At the end of September, the Paris Judicial Police Department moved away from the former site of the Gold and Silversmith Binhe Road. Witnesses from the old police station told about their dusty past.
Remembrance, memory… Late autumn in Paris, Police Station No. 36, the place full of legends, finally only memories left. The office of the Captain of the Criminal Police Brigade described in Simnon’s “McGray” series, the clothes with blood stains collected from the scene of the crime hung on the clothesline on the 5th floor of the police station, and the single room in the cell where the felon was held— —All of this no longer exists. End, parting… The Paris Judicial Police has permanently moved away from the Seine River, this historic site. After the Judicial Police has moved into the newly-built modern building in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, colleagues from the Paris Grand Instance Court and the Public Security Bureau will also come to this new community. The latest criminal investigation technology will bring new breakthroughs in future case investigations.
The dust has not yet settled. Sergeant Christian Setter of the Judicial Police Department said that his years in the police station were like a “movie with no finale.” Most of the police officers have already settled down at the new location and are working. However, the colleagues of the Paris Grand Instance Court will not all move to the new location until the spring of 2018. When the police escorted the suspect to the prosecutor on Xidi Island, they had to go further. The chief of police has already proposed measures to solve this problem, but the move away from the old site still caused complaints from the police officers.
For the police officers who have witnessed its history, “No. 36” is not only an address, but a deep concern. From the sheriff to the lawyer, from the investigator to the robber, every passer-by has been moved by the four walls full of vicissitudes. The Judicial Police Department moved from Siddhi Island to Krissimmen. Despite the change of address, the name “36” is still retained, because this legendary number always makes people think…
Christian Set, 57 years old, Sheriff of the Paris Judicial Police since February 2015
I will never forget the day of November 13, 2015. That night, I left the office at 20:45. When I got home, I took off my jacket, untied my tie, turned on the TV habitually, and called the news station. At 21:15, I saw an explosion at the Stade de France and the crowd panicked. I called the chief inspector and the prosecutor and told them that I would be there immediately. Our police force assembled immediately, and my assistant stayed at the police station to coordinate the operation. When I arrived at Sebastopol Street, I learned that terrorists were shooting at the cafe terrace. Almost at the same time, I received news that the Batakland Theater had been held hostage. I immediately decided to go to the theater first. When we arrived at the theater, the struggle was deadlocked. Police officers from the Anti-Crime Section are already in place at the entrance of the theater. Police officers from the Search and Mediation Section joined me in negotiating with terrorists. That night, we were extremely nervous. The main difficulty lies in coordinating the deployment and work of police at various crisis scenes. That was the first time I experienced such a situation. At 1 am, the terrorists had been suppressed and a total of 850 police officers participated in the operation.
Robert Broussard, 81 years old, former chief correspondent, he served from 1978 to 1982, chief of mediation raid
happened in the early 1960s, my career is probably the easiest one arrest. At that time, Police Station No. 36 was far away from me. Once, I went there early to check the file. When I left that morning, a policeman approached me and said, “Do you want to arrest a murderer?” I was stunned. He repeated it again, looking serious. The man was waiting at the gate of the police station. I finally decided to check it out, and when I reached the door, I saw a tall, sturdy guy. He walked to me and asked me, “Are you the prosecutor?” I nodded in acquiescence. “Please arrest me. I committed a serious crime and I killed my wife.” In fact, he has been at large for half a month. He committed the murder in Auvergne and later fled to Paris. The police has issued a wanted warrant, and his case is also on the file just now. I asked him why he came here to surrender. He said that he had seen his case reported on TV. So I took him back to the police station where I was by subway.
Federico Pechernard, Sergeant of the Paris Judicial Police from 2006 to 2007, and Chief Sergeant of the French National Police from 2007 to 2012
In 1984, I came to the Criminal Division Office of the Paris Judicial Police for the first time. The section chief at the time was Jacques Gentier. I was then the young sergeant of the police station in the Paris 16th arrondissement of the Chalet area. I was a little surprised that Jacques would personally invite me to his office. Actually, he just wanted to congratulate me. A few days ago, a female business owner came to our police station to look for me. She said she was aware that two of her employees might be terrorists. She accidentally saw weapons, explosives and forged documents in their office drawers. The lady’s testimony sounds reliable. So we agreed to meet at her company to confirm the situation after all her employees are off that night. We meet at the appointed time. I did find weapons, explosives, and forged documents printed in French and Italian in those two offices, just as she described to me at the police station during the day. After checking, I put on my gloves and closed the drawer. After returning to the police station, my superiors and I reported the situation, and the matter was over. Later, I received a call from Jean Tiale and was praised. I said that I didn’t do anything, just kept the vigilance as I should. He said: “This is exactly what we should do in our work.”
