By One of France’s most elusive serial killers appeared on a popular television game show during the 35-year police hunt for him, where he spoke about keeping people safe.
Francois Vérove, also known as “the pockmarked killer” because of his complexion, has been linked to nine murders, including minors, and 30 cases of rape and abuse.
The married former officer of the cavalry regiment of the Republican Guard managed to evade capture for decades, even though he appeared in 2019 on the show Everyone Wants to Take Their Place on state channel France 2.
“You were a policeman,” said presenter Nagui. “Yes, on foot, on motorbike and horseback,” the bespectacled and bearded killer responded with a smile. He said he operated in the Bois de Boulogne – a park notorious for its prostitutes after dark – where he “kept walkers safe” in the daytime.
It has since emerged he was sacked in 1986 for a possible “affair of vice” in the Bois.
In 2021, Vérove died by suicide after receiving a police summons following the discovery of DNA that detectives believed may match his.
His body was discovered in an Airbnb at Le Grau-du-Roi, in the Gard department, a few miles from his home in La Grande-Motte in southern France. On a desk was a letter in which he admitted to killing innocent people following a “mad rage” that had “turned me into a criminal”. He said he had managed to rid himself of his murderous impulses once and for all in 1997.
