Dominici affair

The crime

On the evening of 4 August 1952, while they were holidaying in France in their Hillman car with registration number NNK686, the Drummond family made a stop along National Highway 96, 165 metres from La Grand'Terre, a farm in the municipality of Lurs. They stopped by the mile marker 6 km south of Peyruis and 6 km north of La Brillanne. A bridge spanned the railway 60 metres from the road. A path winds down both sides of the railway line to the bank of the Durance river.

The Grand'Terre farm was inhabited by the Dominicis, a family of farmers comprising patriarch Gaston (75), his wife Marie (73), nicknamed "The Sardine" (1879-1974), their son Gustave (33), Gustave's wife Yvette (20), and their baby son Alain (10 months). The family was of Italian origin: Gaston's great-grandfather moved from Piedmont to Seyne in 1800 to work the land. Clovis Dominici, older brother of Gustave, also became involved on the day of the murders.

That evening, the Dominici family were having a party to celebrate the end of the harvest. Several family members travelled back and forth between the farmhouse and the fields, passing the Drummonds on several occasions. The Dominicis irrigated their alfalfa field using water from the Manosque Canal, which crosses over the railway track. A few days earlier, Marie Dominici forgot to close off the irrigation pump for the night, causing the pump's ballast to collapse. Since then, several family members had gone regularly to check that the damage was not obstructing the railway track, as the SNCF may have demanded that they pay repair costs if such an obstruction occurred. In the early hours of 5 August, six or seven shots were heard at approximately 1.10 am. A lorry driver, Marceau Blanc, passed the location at 4.30 am. He noticed a camp bed in front of the Drummonds' car, as well as a canvas that covered the car's windscreen and right side windows. At 4:50 am, a Joseph Moynier passed the scene and did not notice any of this. At 5:20 am, a Jean Hébrard noticed a camp bed leaning against the car. The crime scene appeared to have changed throughout the early morning, contradicting the briefly held theory that the murders were part of a contract killing.

Gustave Dominici claimed to have got up at 5.30 am and to have discovered Elizabeth Drummond’s body at around 5.45. Her skull had been smashed in as a result of several blows from the stock of a carbine (a long firearm similar to a rifle). She was found 77 metres away from the family car, on a slope leading down to the river. At around 6 am, Gustave flagged down Jean-Marie Olivier, a passing motorcyclist who was on his way to work. Gustave asked Olivier to ride to the nearby village of Oraison to inform the police of the discovery. Investigators later noted that Gustave himself owned a motorcycle and were curious as to why he had not simply travelled on it to tell the police himself, rather than waiting for a passer-by to arrive on the scene.

At around 6.30 am, Faustin Roure, who was travelling on a moped from the direction of Peyruis, overtook Clovis Dominici and his brother-in-law Marcel Boyer, who were riding bicycles. Roure went directly to the railway bridge to check on the state of a landslide that Gustave had informed him of during a visit to Roure’s home at around 9 pm the previous day. At the same time as Roure arrived at the railway bridge, the two brothers-in-law arrived at the Grand’Terre, where Gustave told them that gunshots had been heard at around 1 am that morning and that he had discovered the body of a young girl on the slope leading to the river. The two brothers-in-law went to the scene, where they met Roure, who was climbing back up the railway cutting. They spotted Elizabeth’s body 15 metres from the start of the bridge over the railway. Boyer noticed that Clovis seemed to know the precise position of the body, and Clovis prevented the other two men from going any closer to it. When they got back to the road, the three men discovered the bodies of Elizabeth's parents. They found Lady Anne Drummond lying on her back, completely covered by a sheet and lying parallel to the left side of the car. Sir Jack Drummond was also lying on his back, underneath a camp bed on the other side of the road. They had been shot to death. Unnerved by what he heard of a hushed conversation after everyone had returned to the farm, Marcel Boyer later denied to the police that he had stopped on his bicycle ride when he was interviewed at his workplace by an Officer Romanet on 16 August.

