned that
25:15
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre had had an affair with another man, and that
25:19
Speaker 1: Rene had also cheated on her with several other women,
25:23
Speaker 1: including Marie-Pierre's own sister. And so their relationship was just
25:27
Speaker 1: a total mess, and it was like every other thing
25:30
Speaker 1: that Diaz learned about their relationship only strengthened his theory
25:34
Speaker 1: that Marie-Pierre could have wanted Rene dead. In fact, at
25:38
Speaker 1: this point, Diaz's best theory was that Rene had actually
25:42
Speaker 1: made it back to his apartment in Paris that he
25:45
Speaker 1: shared with Marie-Pierre on the night he was killed. And
25:47
Speaker 1: then when he got back there, he and Marie-Pierre must
25:51
Speaker 1: have gotten into a pretty awful argument that resulted in
25:54
Speaker 1: her killing him. But even if it were true, so far,
25:58
Speaker 1: investigators had not found any evidence that proved it. And
26:03
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre had given police full permission to search her and
26:06
Speaker 1: Rene's apartment. And they had, you know, multiple times. but
26:11
Speaker 1: they hadn't found anything linking her to the murder. And
26:14
Speaker 1: so Diaz was obviously pretty frustrated because even though he
26:18
Speaker 1: had narrowed down the suspect pool to basically Marie-Pierre and,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, maybe some other unnamed third party that was
26:25
Speaker 1: involved in killing Renee in transit, let's say, you know,
26:29
Speaker 1: right now there was just no evidence that pointed to
26:32
Speaker 1: Marie-Pierre or anybody else.
26:34
Speaker 2: There was just nothing. But just then, there was a
26:37
Speaker 2: knock on Diaz's door. So he got up, he walked over,
26:40
Speaker 2: he opened it up.
26:41
Speaker 1: And standing outside the door was Kalush, who looked very anxious. Kalush,
26:46
Speaker 1: without saying anything, hurried into the office, and then he
26:49
Speaker 1: thrust an envelope into Diaz's hands. Diaz looked at it
26:52
Speaker 1: and then opened it up, and inside of this envelope
26:55
Speaker 1: was a single bullet and a note that said, the
26:58
Speaker 1: next one is for you. Kalush said he had found
27:01
Speaker 1: this thing, this package, in his mailbox just the day before.
27:05
Speaker 1: And he was thinking about just giving up on his
27:07
Speaker 1: campaign at this point.
27:08
Speaker 2: It was too much.
27:10
Speaker 1: He'd been getting threatening letters basically ever since he announced
27:12
Speaker 1: his run, and after what happened to Rene, he didn't
27:16
Speaker 1: want to take any more chances. And so he said, like,
27:18
Speaker 1: he would fully cooperate with Diaz's investigation, but only if
27:23
Speaker 1: the police would guarantee that he could be placed into
27:26
Speaker 1: protective custody. On an evening in February of 1981, so
27:31
Speaker 1: now about three months after Rene Gorlin was killed, Inspector
27:34
Speaker 1: Charles Diaz got up from his desk at the end
27:36
Speaker 1: of another long and disappointing day. He grabbed his coat,
27:40
Speaker 1: he flicked off the lights, and he walked down the
27:42
Speaker 1: hallway to head home for the night. So for the
27:44
Speaker 1: past couple of months, Diaz and his team had been
27:47
Speaker 1: working closely with Kalush, who was now in protective custody,
27:51
Speaker 1: to try to see if there was evidence that would
27:53
Speaker 1: link the threats against Kalush to Rene's murder. And what
27:57
Speaker 1: Diaz and his team discovered was that some of the
28:00
Speaker 1: threatening letters that Kalush had received were signed by this
28:03
Speaker 1: shady criminal organization.
28:05
Speaker 2: Called Honor of the Police.
28:07
Speaker 1: This group had claimed responsibility for a number of political
28:11
Speaker 1: murders over the past few years, including the assassination of
28:15
Speaker 1: an activist in Paris just a year earlier.
28:17
Speaker 2: But unfortunately, no members of the.
