Brabant killersThe Brabant killers("De Bende vanNijvel") "arethought to be responsible for a series of violent attacksthat mainly occurred in the province of Brabant, Belgiumbetween 1982 and 1985, in which 28 people died and 40were injured. It became the countrys most notorious un-solved crime spree.The gangs trademark was disproportionate and gratu-itous violence in crimes for relatively petty rewards, andinsoucianceabout policeresponse. Therehavebeenmany speculative theories about the case. Although theperpetrators may have been a particularly psychopathicgroup of criminals without any ulterior motive, a recentlyrevived line of enquiry followed up assertions that a po-litically extreme paramilitary group were sent on an un-dercover reconnaissance exercise that involved checkingon the security of some of the supermarkets targeted inthe raids. According to various witnesses, the gang wascomposed of three recurring actual participants on theraids, assisted by a number of others who supplied logis-tical support and gathered information on targeted busi-nesses. The three most active robbers were commonlycalled:the Giant a very tall man who may have been theleaderthe Killer who shot most of the gangs victimsthe Old Man who mainly acted as driver.The identity and the whereabouts of the killers remainunknownthoughoneisthought tohavebeenfatallywounded in the last raid. Failure to catch the gang wasa major source of the dissatisfaction that led to reform ofBelgian police.1 Overview of crimes attributed tothe gang1.1 1982March 13: sneak theft of a 10 gauge fowling shotgunat a retail store in Dinant, Belgium. Two men seenrunning away.May 10 Armed robbery of an Austin Allegro.May 10 Volkswagen Santana stolen from car show-roomAugust 14: armed robbery of a grocery store inMaubeuge, France. Food and wine being loadedwhen Gendarmerie-ocers arrived,both are shotand seriously wounded.September 30: armed robbery of a weapons dealerin Wavre, Belgium. Fifteen rearms were stolen, in-cluding sub-machine guns. A policeman was killedat the scene, two others shot and seriously woundedin later incident after police car blocking escape isrammed.December 23:armed robbery of a isolated restau-rant in Beersel,Belgium. Coee and wine werestolen. The caretaker was tortured and killed.[1]1.2 1983January 9: robbery of a cab in Brussels. The carwas found in Mons, Belgium. The taxi driver wastortured and killed.February 11: armed robbery of a supermarket inRixensart, Belgium. Lessthan$18,000.00wasstolen. No people killed, several wounded.February 22. An Audi 100 with multiple bullet holesinicted in the raid on 11 February is singled outand stolen from a commercial garage where it is forrepair.February 25: armed robbery of a supermarket inUccle, Belgium. Less than $16,000.00 was stolen.No people killed.March 3: armed robbery of a supermarket in Halle,Belgium. Less than $18,000.00 was stolen. Onesta member was killed. Audi left in street.May 7: armed robbery of a supermarketin Houdeng-Gougnies, Belgium. Less than$22,000.00 was stolen. No people killed.September 10: armed robbery of a textile factory inTemse, Belgium. Seven bullet-proof jackets werestolen. One worker was killed,his wife severelywounded.September 17: Acouple who stopped at 24 hour selfservice petrol station after midnight in Nivelles arekilled, who were breaking into an adjacent grocerystore. They used a cutting torch to enter store and12 3 ULTERIOR MOTIVESsteal 20 kilos of tea and coee and 10 liters of cook-ing oil, which they took the time to load even afterthe alarm went o. A couple of Gendarmerie re-sponded, and were shot as they arrived. One waskilled,another seriously wounded. The gang es-caped in a Saab turbo and couples Mercedes, laterstaging an ambush of a police car.October 2: armed robbery of a restaurant in Ohain,Belgium. Nothing was stolen. The owner was killed.October7: armedrobberyofasupermarket inBeersel, Belgium. Less than $35,000.00 was stolen.One customer was killed.December 1: armed robbery of a jeweller inAnderlues, Belgium. Some low-value jewels werestolen. Two people were killed.1.3 1985Friday September 27, approximately 20:00: armed rob-bery and a killing in the Delhaize supermarket on rue de laGraignette in Braine-l'Alleud. Less than $6,000.00 wasstolen. Three people were killed, two people wounded.Approximately 15 to 25 minutes later the Delhaize su-permarket on Brusselsesteenweg in Overijse was raided.Less than $25,000.00 was stolen. Five people were killed,one person wounded. As a result there were security mea-sures included stationing armed guards at many premisesin the region.