We take a look at some of Belgium's most notorious serial killers, some of whom will be in prison until they die, with no chance of parole.
This is a list of notable serial killers from the Belgium, ranked by number of proven victims (deadliest):
| # | Name: | Number of victims: |
| 5. | Marie Therese Joniaux-Ablay | 3 |
| 4. | Ronald Alain Janssen | 3 – 15+ |
| 3. | Marc Dutroux | 5 – 13+ |
| 2. | Andras Pandy | 6 – 14+ |
| 1. | Marie Alexandrine Becker | 10 – 20+ |
(See also 7 Myths About Serial Killers)
(See also The Last Words of 30 Famous Serial Killers)
(See also Top 30 Serial Killers By Number of Victims (20th century))
(See also Top 30 Intelligent Serial Killers With Highest IQ)
5. Marie Therese Joniaux-Ablay (3)
|
| (Marie Therese Joniaux-Ablay, 1895) |
Marie Therese Joniaux (born Therese Josephe Ablay, October 15, 1844 – 1923) was a Belgian serial killer, convicted for the murder of three family members in Antwerp between 1892 and 1894, for the purpose of obtaining the insurance on their lives.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner
Number of victims: 3
Date of murder: February 24, 1892 - March 6, 1894
Date of arrest: April 17, 1894
Date of birth: October 15, 1844
Died: 1923 (aged 79), Antwerp, Belgium
Victims profile: Leonie Ablay, Jacques Van de Kerkhove, Alfred Ablaÿ
Location: Belgium
Status: Sentenced to death but her sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
One might reasonably suppose that a lady in the clock charged with murdering her sister, brother and uncle could hardly be expected to look, her brightest and best.
Yet somehow Marie Therese Joniaux managed to retain that poise and charm which had caused men to crane their necks when she made a smashing debut in Brussels’ high society.
Apparently, relentless time and grim adversity had not diminished her magnetism, judging by the impression made on a news reporter of that period.
The scribe had not been privileged to see the youthful Marie at the Royal Court, but he was there in the Criminal Court some 30 years later. He enthused, “What a superb woman! What a commanding presence. Her features are beautifully chiselled; her eyes dark and soft. Her voice is dear as a bell and sweetly feminine.”
The delectable Marie Therese was born at Malines, Belgium, in 1844, the offspring of General Jules Ablay, a gallant cavalry officer and aide-de-camp to King Leopold II.
She bloomed in heart searing beauty in her teens, a well-educated socialite, cat-witted and graceful as a ballerina. Many duels were fought over her.
At 21, Marie was the presiding genius in the general’s house. Her mother was an invalid. The general had no income except an army pension. Yet he was able to keep open house and rare foods and vintage wines were served at glittering parties.
His daughter’s jewels rivalled those of the Royal Family.
How was it done? The secret was simple. No merchant could refuse credit to the Ablay household, for where the modish Marie traded, the titled and wealthy set of Belgian high society followed suit.
Season after season, La Belle Marie enjoyed all the luxury without troubling her pretty head either about marriage or the huge snowball of debt she was rolling up.
Suddenly came the reckoning. In the flush of the winter season the General died of a surfeit of rich food. No sooner had the last spadeful of earth been thrown over his body than the creditors got into full cry like a pack of hungry wolves. Their howls became monotonous "We want our money?"
NOW, Marie Therese, although a beautiful goldenhead, was no dumb blonde. She had been improvident and reckless, but quickly proved she could face hard facts as realistically as the next woman.
So, instead of getting the vapors, she arranged a splendid 12-course banquet for her creditors. Then, when the guests were mellow with food, wine and liqueurs, she made a brief after-dinner speech of sweet reasonableness.
“Be sure, gentlemen,” she said, “you will never get your money by dunning me and forcing me into bankruptcy. Advance me more credit until I can make an advantageous marriage. Then you shall all be paid back with interest.”
When the coughing fits had subsided, Marie’s guests could see no choice.
Besides, her sweet smile was irresistible. They agreed to give her six months to pay up.
Long before this period of grace elapsed, Marie not only married, but fell in love with the man of her choice. The lucky fellow was a bibliographer named Frederick Faber. Our heroine was almost completely happy. The one fly in the ointment was that Frederick had hardly a franc to line the pockets of his jeans.
The creditors were filled with rage and dismay. But soon the bewitching Marie calmed them by promising to sell the house, furniture and jewels if only they would be patient.
However, she sold nothing. Instead the Fabers rented swank apartments in the, Avenue Louise and embarked enthusiastically on the high life.
At the nightly parties Marie Therese, serene as a summer sky, played hostess to all Brussels society. Being a literary type, Frederick never both ered to ask prosaic questions as to where all the money came from.
The fact was that Marie had found a new batch of creditors. When she was 40 and still incredibly beautiful, Marie again faced a crisis in her affairs. Frederick Faber died suddenly of heart disease. The widow was inconsolable. So were her creditors when they learnt he had died penniless.
They demanded a settlement, but Marie stalled with a definite promise to find a rich husband.
