TOUR DE FRANCE OF MISCELLANEOUS FACTS – In the Landes, three charred bodies found in a hunting lodge

On December 15, 1985, the police discovered three charred bodies in the fire of a hunting lodge in Belhade, a small village in the Landes. A most surprising investigation, transcribed here from a story delivered in the podcast “Hondelatte Raconte” by journalist Christophe Hondelatte.

Three dead, one survivor

December 14, 1985. As night falls on the hunting lodge in the Belhade forest, the hunters return home. Only Jean-Claude, the manager, his sister Marie-France, his companion Lucienne and the young gamekeeper, Jean-Michel, remain on the scene. Around 11 p.m., after dinner, everyone goes back to their room. A few hours later, around 1 a.m., Marie-France heard a car approaching. She can make out the sound of the kitchen door opening. Then several shots, in different places of the house. To escape the intruders, she throws herself out of the window to hide in the woods. Marie-France turns around only to see three figures storming out of the building and jumping into their car, before the relay catches fire.

When the gendarmes arrive, alerted by Marie-France who has taken refuge with the nearest neighbours, Jean-Claude Bonnefon’s relay is nothing more than a huge fire. “They were three in the house. I think they were all killed,” Marie-France tells them. And indeed, once the fire was extinguished and the excavations made possible, the bodies of the three residents were found. But why were they shot?

Hunting lodge, but not only…

The autopsy confirms the testimony of Marie-France: the three victims died of a bullet in the skull. This is real execution, conducted by professionals. The gendarmes are not surprised by this: as the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that Jean-Claude and Lucienne lived very easily for their income. They are also the owners of a boat, an apartment on the Bassin d’Arcachon, several sports cars… A way of life far removed from their activity at the relay, as Christophe Hondelatte notes.

We learn that on closing days, the relay discreetly receives visitors other than hunters. The police are therefore investigating the trail of potential trafficking in counterfeit notes. In recent months, we have also noted the arrival of large cars registered in Paris or Bordeaux, but also caravans. We search the vehicles that are still parked near the charred hunting lodge. Inside, the police come across a stock of magazines and porn movies, but also a gun, that of a certain Jean-Jacques Horvath. Marie-France knows him: he is a friend of Jean-Claude who often landed unexpectedly at the relay with his “band”. Marie-France makes the police understand that it was not for the game that Horvath came, but for the young girls he took with him, prostitutes in reality. Another important element: Jean-Jacques Horvath is already known to the Banditry Repression Brigade, which suspects him of being a pimp.

The band at Horvath

Questioned by the police, Jean-Jacques Horvath explains that on December 14, he left the Belhade relay around 6 p.m. before going to celebrate the birthday of his friend Carmen at Le Petit Chef, a Bordeaux restaurant. At the same time, an informant speaks to the police about a certain Barthélémy, who would have boasted of having done the job under the influence of alcohol. He frequents the Little Chef too and he hangs out with a man named Ardanny, a mirror cabinet already known to the police for intentional injury and extortion. Five months after the murder, the police therefore arrested the suspects: Horvath, Ardanny, Barthélémy as well as Maillet, the latter’s son-in-law.

It is the young Maillet who balances Barthélémy during his interrogation: “You know, my stepfather, he is not really a guy with whom we discuss. He told me to take my rifle, that we were going to intimidate people”. And when we report it to Barthélémy, he admits: “Ardanny forced my hand. People in high places asked him to come down to the relay. Jean-Claude knew things, and he was too talkative… He could have throw it all away!” Then in the car, he in turn delivers an accomplice: a certain Alario, the waiter at the restaurant Le Petit Chef. A priori, the police have the three killers… But what was the role of Ardanny and Horvath in the attack on Belhade? And what is the motive for this savage triple murder?

The investigating judge organizes a reconstruction of the crime, says Christophe Hondelatte again. And as they share their version of events, Alario and Maillet fight to be held responsible for the death of the boss of the relay. Barthélémy, he would not have killed anyone, which police and magistrates find it hard to believe. But the suspects are constantly changing version. The Judge’s final scenario is as follows: Horvath the Mackerel wanted to expand his business to Belhade’s coaching inn to create a brothel in the middle of the woods. He tried to convince Jean-Claude Bonnefon to organize naughty weekends under the pretext of duck hunting, but the manager of the relay refused outright. Horvath resented her for not associating with him, and he asked Barthélémy to deal with it. The latter himself did not hesitate: he stashed weapons, furs and cars at the relay, he was afraid that Jean-Claude would denounce his illegal activities. The trial which opens in November 1989 therefore mainly concerns the role played by Ardanny and Horvath in the 1985 massacre, and the investigators are far from being at the end of their surprises…

To discover the end of the story and find out all the details of this legal case, listen to ““Hondelatte Raconte”, the podcast which delivers daily stories of miscellaneous facts and singular life paths.