Actions, The Night of The Murders
On 9 January 1993, Romand withdrew 2000Fr, and purchased a handgun, silencer and gas canisters, and asked for them to be gift wrapped.
That night, feeling the only thing left to do was kill, he bashed his wife to death on their double bed with a rolling pin. He left her body until the morning, sleeping as normal.
The next morning, he woke his children, had breakfast, and watched cartoons. He put them to bed that night, and once they had fallen asleep, shot them both in the head.
After these killings, the only people who could expose him were his parents, who were both so proud of their 'successful' son, and his ex-mistress, who wanted back 900,000 Fr that she had given him as a favor.
The next morning, Romand traveled across the border to his parents' house, where he joined them for a meal. Immediately after the meal he repeatedly shot them both and the family dog.
That night he picked up his ex-mistress, telling her he was treating her to a romantic meal for two. Pretending the car had broken down, he made her exit the car, and as she did so he attempted to strangle her with a cord and sprayed tear gas into her face. After she fought back, he apologized and drove her back to her home before returning to his family home, which still contained the bodies of his dead wife and children.
He sat and watched TV before he poured petrol around the house, set it alight and took an overdose of sleeping pills to create the appearance of an intended suicide. Whether this attempt was genuine is doubtful, since the pills he took were long expired, and he had access to more effective barbiturates; additionally, the manner the fire was set and the timing of his taking the pills made his rescue inevitable. He was rescued by local firefighters who were alerted by the road cleaners at 4 o'clock the next morning.
He survived the blaze, but refused to talk to police during subsequent questioning; it was initially believed that he was too traumatized to speak.
Read more about this topic: Jean-Claude Romand
Famous quotes containing the words night and/or murders:
“Have We not made the earth as a cradle and the mountains as pegs? And We created you in pairs, and We appointed your sleep for a rest; and We appointed night for a garment, and We appointed day for a livelihood. And We have built above you seven strong ones, and We appointed a blazing lamp and have sent down out of the rain-clouds water cascading that We may bring forth thereby grain and plants, and gardens luxuriant.”
—Qur’An. “The Tiding,” 78:6-16, trans. by Arthur J. Arberry (1955)
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)