The Dominici Affair

by Martin Kitchen

  Gustave asked his father if he had gone mad. Gaston replied in the negative. When he asked him what had happened, Gaston merely said that he had met the English people who had come to the farmhouse the previous evening, then he left with his goats. On further questioning Gustave said that his father had gone hunting that night and had walked along the road in the direction of Peyruis. He stated that the carbine belonged to his father. Gaston told him that he had come across a man near the campsite and opened fire. He admitted to having killed the entire family. When asked what sort of a weapon he had used, he replied that it was a carbine that he had kept hidden. Upon further questioning, Gustave stated that his father had said that he had shot the man first, but he had not said how he had killed the little girl. Gustave also said that his brother Clovis knew what had happened, but they had not talked about it because their father had ordered them to keep absolutely silent. When Périès suggested that his earlier testimony of having crossed the bridge to look at the landslide was clearly false, Gustave admitted that his father had said that he had killed the little girl on the slope leading down to the river.

  Gustave claimed that his first concern was with the little girl and that it was for this reason that he went to see her first. When he heard her groaning, he realized she was still alive. He did not go close to her but went back to the campsite, where he saw the bodies of her parents. He then went back to the Grand’ Terre, where Yvette and his mother were in the courtyard. He told them what he had seen and that Elizabeth was still alive. By this time it was between 4:30 and 4:45 a.m., when day was dawning.

  He then tended to his animals and returned to the campsite when the light was better to see if anything was lying about that belonged to his father. He noticed some cartridges behind the Hillman, but he did not bother to pick them up. At that time Olivier had passed by on his motorcycle. Gustave could not remember why he had moved Lady Drummond’s body.

  He told Périès that he had tried to get some further details from his father, but Gaston had told him that he did not wish to say anything more about it. When asked about the attitude of his father toward him when he returned from serving his prison sentence in Digne, Gustave said that he could not care less how many months he spent in jail. Later he had told Clovis everything that had happened.

  At the end of this cross-examination, Gustave begged Périès not to let either the press or his family know that he had denounced his father. But Périès gave no such assurance. He was only interested in hearing Clovis’s testimony, which he hoped would strengthen the case against Gaston. Clovis was brought to the law courts at Digne at 6:30 that evening. As in the case of his brother, he was first questioned by Sébeille rather than by the examining magistrate, going against the more usual procedure. He was dumbfounded when he heard of Gustave’s confession, at first refusing to believe it, but he soon began to change his tune. Gustave was then brought into the room. He was a shadow of his former self. His eyes were bloodshot, his face tense. Leaning on his brother’s shoulder, he admitted that he had said that their father was the assassin. The two brothers fell into one another’s arms, sobbing like small children. Fifteen months of bottled up emotions were suddenly released.

  Clovis was then questioned alone and at length. He confirmed Gustave’s confession by stating that while he was staying at the Grand’ Terre during his brother’s time in prison, his father had admitted to the crime. He could not remember the exact date but claimed that the remark had been made after dinner, at about nine or ten o’clock at night. Gaston and Marie were having one of their all-too-familiar arguments, and Clovis told them to be quiet and stop squabbling. A drunken Gaston flew into a terrible rage, threatening his son with his fist and yelling, “N’ai fa péta très, n’en ferai péta un autre!” (I’ve already killed three, and could kill another!) He then continued to yell, “I’m afraid of no one!” When Clovis asked him whether he was talking about the campers, he replied, “I killed the English!”31

  Clovis tried to get some further details from his father, but all Gaston said was that he had gotten up at one o’clock to look at the landslide and made the curious remark that if it had been any worse there would not have been three dead but twenty or thirty in a serious train accident. He had taken his rifle with him. When questioned about the rifle, Clovis said that Gaston had used the word “carbine,” but he had assumed that his father was referring to the Gras rifle, which he used when hunting wild boar.32 He did not ask his father why he had taken a rifle with him, even though it was only a few hundred yards from the farmhouse to the site of the landslide. His father claimed that he had gone to have a look at the campsite and had a row with the Englishman. When it came to blows, Gaston had used his weapon. He then said, “I killed all three of them.”33

