Louis Poirson

Louis Poirson, nicknamed "Rambo" (born September 1962 in Madagascar) is a Malagasy-born French rapist and serial killer.[1][2][3]

Louis Poirson
BornSeptember 1962
Madagascar
Other names"Rambo"
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Victims4
Span of crimes
1995–1999
CountryFrance
Date apprehended
May 2000

Biography

Born into a family of four children of which he is the eldest and the only boy, Poirson was the son of a French father and Malagasy mother. He claims to have become the scapegoat of his alcoholic father who beat him regularly, often for no reason, under the watchful eye of a passive mother. He then experienced a ferocious hatred towards them.

He was described by the witnesses who succeeded his lawsuits in laudatory terms: "very motivated and pleasant to attend" pupil, an "exemplary" employee and a "considerate" companion.[4]

In 1980, he obtained a sailing CAP and became a boatman on a pusher of the Rhine. His employer boasted of his "effective and serious" work and "exemplary" behavior.

He was endowed with a Herculean strength, and he dreamt of becoming a para-commando. "I love the army and I wanted to become para-commando, for travel, sport and combat", but because of a fibula fracture, he could not become a paratrooper and he was highly disappointed. In 1982, he did became a conscript.

Crimes

Rape series

Between 1983 and 1984, Poirson committed seven rapes and assaults (sometimes under the threat of a weapon, some of his victims being strangled) in the Strasbourg region. He committed his last rape in a forest, the victim raising the license plate of the car which belonged to Poirson's lover.

In January 1985, he was arrested and incarcerated.

In December 1985, he was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

While serving his sentence in the prisons of Ensisheim and Fleury-Mérogis, he maintained a correspondence with Chantal Vaslet, his future companion. She was a maternal assistant, 14 years older than him and with 6 girls. He was released in July 1994 after 9 years and 6 months of detention.[5] Poirson then became a stonemason in the Paris region.

Kidnapping and murder series

On August 30, 1995, Poirson was drinking a glass on the terrace of a bar. He was enjoying this moment of rest, but the barking of a nearby dog prevented him from doing so, making him angry. He walked through the fields and went to the animal cemetery of Douains to avenge himself for being so bothered. He broke the window of the tool shed, grabbed one and used it to ransack the animals' graves. Jeanine Villain, 67, and her 44-year-old daughter Monique, who lived in Saint-Vincent-des-Bois, came to the grave of their dog "Babette", hearing the sounds and surprising her. Monique threatened to call the gendarmes and stood up to him. Not supporting this, he stunned Jeanine and attacked Monique, putting them in their car, a BX, and taking them to a field in Neuilly. He suggested to Monique that he could release them if they kept quiet, but she refused. He stifled Monique by putting her head in a plastic bag and broke Jeanine's neck by hitting her with a piece of wood. He went to look for a can of gasoline at La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie at the Molières farm where he worked and returned to burn the bodies of the two women. Then he left with the car to walk in Paris and returned to Mantes-la-Jolie, where he abandoned and burned the car under a railway bridge, where it was later found. He walked home.

The bodies of the two women were found on September 2, 1995 by passers-by. The investigators directed their suspicions on Michel Villain, 47 years old, son and half-brother of the two victims, with whom he has been scrambled for ten years. Misrepresented by his own 24-year-old son, Michel Villain was indicted and would spend three years in custody before being released after the confession of Louis Poirson.[6][7]

In June 1996, Louis Poirson kidnapped three 15-year-old hitch-hikers in Chaufour-lès-Bonnières and sequestrated them on the farm in La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie, but they escaped. He was arrested, tried in January 1997 and sentenced to three years in prison.

He was released in July 1998.

On 28 July 1998, in Douains, Poirson violated Adeline, a 20-year-old woman.