During questioning on 20 August with police chief Edmond Sébeille, Faustin Roure revealed that Boyer had indeed stopped and was present when the bodies were discovered. Boyer stated that he couldn’t explain why he had lied. The suspected reason for Boyer’s lie was eventually discovered on 13 November 1953, when Clovis Dominici revealed that Gustave had told him about the Drummonds screaming in pain and terror in the presence of Marcel Boyer and Roger Drac.

Between 6.50 and 7 am, Jean Ricard, a tourist who had been camping the previous night on a plateau in the nearby village of Ganagobie, passed the crime scene on foot. His attention was drawn to the car due to the apparent disorder around it. He walked around the car and saw an empty camp bed lying on the ground alongside it. Two metres to the left, parallel to the camp bed, he saw the body of Lady Anne Drummond, covered by a sheet from her head down to her knees, with her feet pointing in the direction of the Grand’Terre.

At around 7 am, Yvette Dominici, who was pregnant with her second child and had not seen the police arrive, got on her bike and rode towards Sylve Farm, passing through Giropey in order to phone the police. Up the hill at Guillermain Farm, 350 metres to the south of the Grand’Terre, she met Aimé Perrin, who told her that Gustave had found the body of a murdered girl on the riverbank. Perrin also mentioned that Gustave had seen a woman dressed in black with the Drummonds the previous evening. Yvette asked Perrin to phone the police. Perrin headed back towards the crime scene. On the way, he met Officers Romanet and Bouchier, whom he accompanied to the crime scene.

At around 7.30 am, the two police officers and Aimé Perrin arrived at the crime scene, which had already been contaminated multiple times. According to Perrin, Gustave arrived on the scene on foot and not on his bicycle: he came up behind the police officers, who had just found Lady Anne Drummond’s body. The officers found a 4 cm² shred of skin from a human hand hooked on the car’s rear bumper. This evidence was passed to police chief Edmond Sébeille as soon as he arrived on the scene. The car’s front doors had been closed, while the double boot door had been pushed in, with the key left in the lock on the outside, dismissing the theory that Elizabeth Drummond had locked herself in the car from the inside. 6.4 metres behind the rear of the car was a drainage sump. Behind the sump, the police officers noticed a large pool of blood covering about 1 square metre. The blood was never tested, and it was never established whose blood this was. The police found two cartridge cases and two full cartridges, lying in pairs (one cartridge case and one intact cartridge). One pair was found 3 metres behind the car, while the other was found 5 metres perpendicular to the front-left of the car and 1.5 metres away from Lady Anne’s body. The two pairs of cartridges/cases were approximately 9 metres away from each other. The cartridge cases were marked “LC4”, and were different from the full cartridges, which bore the mark “WCC 43” and “WCC 44”. Gustave drew the police officers’ attention to the body of Sir Jack Drummond on the other side of the road, and pointed them to where Elizabeth Drummond’s body lay on the riverbank. The two officers discovered shoe prints from crepe shoes. It appeared that the wearer of these shoes had walked away from Elizabeth’s body and back again several times. These shoe prints were protected by placing twigs around them and were photographed.

Officer Romanet borrowed the bicycle of Mrs Perrin (who had come to the scene to join her husband) to go and phone Sylve, a local merchant, and ask for reinforcements. Sometime after 7.45 am, Faustin Roure – returning from Peyruis, where he had gone to inform his employer, stopped once more at the farm. He saw Gaston Dominici bringing his goats back from the pasture, and witnessed Gaston and Yvette talking about the murder. Roure – who had hidden behind a trellis when he heard the two talking, but had been noticed by them anyway – could not confirm whether it was a serious discussion or just a vague conversation.

At around 8 am, Officer Bouchier, who was alone by the camp bed, saw Roger Perrin cycling past towards the Grand’Terre. Shortly afterwards, Perrin returned by foot, carrying his bicycle, accompanied by his grandfather and Gaston Dominici. Meanwhile, Gustave asked the officer for permission to go and cover Elizabeth’s body using a sheet that was on the camp bed; he was therefore aware that her body had not yet been covered.