Again the impression able lady fell in love. This time it was with Henry Joniaux, a civil engineer, whose fortune was similar to that of his predecessor — precisely nothing. This was unfortunate, because the debts of the fair Marie Therese now amounted to 100,000 francs.
Her position became un tenable. She and her husband fled to Antwerp, where Marie soon resorted to all her former tricks.
But the Antwerp merchants were less easygoing than those in Brussels. These coarse fellows not only demanded their money back at the time due, but acted as if they expected to get it.
For a time Marie borrowed from her rich friends. When this source ran dry, she ordered merchandise on approval and pawned it. Soon she began giving gambling parties at which her guests were systematically fleeced.
AFTER various excursions over the frontiers of crime at Monte Carlo and other resorts, Marie Therese returned to Antwerp and her rather dreamy husband. She was then getting fiftyish and a trifle plump, with small hope of ever regaining her position in society.
What she needed, Marie decided, was the comfort of her dear sister’s company. Hitherto, she had not shown any marked affection for Leonie, the sister in question. But that she had thought of her was evidenced by the fact that, two months earlier, she had taken out insurance policies in her name, totalling 70,000 francs.
Leonie arrived on a Friday evening. Henry Joniaux was away on business, and the two sisters sat down to a tasty supper. As a fitting welcome for Leonie, Marie Therese had personally prepared the meal.
When a maid went to awaken the guest next morning, she found her in bed as rigid as marble. A doctor certified the cause of death as double pneumonia.
Marie Therese was overwhelmed with grief. She wept for 24 hours. Then she sensibly dried her eyes, and drove to the local branch of the Gresham Insurance Company to collect 70,000 francs in crisp new banknotes.
The money was useful but did not go far enough. So Marie recalled that her rich uncle Jacques Vandenkerchove Jived in Ghent, and she had neglected for a long time to show him any pretty attention. After all, she was his nearest of kin and the logical person to appear in his will.
She invited Uncle Jacques on a visit when her husband was again absent. The old man was delighted by her charm and hospitality. “And now, dear uncle,” smiled Marie, after a pleasant meal, “I will brew you a pot of coffee myself. I have a special brand you will never forget.”
Uncle Jacques enjoyed the first fragrant cup so much that he begged for another. After which he felt none too good, and Marie suggested he should have a sleep and no doubt he’d feel better in the morning.
But Uncle Jacques never saw morning. Cerebral congestion, the doctor certified.
MARIE THERESE bore up well under this second shock — until the will was read. Her uncle, to her disgust, had left every centime to a certain Mademoiselle Julienne van Wesmael. When her husband came home Marie told him in righteous indignation that she doubt ed whether her uncle had been a very moral man.
Creditors again came baying around. Her friends stayed away in droves. In her extremity Marie got in touch with her dissolute brother, Alfred, whom she had not seen since her girlhood.
Such was her interest, she insured him with the Gresham for the handsome sum of 100,000 francs. Alfred was a robust type, but after a week’s visit at Marie’s home, he went into a sad decline.
His death, according to the medical certificate, was due to cerebral haemorrhage.
Even her worst enemies sympathised with Marie Therese in this triple affliction.The only discordant note was struck by the undertaker.
“I do not think, Madame,” he whispered at the funeral, “that many more members of your family will be visiting you.”
Marie froze this vulgarian with a glance, but unfortunately for her the undertaker’s opinion was shared by another Antwerp citizen — a Gresham Company official.
The insurance money was withheld. The Public Prosecutor was notified. Three corpses were exhumed and traces of poison detected at the post mortem. Marie Therese was arrested for the murder of Leonie Ablay, Jacques Vandenkerchove and Alfred Ablay — her sister, uncle and brother.
That she had bought quantities of morphine and atrophine was proved at the trial. This and other evidence proved damning.
When sentence of death was passed on her, Marie’s hands fluttered to her throat, now stripped of jewels.
The prison matron, sensing her thoughts, whispered: “Courage, Madame. That sentence will not be carried out. We do not guillotine women in Belgium any more.”
“Not the guillotine?” Marie muttered. “What then will they do with me?”
The matron told her. “Hard labor for the rest of your life.”
4. Ronald Alain Janssen (3 – 15+)
 |
| (Ronald Alain Janssen) |
Ronald Alain Janssen (born February 6, 1971) is a Belgian serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 3 people.
Ronald Jannsen was born on February 6, 1971 in Boorsem, Belgium. He had been a technical drawing teacher at a high school and was a divorced father of two daughters. He had been described as "quiet and withdrawn."
Jannsen was arrested after the January 1, 2010 shooting deaths of Shana Appeltans, 18, and her fiancé Kevin Paulus, 22, who were found in their burned car.
He confessed to killing 18 year old student Annick Van Uytsel in 2007. Annick van Uytsel had been cycling home when Jannsen forced her into his car at gunpoint and imprisoned her in his basement cellar for hours. He later bludgeoned her to death and placed her body, with weights attached, in a lake. He has been connected to as many as 15 murders dating back to 1991.
Jannsen is also suspected of committing twenty rapes since 2001. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 21, 2011.
