As the city of Nice, in the midst of its carnival festivities, was preparing for a weekend promised with a less gray sky than in recent days, news broke in all major national media: A former gangster from the Riviera claims in Le Parisien that he can exonerate Maurice Agnelet, suggesting that he possesses information about the murder of the Nice heiress.
Since October 26, 1977, Agnès Le Roux has shown no sign of life, and Maurice Agnelet was sentenced to 20 years in prison for it despite the “complicity” invoked by President Jean-Pierre Deschamps. It is therefore Jean-Pierre Hernandez, a former mob leader close to the Marseille gangster Tany Zampa, who claims to hold the proof that will exonerate Maurice Agnelet. In a book to be published on March 10, this former member of the French Connection declares he knows the true identity of Agnès Le Roux’s murderer, who is said to be a certain Jeannot Lucchesi who allegedly killed Le Roux in a contract killing.
“It’s a publicity stunt!” Jean-Charles Le Roux, Agnès’s brother, talks about an “unnecessary manipulation” and does not seem to take the statements seriously. Nonetheless, a request for a retrial accompanied by a request for release will be submitted by Maurice Agnelet’s lawyers in March. “It’s a serious testimony from a man who belonged to the underworld and wants to ease his conscience. There are many details,” asserts Maître Saint-Pierre, who seems convinced that these new elements are more than credible. So who to trust, a former underworld figure making a literary confession or a judicial decision made, according to Me Saint-Pierre, “without any material evidence”?
In Nice, the news is likely to make a big splash even though many of the participants from that time have now passed away, but the mention of “many names, including some who are still alive” launched by Jean-Pierre Hernandez will not leave those who remain indifferent…
