Édouard-Jean, 3rd Baron Empain (7 October 1937 – 21 June 2018)http://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/les-dernieres-paroles-du-baron-empain-il-faut-sortir-gagnant-de-cette-impasse-5b2bf28355326301e7a94af1c was a French-Belgian industrialist, best known by the general public for his kidnapping in 1978.
Between 1969 and 1981, Baron Empain was CEO of the Schneider group (Schneider-Empain).
Biographical details The Baron was the son of Jean, 2nd Baron Empain, and the grandson of Édouard Louis Joseph, 1st Baron Empain. He married the Italian Silvana Betuzzi in 1957 by whom he had two daughters and a son: they were divorced shortly after Empain's kidnapping. He lived in the suburbs of Paris with his second wife Jacqueline (née Ragonaux), a former model, whom he married in 1990.
His abduction left a deep impression on him. He claims he has never been the same since.Said by Édouard-Jean Empain in the documentary L'Enlèvement du baron Empain – "Faites entrer l'accusé" (2005) (in French). The newspapers dissected his private life during his confinement, "revealing his taste for gambling and the existence of his bachelor pad. A whiff of scandal that wounded the Baron, so discreet until then, even more fiercely than his two months in captivity"..
Career before the kidnapping In 1978, Édouard-Jean Empain was a Belgian nobleman living in Paris. A wealthy heir at the age of forty-one, he had been chairman and CEO of the Empain-Schneider group (later Schneider Electric) since 1971. He was one of France's leading businessmen,In 1976, he became the first foreigner to be admitted to the Conseil national du patronat français (CNPF), according to creusot.net with a group of almost three hundred companies, one hundred and fifty thousand employees and sales of twenty-two billion francs. The Empain-Schneider group included companies such as Framatome (nuclear boilers), Creusot-Loire (metallurgy), Jeumont-Schneider, Cerci, Citra and Spie Batignolles (construction).Since 1999, the Group, which has undergone profound changes, has been officially named Schneider Electric.
Kidnapping
Capture on Avenue Foch
On Monday, January 23, 1978, at approximately 10:30am, Édouard-Jean, 3rd Baron Empain, was picked up as usual from his home at 33 Avenue Foch, a prestigious address in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe.According to the documentary L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005).
The Baron's chauffeured car, a Peugeot 604, was intercepted at a junction some 50 metres after it had left his home. A moped slid across the road, faking an accident in order to bring his car to a halt next to a parked van. Once the car had stopped several armed men removed the driver from the vehicle and bundled him into the van, while the Baron was quickly handcuffed and the kidnappers made off in his car. The Baron's car was found some hours later in an underground parking structure but contained no usable fingerprints.
Despite the lack of detailed evidence provided by witnesses, the circumstances of the kidnapping were rapidly made known to the public.According to Inspector Jean-Claude Murat in the documentary L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). In the hope of recovering the Baron, the police put in place traffic stops throughout Paris and its suburbs but to no avail.
Initial investigation Empain's driver Jean Denis, who was released close to Porte Maillot,Michel Bôle-Richard, Les désillusions du baron perdu, Le Monde, 28 juillet 2006. told investigators that he had been handcuffed at gunpoint and thrown into the back of a van,Journal télévisé, janvier 1978 and as such had not seen the faces of the kidnappers. He overheard one of them speaking in German, however, which led the authorities to think that the crime might have been committed by an extreme-left group affiliated with the Red Army Faction.According to the journalist Jean-Pierre About in the documentary L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). That scenario was persuasive as the kidnapping of Empain came on the heels of the kidnapping and the assassination of the German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer by the Red Army Faction.
The police quickly installed themselves in Empain's family home. Presuming that the kidnappers would contact the family, they tapped the phones and kept the house under surveillance so that the family would not try to deal directly with the kidnappers.
French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who was close to Empain at the time, advised Interior Minister Christian Bonnet and Attorney General Alain Peyrefitte to put together a crisis team. Peyrefitte called on the public to 'denounce the criminals', and Socialist Party First Secretary François Mitterrand talked of the 'decline of civilisation'. A team similar to that of the government was set up by the Schneider group to represent its interests in the affair. The group comprised René Engen (Empain's right-hand man) and Robert Badinter (Empain's lawyer) as well as the former director general of the police, Max Fernet, who was employed by the group as a 'technical consultant'.