[1]1.3.1 Final raidOn Saturday November 9, after no raids in two years,the gang reappeared. At approximately 19:30 there wasan armed robbery in the Delhaize supermarket on Park-laan in Aalst, which was out of the gangs normal area,and had no permanent guards though police patrols werechecking ever 20 minutes. Less than $25,000.00 wasstolen. Eight people were killed. In the supermarket gangmembers, who were wearing bizarre face paint disguises,roared at customers that they had looked at them to jus-tify the shooting, but it appeared to be wholly gratuitousand mainly by the 'killer', who was armed with a shotgun.The robbers were slow to leave the scene after returningto their parked getaway vehicle although there were onlytwo exits and they could easily have been been trapped.Patrol vehicles had arrived before the gang left, but mostwent to a second exit of the car park 100 yards awayfrom the one the getaway was eventually made though.One walked beside the car . A policeman approached theramp to the car part and returned re with a revolver ata member of the gang from 30 meters, and again as thegetaway car sped away. A police van followed for halfa kilometer before halting the pursuit. The last sightingcame that night when the gang, one of whom was appar-ently dead or seriously injured, was spotted at a fork in aforest road. Decades later police made a close investiga-tion of the spot and found evidence of a weapon beingred, leading to a belief among investigators that one,possibly the leader, was nished o by his accomplicesand buried in the forest. The getaway car was later foundburnt out.[1][2][3]2 Method of operationSome paraphernalia found by police indicated the gangwere professional criminals involved in drugs and bur-glaries, but many puzzlingly irrational elements were alsoapparent. Proceeds from the robberies were modest rela-tive to the extreme risks they ran and murders drewinves-tigative resources, although the killings made many policecautious about engaging the gang. The killings escalateddramatically during the 1985 robberies. Bystanders wereshot dead in the car park before the gang even enteredthe supermarkets and other victims, including children,were shot from as close as a foot away while cowering onthe oor, which seemed to indicate that killing had be-come an end in itself. Firearms were a particular interestof the gang and the 12 gauge pump shotguns used wereloaded with a rare specialist heavy buckshot. Cars used,often Volkswagens, were stripped of distinctive aspectsof the trim, and modications showed a mechanics ex-pertise. The driver was highly skilled, and getaways wereby quick but non-obvious routes, often to forested areaswhere cars used were burnt out. The gang is believed tohave had at least one helper on the last raid.[1][3][4]3 Ulterior motives3.1 Ocial complicityThelast attackwhenthegangstruckdespitepatrolschecking the supermarket every twenty minutes led to ru-mours of themhaving some kind of inside knowledge andpossibly complicity by individual Gendarmerie in the at-tacks. Gendarmerie vehicles (which had an Uzi in a com-partment) were present approximately 100 meters away,but failed to engage the gang, or pursue. The Belgian"stay-behind" network SDRA8 (Gladio) operating asa secret branch of the Belgian military service was sug-gested by some to have links to the gang. Some unitsof the stay behind network were made up of membersof the Belgian Gendarmerie. One theory was that thecommunist threat in Western Europe was taken as jus-tifying Operation Gladio being activated. However, theBelgian parliamentary inquiry into Gladio found no sub-stantive evidence that Gladio was involved in any terroristacts or that criminal groups had inltrated the stay-behindnetwork.