  Clovis did not question his father about the little girl, admitting that he was scared of his father. Although he was almost fifty years old, his father yelled at him as if he were a worthless little boy. Clovis therefore had no idea whether Gaston had killed Elizabeth at the campsite or at the site where her body had been found. All Gaston said was that he had killed the man and the woman. Clovis did not ask him what he had done with the rifle. He claimed never to have seen the gun before it was fished out of the river on 6 August. He attributed his violent reaction when Sébeille showed him the murder weapon a few days later to his thoughts about the atrocious nature of the crime.

  At this point Périès observed that Clovis had just stated that he thought that his father was referring to the Gras rifle, even though he had been shown the M1 on two occasions. Clovis admitted that he had been somewhat confused and said that what he meant was that at the time of the crime he had not known that his father owned another rifle. Périès did not bother to follow up this line of questioning and asked what Gaston had said after having admitted to the murders. Clovis said that he had told him to keep his mouth shut and tell no one. He added that he was amazed that his father showed no signs of emotion or regret. When asked whether he had told Gustave about this confession, Clovis replied that he had told him about it later, after Gustave had finished his prison sentence, while they were chopping wood together at Saint-Pons. Gustave had admitted that he already knew.

  Possibly worried what Gustave would tell Sébeille, Clovis blurted out that he would now tell the whole truth. He admitted that he recognized the carbine when Sébeille showed it to him as the one that was kept on a shelf in the shed. He said that on the evening of 5 August he had gone to check if the gun was still there. Seeing that it was missing, he was convinced that it was the murder weapon, but he had imagined that it was Gustave who had used it. He could not imagine that an old man like his father could possibly have committed such a dreadful crime. He had asked Gustave whether he had noticed that the weapon was missing. Gustave had said that he had. When Clovis asked point blank whether he had used it, he replied that he had not. Clovis found this difficult to believe and suspected his brother until the moment that his father confessed to the crime. When shown the murder weapon, Clovis stated categorically that it was his father’s gun and that it was kept on a shelf in the shed. There could be no doubt about its identification, because the hand guard was attached to the barrel by wire and a Duralumin collar.

  Périès now ordered that Gaston Dominici be brought to Digne. Meanwhile, in quite an extraordinary deviation from normal police procedure, Sébeille allowed Gustave and Clovis to sit together in a room at the law courts without a witness. Clovis had asked if they could stay there and avoid being questioned by the horde of journalists waiting outside the law courts. They also had grim forebodings about the reaction of the Dominici clan to their confessions. They stayed in Digne until the next morning.

  5

  Confession

  Back at the Grand’ Terre life continued as normal, although the atmosphere was undoubtedly tense. The Dominicis waited anxiously for Gustave to return. In the late afternoon of 13 November a journalist told Gaston that his son had admitted that he had left the hous
e three times during the night of 4–5 August. He was both shattered and furious when he heard the news, exclaiming, “He said that? In that case he’s fucked!” Gaston went away muttering and shaking with rage.1

  Commandant Bernier of the Digne gendarmerie detachment went in person to the Grand’ Terre to collect Gaston. They arrived at seven o’clock that evening back at the law courts, where a crowd of journalists was waiting. Gaston was taken to the library. He pretended to be casual and relaxed, browsing through the books, gazing at the ceiling, rolling his eyes, and whistling. Then he grew impatient, took his hat and cane, and announced that he was going home, “because you’re starting to piss me off!” Sébeille and his assistant Henri Ranchin forced him back into his armchair, and Gaston calmed down somewhat when Sébeille hammered on the table, forcefully reminding him that he was now in the law courts and must show due respect. Ranchin also told him that they knew where he had hidden the carbine. It was on a shelf in the shed.2

  According to the official record they gave Gaston a bowl of soup, which he ate with gusto. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he calmly announced that he now intended to smoke his pipe. This was too much for Sébeille, who said that he was accused of murder, having been denounced by his sons Gustave and Clovis. Gaston muttered that they were both liars and calmly puffed his pipe. The commissioner saw no point in continuing the cross-examination. He left at 10:30 p.m., leaving him in the custody of his associates, Inspectors Ranchin, Antoine Cullioli, and Lucien Tardieu.