Legend: Robbers and serial murderers have been imprisoned here. The officers of the 36th Bureau interrogated criminals who made a sensation in the past. The photo was taken in the 1950s.
Richard Marley, 62, served as the chief of the Identification Section (Technology Section of Police Station 36) from 1995 to 2005. He has just published his work “Experts Arrival”.
On October 9, 1984, the body of an 89-year-old woman, Susanne Foucault, was found in her apartment on Rue Nicolai in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. She was the third victim killed by serial killer Thierry Poland. Thierry Poland is also known as the “Old Woman Killer”. That was my first time at the crime scene. Looking through Thierry’s dossier, I found motivation to continue investigating: He attacked Susanna more than 30 times, but only 20 traces were found at the scene. After returning to the identification department, I saw that everyone was still testing with aluminum powder and brushes. So I offered to hand over the fingerprint samples to me and try to solve the case with physical technology. In fact, I didn’t master the physical technology of the traces on the laboratory at that time, I only read the relevant plots in the novels of Patricia Convair. I bought a multi-wavelength lamp, biological or chemical traces can be exposed to this light. I put the technicians on white blouses and trained them. Later, I went to London Police Station for an internship, where I learned to use cyanoacrylate to check fingerprints on cars. Now, this instrument for checking fingerprints on cars is located in the Garage of the Paris Judicial Police Department. You will definitely bring it when you move.
Roger Le Loire, 64 years old, Deputy Minister of Finance and veteran of the Paris Court of Justice, former Prosecutor of the Narcotics and Procurement Industry Inspection Team (1976-1980)
I was on duty at Police Station 36 that day. The attendant told us that there was an old woman downstairs who wanted to report her son-in-law for illegally possession of drugs. So we listened to the old woman telling the situation. It was obvious that she did not like her son-in-law. Her son-in-law entrusted a handbag to her for safekeeping, and she suspected there were drugs in it. We came to her house according to the address she provided. We were divided into two teams, one team went to check the handbags, and the other team, the team I was in, waited outside, and I stayed in the car. If there are indeed drugs in the bag, we will investigate. During this time, another colleague went to the communication room to ask about the situation. 10 minutes later, I saw a police car approaching. The colleague who was investigating in the communication room was pushed to the wall. It turned out that the staff in the communication office did not believe that he was a policeman and came to investigate, so he reported to the police. Later, after the police and us explained clearly to each other, we received the news from the group who checked the handbag: there were drugs in the handbag, and they also found 20 kilograms of marijuana in the house of the old woman who wanted to avenge his son-in-law. We forcibly opened the door of the old woman’s son-in-law’s room, but her son-in-law did not notice the police coming. He could not think that his own heroin trafficking had been exposed. Finally, there is an episode. When we took the old woman’s son-in-law, his large danish barked, and the officers couldn’t control the dog and had to shoot. Everyone is a little sad for this innocent dog. Fortunately, after a while, the dog stood up again and it did not die.
Isabella Tusrad, 45 years old, police commander, worked in the crime department of the Paris Judicial Police for 7 years. “I sincerely love the team.” She candidly. Today, she is the secretary of the French Coordinating Commander’s Union.
For 4 years, I have been investigating the case of Nopot Muskaha. This case is a real criminal investigation, which not only challenges my intelligence, but also satisfies my moral need to discover the truth. On January 5, 2005, this 70-year-old man died in the maid’s room of an apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, surrounded by some medicines. He is single and childless. When his body was found, he had been dead for about a month. According to toxicological analysis, the cause of his death was an overdose of Trichy (a neuroleptic drug). There is no progress in the investigation, except that he learned that his account has records of abnormal withdrawals, and that a woman named Catherine Maynor has produced a will that states that she is the heir of Nopot. Katherine also cremated Norport’s body without telling the Criminal Investigation Team. We discovered that Catherine had used Norport’s bank card to withdraw money and wrote a will under the identity of Norport. However, when Norport’s signs of life disappeared, she did not panic. She was charged with fraud and was imprisoned. We gradually solved all the mysteries, which Maynor never admitted. However, the clues and evidence we collected were enough to convince the court twice. The first time, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison for premeditated drug poisoning. The second time, she appealed, but was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Christian Vlajeski, 59 years old, was the sergeant of the Paris Judicial Police from 2007 to 2013. On
January 14, 1986, I was on duty in the Crime Division. The shooting occurred in the 16th arrondissement of Paris’s Docte-Blange Street . I went to the scene immediately, and within 15 to 20 minutes, I arrived at the scene of the crime. There was noisy surroundings, and there were police everywhere. A savings bank was robbed. Some police have waited for the robbers to come out at the exit of the savings bank and blocked them. During the struggle, prosecutor Jean Frandit was shot dead, and a robber was shot dead by the police. A policeman was shot in the head. In the chaos, it is difficult to identify all the robbers. At this time, I recognized the leader of a robbery gang with fake beards. His name was Robert Margeri. He was already handcuffed. Two months ago, he managed to escape when he exchanged fire with the police in a restaurant. This incident made the colleagues of Police Station 36 very angry, and Minister Pierre Jokes ordered an investigation into the incident. On Binhe Road, the ambulance has already carried many wounded. The robbery case was a sensitive incident at the time, because some night shift workers were implicated and charged with armed robbery.