Lucie Pham-Ngoc-Bich, 73 years old, resides at the retirement home A.R.E.P.A on Frédéric Chopin street, at Val Fourré in Mantes-la-Jolie, she was "disconcerting of naivety" and under tutelage. On April 28, 1999, she went out for a walk in the street, as she did every day. Poirson, driving his wife's car, passed by her and offered to take her away, and she got on board. Soon after, she asked him to stop because she wanted to urinate. As soon as he could, he stopped the car on a rest area, got out of the car and brought out Lucie. He then found that she had relieved herself on her passenger seat. Furious, he pushed her violently, she fell and was stunned. He put her back in the car and took her to La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie on the farm where he worked. They quarreled again and he strangled her, then carried the body behind the farm to the edge of the field in Chaufour-lès-Bonnières and buried it.[8]

On September 5, 1999, Charlotte Berson, 79, a widow, went for a walk in the countryside near her home in Pacy-sur-Eure, as she did every day. Poirson, driving his wife's car, passed by her, stopping, and blocking her passage. He offered to take her by car. She categorically refuses and knocked on the hood of the car to clear the passage. He feared that she had damaged the car by striking on it, became furious and pushed Charlotte violently, who fell on a stone and was knocked unconscious. He put her in the car and took her to La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie where he strangled her. He then put her back in the car and hid the naked body in a thicket at Chaussy. He poured hydrochloric acid on her face and hands in the hope of preventing her from being identified. Charlotte's family reported her disappearance. On October 3, 1999, two hunters discovered the corpse. She was still wearing her watch on her wrist. She was identified by the serial number on the pin in the left wrist. The family recognized her watch. Investigators believed she was sequestered about two weeks before her body was abandoned, as the acid delayed the appearance of the burying beetles. The study of the bolus during the autopsy concluded that Charlotte was killed the day of her disappearance, and contradicted the observations of the entomological analysis.

The morning of May 3, 2000, Clémence, 38, took the train from Paris to return home to Vernon. She caught the wrong train and was forced to go down to Mantes-la-Jolie. She was upset because she had an appointment at the school where her son was attending. She went to a bus stop, to take a bus to Vernon. Poirson, driving his car, passed by and offered to take her there. But before that, he had to go to his place of work to drop the boxes that are in the trunk of the car. Arriving at the farm in La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie, he got out of the car, opened the trunk, then opened the passenger door and threatened Clémence with a knife. He forced her to get out of the car, screaming. He tied her hands behind her back and dragged her into one of the farm buildings under construction. During the fight, Clémence's watch fell at the foot of the stairs. He showed her to a small room on the first floor where there was only one old mattress on the floor. He gagged her, tied her tightly and left her here. He went down to work in his studio. His boss arrived, and was surprised to find the woman's watch. She went down and found Clémence. She confronted Poirson and asked him what was going on. He answers that he knows that there is a woman being held on the first floor, that he is the one who took her away and that he will take her home. Panicked, he untied Clémence and told him to take her home by car. The boss called him while Poirson was driving. She told him that she had warned the gendarmerie by phone. She ordered him to go after dropping Clémence at home. Arriving in Vernon, he apologized to Clémence, then he returned to Bonnieres-sur-Seine to surrender to the gendarmerie. He was indicted for kidnapping and forcible confinement. He was arrested and incarcerated in Bois d'Arcy.

During interrogations in custody, Poirson was very calm, and very respectful to the investigators. He recognized the facts only if the investigators submitted irrefutable evidence against him. They understood that he wanted at all costs to prevent his wife from being involved. They told him that since he had used Chantal's car several times, they could also put her in custody, so he confessed immediately. He claimed to have killed Charlotte Berson because she looked like his mother. With regard to the animal cemetery, he declared: "such a tralala for a dead dog" and that "the stone is expensive". During the search of his home the investigators discovered jewelry of women that were not his wife's. He declared to have found them. Charlotte Berson's family did not recognize the jewelry. Françoise Maricourt, social counselor, recognized Lucie Pham-Ngoc-Bich's bracelet.

The journalist Michèle Fines, reporting on a gendarmerie investigation, filmed Poirson's custody and interviewed him afterwards.

A picture of a naked woman in the woods, looking terrified, was found in the business of Poirson. The investigators, convinced that this is another victim, questioned him about it. He declared that he has never seen this woman and that it is a picture that he had simply found.

