François Renaud (5 March 1923, – 3 July 1975) was a French judge whose murder in 1975 led to much speculation, but was never solved. He was the first judge in France to have been assassinated since World War II. His death inspired the French film ''Le Juge Fayard dit Le Shériff'' (1977), directed by

Yves Boisset Yves may refer to: * Yves, Charente-Maritime, a commune of the Charente-Maritime department in France * Yves (given name), including a list of people with the name * ''Yves'' (single album), a single album by Loona * ''Yves'' (film), a 2019 Fren ...

Life

Renaud was born in Hao Giang,

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...

, Vietnam. The son of a doctor, and descendant of an aristocratic lineage one of whom was physician to King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

, he studied first in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

and then in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, before joining the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

Laives Laives (; german: Leifers ) is a town and a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about south of the city of Bolzano. It is one of only five mainly Italian speaking municipalities in South Tyrol, and the fourth larg ...

in 1943. After the war, he served in the colonies before returning to Lyon in 1966, where he was appointed principal judge of the ''palais de justice'' in 1972. He was married with two sons.

Death

He was shot with three bullets from a Geco.38 special (two into the neck at close range) by three killers in a car on 3 July 1975 at 2:42 in the morning, before his house, ''la Vigie'', located at 89 montée de l'Observance, in 9th arrondissement of Lyon. The crime was investigated by

Georges Fenech Georges Vincent Antoine Fenech (born 26 October 1954) is a French former magistrate and politician. A member of The Republicans (LR), he represented the 11th constituency of the Rhône department in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2008 and ...

. The killers have never been formally identified though strong suspicions exist. His tomb, located in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, was desecrated in April 2007.''lyoncapitale'', 8 October 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renaud, Francois 1923 births 1975 deaths French Resistance members Assassinated judges Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French people in colonial Vietnam 1975 murders in France