At 8.15 am, Captain Albert arrived on the scene with Officers Crespy, Rebaudo and Romanet, whom he had collected from in front of the Perrin home in Giropey. As soon as they arrived, Captain Albert noticed a bicycle at the foot of a bush. The identity plaque on it indicated that it belonged to Gustave Dominici. When Gustave was asked about this, he said that he had gone to look for some chalk at the request of the police, and had taken his bicycle so as to do it as quickly as possible. This account was refuted by Officers Romanet and Bouchier; furthermore, the bicycle disappeared without anyone noticing who had left on it or when.

At around 8.30 am, Henri Estoublon, the mayor of Lurs, arrived on the scene along with a local doctor, Dr Dragon, who began examining the bodies of the Drummond parents. When he inspected Elizabeth’s body at 9.15 am, he noticed that her limbs and torso were still supple but her feet were stiff.

At around 9.15 am, Mr and Mrs Barth, Yvette’s parents, arrived at the Dominici farm. Yvette herself had already left the area, getting a lift from Mr Nervi, the local butcher, to the market in Oraison. She didn’t return until after 4 pm, this time driven back by her parents. Ordinarily, she did her shopping in Forcalquier and returned by lunchtime.

At 9.30 am, prosecutor Louis Sabatier, judge Roger Périès and his clerk Emile Barras arrived from Digne-les-Bains, the regional capital. At around 10 am, Officer Legonge, the police dog handler, arrived with his dog Wasch. Gaston and Gustave Dominici and Roger Perrin watched as the bitch, picking up Elizabeth’s scent, followed the path towards the river for about 50 metres northwards, before going down to the railway track, which she followed for 100 metres in the direction of the farm. The dog then climbed back towards the RN 96 road, crossed it and climbed up towards the irrigation canal 30 metres above the road, where she stopped. No one could work out what this circuitous route meant.

By this time, dozens of onlookers had gathered, while investigators had trampled on and disturbed the now large area of the crime scene. It is possible that some evidence was tampered with – either accidentally or deliberately – or even stolen as macabre souvenirs.

For lunch, Gustave, Clovis and Paul Maillet, a neighbour, gathered in Gaston’s kitchen. During the meal, Gustave said that he had found Elizabeth still alive. Maillet claimed to have been shocked that no one tried to help her.

The investigation begins

The investigation was officially assigned to Superintendent Edmond Sébeille of Marseille’s 9th Mobile Brigade. At 3 pm, Judge Périès, who had not seen the Marseille police arrive, decided to have the bodies removed. While removing Elizabeth’s body, Mr Figuière, the gravedigger (in that era, gravediggers were regularly called upon to remove bodies from crime scenes), found a chip of wood from a rifle stock about 10 cm from Elizabeth’s head. This piece of evidence was passed around by hand amongst various people, who were not aware of where it had been found. When the police arrived, an altercation ensued between Superintendent Sébeille, Judge Périès and Captain Albert – the latter was reproached for not having contained the crowd of onlookers and journalists who were walking around and contaminating the crime scene. According to Sébeille, he and his team arrived in Lurs at 1.30 pm. However, numerous journalists, including André Sevry from French daily Le Monde, claimed that the Marseille police did not arrive until after 4.30 pm.

At around 6 pm on 5 August, Inspectors Ranchin and Culioli recovered a Rock-Ola M1 carbine from the river Durance. It was broken in two and had clearly been in very poor condition even before being thrown into the river. Several pieces were missing and repairs had been made using makeshift knick-knacks: the sight had been replaced by half of a 1-franc coin, while the wooden forearm covering the barrel was missing. The lever had been replaced by a Duralumin ring taken from a bicycle’s identity plaque, which was fixed to the wood by a screw. The safety strap was missing and the bolt stop was broken. Therefore, it was more of a DIY handyman’s weapon than that of a seasoned killer.