A.K.A: "Le Prof"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Serial rapist
Number of victims: 3 - 15+
Date of murder: 2007 - 2010
Date of arrest: January 1, 2010
Date of birth: February 6, 1971
Victims profile: Annick Van Uytsel, 18 / Shana Appeltans, 18, and her fiancé Kevin Paulus, 22
Method of murder: Bludgeoned to death / Shooting
Location: Belgium
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment on October 21, 2011
'Quiet' teacher who confessed to three murders 'could be Belgium's latest serial killer'
DailyMail, January 14, 2010
A school teacher who confessed to murdering his neighbours could be Belgium's latest serial killer, police have revealed.
Ronald Janssen, 38, admitted shooting Shana Appeltans, 18, and her fiancé Kevin Paulus, 22, on New Year's Day in his home town of Halan.
The divorced father-of-two - technical drawing teacher described as 'quiet and withdrawn' - then told detectives he murdered an 18-year-old student in 2007.
Now he is being linked to 15 other killings, usually the rape and murder of young women.
Janssen, who has been nicknamed 'Le Prof', said he stopped Annick van Uytsel as she was cycling home late one night and forced her at gunpoint to get into his car.
Then he drove her to his home and imprisoned her in his cellar for several hours.
After raping her and bludgeoning her to death, he attached weights to her body and dumped her in a canal. The body was recovered a year later.
Janssen washed the body to remove all clues and police said he would never have been suspected.
The teacher allegedly told police he began killing in the 1990s when he was a student, and has provided gruesome descriptions of his crimes - but no names or dates, saying he 'can't remember'.
Detectives believe they are dealing with a Jekyll and Hyde character, a popular teacher and father who is concerned about the effect the media coverage of his crimes is having on his daughters, aged eight and 11.
Prosecutors are now trying to link Janssen to the murders of two 24-year-old girls at Louvain University, near Brussels, while he was studying there in the 1990s.
Both victims were stabbed to death.
Police also want to question him about missing student Tanja Groen from Maastricht, Holland, who vanished in 1993 as she was cycling home from a party.
At the time Janssen lived a few miles away. No body has ever been recovered.
He is also suspected of at least five more murders, of two teenagers and three women in their twenties, which date back to 1991.
Janssen's widowed mother Hilde Houben, 63, said today: 'I've never seen my son chasing women. He's been a good son.
'I spoke to him by phone and he said it all happened in a moment of madness.
'I am devastated, but Ronny is still my boy. I must stand by him however hard that may be.'
Janssen's ex-wife Nathalie had been on good terms with her husband and had trusted him to look after their two daughters twice a week.
'I always thought he was a kind and gentle man,' she said. 'This killer is not the husband I knew.'
3. Marc Dutroux (5 – 13+)
 |
| (Marc Dutroux) |
Marc Dutroux (born 6 November 1956) is a Belgian serial killer and child molester, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls from 1995 to 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. His wife, Michelle Martin, was convicted as an accomplice. Dutroux was also convicted of having killed a suspected former accomplice, Bernard Weinstein. He was arrested in 1996 and has been in prison ever since, though he briefly escaped in April 1998.
Earlier, in 1989, Dutroux and Martin had been sentenced to 13 and a half and 5 years imprisonment, respectively, for the abduction and rape of five young girls, the youngest of whom was eleven years old. Dutroux was released after serving three years.
Dutroux's widely publicised trial took place in 2004. A number of shortcomings in the Dutroux investigation caused widespread discontent in Belgium with the country's criminal justice system, and the ensuing scandal was one of the reasons for the reorganisation of Belgium's law enforcement agencies.
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on June 22, 2004.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape - Child molester - Kidnapping - Torture
Number of victims: 5 – 13+
Date of murders: 1995 - 1996
Date of arrest: August 13, 1996
Date of birth: November 6, 1956
Victims profile: Julie Lejeune, 8, and Mélissa Russo, 8 / An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19 / Bernard Weinstein, 44 (former accomplice)
Method of murder: Starvation - Buried alive - ???
Location: Hainaut, Belgium
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on June 22, 2004
Early life
Born in Ixelles, Belgium, on 6 November 1956, Dutroux was the oldest of five children. His parents, both teachers, emigrated to the Belgian Congo, but returned to Belgium at the start of the Congo Crisis when Dutroux was four. They separated in 1971 and Dutroux stayed with his mother.
Personal life
He married at the age of 19 and fathered two children; the marriage ended in divorce in 1983. By then he had already had an affair with Michelle Martin. They would eventually have three children together, and married in 1989 while both were in prison. They divorced in 2003, also while in prison.
He has been described by psychiatrists who examined him for trial as a psychopath.
An often unemployed electrician, Dutroux had a long criminal history including convictions for car theft, muggings and drug dealing. Dutroux's criminal career also involved the trade of stolen cars to Czechoslovakia and Hungary; all of these activities gained him enough money to live in relative comfort in Charleroi, a city in Hainaut province that had high unemployment at the time and has had for decades. He owned seven small houses, most of them vacant, and used three of them for the torture of the girls he kidnapped. In his residence in Marcinelle near Charleroi, he constructed a concealed dungeon in the basement. Hidden behind a massive concrete door disguised as a shelf, the cell was 2.15 m (7 ft) long, less than 1 m (3 ft) wide and 1.64 m (5 ft) high.