28:20
Speaker 1: Shady group had ever actually been identified, and so Diaz
28:24
Speaker 1: had had no luck tracking any of them down. And
28:27
Speaker 1: so basically over these last couple of months, every day
28:30
Speaker 1: Diaz had come into the station hoping that maybe some
28:33
Speaker 1: new evidence had come to the surface that would finally
28:36
Speaker 1: point him toward Rene's killer. And every night he would
28:39
Speaker 1: go home feeling like he had nothing to show for
28:41
Speaker 1: that day's work.
28:43
Speaker 2: And so after a.
28:44
Speaker 1: Few more months without any new leads, Diaz's very first
28:48
Speaker 1: murder case officially went cold. Six months later in the
28:52
Speaker 1: fall of 1981, Diaz, who by this point was working
28:56
Speaker 1: other cases, was basically done for the day, and he
28:58
Speaker 1: walked back into his office at the police station, and
29:01
Speaker 1: he saw there was a report waiting on his desk,
29:04
Speaker 1: and it was from the medical examiner. And so he
29:06
Speaker 1: walked over, and he looked at this report, and he
29:08
Speaker 1: saw it was about Renee Gorlin. It was actually Renee's
29:12
Speaker 1: bolus analysis, which is an examination of a body's undigested
29:17
Speaker 1: stomach contents. This type of analysis takes a long time
29:20
Speaker 1: to do, and usually it doesn't reveal anything groundbreaking. But Diaz,
29:25
Speaker 1: despite working on other cases, was still desperate to get
29:29
Speaker 1: this case moving again. This was his first murder case
29:31
Speaker 1: after all. So when he saw what this was, he
29:34
Speaker 1: began eagerly scanning through the pages. And as he began
29:37
Speaker 1: flipping through it, there was one thing in the results
29:41
Speaker 1: that immediately stood out to him. Sometime in the few
29:44
Speaker 1: hours before he died, Rene had eaten chestnut cream, which
29:49
Speaker 1: is a spread used on toasts and in desserts in France.
29:52
Speaker 1: But it's not something most people eat every day. And
29:56
Speaker 1: so because it was such a specific food, Diaz decided
29:59
Speaker 1: to look into it as a potential new lead. And
30:02
Speaker 1: as soon as he did that, the entire case fell
30:05
Speaker 1: into place. Based on forensic evidence and an eventual confession,
30:14
Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Renee Gorlin in
30:16
Speaker 1: the early morning hours of November 24th, 1980. The killer
30:28
Speaker 1: very slowly crept their way down the hallway with a
30:31
Speaker 1: rifle in their hands. They reached a door to a bedroom,
30:34
Speaker 1: and they slowly cracked it open, and they saw Rene
30:37
Speaker 1: was in there, asleep in the bed by himself, and
30:40
Speaker 1: he was lying on his stomach. The killer quietly entered
30:43
Speaker 1: the room, and they got right next to the bed,
30:45
Speaker 1: and they raised the rifle, and they aimed it right
30:48
Speaker 1: at the back of Rene's head.
30:50
Speaker 2: And they fired.
30:51
Speaker 1: And Rene didn't move at all, didn't make a sound, nothing.
30:54
Speaker 1: He just went completely still as blood began spilling out
30:57
Speaker 1: of his skull. But just to be sure he was dead,
31:01
Speaker 1: the killer reloaded the rifle, and they fired again into
31:04
Speaker 1: the back of his skull. As the killer watched the
31:06
Speaker 1: blood seep through all the sheets and the pillows and
31:08
Speaker 1: the blankets, and as they continued to make sure Rene
31:11
Speaker 1: wasn't moving, and he wasn't, he was definitely dead at
31:14
Speaker 1: this point, for a second they were satisfied, but then
31:18
Speaker 1: they panic. Because now came the hard part. How were
31:22
Speaker 1: they going to get rid of Renee's body before anybody noticed? Luckily,
31:27
Speaker 1: the killer had an accomplice. And so as the killer
31:30
Speaker 1: dragged Renee's body off the bed and pulled all the
31:33
Speaker 1: bloody sheets off the bed with him, and as they're
31:35
Speaker 1: pulling Renee over to the door, the accomplice came into
31:39
Speaker 1: the room, and they helped the killer clean everything up,
31:42
Speaker 1: and they carried the body out into the car, and
31:45
Speaker 1: they drive to a landfill where they They offload the sheets,
31:48
Speaker 1: and they burn the sheets at the landfill. Then they
31:50
Speaker 1: drive to a nearby river, and they throw the murder
31:53
Speaker 1: weapon into the river. And then finally, the killer and
31:55
Speaker 1: the accomplice drove Rene's body to a construction site outside
31:59
Speaker 1: of Paris, and they just sort of ditched him unceremoniously
32:03
Speaker 1: in the mud.