  Having spent the night together, without any supervision, it was hardly surprising that when Gustave was questioned the next morning, his replies were identical to those of his brother. He said that he immediately recognized the carbine, adding that it had been in his father’s possession for a number of years and that he had probably gotten it from some American troops. He claimed never to have used it himself. His father used it quite often when hunting wild boar. He thought there were two magazines that Gaston kept loaded. On 5 August he had noticed that the gun was no longer on the shelf in the shed, so he realized that his father had used the weapon to commit the crime. His father never told him which gun he had used.

  Abel Bastide, a mason and expert truffle hunter from Lurs, also had suggested that Gaston might have obtained the gun from American soldiers. He had been working on the roof of the Grand’ Terre when some American soldiers stopped at the farmhouse in 1944. They had shown how the gun worked by firing a few rounds. At this point Bastide had climbed down from the roof and was thus unable to see whether anyone handed it to Gaston.

  When questioned on this point, Gaston admitted that Bastide had repaired his roof but claimed that the story about the carbine was simply village tittle-tattle. He said that Bastide was something of a crackpot. He lived alone, inhabited a fantasy world, and was considered by the villagers to be a simpleton. As a hopeless alcoholic, his testimony was deemed to be so threadbare that he was not called as a witness during Gaston Dominici’s trial. It was also suggested that the M1 might have been stolen from a local farmer. After all, no one would have reported the loss of an illegal weapon.3

  News that Gustave and Clovis had accused their father of the murders had been leaked to the press along with the statement that the identity of the murderer would be revealed within twenty-four hours, so the next morning Sébeille showed Gaston the headlines in the local papers announcing that he was the assassin.4 Gaston flew into a terrible rage, launching a series of invectives, but was interrupted when Périès arrived and asked Sébeille to come with him and escort Gustave and Clovis to the Grand’ Terre. There they would find out where Gaston had kept the rifle.

  They were met by a furious bunch of Dominici women, vociferously supported by Yvette’s mother, Louise Barth. The most violent were Augusta Caillat and her daughter Marie-Claude. They had to be physically restrained by the police, but not before Augusta hit Francis Rico, a journalist from Nice, across the hand with an iron bar so hard that he was unable to work for a month. Rico sued Augusta Caillat for damages at the Digne court.5 Augusta also threatened to kill Sébeille, saying, “At least I wouldn’t go to prison for nothing!”6 Her daughter waved a heavy stick and asked what they had given the brothers—“those traitors, those bastards”—to drink. Gustave did his best to avoid eye contact with the women, while Clovis ignored them, saying that they were all out of their minds. Yvette was in a frantic state, screaming that neither her father-in-law nor her husband was a criminal.

  Ignoring the mounting chorus of imprecations, the police went about their business. Gustave and Clovis were led separately to the shed. Both indicated that the rifle was kept on the lower shelf on the right-hand side upon entering.

  Yvette was ordered to come with the two brothers for questioning. She went to get her three children, and the party set off for Digne. Gustave, Clovis, and Yvette sat together in the police Citroën, thereby having ample opportunity to connive. On the way the police cavalcade stopped at Peyruis to pick up Clovis’s wife, Rose. At Digne the two Dominici families were left free to have lunch, while the police tucked in at an adjacent table. Such an astonishingly lax procedure was typical of the entire investigation.

  The interrogations began anew at 4:00 p.m. Périès questioned Yvette. Gustave’s testimony to the contrary, she claimed to know nothing of the crime. When confronted with Gustave and Clovis initially, she had hurled abuse at her husband and brother-in-law for having denounced their father, but they both had said Gaston had confessed to having committed the crime. Gustave also had told her about the murder weapon and where it had been concealed. Although during his cross-examination the previous evening, Gustave had claimed to have told his wife everything, and he now apologized for having kept quiet. He said that he had done so because of the delicate state of her health due to her pregnancy. Yvette put on an impressive performance, first of indignation at the brothers’ allegations against her father-in-law, then of surprise at their revelations, and finally of full acceptance of their version of events. Obviously her main concern was to make sure that her husband was kept above suspicion.