First arrest and release
In February 1986, Dutroux and Martin were arrested for abducting and raping five young girls. In April 1989, Dutroux was sentenced to thirteen and a half years in prison. Martin received a sentence of five years. Showing good behaviour in prison, Dutroux was released on parole in April 1992, having served only three years, by Justice Minister Melchior Wathelet. Upon his release the parole board received a letter from Dutroux's own mother to the prison director, in which she stressed concern that he was keeping young girls captive in his house – which was essentially ignored.
Following his release from prison, Dutroux convinced a psychiatrist that he was psychiatrically disabled, resulting in a government pension. He also received prescriptions of sleeping pills and sedatives, which he would later use on his victims.
Abductions after arrest
Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo (both aged eight) were kidnapped together from Grâce-Hollogne on 24 June 1995, probably by Dutroux, and imprisoned in Dutroux's cellar. Dutroux repeatedly sexually abused the girls and produced pornographic videos of the abuse.
On 22 August 1995, Dutroux kidnapped 17-year-old An Marchal and 19-year-old Eefje Lambrecks who were on a camping trip in Ostend. He was probably assisted by his accomplice Michel Lelièvre, who was paid with drugs. Since the dungeon already contained Lejeune and Russo, Dutroux chained the girls to a bed in a room of his house. His wife was aware of all these activities.
Second arrest
In late 1995, Dutroux was arrested by police for involvement in a stolen luxury car racket. He was held in custody for three months between 6 December 1995 and 20 March 1996. Police searched Dutroux's house on 13 December 1995 and again six days later in relation to the car theft charge. During this time, Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo were still alive in the basement dungeon, but in spite of their cries being heard, police failed to discover them. Michelle Martin allegedly fed her husband's German shepherd dogs but did not follow his orders to feed the girls, later claiming she was too afraid to go into the dungeon. Lejeune and Russo starved to death, and were later buried in bin bags in the back garden.
Two months after his release, Dutroux, with help from Lelièvre, kidnapped 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne who was on her way to school on 28 May 1996. She was imprisoned by him, once again, in the dungeon where he had kept his previous victims.
Third arrest and discovery of the crimes
On 9 August 1996, Dutroux and Lelièvre kidnapped 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez as she was walking home from a public swimming pool. An eyewitness had earlier observed Dutroux's van, described it and identified part of the license plate. Dutroux, his wife, and Lelièvre were all arrested on 13 August 1996. An initial search of his houses proved inconclusive, but two days later, Dutroux and Lelièvre both made confessions. Dutroux led the police to the basement dungeon where Dardenne and Delhez were found alive on 15 August 1996. In an interview conducted several years later, Dardenne revealed that Dutroux had told her that she had been kidnapped by a gang but her parents did not want to pay the ransom and the gang was planning to kill her. Dutroux said he saved her, and that he was not one of the gang members she should fear. He let her write letters to her family, which he read but never sent.
On 17 August 1996, Dutroux led police to another of his houses in Sars-la-Buissière in Hainaut province. The bodies of Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo as well as an accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, were found in the garden. An autopsy found that the two girls had died from starvation. Dutroux said he had crushed Weinstein's testicles until he gave him money, then drugged him and buried him alive. Later Dutroux told the police where to find the bodies of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks. They were located on 3 September 1996 in Jumet in Hainaut, buried under a shack next to a house owned by Dutroux. Weinstein had lived in that house for three years.
Hundreds of commercial adult pornographic videos, along with a large number of home-made sex films that Dutroux had made with his wife Michelle Martin, were recovered from his properties.
Criticism of police investigations
Authorities were criticised for various aspects of the case. Several incidents suggest that despite several warnings, the authorities did not properly follow up on Dutroux's intentions. Dutroux had offered money to a police informant to provide him with girls and told him that he was constructing a cell in his basement. His mother also wrote a second letter to the police, claiming that he held girls captive in his houses. Dutroux was actually under police camera surveillance the night he kidnapped Marchal and Lambrecks; however, the police had only programmed the camera to operate during the daylight hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Perhaps most notably, the police search of Dutroux's house on 13 December 1995 and again six days later in relation to his car theft charge came under harshest scrutiny. During this time, Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo were still alive in the basement dungeon, but the police failed to discover them. Since the search was unrelated to kidnapping charges, police searching the house had no dogs or specialised equipment that might have discovered the girls' presence, and in an otherwise decrepit and dirty basement, they failed to recognize the significance of the freshly plastered and painted wall that concealed the dungeon. While in the basement, a locksmith who was accompanying the police said he heard children's cries coming from inside the house, but was overruled by the police, who concluded the cries must have come from the street outside. This was especially remarkable since the country was at that time in the midst of a nationwide search for missing children.
Several videotapes were also seized from the house that showed Dutroux constructing the secret entrance and the dungeon where the girls were then held. The tapes were never viewed by the police, who later claimed this was because they did not have a videotape player.
