May 2021 Bonus Review #2: Who Killed Little Gregory?
An unsolved French case from the '80s takes on bigger societal mysteries.
the true crime that's worth your time
The crime
On October 15, 1984, four-year-old Grégory Villemin is abducted from his home outside a village in eastern France. Hours later, his body is found in the Vologne river. Despite a decent amount of evidence from an earlier campaign of harassment directed at Grégory’s parents and family, and a relatively small and interrelated selection of possible suspects amongst whom a motive might be found, the local constabulary — and especially the local magistrate — flail fruitlessly in the direction of a prime suspect…albeit more purposefully in the direction of TV cameras. Eventually, indicting the killer(s) of “petit Grégory” becomes secondary to indicting modern modes of motherhood, the European tabloid press, vigilantism, etc. etc.
[Warning: spoilers possibly ahead; skip to my last graf if that’s a concern.]
The story
Directed by Gilles Marchand, who customarily works in scripted thrillers, Who Killed Little Grégory? is a watchable but frustrating five hours. Your mileage may vary on the former, depending on your tolerance for subtitles, although Netflix does offer the option of a dubbed audio track in various languages; and for moody reimaginings of various key locations in the story with ravens perched in them. That’s because, before their son was murdered, Christine and Jean-Marie Villemin — mostly Jean-Marie, it seems — were the targets of a sustained campaign of threatening phone calls and letters from a person or persons who came to be known as le Corbeau (“the crow”).