Service D'Action Civique - The 1982 Auriol Massacre and The Dissolving of The SAC

The 1982 Auriol Massacre and The Dissolving of The SAC

Pierre Debizet, responsible of the SAC, arrived in Marseille in May 1981, troubled because of local rivalries in his organisation. Jacques Massié, a police inspector and local responsible of the SAC, was accused of corruption by those who assassinated him. He was in reality a competent police officer, who was to take the leadership of the SAC in the Bouches-du-Rhône with the support of Debizet. Some time afterward, Massié and all of his family were massacred on the night of July 18, 1981 in what is known as the "Auriol massacre". A few weeks later, his murderers were arrested. Pierre Debizet was interrogated by the police, but eventually released without being charged of anything. The five SAC members of the Auriol commando were condemned on May 1, 1985 to sentences between 15 years of prison and life-sentences; however, the mastermind behind inspector Massié's murder was never identified.

The Auriol massacre took place after the 1981 election of François Mitterrand, candidate of the Socialist Party (PS). It was the first victory of the left-wing since the 1958 establishment of the Fifth Republic by De Gaulle. The parliamentary majority decided to found a parliamentary commission, in which right-wing deputies refused to sit. The Commission, however, did not request the dissolving of the SAC. But the National Assembly discussed it anyhow, and Mitterrand disbanded the SAC in 1982, using the law allowing the President of the Republic to disband combat groups and private militias.