List of known victims
Facts Identity Age Discovery
Date Place Date Place
30 August 1995 Douains Jeanine Villain 67 September 2, 1995 Neuilly
Monique Villain 44
June 1996 Chaufour-lès-Bonnières hitchhiker 15 June 1996 La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie
hitchhiker 15
hitchhiker 15
July 28, 1998 Douains Adeline 20 July 28, 1998 Douains
April 28, 1999 Mantes-la-Jolie Lucie Pham-Ngoc-Bich 73 January 23, 2001 Chaufour-lès-Bonnières
September 5, 1999 Pacy-sur-Eure Charlotte Berson 79 October 3, 1999 Chaussy
May 3, 2000 Mantes-la-Jolie Clémence 38 May 3, 2000 La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie

Trial and conviction

On September 23, 2002, the trial of Louis Poirson began at the cour d'assises of Eure in Évreux for the double murder of Jeanine and Monique Villain.[9][10][11]

Aude Le Guilcher was the general counsel. Vincent Picard was the lawyer of Michel Villain. The defense of Louis Poirson was provided by Guylène Grimaud.

On September 24, 2002, Louis Poirson was sentenced to life imprisonment.[12][13][14][15]

On February 2, 2005, the trial of Louis Poirson began at the cour d'assises in Yvelines, Versailles for the murders of Lucie Pham-Ngoc-Bich and Charlotte Berson and for the rapes of Adeline and Clémence.[16]

Marie-Thérèse de Givry was the general counsel. Emmanuel Daoud was the lawyer of the Berson family. The defense of Louis Poirson was provided by Sophie Gourmelon.

In February 2005, Louis Poirson was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a 22-year sentence of security.

Press articles

TV documentaries
  • "Louis Poirson, the stonemason" in September 2007 and September 2008, presented by Christophe Hondelatte in Get the Accused on France 2.
  • "The Poirson Affair, Confessions of a Killer" 29 in Criminal Investigations: The W9 News Magazine.
  • "Louis Poirson, the murderer of old ladies" November 28, 2012, January 11 and 21, October 10, 15 and 23, 1st, 8 and 9 November 2013 and June 26, 2015 in Stéphane Bourgoin tells about Planète + Justice.

Radio shows
  • "The case Louis Poirson, the stonemason" October 22, 2013 in L'Heure du crime of Jacques Pradel on RTL.
  • "Louis Poirson, the stonemason" September 9, 2016 presented by Christophe Hondelatte on Europe 1.

References
  1. "Louis Poirson, the stonemason" in September 2007 and September 2008 in Get the Accused presented by Christophe Hondelatte on France 2
  2. Endowed with incredible physical strength, adept at musculation, he is completely fascinated by Rambo, hence this nickname. The trial of an almost ordinary man - Any man, Fidès
  3. Louis Poirson was able to lift with one hand 40 kg (88 lb) without showing any sign of effort "The stonemason's route" Article by Stéphane Sellami published on February 3, 2005 in Le Parisien
  4. The trial of an almost ordinary man - Any man, Fidès
  5. "Criminal life imprisonment for the serial killer of Villeneuve-en-Chevrie -The terrifying course of the serial killer-" Article published on February 9, 2005 in Le Courrier de Mantes
  6. The trial of an almost ordinary man - A judicial past already charged, Fidès
  7. 419009 "Three years stolen from an innocent man" Article by Jean-Pierre Thibaudat published on October 19, 2002 in Libération
  8. retrait E9e de_Mantes_victime_du_tueur_en_s_E9rie.html "A retired Mantes victim of the serial killer" Article published on February 1, 2001 in Le Courrier de Mantes
  9. Serial killers
  10. "A serial killer tried in the Eure" Article published on September 23, 2002 in Le Nouvel Observateur
  11. "First trial of the serial killer stonemason" Article by Geoffroy Tomasovitch published on September 23, 2002 in Le Parisien
  12. "Louis Poirson, the stonemason, sentenced to life" Article published on October 2, 2002 in Le Courrier de Mantes
  13. "Life sentence for the stonemason" Article by Frédéric Vézard published on 25 September 2002 in Le Parisien
  14. 416527 "It's human stupidity, mine" Article by Patricia Tourancheau published on 25 September 2002 in Libération
  15. "Assises: perpetuity for Louis Poirson" Article published on September 25, 2002 in Le Nouvel Observateur
  16. "New trial for the old ladies killer" Article by Stéphane Sellami published on February 2, 2005 in Le Parisien

See also
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