[5][6] The Belgian Gendarmerie were abolishedin reforms that came as a result of a perceived lack ofsatisfactory performance in the Brabant killers case, and3that of Marc Dutroux.[2][7]3.2 Westland New PostThe NATO 'Stay Behind'explanation for the Brabantmassacres was ostensibly explored in a 1992 BBC Time-watch series 'Operation Gladio' directed by Allan Fran-covich, but the program centered on a by then defunctsmall private Belgian far right anti-communist organiza-tion Westland New Post whose leader Paul Latinus hadasserted that he was working with government agenciesalong the same lines as Gladio. Many people have re-garded Laurius as likely to have fabricated contacts withsecret government agencies to boost his prestige withWNP followers. The main connection to the BrabantkillerswastheWMPmembersincludingsomeGen-darmerie (former paramilitary police force), recalled be-ing ordered in the early eighties to covertly surveil andcompile a report on the security arrangements at variousBelgian supermarkets, including ones of a large chain thatwas the main target of the later killings. However, WNPhad one geniune intelligence operative advising on coverttechniques, and NATO behind-the-lines units are knownto have used the planning of robberies as a theoreticalexercise for training.[8][9][10][10] [11][12]Michel Libert, the former no. 2 of Westland New Posthas never denied passing on the orders to covertly assesssupermarket security,though denying he had anythingmore to with the matter, which was out of his sphere ofresponsibility. He insisted that he was not told by WNPsleader, the late Paul Latinus, what if any purpose was be-hind the assignments.[9][10][10] [11][13][14][15] [15][16]In 1983 Libert had been staying with Marcel Barbier, aWNP member, when he was arrested for using a weaponin a street ght and became suspected of a double mur-der at a synagogue a year earlier. When police then be-gan investigating WNP, Latinus told them that Barbierand another WNP member were behind the synagoguemurders, and that Latinus had helped Barbier getting ridof the murder weapon and other relevant evidence. Bar-bier was the only person convicted for these murders,his co-accused who was acquitted,but later convictedof a similar double murder of diamond merchants, ap-peared in a Belgian tv program in 2014, where he allegedWNP was behind the Brabant killings based on WNPapparently having compiled information on the premisesraided. Libert was arrested as a suspect soon after theprogram was broadcast, but released without charge af-ter 48 hours.[9][10][10] [11][13][14][15] [15][16]3.3 Other speculationThere are various complex conspiracy theories with linksto political scandals that suggesting the killings were doneto disguise a targeted assassination. In one version linkingto illegal gun-running maas and legitimate businessesa banker Lon Finn,who was murdered in Overijse,was supposedly targeted deliberately. Notorious profes-sional criminals including Patrick Haemers and MadaniBouhouche, both now deceased, have been seen as likelysuspects. Haemerss height made him thought a t forthe 'giant' in the Brabant gang, but though Haemers wasruthless, his crimes lacked the irrational malevolence andsmall-time takings that were the Brabant killershall-mark. Bouhouche who was convicted of two murders,had contacts with WNP and is regarded as a somewhatmore likely suspect to have been involved.[17]4 Investigation4.1 Early failuresIn 1983, on the bases of a forensic examination of aweapon handed into police, and subsequent confessionsof the owner of the gun, a number of men were chargedof being the Brabant gang, and some implicated them-selves and others under interrogation. However there wasno collaboration of the confessions obtained and a lackof tangible evidence. The gangs Orhain raid happenedwhile the accused men were in detention. It emergedthat a German laboratory had concluded the pistol wasnot used in the robberies, and the charges were eventu-ally dropped after the Borains had spent two years incustody.Rivalry and lack of unied direction made the various lawenforcement agencies hunting the gang ineective duringthe crucial early years of the investigation when the gangmade most of their raids and potentially vital evidencewas found, including items believed to have the killersngerprints that were destroyed or simply lost.