Albert Millet
Albert Millet, born July 2, 1929, was a french serial killer, nicknamed "The Boar of the Moors".[1][2][3] He is infamous for killing two women, in 1954 and in 1979, and a man, in 2007, in his hometown of Hyères.
Albert Millet | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 2, 1929 |
| Died | November 19, 2007 (aged 78) Hyères, France |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Other names | "The Boar of the Moors" |
| Details | |
| Victims | 3 |
Span of crimes | 1954–2007 |
| Country | France |
Millet committed suicide after being chased down by the police for his third crime on November 19, 2007.
Biography
The only child of an abusive household - he is mostly neglected by his mother, and beaten by his alcoholic father.[4] He drops out of school at the age of 14.[5] It is assumed that he knew very well the area surrounding Hyères, and was familiar with the ruined castle overlooking the city, and the close by maquis, as he would try to hide there after committing his murders. While serving in Tataouine, Tunisia, he became a marksman and developed an interest for firearms.
Prior to the murders he commits several other crimes:
- in 1947, he commits theft twice and is sentenced to one month in prison for both cases;
- in 1948, he commits two more thefts and is sentenced again;
- in 1950, yet again he becomes involved in theft, but also violence against a gendarme and the possession of a firearm.
On June 5, 1951, he tries to shoot an Algerian man and is arrested by the police in the maquis where he was hiding with a rifle.
First murder
Timeline
1954 — Millet meets 15-year-old Paulette Dogliotti in a ballroom in Hyères and falls in love with her. Paulette is a servant, and is being brought up by her aunt, Élisa Maggiorana.
Paulette would carry out litter in a metal bin every night to put it on the sidewalk for collection, so Millet started meeting with the girl by waiting for her in front of her employer's house. Élisa (Paulette's aunt) did not approve of their nightly meetings, because of Millet's reputation, in particular his passion for firearms and his convictions. She also considered Paulette to be too young for the relationship. Élisa forbids them from meeting again, and Paulette complies with her aunt's decision.
March 1954 — Élisa is drinking in a bar in Hyères with her fiancé, when Millet enters the bar, and approaches her to start a conversation. The conversation escalates, and Élisa slaps Millet in front of a crowd of patrons, her fiancé throws Millet out of the bar and while being thrown out Millet issues death threats against Élisa and Paulette.
March 28, 1954 — Paulette takes out the trash as usual, Millet, who was waiting for her, approaches her, pulls out a gun and shoots at her. She miraculously comes out of the incident unscathed by using the metal bin she was carrying as a shield. Millet runs away and hides in the maquis, Élisa files a complaint against him.
April 3, 1954 — at around 17:00, Élisa Maggiorana is sitting at the bus stop in front of the Aux Dames de France store. Millet crosses the street, walks up to her and shoots her in the head. She dies instantly. He runs away and hides in the maquis again, gaining his nickname "The Boar of the Moors" (a maquis is a common habitat for boars in the region).
The police recognises him the next day at the station where he shot Élisa. He is shot three times in the head, survives and falls into a coma.
Trial, conviction and incarceration
The trial of Albert Millet began at the cour d'assises in the VAR department, in Draguignan on September 30, 1955. The defense of Millet was provided by Master Aymé Perrimond. Millet recognized the facts, but denied premeditation. He claimed to have shot intentionally at the bin to scare Paulette and argued that, as a former army marksman, if his target was Paulette, he would not have missed. Regarding Élisa, he claimed that he approached her to ask her to come with him to the police station to withdraw her complaint, but got scared when she started screaming as soon as she saw him and shot her.
Millet was sentenced to death. He was incarcerated at the Baumettes Prison in Marseille. He appealed, the Court of Cassation canceled his sentence of death due to a vice de forme .
In 1956, another trial was held at the cour d'assises of the Alpes-Maritimes department, in Nice. Albert Millet's sentence was changed to penal labor for life.
He was then incarcerated in the Fresnes prison, then the Château-Thierry Prison, and finally the Clairvaux Prison, all prisons known for their harsh conditions. During his detention he behaved like a model prisoner.
On July 12, 1968, his sentence was commuted again, this time to 20 years of imprisonment.
While incarcerated he maintained a correspondence with the wife of one of his friends, Fernande "Nande" Valentin. She was a caregiver at San Salvadour Hospital. She visited him in the prison parlor several times. They began a relationship after Fernande divoced her husband.
Freedom and second murder
Timeline
July 10, 1973 — Albert Millet receives parole.