On the same day, a lorry driver, Ode Arnaud, reported to the police in nearby Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban that he had seen a man sitting in the rear-left seat of the Drummonds’ car when he passed the scene at 11.15 pm on the night of the murders; and that around midnight, 3 km north of Manosque (to the south of the crime scene), he had overtaken a motorcycle with a sidecar on the left-hand side (indicating that it originated from a country where traffic drives on the left, such as the UK). Later on in the investigation, the Dominicis claimed that this motorbike and sidecar had stopped at their farm at around 11.30 pm. Investigators believed that this claim was intended (i) to discredit the anonymous witness who reported having seen Gustave outside the farm in the company of an unknown man between 11.30 pm and midnight; and (ii) to deflect suspicion towards Ode Arnaud.

At around 7.30 pm on 5 August, Superintendent Sébeille met Gaston Dominici for the first time, close to the spot where Elizabeth had been found that morning. Gaston’s tattoos, as well as the manner in which he spoke, led to Sébeille forming a bad impression of him.

The Dominicis were formally interviewed for the first time on 6 August, and inconsistencies quickly arose. The Dominicis claimed to have heard gunshots but not the victims’ screams and calls for help. Gaston claimed that he (and not the gravedigger) was the person who found the chip of wood from the US M1, stating that he found it 30 cm from Elizabeth’s head while he was covering her body with the sheet. He also claimed that he gave the chip to Officer Bouchier. Inspectors Culioli and Ranchin discovered girl’s underwear in some undergrowth on the railway embankment, some 450 metres south of the Grand’Terre and close to Lurs railway station. In contrast, the crime scene itself was located to the north of the Grand'Terre. In a letter to Captain Albert dated 25 August 1955, during the second investigation, Inspector Ranchin confirmed that Francis Perrin, the postman in Lurs, told the police that he had followed the Drummonds’ car southbound from Lurs between 11.30 am and midday of 4 August 1952. He originally reported this to Superintendent Constant on 3 October 1952.

On 6 August, Lucien Duc, a lorry driver from La Roche-de-Rame, a village 150 km (95 miles) away in the Haute-Alpes département, reported to his local police in L'Argentière-la-Bessée that he and his brother, Georges, had passed by the crime scene at 12.20 am on the night of the murders. They reported seeing an unknown man “with a disturbing facial expression” who froze on the spot when they approached. He was reportedly standing 100 metres from the Drummond’s car in the direction of the Dominici farm. This unknown man was described as being about 40 years old, overweight, about 1.8 metres (5 ft 11) tall and with a thick head of hair.

On 6 and 13 August, Superintendent Sébeille took witness statements from Henri Conil, an estate agent, and Jean Brault, a medical student who was on holiday in Peyruis. Conil, who was giving Brault a lift, reported that they drove past the Drummonds’ car between 1.30 and 1.35 am. Both men reported seeing a silhouette moving in the shadows near the car, indicating that the killer or an accomplice was still at the scene.

On 7 August, a search warrant was executed at the Dominici farm. Investigators found a 12 mm calibre hunting rifle, an old Fusil Gras service rifle that had been rechambered for hunting large game, and a 9 mm carbine. Gustave refused to answer the police officers’ questions, presenting them with a falsified doctor’s note. The Drummonds’ funeral was held at 5 pm that day in Forcalquier, and they were buried in the cemetery there, a few miles from where they were murdered.

On the morning of 8 August, Gustave was questioned for four hours by Superintendent Sébeille in Peyruis. He stuck to his previous statements. Sébeille interviewed Lucien Duc, who reasserted his statement of 6 August. Roger Roche, who lived in Dabisse, a hamlet connected to the village of Les Mées on the other side of the river from the crime scene, went to the police station in Malijai, claiming that he had been in his garden at the time of the murders and had heard four or five gunshots coming from what sounded like the direction of the farm. He said he may have heard screams, but could not be sure. He reported that he remained outside for 15 minutes and neither heard the sound of an engine nor saw any vehicle lights on the road where the murders took place. On the afternoon of 8 August, Superintendent Sébeille showed the US M1 carbine to Clovis Dominici, who reacted by collapsing in apparent shock. He was brought to Peyruis and questioned for two hours, but denied being familiar with the weapon.

