Marcel Barbeault

The eldest son of a father working as a steam locomotive conductor and a mother working in the textile industry, Marcel Barbeaut quit school at a very young age after missing his certificat d'études primaries. At the age of 14, he began working in a workshop called "Établissements Rivière" in Creil as a riveter.[1] With a valiant heart he then joined the YCW. On 13 December 1960, he joined the army and was mobilized during the Algerian war, where he was a stretcher bearer.[2] Upon his return, he returned to the factory and worked in Saint-Gobain. He soon began to practice boxing and judo, and said that he'd like to become a paratrooper or a gendarme, but was subjected to vertigo and failed the tests 8 times. In 1964 he married a woman named Josiane and fathered two boys - Patrice in 1966, and Laurent in 1972. His mother, Micheline, died of cancer in 1968, followed by his two brothers. At this time he began to burgle homes, and when driving his moped on his way back from work he would steal weapons. The deaths in Barbeaut's family seem to be the key events for his dive into crime and violence (his mother had both breasts removed before her death, and this trauma could have led to a desire for revenge and similar sexual rites).[3]

On 10 January 1969 he committed his first murder by killing Françoise Lecron, wife of a Saint-Gobain engineer, and his last murder was committed in January 1976.[4]

He attacked his victims along the railway line, striking them with a shovel then stabbing them in the heart, or would kill them using his .22 Long Rifle at nightfall (between 9PM and 11PM).[5] All of his victims were rumoured to be brown women, killed after he had watched them for a long time (during his days off) in order to monitor their actions. He undressed the corpses but did not violate them, and stole their handbags, which is rare among serial killers.[6] Despite this, Marcel Barbeault was regarded as a wonderful husband and an exemplary father who was self-contained and "banal". It is this schizophrenic behaviour that allowed him to pass through police nets for years.

Finally, after more than 7 years of stalking, he was arrested thanks to an anonymous phone call which described him: "aged 35, 1.80 cm tall, married to a blonde, with two children, no driving license. He served in Algeria, has practised boxing and worked at the Rivière..". Commissioner Christian Jacob did not identify the "killer" but he pinned Barbeault as a suspect. Inspector Daniel Neveu, freshly promoted to the judicial Police of Creil, managed to make the connection between Barbeault and the murders, through a 22 LR found in a cemetery and a rifle discovered in the basement of the accused.[7] He found that the key to the enigma was the cemetery of Nogent-sur-Oise, which was in the center of the triangle area where all the murders took place. In addition, the double homicide of a couple occurred on the parking lot of the Laigneville cemetery. But this murder, although different from the others, was also attributed to the "Shadow killer". Inspector Neveu concluded that, unlike the others, it was not premeditated, but was more of an "opportunistic" murder - the killer was on the scene before the couple's arrival and perhaps frequented the cemetery regularly.

The officer's reasoning was corroborated by the discovery of a .22LR bullet near a water tap in the cemetery. The tap was located behind the church, making it hard to find for anybody besides those who visited regularly. Neveu decided to cross out the names of the letters of denunciation and the surnames engraved on the cemetery's graves. The list of 30 names was eventually traced back to Barbeault. His beloved mother had died of breast cancer in her son's arms after much agony, and she had been buried in the Nogent cemetery since 1968.[8]

Neveu interviewed the suspects one by one. While searching Barbeault's home in Montataire on 14 December 1976 he found in his cellar a sawed rifle with a silencer, a raincoat and various caps. Ballistic analysis revealed that the weapon was used in one of the two murders. The weapons used in the other homicides could not be found but the similar modus operandi left little doubt about a single killer. Due to Barbeault having already been sentenced for burglary in the past, the police reviewed all his crimes in the region and discovered that he had also stolen a rifle. The owner had practised shooting with the weapon in his garden, and the investigators found sockets in it, showing that they had been used for some of the murders. Authorities then pointed out that the days of the murders corresponded to those in which Barbeault had days off.

His trial began at the Beauvais Courthouse on 25 May 1981 in the cour d'assises of Oise.[9] Barbeault was charged with the five murders, but the three other crimes charges attributed to him were dropped due to lack of evidence. He denied being "The Shadow Killer" despite the evidence and acted coldly during the trial. The general advocate wanted to give him the death penalty, but that fell through because François Mitterrand had just been elected President of the Republic and announced the death penalty's upcoming abolition. Despite the five hour speech of his lawyer Jean-Louis Pelletir, Marcel Barbeault was sentenced to life imprisonment on 10 June 1981. He tried to appeal his sentence at the Court of Cassation but it was rejected in November 1983, and he was resentenced to life imprisonment.

Marcel Barbeault remains incarcerated in the central prison of Saint-Maur in Indre, and is employed as the prison librarian.

• List of serial killers by country