Allegations of cover-up
There was widespread anger and frustration among Belgians due to police errors, the general slowness of the investigation and the disastrous outcome of the events. This suspicion that Dutroux had been, or was being, protected was raised when the public became aware of Dutroux's claims that he was part of a sex ring that included high-ranking members of the police force and government. This suspicion, along with general anger over the outcome, culminated with the popular judge in charge of investigating the claims, Jean-Marc Connerotte (fr), being dismissed on the grounds of having participated in a fund-raising dinner for the girls' parents. The investigation itself was wrapped up on the grounds of conflict of interest. His dismissal and the end of the investigation resulted in a massive protest march (the "White March") of 300,000 people on the capital, Brussels, in October 1996, two months after Dutroux's arrest, in which demands were made for reforms of Belgium's police and justice system.
On the witness stand, Jean-Marc Connerotte (fr), the original judge of the case, broke down in tears when he described "the bullet-proof vehicles and armed guards needed to protect him against the shadowy figures determined to stop the full truth coming out. Never before in Belgium has an investigating judge at the service of the king been subjected to such pressure. We were told by police that [murder] contracts had been taken out against the magistrates." Connerotte testified that the investigation was seriously hampered by protection of suspects by people in the government. "Rarely has so much energy been spent opposing an inquiry," he said. He believed that the Mafia had taken control of the case.
Parliamentary investigation and escape from custody
A 17-month investigation by a parliamentary commission into the Dutroux affair produced a report in February 1998, which concluded that while Dutroux did not have accomplices in high positions in the police and justice systems, as he continued to claim, he profited from corruption, sloppiness and incompetence.
Public indignation flared up again in April 1998. While being transferred to a court house without handcuffs, Dutroux overpowered one of his guards, took his gun and escaped. Police in his native Belgium, and in France, Luxembourg and Germany placed their police forces on an "all-borders alert" along with a major manhunt. He was caught a few hours later. The Minister of Justice Stefaan De Clerck, the Minister of the Interior Johan Vande Lanotte, and the police chief resigned as a result. In 2000, Dutroux received a five-year sentence for threatening a police officer during his escape. In 2002, he received another five-year sentence for unrelated crimes.
Trial
Dutroux's trial began on 1 March 2004, some seven and a half years after his initial arrest. It was a trial by jury and up to 450 people were called upon to testify. The trial took place in Arlon, the capital of the Belgian province of Luxembourg, where the investigations had started. Dutroux was tried for the murder of An Marchal, Eefje Lambrecks and Bernard Weinstein, a suspected accomplice. While admitting the abductions, he denied all three killings, although he had earlier confessed to killing Weinstein. Dutroux was also charged with a host of other crimes: auto theft, abduction, attempted murder and attempted abduction, molestation, and three unrelated rapes of women from Slovakia.
Martin was tried as an accomplice, as were Lelièvre and Michel Nihoul (nl). To protect the accused, they were made to sit in a glass cage during the trial. In the first week of the trial, photos of Dutroux's face were not allowed to be printed in Belgian newspapers for privacy reasons; this ban remained in force until March 9. Throughout the trial, Dutroux continued to insist that he was part of a Europe-wide paedophile ring with accomplices among police officers, businessmen, doctors, and even high-level Belgian politicians.
In a rare move, the jury at the Assize trial publicly protested the presiding judge Stéphane Goux's handling of the debates and the victims' testimonies. On 14 June 2004, after three months of trial, the jury went into seclusion to reach their verdicts on Dutroux and the three other accused. Verdicts were returned on 17 June 2004 after three days of deliberation. Dutroux, Martin and Lelièvre were found guilty on all charges; the jury were unable to reach a verdict on Michel Nihoul's role.
Sentencing
On 22 June, Dutroux received the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while Martin received 30 years and Lelièvre 25 years. Michel Nihoul was later acquitted from the charge of being an offender on kidnapping and murder of the girls by the court. The jury was asked to go back into seclusion to decide whether or not Michel Nihoul was an accomplice. On 23 June, Dutroux lodged an appeal against his sentence. Dutroux is currently being held in solitary confinement at Nivelles Prison.
Although Michel Nihoul was acquitted of kidnapping and conspiracy charges, he was convicted on drug-related charges and received five years.
On 19 August 2012 about 2,000 demonstrators in Brussels demonstrated against Michelle Martin's possible early release from prison. She has since been released, 13 years into her sentence.
On 4 February 2013, Dutroux requested to a court in Brussels for an early release from prison. He insisted that he was "no longer dangerous" and wanted to be released into house arrest with an electronic tag placed upon him. On 18 February, the court had his request denied.
Legacy
The Dutroux case is so infamous that more than a third of Belgians with the surname "Dutroux" applied to have their name changed between 1996 and 1998.
Dutroux's houses
Marc Dutroux owned seven houses, four of which he used for his kidnappings:
The house on the Route de Philippeville 128 in Marcinelle is most often cited in the media. All girls were held captive here in the basement and bedroom.
The municipality of Charleroi seized ownership of this house, because of what happened there and the bad state of the house. There are plans to create an open space with a memorial site here. In the Belgian procedure of compulsory purchase, an owner has a last right to visit a house. Therefore, Dutroux visited this house on 10 September 2009, under heavy police guard.
