Le Grêle’: Cop leaves suicide note revealing 1980s serial killer identity

A former French police officer identified himself in a suicide note as the serial killer responsible for a savage series of rapes and murders throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Paris. On Wednesday, after being summoned by police to answer questions about the case, he died of an overdose. Le Figaro reports that the 59-year-old man, identified by the French media as François V, was found dead in the apartment he leased in the southern French beach town of Grau-du-Roi on Wednesday.

As reported by La Dépêche, the criminal was contacted by French authorities on September 24 in connection with their investigation into the serial murderer. According to Le Figaro, his wife reported him missing on September 27. France’s Le Figaro reported that DNA samples collected from François V’s body matched those collected from the serial killer’s other crime scenes.

According to a victim’s description, the assailant had a pockmarked face and operated between 1983 and 1994. A pockmark is also known as a grêle, which is French for hail. The individual known as François V retired as a police officer in 1988, according to Le Figaro.

One of the killer’s alleged targets was Cecile Bloch, a young girl who was killed in Paris in 1986. Six rapes were also alleged to have been committed by Le Grêle. According to reports cited by Le Parisien, the retired cop in his suicide note mentioned he was ‘not well in life’ at the time of these deaths.