August 1973 — He marries Fernande, and moves to 5th de la Croix Street in Hyères. He calls Fernande "a saint". He only touches guns when he goes hunting. The newly-weds seem happy together. Fernande takes good care of their household. Millet does not have a job, but does undeclared gardening work. Every month, respecting his obligations he goes to the police station to sign his residence permit.
In the evening, after her work at the hospital, Fernande takes on housekeeping jobs to keep their couple afloat. Over the years, Millet becomes possessive, suspicious, spies on Fernande and suspects her of having an affair, while she complains about his sexual needs, saying that they are excessive, preventing her from getting proper sleep.
June 12, 1979 — Fernande tells Millet that she wants him to sleep on the couch. An argument breaks out between the couple, it escalates until Fernande finally tells her husband that she does not want to take care of a man who does nothing anymore and announces that she wants a divorce. As she does not want him to find himself destitute after the separation, she signs him a check for 20,000 francs. Millet feels humiliated.
June 13, 1979 — at approximately 05:00 Millet stabs Fernande with a dagger several times, he hits her heart twice. He then barricades himself inside the house and gets drunk. A little after 9:00, he starts firing a gun through the window of his room. The house is quickly surrounded by police. He throws objects out the window, and confesses to his crime to the police, shouting "I killed a saint", and saying that he wants to commit suicide. After about four hours of negotiations with friends and a priest, Millet finally surrendered to the police.
In custody, Millet declared that after killing his wife, he decided to commit suicide in the maquis , so he took his doberman on a walk, but changed his mind on the way and hit the dog, who ran away. He also asked to speak to the Commissioner, whose office was on the second floor, and tried to commit suicide by jumping from the landing into the police station's stairwell. The police caught him in flight on the first floor.
As part of the investigation, the police requested Fernande's locker at the hospital to be opened, and found drafts of a letter addressed a lover, suggesting that Millet might have been suspecting his wife of cheating on him.
The corpse of a Doberman was discovered by a shepherd in a well with a stone around its neck. The shepherd hid his discovery for a few days, recognising the dog, for fear of Millet.
Trial, conviction and incarceration
On May 11, 1981, Albert Millet's trial began at the cour d'assises of Var in Draguignan. Fernande's family claimed that it was not logical for the bitch to run away - she would have taken refuge at home, and she would have defended her mistress if she had seen Millet hurt her. They were convinced that the defendant killed the dog before, and therefore that he had premeditated the murder of Fernande and that the crime was therefore an assassination.
Millet, who plead guilty to the crime of passion, was sentenced to life imprisonment, the jury having not retained the premeditation. He again was a model inmate. His sentence was finally commuted to 22 years of imprisonment. He did not benefit from any psychological support. He worked during his detention, and was saving about 300 000 francs at the time. He also enjoyed exit permits, during which he stayed in a room of a small hotel in Nice.
In June 2001, during his fourth leave, he met a woman named Gisèle on the terrace of a café. He confessed to her all his criminal career. She told him that she only has a disability pension as income, that she spent it at the casino and that she was in debt. She invited him to spend the night, at 3rd avenue du Patrimoine, in the small two-room apartment that she owned.
Release
In December 2001, Albert Millet was released on parole. He then left to live in Gisèle's apartment. According to her, he had great sexual needs, which she appreciated at first. He also did the housework. He gave her many gifts (jewelry, clothes, etc.), and large sums of money.
Millet's probation officer worried about the speed with which his savings were disappearing and feared he was being scammed. Millet replied that he was fully aware of this and that he was quite willing. Millet contacted Master Thierry Perrimond, the son of his first lawyer, Aymé Perrimond, who died during his detention. Millet entrusted his personal fortune (louis d'or, watches, jewels, etc.) to his lawyer, who placed it in the vault of a bank in Toulon. After a small fright due to the opening of a bad locker, Master Thierry Perrimond restored his property.
Gisèle quickly found Millet to be possessive and she felt watched by him. She told in a letter that he must leave home, and that their relationship will end on February 15, 2002. Millet tried to coax her by saying that he had hidden a treasure in the maquis near Hyères, including between other twelve gold bars. He offered to give her most of it, in exchange for staying with him. She asked to see this treasure before giving an answer.
On February 12, 2002, they went by train to Hyères. Millet had bought an ice axe. A taxi dropped them at the Fenouillet road, in a deserted place that Millet said is the one where he hid his treasure. He began to scratch the ground behind the rocks with his ice axe. Gisèle realized that he can easily kill her discreetly here and panicked, returning to the road and stopping the first car. The driver took Albert and Gisèle to the station from where they left for Nice, where she abandoned Millet.