  Meanwhile, Sébeille, assisted by Inspectors Cullioli, Ranchin, and Tardieu, questioned Gaston for four hours that afternoon. Getting nothing from him, they handed him over to Périès at 6:00 p.m. The examining magistrate merely ordered that he should remain in police custody and then went home. Sébeille and his three assistants went to dine in a local restaurant.

  Gaston spent the night in the library of the law courts. First, he was guarded by Pierre Prudhomme, head of the National Police in Digne. Dominici remained silent, refusing to answer any questions. He merely shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. Prudhomme then handed him over to two of his subordinates, Victor Guérino and Joseph Bocca, who were under the supervision of Sgt. Marius Sabatier.7 The concierge brought him some food, but Gaston refused to eat.

  Guérino chatted with him in their dialect. They had a common interest in hunting. Gaston grew increasingly sentimental, saying that he had cried throughout his wedding night and that he now had fourteen or fifteen grandchildren. Suddenly he burst into tears, muttering, “Ah, the little one, the little one!” The policeman asked him what was bothering him and suggested that it had all perhaps been an accident. Gaston nodded in agreement and blurted out, “Exactly! It was an accident. They attacked me. I killed all three of them.” During the hour that remained of Guérino’s watch, Gaston said that he had gone to look at the landslide and, as a hunter, had taken the rifle along with him “just in case.” He claimed that Jack Drummond, taking him for a marauder, had attacked him, whereupon he had fired and “then the sparks began to fly.”8

  Guérino suggested that Gaston should repeat this confession to Sébeille, but he flatly refused, saying that the commissioner could go to hell. He’d had more than enough of “his shit.” He did agree to talk to “the president,” by whom he meant Commissioner Prudhomme, a man in whom he had every confidence. Gaston told Guérino that he could not write and that Prudhomme wo
uld be able to help him make a rough draft of a statement.

  At this point Guérino was relieved by Joseph Bocca, who was accompanied by the concierge Simon Giraud (a retired gendarme) and Sergeant Sabatier. Guérino had Gaston repeat his willingness to make a full statement to Commissioner Prudhomme. He did so, but then he added that he was innocent and that he was merely taking the blame to save others. Sabatier went immediately to fetch Prudhomme from his home.

  Bocca was now alone with Gaston, who rambled on about his dog and his farm. He blurted out that on their wedding night, his wife had admitted to being pregnant by another man and that she had said, “If you want us to be happy, you must be deaf, dumb, and blind.” He now altered his story, saying that he had got up at four o’clock in the morning on August 5 to tend his goats. He returned to the Grand’ Terre sometime between seven-thirty and eight o’clock. Yvette then told him that there had been a triple crime that night. He went on to say that the whole family was against him. Having first said that he knew that the carbine was not in the shed that night, he went on to claim that he had not seen it since he bought it from some Americans during the war. He had given it to Gustave, who had repaired it and then hid it. It was Gustave who had committed all three murders, but he would take the blame and save the honor of his grandchildren.9

  The police were now confronted with a confusing series of confessions and accusations. Both Clovis and Gustave had accused their father. Gaston had confessed but then retracted it and accused Gustave. Although he explained his initial confession as an attempt to take the blame and save the family’s honor, how would this confession save the family’s honor?

  Meanwhile, Sergeant Sabatier arrived at Commissioner Prudhomme’s house and informed him of Gaston’s confession. Prudhomme was not authorized to act on his own, so the two men went to see Sébeille, who was dining with his inspectors at a small restaurant Chez Julia. The commissioner, who was waiting for Prudhomme outside the restaurant, got into Prudhomme’s car and drove to the law courts. Neither Sébeille nor Prudhomme saw fit to inform Périès, who alone could have given Prudhomme authority to take a sworn statement.