Few serial killers have terrorized France like this Guy Georges. A vagrant with no future, addicted to robbery and alcoholism, capable of barbarically killing seven women and assaulting (at least) ten others. A criminal path between rape and blood that has distant roots and whose problems are visible to the naked eye. His story deeply shook the French judiciary and society and left an indelible mark on the 1990s.
troubled childhood
Born on October 15, 1962 in Vitry-le-Francois to a French mother and an African American father, soldier George Cartwright, Guy Georges is abandoned almost immediately. His grandparents refuse to take care of him and he is entrusted to an adoptive mother, Jeanne Morin. The future serial killer grows up in the suburbs of aggravation, Development of a lonely character that can turn into a violent and aggressive temperament. The way to school is complicated, to say the least, with 14 the first signs of violence, with the attempted strangulation by half-sister Roselyne, who suffers from intellectual disability. However, the episode is being kept under wraps to give him another chance.
A year passes, but the situation does not change. Guy Georges becomes the protagonist of a new one aggression Housewife, this time against her stepsister Christiane, another attempt at strangulation. Concerned about her daughters, the adoptive mother sends Georges to “La Marmitière”, which specializes in caring for children in need. Not much changes: On February 6, Guy Georges attacks the young Pascale C. at a bus stop. First the attempted blackmail, then the strangulation. Fortunately, the girl manages to escape. He is arrested by the police and stays there for a week pre-trial detention. After his release, life does not improve, on the contrary: he falls into depression and drowns his thoughts in alcohol.
The escalation of violence
Guy Georges begins going in and out of prison, alternating between violence and arrests, abuse and convictions. Then the leap in quality, with sexual harassment and rape. After another period of imprisonment, he settled in Paris with a half-brother in February 1981. Here he starts stealing and prostituting himself to survive. And the attacks escalate: in November 1981 he attacks 18-year-old Nathalie L. Sexual violence, stab wounds and blood flows: the young girl miraculously survives, but does not name Georges as the attacker. This is the first known heinous crime in criminal history Beast of the Bastille.
The tramp with a troubled past continues to bounce in and out of prison, increasing the violence of his attacks exponentially. In June 1982, eight days after being released, he assaulted young Violette K. in an underground car park in the 16th arrondissement: rape and stabbing, but the woman managed to escape before the worst happened. For this crime he was sentenced to 30 months – he served eighteen: he was released on February 27, 1984, the same evening that he had assaulted another woman. In his viewfinder the unfortunate Pascale Nix: She is also attacked with a knife, but manages to escape. Another arrest, another sentence: 10 years in prison.
Guy Georges, the beast of the Bastille
On January 18, 1991, after five and a half years in a cell in Caen, Guy Georges benefited from the semi-libertarian regime and decided to flee to Paris. On the night of January 24th to 25th, beware Pascale Escarfail on the terrace of a cafe. He follows her house at 41 rue Delambre and manages to break into her house: here he rapes her and kills her with three stabs. The first cruel murder. At least as far as the murder is concerned, the man escaped: on February 17, 1991, he was arrested again and sentenced to another eight months in prison for escaping.
Guy Georges is released on April 4, 1992 and returns to Paris. He goes back to prison after an attempted murder and comes out again in November 1993. But the break from murder is short, in early 1994 he goes back into action: he kills Catherine “Cathy” Rocher in an underground car park after sexual abuse. Six days later, however, he attacks Annie Le Fleouter, radio presenter of Radio Nostalgie, under the veranda of her apartment on rue du Père Corentin. A few months pass and here is the third murder: on November 8, 1994, he kills the 22-year-old Elsa Benadi in the garage of his home in the 13th arrondissement.
Sexual assault, stabbing, strangulation. Guy Georges enjoys his criminal works and he can’t stop, he can’t help himself. The fourth murder is dated December 10, 1994: he raped and murdered the Dutch architect Agnes Nijkamp at his home in the 11th arrondissement. On June 16, 1995, he was targeted Elizabeth Ortega, who manages to escape the murderous killing spree. The traumatized young woman does not provide a correct description of the attacker, speaking of a North African and not a mestizo like the Beast of the Bastille. An error that will cause problems in the investigation.
The stroke of luck
Guy Georges continues his career as a killer and begins to sign his crimes: he cuts open the bra and moves the panties of his victims. On July 8, 1995, another ruthless murder: he assaulted, raped and killed the 27-year-old Dutch woman Helene Frinking. Then the classic case of sliding doors.
In fact, investigators identify a genetic profile from the cases of Agnes Nijkamp and Elisabeth Ortega. The same applies to the case of Elsa Benady: a note is found in her car traces of blood. The authorities do not connect the two cases and are proceeding in different ways without comparing the two DNA profiles. An “apartment killer” and a “parking lot killer”. Guy Georges is compared to this last “profile” but DNA analysis on the ticket found in Benady’s car gives a negative result. An incredible stroke of luck. Double if you consider that his genetic profile is not compared to that found in the apartments of Agnes Nijkamp and Elisabeth Ortega.
The case of the Murderer of Paris – retitled le tueur de l’Est parisien – begins to shake the city, but Guy Georges feels invincible after getting away with it. After another 17 months in prison – this time for sexual assault on the young woman Melanie Bacou – The serial killer returns to action on September 23rd. After the sexual abuse, he stabbed the 19-year-old student with a blade Magali Sirotti. A month later – on October 28 – the attempted murder of Valerie Lauzanne. Finally, the seventh and final murder that took place on the night of November 15-16, 1997: Guy Georges raped and killed the 25-year-old using the usual method Estelle Maid.
The beginning of the end
Aware of the risk of capture, Guy Georges leaves Paris for a few months. After his return, thanks to the DNA evidence at the last crime scenes, the police spring into action. After a legal battle, authorities locate his genetic profile in the archive. A race against time to arrest him before new crimes begin, but the job of the police is far from easy: a good tramp, the beast of the Bastille has no known address. In other words, the entire city must be searched.
Two days afterIDOn March 26, 1998, he was identified and arrested near the Blanche metro station in the 9th arrondissement. Before the judge, he pleads innocent and denies his guilt. Then suddenly he starts talking: he tells the crime of Magalie Sirotti and explains all the details. A first confession who precedes: In the first phase he is accused of five murders and one attempted murder.
However, the judge feels that he killed other women, particularly the “Parking Killer’s” victims, Catherine Rocher and Elsa Benday. After some time, Guy Georges is summoned and interrogated for ten hours: exhausted, he confesses to Rocher’s murder and then inadvertently reveals the details of the Benday crime. On April 5, 2001, Guy Georges was sentenced to prisonlifelong prison sentence with a minimum term of 22 years. Today he could ask for a parole, but he has no intention of doing so: “I will impose a sentence myself: I will never get out of prison, you can be sure of it”, his words at the end of the trial .