On July 28, 1976, 22-year-old Christian Ranucci was guillotined in Marseille for the murder of eight-year-old Maria-Dolores Rambla. A miscarriage of justice? A mysterious red sweater discovered near the crime scene still sows doubt.
This case continues to torment French justice. And for good reason, if Christian Ranucci has never succeeded in proving his innocence in the murder of Maria-Dolores Rambla, nothing really proved his guilt. The affair begins in Marseilles, on June 3, 1974. While she is playing at the bottom of her building, Maria-Dolores Rambla, aged 8, is kidnapped in front of her brother, Jean Baptiste. His corpse, covered with several stab wounds, was discovered two days later in a wood, several kilometers from the city. A man was arrested on June 5, 1974 in Nice on the strength of testimonies after a road accident. This is Christian Ranucci. The young man admits the car accident and the hit-and-run, but denies the abduction and homicide of the child. However, after nineteen hours in police custody, the individual confesses to the crime. More damning, it guides investigators in a mushroom house, the place where the weapon of mischief was concealed. On site, a red sweater is also recovered. An element then totally neglected by the instruction. Christian Ranucci is therefore charged with murder. But as soon as the trial opened on March 9, 1976 in Aix-en-Provence, the accused claimed his innocence. “My path crossed that of the assassin, it’s not my fault”explained Christian Ranucci in remarks relayed by I’m interested. On March 10, 1976, the sentence fell: he was sentenced to death and guillotined on July 28, 1976. However, gray areas remained.
Ranucci case: the red sweater was too big
But even dead, Christian Ranucci wants the truth to be returned and his honor restored. His last words, published by RTLare therefore for its lawyers: “Rehabilitate Me”. His mother, Héloïse Mathon, then multiplies the requests for review. Have we really considered all the avenues? In 1978, Me Jean-Denis Bredin unsuccessfully requested a review of the trial, while the writer Gilles Perrault wrote the book The Red Sweater. A counter-investigation which emphasizes the doubts that punctuate the case by recalling that the sweater was too big for Christian Ranucci. As for the mechanic who witnessed the kidnapping, he is formal: Marie-Dolores boarded a Simca 1100 and not a Peugeot 304 coupé, Christian Ranucci’s car. Latest item: the Belgian newspaper The evening indicates, in January 2006, that Michel Fourniret, would have been in Marseilles in June 1974. A fact for which justice does not follow up.
Another tragic fate: that of Jean-Baptiste Rambla. Haunted by the Ranucci affair, Maria-Dolores’ brother killed two women. As a child victim, the individual has indeed become an adult murderer. In July 2004, he murdered Corinne Beidl, his employer, and was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment by the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhône. Thirteen years later, while on parole, he cut the throat of Cintia Lunimbu, a 21-year-old young woman. In comments relayed by France Blue on December 6, 2021, the expert who examines Jean-Baptiste Rambla then explains that “Ranucci is a central organizing character of his psychic construction”. Yet Jean-Baptiste Rambla never identified Christian Ranucci as his sister’s kidnapper.