32:03
Speaker 2: And then the.
32:04
Speaker 1: Very next day, the killer drove to the police station
32:07
Speaker 1: in Paris, walked inside, and reported Rene missing. The killer
32:12
Speaker 1: was Rene's longtime partner, Danielle Blondel. she was completely fed
32:18
Speaker 1: up with her constant fights with Rene. And also, even
32:21
Speaker 1: though she tried to play it off as no big deal,
32:24
Speaker 1: she actually was really bothered by his affair, especially now
32:28
Speaker 1: that he'd gotten Marie-Pierre pregnant. And so that night at
32:31
Speaker 1: the farmhouse, after their argument that started over whether or
32:35
Speaker 1: not she had groomed the horses, the simmering humiliation and
32:39
Speaker 1: resentment finally pushed Danielle to a breaking point, and she snapped.
32:45
Speaker 1: And so after she shot Rene at the farmhouse, her accomplice,
32:49
Speaker 1: her sister, came over and helped her clean up the
32:52
Speaker 1: crime scene. And they both together lied to the police
32:55
Speaker 1: and claimed Rene had gone back to Paris on the
32:58
Speaker 1: night that he had died.
32:59
Speaker 2: And the police had.
33:00
Speaker 1: Believed them until the bolus analysis came back. Diaz couldn't
33:05
Speaker 1: find anywhere that served chestnut cream near Rene's apartment in Paris.
33:10
Speaker 1: But when he re-canvassed the neighbors out near the farm,
33:13
Speaker 1: you know, where Danielle lived a few months later, one
33:17
Speaker 1: of the neighbors told him that they had recently helped
33:19
Speaker 1: Danielle clean out her fridge, and that in that fridge
33:23
Speaker 1: she had had chestnut cream. And so this led Diaz
33:27
Speaker 1: to take a closer look at Danielle again. Because remember,
33:30
Speaker 1: her story about the last time she saw Rene was
33:33
Speaker 1: he came out to her farmhouse on the night he died,
33:36
Speaker 1: but then almost immediately he had asked to leave, go
33:39
Speaker 1: back to Paris, and so Danielle and her sister said
33:42
Speaker 1: they drove him out to the train station. she made
33:45
Speaker 1: it seem like he was only at the farmhouse for
33:47
Speaker 1: a matter of minutes before that happened. But now, because
33:50
Speaker 1: of this bolus analysis, it's clear that a few hours
33:53
Speaker 1: before he died, he ate chestnut cream. And based on
33:58
Speaker 1: all the investigating Diaz had done about chestnut cream, the
34:01
Speaker 1: one place he would be eating chestnut cream is at
34:04
Speaker 1: that farmhouse. So very likely, based on the bolus analysis,
34:10
Speaker 1: he had stayed at the farm longer then Danielle was
34:14
Speaker 1: giving off. She made it seem like it was a
34:15
Speaker 1: quick turnaround. It probably wasn't. And so with this suspicion,
34:19
Speaker 1: Danielle was confronted again. She was questioned again.
34:22
Speaker 2: And they were like, well, wait a minute.
34:24
Speaker 1: It seems like he would have eaten at your place.
34:26
Speaker 1: He might have eaten this chestnut cream. And when she
34:29
Speaker 1: began to hear about the chestnut cream, she cracked and
34:32
Speaker 1: confessed to the murder. Danielle was convicted of murder and
34:35
Speaker 1: sentenced to 10 years in prison. As for her sister,
34:38
Speaker 1: she got a six-month suspended sentence for her role helping
34:42
Speaker 1: to dispose of Renee's body.
34:52
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
34:54
Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
34:56
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
34:58
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now.
35:01
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. Alright, until
35:04
Speaker 2: next time, see ya.