Roger Girerd – An Act Of Deadly Parricide
Roger Girerd was a French mass murderer who killed 10 members of his own family at a farm in Charvieu-Chavagneux, France on May 19th 1965, before committing suicide.
The crime was reported to be the deadliest mass murder by a single person in French history at that time, even though 14 people were killed by a drunk man in Rouen on June 10, 1945.
The Life of Roger Girerd
Roger Girerd was said to have worked at a foundry from morning to evening, while his mother also urged him to do the hardest labor on the family farm. Due to being overworked, Roger suffered a nervous breakdown and had been in a mental institution in Grenoble for a few months in 1959.
In the months prior to the murders he again showed signs of terrible fatigue and spoke often of his fears of a quickly approaching nuclear war, being especially worried about the fate of his children.
The Family Murders
According to reports, when Roger was just 34 years old, on the night of May 19th, 1965, he murdered his entire family. He stabbed his wife, Jeannette, his six children, aged 6 months to 10 years, as well as a 16 month-old niece, during the night of May 19th and into the morning hours of May 20th.
The bodies of Jeannette, four of the children and his niece, were found the next day lying dead in the kitchen, covered with sheets, while the two remaining children were discovered on the first floor.
At approximately 8:30 a.m. on the 20th of May, a witness heard two shots from the farm, and it was suspected that Roger Girerd then killed his 58-year-old mother and his 23-year-old brother in an annex. Two more shots were heard at about 10 a.m., when Roger Girerd killed his dog and himself.
In a suicide note, Roger Girerd stated he was sick of living in poverty and watching his family living in need.
He wrote:
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I have enough. I have to do something. I don’t want my children to have to live the way I have to. I want everyone to live in peace. … I am leaving money for the funeral and to pay my debts
credit – murderpedia