On February 13, 2002, Millet recontacted Gisèle and offered her 10,000 francs to return to live with him. She accepted, but on February 17, 2002, she told him to leave permanently. He still spent the night at home.
In the early morning of February 18, 2002, Gisèle was in bed when Millet hit her with a kitchen knife. They fought and she was cut under the chin. Millet tried to rescue her, but she told him to leave, which he did. She called an ambulance which took her to the Saint Roch hospital. Her injury was not serious. Millet soon went to the hospital to check on Gisèle, then surrendered himself to his probation officer. He said he never intended to kill Gisèle.
Trial, conviction and incarceration
The trial of Albert Millet for the attempted murder on Gisele took place in the tribunal correctionnel. The defense of Millet was provided by Master Mireille Damiano, Master Sandrine Setton being the lawyer of Gisèle. Millet was sentenced to seven years in prison, but appealed his conviction. At the trial on appeal, his conviction was confirmed.
Release, last murder and suicide
In August 2007, Albert Millet was released.[6] He had 30,000 euros in savings. He moved to room 4 of the Hotel du Soleil in Hyères. He met his neighbor Chantal, who lives at 1st Neuve Street. He saw her from the window of her hotel room. Chantal was depressed and had financial worries. He eventually moved to her home and paid a portion of the rent. He gives her presents and invited her to eat at a restaurant. But Millet was upset, because Chantal had a friend who came almost every day to their apartment, Christian Fernandez, 41-years-old. She offered him an aperitif and the meal while it is Millet who financed. They argued about it. Millet went back to his room at the hotel and decided that Chantal must repay some of his money, several thousand euros.
On November 18, 2007, Millet spent the night at Chantal's house and insisted that they be alone. Chantal refused and invited Christian. Millet went to bed but got up to complain about the noise, which was reclined several times in a row.
On November 19, 2007, at 3:00 am, Millet got up and went down to the first floor. Christian invited him to have a drink with them. Millet, insulted, left the house saying that he would come back armed. Christian, however, did not take his threat seriously. A little later, Millet knocked on the door of the house and calmly asked to enter. Chantal opened the door, and Millet bursted in, shooting her in the thigh. Christian intervened, but was shoot three times and died on the spot. Millet fled and hid in the bush. But the "Boar of the Moors" had aged and could no longer evade the gendarmes. At around 4:45 pm, in the climb of Noailles, Millet saw the policemen and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
List of known victims
| Date | Identity | Age | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 28, 1954 | Paulette Dogliotti | 15 | Hyères |
| April 3, 1954 | Élisa Maggiorana | 27 | Hyères |
| June 13, 1979 | Fernande Valentin | in the forties | Hyères |
| February 18, 2007 | Gisèle | in the fifties | Nice |
| November 19, 2007 | Chantal | in the fifties | Hyères |
| Christian Fernandez | 41 |
References
- "The murderous grandfather stabs his girlfriend" Article by François Corbara published on 24 February 2002 in Le Parisien
- "Albert Millet, The Boar of the Moors" December 11, 2011 and December 16, 2012 in Get the Accused presented by Frédérique Lantieri on France 2
- "Albert Millet, the wild boar of the Moors" November 26, 2014 in L'Heure du crime of Jacques Pradel on RTL
- Didier Fabre, The bloody trajectory of Albert Millet, the other Pierrot the madman , Presses du Midi, October 2011 ISBN 2-8127-0283-4
- "Albert Millet, murderer until his last day" Article by Timothée Boutry published November 21, 2007 in Le Parisien
- «Hyères: Albert Millet commits suicide after one last murderous madness» Article published on November 20, 2007 in Nice-Matin
Bibliography
- Didier Fabre, The bloody trajectory of Albert Millet, the other Pierrot the madman, Presses du Midi, October 2011 ISBN 2-8127-0283-4
TV documentary
- "Albert Millet, The wild boar of the Moors" on December 11, 2011 and December 16, 2012 in "Get the accused" presented by Frédérique Lantieri on France 2.
Radio shows
- "Albert Millet, the Boar of the Moors" November 26, 2014 in L'Heure du crime of Jacques Pradel on RTL
- "Albert Millet, the boar of the Moors" November 15, 2016 in Hondelatte tells presented by Christophe Hondelatte on Europe 1