A house in Jumet, that has since been demolished. An and Eefje were buried in the garden of this house by Dutroux. Weinstein lived in this house for a while. A small monument is placed at this location.
A house in Marchienne-au-Pont. Julie and Mélissa were held captive here for a short while after their kidnapping.
A house in Sars-la-Buissière. Julie, Mélissa and Bernard Weinstein were buried here after Dutroux killed them. The house was bought by the municipality of Lobbes in the first months of 2009. It is planned to make a park with a monument commemorating the victims of Dutroux here.
2. Andras Pandy (6 – 14+)
 |
| (Andras Pandy) |
András Pándy (1 June 1927 – 23 December 2013) was a Belgian serial killer, convicted for the murder of six family members in Brussels between 1986 and 1990.
Originally from Hungary, Pándy is believed to have killed his wife, ex-wife, two biological children, and two step-children who disappeared mysteriously, with the assistance of his daughter, Ágnes. Additionally, he had started abusive incestuous relationships with Ágnes and a third step-child who survived. In 1992, Belgian and Hungarian police began investigating Pándy, which resulted in his arrest in 1997, and conviction in 2002. Furthermore, the skeletal remains of seven more unknown women and one man were found in one of his houses. A religious teacher and clergyman, he was dubbed "Father Bluebeard" by some of the Belgian press.
Pándy had been serving a life sentence without parole when he died on 23 December 2013.
A.K.A: "The Family Killer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Former clergyman - Parricide - Incest - Rape - Dissolving the bodies in chemical drain cleaner
Number of victims: 6 - 14+
Date of murders: 1986 - 1992
Date of arrest: October 20, 1997
Date of birth: 1 June 1927, Chop, Czechoslovakia
Died: 23 December 2013 (aged 86), Bruges, Belgium
Victims profile: His first two wives and four of his eight children
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on March 8, 2002. Died in prison on December 23, 2013
Early life and marriages
Pándy was born on 1 June 1927, in Chop, Carpathian Ruthenia (then under Czechoslovak administration), a village just across the border from Hungary, to Hungarian parents. Pándy was a church councillor for the Reformed Church in Hungary when he met his first wife, Ilona Sőrés. Following the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, they fled to Belgium where Pándy became a pastor for a small Hungarian Protestant community in Brussels, and a religious teacher for the United Protestant Church. The couple had a daughter, Ágnes, the following year and two sons: Dániel (born 1961) and Zoltán (1966). Shortly after the birth of Zoltán, the couple separated when Pándy accused his wife of infidelity. Ilona moved out of the house with their sons, leaving daughter Ágnes behind with Pándy. Then 11 years old, Ágnes soon became the victim of an incestuous relationship with her father.
At the beginning of the 1970s after his separation from Ilona, Pándy began courting other women through dating services in Hungarian newspapers, often giving them a false name and job description while using the motto "European Honeymoon". By the end of the decade, he had began regularly visiting Hungary again, meeting his future second wife, Edit Fintor. A married woman, Fintor had three children from two previous marriages: a son, 8 year-old Tünde, and two daughters, 15 year-old Tímea and 7 year-old Andrea. Fintor's then-husband claimed that Pándy had seduced his wife, who eloped with him to Belgium along with her children, where they married in 1979 after Pándy's divorce from Ilona Sőrés was finalized. Shortly after their marriage they had two children: a son, András Junior, and a daughter, Reka.
In 1984, Pándy started a second abusive incestuous relationship with his step-daughter, the now 20-year-old Tímea, whom he had impregnated after raping her. Tímea's claims of sexual abuse were brushed off by her family members, stating that she had probably used a towel containing Pándy's semen to impregnate herself. She was sent to live in a different house with Ágnes, and in what was believed to be a fit of jealousy, Ágnes tried to bludgeon Tímea to death with an iron bar in the basement of the home, until she was startled and stopped. After being hospitalized, Tímea attempted to report her abuse but her claims were again dismissed, and she later gave birth to a son, Marc. In 1986 Tímea escaped from her family, first staying with relatives in Vancouver, Canada, before starting a new life in Hungary.
Disappearances
Shortly before running away to Vancouver, Tímea had told her mother that the father of her son was Pándy, and that he had been sexually abusing her. This sparked a fierce argument between Fintor and Pándy, and soon after this time Fintor and the now 14 year-old Andrea disappeared. Pándy had told the police that Fintor had left him for another man and the two had moved to Germany with her new lover, using a forged telegram as evidence. Two years later in 1988, twenty years after their separation, Pándy's ex-wife Ilona and their two sons disappeared. Pándy first claimed that they had moved to France, but then changed it to South America. By 1990, Fintor's 18-year-old son Tünde was still alive and living with Pándy many years after the disappearance of his mother and sister. Pándy sent Ágnes away on a vacation with his younger children, András Jr. and Reka, only for her to find upon her return that Tünde had also disappeared. She was told by Pándy that he had become "disturbed" and been sent to live with another family.