First message from kidnappers
On Tuesday January 24, 1978, the day after the kidnapping, the radio station RTL received a call from a group purporting to be responsible:
The Armed Core Groups for Popular Autonomy (NAPAP) was an extreme-left, French guerrilla organisation which had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a number of foreign diplomats. Although this lead supported the initial police theory, which was echoed in the press, that the kidnapping was politically motivated, the family had in fact received an anonymous telephone call from the real kidnappers which they relayed to the police. The call, which came from the Rue Anjou, close to the headquarters of the Schneider group, demanded that someone go to the Gare de Lyon to collect a message left in locker 595.D'après le commissaire André Bizeul de la brigade criminelle dans le documentaire L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). One of the members of the group, along with the police, proceeded directly to the station where they found the Baron's identity card, a number of letters from the kidnappers, a note from the Baron (including a message to his wife) and a small package.
The kidnappers demanded 80 million francs in ransom and seemed extremely determined. The package the police found in the locker contained the Baron's left little finger preserved in formaldehyde. The family were increasingly unnerved as the letter stipulated that further body parts would follow if the ransom was not paid.
Six days wait Six days passed without news from the kidnappers. The police widened their investigation into the Baron's private life in order to discover whether the kidnapping had motives other than financial gain.
Numerous routes of inquiry were followed. The Baron's passion for poker to which he devoted many of his evenings and a considerable sum of money suggested a possible mafia connection. The investigation revealed that the Baron had lost 11 million francs a few weeks earlier and had to take out a loan to cover the debt. The press quickly got wind of these revelations and the hypothesis that the Baron had staged his own kidnapping to cover his gambling debts was forwarded.D'après maître Jean-Yves Dupeux, avocat du baron Empain à l'époque, dans le documentaire L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). It was the Baron's numerous affairs, however, which grabbed the public's attention and served to damage his previously untarnished reputation.
Affected by these revelations, the Empain family became increasingly hostile towards journalists.Patricia Empain, la fille du baron, dans un document RTL de janvier 1978. Despite the family's silence, the press maintained a constant presence outside the Baron's home.La Première Vie de Nicolas Hulot, Élise Karlin, LEXPRESS.fr, décembre 2006. To add to the media interest, the police refused to confirm the amputation of the Baron's finger which provoked widespread speculation.
At the same time, the kidnappers sent a further letter to the Baron's eldest daughter Patricia, who was married to American oil and ranch heir Terrell Braly. Written in the Baron's own hand and dictated by the kidnappers, the letter specified the procedure for the transfer of the ransom and reminded the family not to alert the police. The family and the Empain-Schneider group did not immediately warn the police, preferring to handle the situation themselves. However the increasing silence of those close to the Baron excited the suspicion of the police who placed the family under heightened surveillance. This surveillance allowed the police to discover the existence of secret negotiations between the group and the kidnappers with the group having the aim of reducing the sum demanded from 80 million francs to 30 million. The family and the group both thought that it would be better to pay the ransom whereas the police refused to contemplate this course of action as setting a dangerous precedent.D'après l'écrivain Yvon Toussaint dans L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). After much discussion, the group allowed themselves to be convinced by the police to pay a fake ransom, which was a great disappointment to the family, especially the Baron's wife, Silvana Empain, who feared it would put her husband's life in peril.D'après le commissaire Pierre Ottavioli, directeur de la brigade criminelle de 1974 à 1979 et chef de l'enquête, dans le documentaire L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005).
Relative calm period Four weeks after the kidnapping, on Monday February 20, 1978 a telephone call placed by the kidnappers to the Schneider group's headquarters indicated that the ransom had been reduced to 40 million francs without further negotiations.
The rendezvous set by the kidnappers was to take place two days later at Megève, a winter resort in Haute-Savoie. A radio communication system was rapidly deployed in the area by the police to facilitate the operation. The police examined the numerous possible methods the kidnappers could use for their ingress and egress and in order that the unmarked police cars used were not spotted their Parisian licence plates were changed.
Inspector Jean Mazzieri, a skilled martial artist, was chosen to carry out the ransom delivery under the guise of Mr. Mazo, a fictitious aide of the Baron.
Megève episode On the day of the rendezvous, Wednesday February 22, 1978, Jean Mazzieri made his way to the Le Chalet du Mont d'Arbois hotel where he was supposed to receive a telephone call from Félix le Chat who would ask for Jacques Dupond and arrange another meeting place for the exchange. He had with him two holdalls containing a mix of bank notes and paper designed to mimic on cursory inspection the ransom of 17 million Swiss francs. The area was under surveillance by numerous plain clothes police who were ready to intervene if necessary.D'après le commissaire Robert Broussard, chef-adjoint de la brigade antigang de 1972 à 1978, dans le documentaire L'Enlèvement du baron Empain - « Faites entrer l'accusé » (2005). The kidnappers did not call however and the operation was cancelled later that evening.
Contact