[1][18]4.1.1 Current lines of inquiryThe weapons used in the killings, and others taken fromvictims, including police, were never found. One gangmembers DNA prole has been established, but has notbeen matched. Many believe the case essentially unsolv-able after 30 years, but the Brabant killers are still ac-tively sought using considerable resources. There are nonew leads publicized. Arrests for questioning, and oersof rewards for repentant gang members who provide in-formation on accomplices, have in recent years been di-rected at decades-old suspects.[11][1][19]5 References[1] Ocial website of police investigation[2] Vice.com Virgile DallArmellina ,Police Are RunningOut of Time to Catch the 'Crazy Brabant Killers4 6 EXTERNAL LINKS[3] Les dernires heures des tueurs du Brabant (2/3)[4] Flanders Today, July 2015 Suspect arrested in 30-year-oldBrabant Killers case[5] http://www.senate.be/lexdocs/S0523/S05231297.pdf[6] Permanent Committeefor theControl ofIntelligenceAgencies (Belgium) See in particular the history sectionin the Presentation part.[7] Chronologie des faits attribus aux tueurs du Brabant page21-22[8] Financial Times blog, May 10, 2013, Sir Ranulph Fiennescaught trying to rob a bank[9] (Dutch) Gazet Van Antwerpen/Belga (2014). Ex-kopstuk Westland New Post vrijgelaten (FormerleaderWestland New Post released)".[10] Rsistances.be[11] The Brussels Times, 23 October 2014, Brabant killers:Michel Libert (WNP) taken in for questioning from homein Brussels[12] RTBF Tueries du Brabant: perquisition et interpellationde Michel Libert (WNP)[13] Michel Libert interpell le jour de la diusion du Devoird'Enqute " Spciale TUERIES DU BRABANT "[14] 3 octobre 2014 , Tueries du Brabant: pas d'inculpation deMichel Libert[15] RTBF Tueries du Brabant: perquisition et interpellationde Michel Libert (WNP)[16] (Dutch) Gazet Van Antwerpen/Belga (2014). Gewezenlid extreemrechtse groepering ondervraagd over Bendevan Nijvel (Former member extreme right group interro-gated about Brabant Killers)".[17] Faits divers - Arige. Le bcheron mort accidentellementprs de Lavelanet tait ml aux tueries du Brabant.[18] DH.be, 24/6/15, Christian De Valkeneer sest invit chezMichel Cocu[19] DH.be, 24/6/15, Christian De Valkeneer sest invit chezMichel Cocu6 External linksOcial website of police investigationChronologie des faits attribus aux tueurs du Bra-bant page 21-22bendevannijvel.com/forum ForumBelgianChamber ofRepresentatives, parliamen-tary investigation into the Brabant killers. (French)(Dutch)Belgian Chamber of Representatives, parliamentaryinvestigation into banditism. (French) (Dutch)Belgian Senate, parliamentary investigation intoGladio. (French) (Dutch)Belgian Senate, parliamentary investigation into pri-vate militias.(French) (Dutch)tueriesdubrabant.be.cx57 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses7.1 Text Brabantkillers Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabant_killers?oldid=675964285 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Moyogo, AlistairM-cMillan, Jossi, Klemen Kocjancic, Peak Freak, Polylerus, Gpvos, Piekatjoe, Dismas, Matt.whitby, Lionel Elie Mamane, Habap, Wester,RussBot, Deodar~enwiki, BertK, Tony1, Rallette, Bluezy, Intangible, SmackBot, Bwithh, TimBentley, Kaliz, LucVerhelst, Ser Amantiodi Nicolao, Tazmaniacs, Berchemboy, CmdrObot, Random Nonsense, Location, Soetermans, Barticus88, Fluxbot, Aelogan, Oreo Priest,Flex Flint, Nemissimo, Magioladitis, WLU, Maplecrisp, Le petit prince, Rettetast, Maurice Carbonaro, Paris1127, TonyGosling, SieBot,Moonraker12, Techman224, Roofbird, Ivo von Rosenqvist, Littlekame~enwiki, Adimovk5, Addbot, Lightbot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Xqbot,Seligne, FrescoBot, DocSavage2, Cnwilliams, Dupont och Dupond, Lotje, Overagainst, Ripchip Bot, EmausBot, 1Veertje, ChrisGualtieri,Dynamo128, Ssscienccce, SolidSnake110, StayBehind, Melonkelon, BethNaught, RevivesDarks and Anonymous: 547.2 Images7.3 Content license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0