Serial killer appeared on TV quiz show while hiding from police in plain sight
François Vérove was a contestant on ‘Everyone Wants to Take His Place’ in 2019, two years before he killed himself as the net closed in.
A French serial killer appeared on a popular TV quiz show while being hunted by police for raping and murdering dozens of victims.
François Vérove was a contestant on ‘Everyone Wants to Take His Place’ in 2019, two years before he killed himself as the net closed in.
The retired cop appeared at ease while chatting with host Nagui Fam and offering answers to the general knowledge questions before a live audience.
His appearance was revealed by the Marianne news magazine and is seen as proof Vérove, a married father of two, successfully hid in plain sight.
It has also raised uncomfortable questions for the police who took so long to catch him, despite having a good description of the monster and strong suspicions he was one of their own.
Vérove, 59, left a note for his wife before taking his own life in which he described having ‘carried a mad rage that made of me a criminal’.
He added: ‘There were times when I couldn’t stand it and I had to destroy, sully, kill someone innocent.’
DNA confirmed he was behind the murder of 11-year-old Cécile Bloch, who was found dead in Paris in 1986.
His victims also included Gilles Politi, a 38-year-old aviation technician, and 20-year-old German au pair Irmgard Müller, who were killed in the French capital in 1987.
The predator is also known to have raped at least two other children in the course of 31 suspected attacks until 1994.
During the investigation the killer was nicknamed Le Grêlé (The Pockmarked Man) after witnesses described his acne-marked face.
Vérove’s widow, who has not been named, told Patricia Tourancheau, author of a book on Le Grêlé, ‘The Pockmarked Man: The Killer Was a Cop’, she had never suspected her husband’s double life.
Tourancheau writes that his appearance on the show was a ‘form of provocation’.
‘It’s unbelievable?’ she adds. ‘Why? Because we know that he is a serial killer and there he looks like an ordinary person.
‘It’s stupefying to see him take part in the game and defy everyone in a sort of way.
‘But at the same time that confirms that big criminals look like ordinary people.
‘They don’t have monsters’ heads.’
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