Investigation, arrest and conviction
Police investigation of the disappearances had previously been very limited and low-effort, with Pándy managing to avoid suspicion by using false testimony and forged evidence to trick the police into believing they had simply migrated away from Belgium. In 1992, two years after the last disappearance, Ágnes attempted to report her father to the police for sexual abuse. Although initially no real action was taken, suspicion against Pándy increased and the police interest in the disappearances grew. Hungarian police became involved in the investigation due to a possible connection with Pándy to cases of many missing women in Hungary. Pándy frequently visited Hungary, owning a summer home near the River Danube, and during his trips he was known to charm local women and offer to take them with him to Brussels. This theory lead the two police forces began a joint investigation. Later, two siblings from the town, Eva Kincs and Margit Magyar, claim to have both accepted Pándy's offer, each with the hopes of becoming his wife. According to the two women, they were locked in the Brussels home by Pándy and forced to cook and clean, telling them that they would raise suspicions if they wandered out on the streets unable to speak anything but Hungarian. After rejecting separate marriage proposals, the women demanded he send them back to Hungary, and he surprisingly did.
The United Protestant Church in Belgium, Pándy's employer, had never made an official complaint against him in his role as a teacher and Protestant pastor, however in 1988 his colleague, the Dutch minister Andries den Brother, apparently became aware of abuses at home and the lack of police interest. Andries supposedly wrote to the Belgian Ministry of Justice and Queen Fabiola because of his suspicions, but received no answers. By 1996 it was discovered that he used false testimony and fake letters.
Pándy was arrested on 16 October 1997 - coincidentally the same date as the "White March", a large demonstration for the victims of another Belgian serial killer Marc Dutroux, who had sexually abused and killed several girls in Charleroi a few years prior. The Dutroux case was controversial in Belgium, and brought police incompetence and corruption into the national spotlight. In addition to Dutroux's case, Pándy's case had worldwide media coverage, especially after Pándy's deadpan reaction to his surroundings.
Ágnes's confession
In November 1997, Ágnes herself was arrested by the police, and a few days later confessing to participating with her father in most of the murders of her disappeared relatives. According to Ágnes, she was solely responsible for the murder of her mother Ilona, and took part in the murders of Dániel, Zoltán, Edit and Andrea, but was not involved in (and possibly unaware of) Tünde's death. It is believed that the killing of Tünde was the only murder Pándy had committed without Ágnes's assistance. The modus operandi presented by Ágnes was, in at least two cases, murder by a handgun, and head trauma caused by a sledgehammer. The corpses were dismembered, partly dissolved in acid in the basement, and then the remaining parts were taken to a local abattoir in Anderlecht for disposal.
Trial and sentencing
Pándy had denied the charges, but largely due to Ágnes's testimony and assistance, enough evidence was gathered to convict him. In court, Pándy dismissed the proceedings as a "witch trial" against him, and told the jury that the allegedly dead were still alive and he is "in contact with them through angels." When asked why the missing family members could not be traced in four years of searching, Pándy replied: "It is up to justice to prove they are dead. When I'm free again, they will come and visit me." On March 6, 2002, a Belgian court convicted of Pándy for the murder of six family members, attempted murder, and rape of three daughters. Pándy was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, and housed in Leuven Centraal prison before was moved to a prison in Bruges due to health reasons. In 2007 when he turned 80, prison authorities had considered re-housing him in a retirement home.
Ágnes Pándy, now 44 years old, received a 21-year sentence for being an accomplice in five murders and one attempted murder. Prosecutors had requested a 29-year sentence for Ágnes, but her lawyers pushed for leniency, saying Ágnes had been under the "overwhelming irresistible spell" of a father who was raping her and coerced her into collaborating in the killings of her mother and siblings. Ágnes said in her closing statement: "I had no way out. I was completely in his grip,".
András Pándy died on 23 December 2013, from natural causes in the Bruges prison infirmary.
Aftermath and possible additional murders
Sint-Jans-Molenbeek residences
Pándy owned several homes within the Sint-Jans-Molenbeek area in central Brussels, along the River Senne. This included rowhouses on Vandemaelen Street, Nijverheidskaai/Quai de l'Industrie (where the majority of the murders had occurred), and Vandenbrande Street.
An excavation at the home on Vandemaelen Street following Pándy's arrest, the skeletal remains of seven women and one man of unknown origin were discovered within the concrete of the home's basement. In January 1998 DNA analysis of the bone fragments revealed that the deceased were not relatives of Pándy, and it remains unclear if their deaths were related to the case at all. Due to Pándy's prolific uses of Hungarian dating services, there are suspicions that they could be the skeletons of Hungarian women brought to Belgium. During an investigation of the home on Vandenbrande Street, several firearms including three rifles and four handguns were found stashed in a hidden compartment built into the ceiling. The Valdemaelen Street and Nijverheidskaai/Quai de l'Industrie houses were later demolished.
Possible additional murders
After his arrest, further investigation speculated that Pándy and Ágnes may have committed several additional murders of non-relatives, before and during the killing of their family members. On November 26 1997, a month after his arrest, the Hungarian newspaper Népszava reported that Pándy had fostered an unknown number of Romanian children - orphan refugees from the 1989 revolution that toppled communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu - at his home in Brussels. The children were supposedly recruited by a charity called YDNAP (Pandy spelled backwards), and Népszava reported that "nobody knows what happened to them or if they returned home" to Romania. Police also linked Agnes to the 1993 disappearance of a 12-year-old girl whose mother was romantically involved with Pándy.
