Marcel Henri Barbeault

Victims

8 attributed and 5 COVERED BY CONVICTIONS, returned at TWO SEPARATE TRIALS at Beauvais in 1981 and 1983. The other three were never proved against him. Seven of the eight were women and one was a man. HE HAS NEVER ADMITTED ANY OF THEM, which is both why three remain unproved and, half a century later, the reported obstacle to his release

Years active

1969 / 1973 - 1976

Location

Nogent-sur-Oise, Picardy, France

Method

Shooting (.22 rifle)

Status

Arrested on December 14, 1976 after seven years of investigation, traced through a .22 long rifle cartridge found in a cemetery and a matching weapon in his basement, and because the murder dates fell on his days off. HE WAS TRIED TWICE AT THE BEAUVAIS ASSIZE COURT, IN 1981 AND AGAIN IN 1983, AND CONVICTED OF FIVE OF THE EIGHT KILLINGS, receiving life imprisonment. HE HAS ALWAYS DENIED THE CRIMES AND HAS NEVER CONFESSED. He is held at the Saint-Maur central prison in the Indre and IS THE LONGEST-SERVING PRISONER IN FRANCE, incarcerated continuously since 1976. IN 2026 HIS POSSIBLE RELEASE BECAME A PUBLIC LEGAL QUESTION: French life imprisonment allows an application for conditional release unless a whole-life term was imposed, which it was not in his case, but his continued refusal to admit the killings or express remorse is reported as the principal obstacle. He was eighty-four in early 2026.

Barbeault was born in 1941 and worked at the Chausson factory at Creil, in the Oise, north of Paris. He was married with two children and had no criminal record.

Between 1969 and 1976 eight people were shot dead with a .22 rifle in Nogent-sur-Oise and the neighbouring towns. Most were women, shot at close range in the street or in fields at dusk or at night, in an area of a few square kilometres. No motive was ever established and no sexual assault was involved. The French press called the unknown gunman le tueur de l'ombre.

The eight were Therese Adam, forty-nine; Suzanne Merienne, forty-four; Annick Delisle, twenty-nine; Eugene Stephan, twenty-five; Mauricette Van Hyfte, twenty-three; Josette Routier, twenty-nine; Julia Goncalves, twenty-nine; and Francoise Jakubowska, twenty.

He was arrested in February 1976 after a woman survived a shooting and after ballistics tied the rifle to the series; the weapon and ammunition were found in his possession.

He was tried at Amiens and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 10, 1981. He has denied the killings continuously for more than forty years, has applied for release repeatedly, and remains one of the longest-serving prisoners in France. His conviction rested on ballistic and circumstantial evidence rather than on any confession, and the absence of any established motive has kept a small argument about the case alive.

The date range begins in 1969 with a killing separated by four years from the rest of the series; the attribution of that first death is the weakest part of the case.