Michelle Le Page, 71, was the perpetrator of a major robbery. He ran away twice and was charged 14 times in jail. When he wrote “Southern Suburbs” and
stepped onto the 148 steps, he seemed to be a Animals on all fours. I first came here on June 9, 1975. Robert Broussard (Assistant to the Chief of the Anti-Robbery Section from 1972 to 1978) arrested me. I was taken to the utility room in the attic, waiting for interrogation. There, I heard the office next door celebrating my arrest, and they were drinking champagne. Amid the laughter and the sound of champagne popping the cork, I heard a few sporadic conversations: “The bastard was finally caught by us, let him go to hell in prison.” But, I won’t sit still, they Want me to confess? During robbery, theft, or escape from prison, they will always exchange fire with the police. They want me to name the so-called associates. So I kept repeating: “I don’t understand what’Brak’ is (an informal term for the word’robbing’). I don’t know who these people you are talking about are.” They beat me. At lunchtime, they put me in a cage in the crime department, on the lower floor of the attic. When handing me the sandwich, the guard opened the cage door in his direction. This is a good opportunity… In order not to go to jail, I decided to run away next time when someone handed me food. There was no one in the crime department at that time. When the time came, I, like a rugby player, slammed away from the guards, got out with my shoulders, and then ran downstairs. But I didn’t run very far before I was caught, as if I had experienced another journey through. “What, haven’t you stayed where you should be?” Broussard asked me.
Identification: The first group of criminal investigation experts analyzed the evidence collected from the crime scene.
The investigator took photos of the suspects and collected their fingerprints.
Martine Montel, 67 years old, 2002 to 2004 Paris judicial police sergeant
first time I have feelings for here is 10 years old. When the father of the prosecutor of the Search and Mediation Division worked at the police station, I accompanied him. From a child to a young girl, I don’t know how many times I have walked the 148 steps. I also remember how proud I was when I was nominated as the sheriff. But what impressed me the most was our spirit of solidarity. Although everyone has different personalities, we still form a special “home”. We spend more time with colleagues than with family. We have experienced successes and setbacks together. I still remember a murder in Wanggang on December 3, 1996. At that time I was in charge of the Crime Division. It was the end of the year, and many police officers returned to work at the police station from home, but they did not complain at all.
Claude Gangces, 78 years old, served as sergeant of the Paris Judicial Police from 1993 to 1995. He had worked in the police station for 35 years. This experience provided him with the material for “36 Bureau Story”
May 1993 On the 13th, the phone in the office rang, and someone notified us that a hostage-taking incident occurred in a school in Neuilly district. Half an hour later, I learned more factual details: a child in a lower grade class was kidnapped by a militant with a bomb on his body, what we call a “human bomb.” At 1pm, when I arrived at the school, the Crime Division, Anti-Robber and Robbery Division, and Search and Mediation Division had all arrived. The militants were also on the scene. Several children have been released. However, the “Human Bomb” still insisted on important terms of exchange and let the then Mayor of Neuilly Nicolas Sarkozy over. The children were released one by one, and finally 6 children and their teachers were controlled. We quickly understood that he didn’t really want to kill the children. However, we still cannot take it lightly, because he has enough explosives to blow up the school. Moreover, the longer the time is, the more dangerous it is. He may do extreme things because of fatigue. At 7:25 a.m. on May 15, after a 46-hour stalemate, we decided to launch an attack. Five or six seconds later, the militant leader Luis Baion declared that all the children had been released safely. The hostage-taking person has been shot dead. We didn’t know until the investigation was over that the criminal was named Eric Schmidt.