Officers Romanet and Bouchier went to Jean-Marie Olivier’s home (the motorcyclist who passed the crime scene at 6 am the morning after the murders and went to inform the police). Olivier told them that Gustave had waved him down from behind the Drummonds’ car. Surprised, Olivier was unable to stop instantly and stopped 30 metres down the road. Gustave ran towards him and asked him to go to Oraison to alert the police. Gustave allegedly said to him: “There’s a dead guy on the embankment by the side of the road.” Gustave himself claimed that he merely said: “There’s a dead person over there,” gesturing towards the river. Investigators interpreted from Gustave’s own version of the phrase that he knew that Elizabeth was still alive.

On 9 August, daily newspaper France-Soir published a picture and details of Elizabeth Drummond’s travel diary. In reality, it was a mock-up made by journalist Jacques Chapus.

On 12 August, Aimé Perrin was interviewed at his home in Giropey by Officer Romanet. The questions revolved around his meeting with Yvette Dominici on the morning of 5 August. Perrin told Romanet what Yvette had told him, i.e. that there had been a woman dressed in black. Perrin said that he was informed that a crime had taken place by Mr Bourgues, a platelayer, before 7 am on the morning of 5 August. This assertion was not credible because Mr Bourgues was not in the area that morning, and would in any case not have been working at that hour. Daily newspaper L’Humanité published a photograph from early May 1945 of Sir Jack Drummond wearing a Home Guard officer’s uniform, in discussions with Wehrmacht officers behind German lines in the Netherlands. The French Communist Party promoted the theory that the Drummonds were murdered due to fierce battles being fought at that time in the Basse-Alpes area between the British and American secret services.

On 13 August, Yvette was interviewed at the Grand’Terre by Officers Romanet and Bianco, but she did not mention the woman dressed in black that Gustave had allegedly seen.

On 16 August, Superintendent Sébeille took a witness statement from Raymond Franco, a Marseille leather merchant who had been on holiday in Les Mées. He reported what he thought at the time were two hunting shots, followed by three of four shots with longer intervals between them. He had heard this from the open window of his bedroom. Superintendent Sébeille also interviewed Yvette, who claimed that Gustave, having returned from the Girard family farm, told her that the Drummonds were camping on an easement that the Dominicis held on a piece of government-owned land. When asked about this again in 1955, she denied having said it. She maintained that she did not leave her kitchen that evening, and that no one came to the house to ask for food or water, nor did anyone come to ask for permission to camp. Her statement repeated Gustave’s statement of 8 August word for word, suggesting that the couple had colluded in advance on what to say to the police. Gustave added that when he was driving back in the opposite direction at 8 pm on 4 August, he noticed the Drummonds’ car and assumed that the family were planning to sleep there without setting up a tent.

When Marcel Boyer (Clovis Dominici’s brother-in-law) was interviewed by Officer Romanet, he stated that he did not stop at the Grand’Terre on the morning of 5 August and that he went directly to Lurs railway station. But on 20 August – and later on 25 June 1953, when interviewed by Superintendent Sébeille – Boyer reneged on this assertion. Boyer claimed to have been so unnerved by a conversation that he had heard between Gustave and Clovis on the farm that he had decided to categorically deny that he had been on the farm at all that morning. Then, when he eventually admitted to stopping by there, he denied having heard anything other than the word “body” in reference to Elizabeth Drummond.

On 17 August 1952, a Mrs Jeanne Christianini from Marseille reported to the Marseille-North police station that she had passed the crime scene at 8.30 pm on 4 August and had seen a fairly tall man, possibly Sir Jack Drummond, looking underneath the car’s bonnet. This would explain why Lady Anne and Elizabeth may have gone to the farm to ask for some water to fill the car radiator, whose cooling system, designed for the British climate, was totally inadequate in the face of the Provençal heatwave that was occurring at that time. On the night of 17 to 18 August, a police reconstruction was organised at the crime scene. There was no moon on the night of the reconstruction, whereas there had been a full moon on the night of the crime. The reconstruction involved the Duc brothers (who had seen an unknown man 58 metres from the farm) and Marceau Blanc, the lorry driver who had passed the crime scene at 4.20 am on 5 August.