Hungarian authorities had searched interconnected basements of Pándy's former home at Dunakeszi, north of the Hungarian capital Budapest. The findings were concealed, but suggested that an "old family tragedy" might have been responsible for Pandy's killing spree. In fact, they suggested that the prisoner in Belgium might not be András Pándy at all, but rather a sibling of the real András Pándy, whose death had been officially recorded in 1956, the same year of Pándy's migration to Belgium.
1. Marie Alexandrine Becker (10 – 20+)
 |
| (Marie Alexandrine Becker) |
Marie Alexandrine Becker (1877-1938) was a Belgian serial killer responsible for the deaths of her husband, lover, and several elderly women who patronized the dressmaking shop that she had opened.
Becker had been married to a cabinetmaker and was seemingly bored and restrained in the marriage. A chance meeting with a man named Lambert Beyer, a known womanizer, opened up an insatiable sexual appetite in Mrs. Becker. Her new experiences apparently gave her impetus to dispatch with her staid, reliable husband. She implemented digitalis and used it to this end. After boring of Beyer, she dispatched him in the same manner. She took to dancing in clubs with her temporary lotharios and paying them for various sexual services. She coldly informed a friend who was looking to rid herself of her husband that "I can supply you with a powder that will leave no trace". This woman went to the police and Maria was arrested.
Marie Becker was known to attend the funerals of her victims and to gesticulate wildly her grief over their passing. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. She died in jail, while World War II was underway.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner - Robberies
Number of victims: 10 - 20+
Date of murder: 1932 - 1936
Date of arrest: October 1936
Date of birth: 1877
Victim profile: Husband, male lover, and female customers
Method of murder: Poisoning (digitalis)
Location: Liege, Belgium
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1936. Died in prison in 1938
Mass poisoner Marie Alexandrine Becker, born in 1877 and a native of Liege in Belgium, was fifty-three years old and married to a cabinetmaker when she began an affair with a man called Lambert Beyer - a notorious middle-aged womaniser. Though Marie was outwardly a virtuous and proper housewife, she was secretly bored with her husband. When Beyer propositioned her as she bought vegetables at a street stall, she accepted his advances immediately.
The affair with him unlocked dark passions which Marie had probably concealed for a long time. She hated the idea of growing old and felt that her dull and unexciting husband stood in the way of all the things she really wanted. The only way to recapture her lost youth, she decided, was to murder him and start afresh. She gave him a lethal dose of Digitalis, collected on his life insurance and used the cash to open a smart dress shop. Later on, in November 1934 - by which time he had presumably ceased to thrill her - she poisoned Bayer with the same lethal drug.
He apparently left her money in his will - perhaps he signed his own death warrant via this bequest because Marie's funds were getting rather low. Her new lifestyle was expensive; it also scandalised her neighbours. Becker's nights were spent in dance halls and nightclubs, wildly cavorting with men half her age. She paid young gigolos (toyboys) for sex. The dress shop was popular, but the income it generated couldn’t keep pace with her expenses.
When an elderly friend, Marie Castadot, became ill in early July 1935 - she'd experienced dizziness and nausea - the kindly Widow Becker offered to take care of her. Unsurprisingly, Castadot's condition worsened. By the 23rd day of July she was dead. Marie Becker, who knew a thing or two about ruthless opportunism, eagerly befriended other old ladies...all of them followed Madame Castadot to the grave in the months that followed.
Becker had plainly decreed that nothing was more important (or more sacred?) than her chosen lifestyle - not even human life. Having run out of acquaintances, Marie turned to poisoning her female customers with digitalis, dropping it in cups of tea in the back of her shop as they discussed the latest fashions. When the drug began to work, she would steal whatever money the patrons had and then take the stricken women back to their own homes - where they'd die of "unknown causes." Becker is definitely known to have committed at least ten homicides, but it has been estimated that she actually killed twice as many people before she was arrested
When a female friend sarcastically remarked that her husband was aggravating her so much that she wished he would die, the poisoner told her: "If you really mean that, I can supply you with a powder that will leave no trace." The woman went to the police (who had suspected Becker for some time - they'd received anonymous letters which accused her of foul play). Marie was arrested; the bodies of her husband, Beyer, and some of her friends and customers were exhumed.
Traces of the poison were found. A search of her house revealed jewellery, clothes and personal possessions belonging to the victims. The police also found at least one bottle of digitalis. She was charged with murder.
Witnesses at Becker's trial related how the killer had attended the funerals of her victims and dramatically feigned grief. According to their accounts, she knelt at the gravesides and wept hysterically...only to be seen shortly afterwards performing erotic dances in Liege nightclubs and lavishly spending the stolen money. Becker made no pretence of innocence. She gloated over the murders and described, with arch disdain, the way her prey had died. One of her victims, she said, "looked like an angel choked with sauerkraut." Another she described as "dying beautifully, lying flat on her back." Convicted, Marie Becker was sent to prison for life, there being no death penalty in Belgium at that time. She died in prison sometime during World War II.