On 19 August, Jean Garcin, a farmer from Ribiers, about 40 km (25 miles) north of the crime scene, went to his local police station to report that he had passed the crime scene at 3.45 am on 5 August and seen cushions arranged around the Drummonds’ car.

On 20 August, Gustave went to Peyruis to give Superintendent Sébeille a letter that he had received from his brother Aimé, who lived in Eygalières, in the Bouches-du-Rhône département, some 100 km (60 miles) west of the Dominici farm. Through the letter, Aimé explained that the initials “RMS” found on the stock of the US M1 carbine corresponded to René-Marcel Castang, a resident of Lurs who had died in 1946. However, in reality, these initials may also simply stand for the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation, one of the manufacturers that produced this type of carbine. Aimé wrote that on the day of Castang’s funeral in 1946, some weapons had been stolen from his farm, which bordered Paul Maillet’s farm. Also on 20 August, Superintendent Sébeille received an anonymous letter stating that Maillet had stolen the US M1 from Castang’s farm on the day of Castang’s funeral.

Still on 20 August, a Giovani Colussel reported to the police in La Saulce, 70 km (45 miles) north of the crime scene, that he had passed the location at 5 am on the morning after the murders, and he saw a sheet that had been laid out flat about 1.5 metres in front of the Drummonds’ car. Also on 20 August, Germain Garcin, a lorry driver from Laragne (85 km (50 miles) east of the crime scene), who coincidentally happened to be a relative of Jean Garcin (the farmer who had made a witness statement the day before), reported to the police in Laragne that he had passed the location at 3.50 am on 5 August and had seen one of the car’s doors open and a fairly tall man standing over the raised bonnet, holding a lamp in his hand.

On 21 August, a letter to the editor was published in Le Monde: Mr Garçon, a Parisian lawyer, condemned Superintendent Sébeille’s “ill-considered gossip” to journalists and accused him of trying to cheaply achieve fame. On the same day, Joseph Juliany, a coach driver, reported to the police in Manosque that he had passed the crime scene at 11.30 pm on 4 August on a return journey from Corps (130 km (80 miles) north in the Isère département) to Manosque, and he saw a fairly tall man leaning over the Drummond car’s open bonnet, holding a lamp in his hand. By now, thanks to the numerous independent reports of a man looking under the bonnet of the Drummonds’ car, the investigators confirmed that the Drummonds had experienced a mechanical problem with their car.

On 24 August, the police identified the writer of the anonymous letter: it was a female lavender farmer who stated that she had visited the Maillets in the summer of 1950 and had seen the murder weapon hanging up on a nail in their kitchen.

Another anonymous letter was sent to Superintendent Sébeille. It was dated 25 August and sent from Sisteron, a nearby larger town, and stated that Gustave had been outside the farm with an unknown man between 11.30 pm and midnight on 4 August.

On 18 August and again on 27 August, a Mr Panayoutou told the police that he had taken part in the triple murder. However, his claims turned out to be false. It has never been established whether he was trying to distract the police’s investigation for criminal motives or whether he was a pathological liar tempted by the reward of 1 million francs offered by newspapers the Sunday Dispatch and Samedi Soir.

On 29 August, a search warrant was executed at the home of Paul Maillet, where two Sten guns with loading mechanisms and ammunition were found hidden in his kitchen stove. Maillet was questioned in Forcalquier until 7 pm about the origin of his weapons, to which he provided no credible answer. He suddenly remembered that on the afternoon of 4 August, he heard the sound of gunshots coming from the direction of the bushes on the riverbank while he was working on the railway at the station in Lurs. Following a deal with the prosecutor’s office, Maillet was not prosecuted for unlawfully possessing weapons of war, in exchange for providing assistance to the investigators.

Still on 29 August, Paul Delclite, a boss at the local mine in Sigonce – who occasionally slept at the Guillermain farm, 350 metres south of the Dominici farm – provided a witness statement to Officers Romanet and Bouchier. He reported that at around 10 pm on 4 August, he cycled to his allotment in St-Pons, about 1 km north of the Grand’Terre. He said that when he passed the Drummonds’ car, he noticed a pile of sheets to the left of the car, but saw neither a tent canvas nor a camp bed.