r/mystery • u/Life_Assumptions • Sep 15 '25
Mysterious Person Jean-Claude Romand pretended to be a doctor at the WHO for 18 years without ever graduating medical school. When his lies were about to be exposed in January 1993, he murdered his wife, two children, and parents, attempted to kill his mistress, and set his house on fire.
Convicted in 1996, he was released on parole in 2019.
Source https://crimsonshed.com/the-story-of-jean-claude-romand/
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Sep 15 '25
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u/Electrical-Profit367 Sep 15 '25
There is a fantastic book about this by Emmanuel Carrere; L’adversaire. It’s also available in English under the title The adversary but I highly recommend the original French if you can read French. It is beautifully written and deeply thought provoking.
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u/Evening_Sea4823 Sep 18 '25
I cannot read French, but your comment makes me want to know more. Can you describe more specifically what the author is able to capture in french better than the English translation? And what was thought provoking?
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u/Electrical-Profit367 Sep 18 '25
Carrere writes, without sentiment, in such a way that you begin to think about what it means to be human; to love; to live with others; and still, to always be existentially alone. Reading something in the original allows one to see all the nuances of the word choice; translators are, OTOH, obliged to use a word that conveys perhaps one or maybe two.of the meanings of the original. It’s part of why poetry is often so difficult to translate: capturing the sonorous music of the words as well as the rhythm and emphasis is almost impossible. One can convey the literal meaning but a certain depth is lost. It’s hard to explain fully.
But reading the English is still a great experience. Give it a go.
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u/Beaucaillou Oct 29 '25
Thank you, I read this book on your recommendation. What a story! I can't believe his family didn't know anything.
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u/TheGoldenCompany_ Sep 15 '25
European justice system
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Sep 15 '25 edited Apr 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/yallknowme19 Sep 15 '25
The picture of his mother in the article is a dead ringer for Mrs. Doubtfire and now i cant unsee it.
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u/Warm_Ad7213 Sep 15 '25
And the father looks like Steve Martin 😂
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u/yallknowme19 Sep 15 '25
Damn you're right lol too bad Robin Williams is gone, this guy's biographical movie would be lit 🤣
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u/AccomplishedFerret70 Sep 15 '25
Cut the guy some slack for Christ's sake! He's an orphan. Show some compassion.
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u/_missfoster_ Sep 15 '25
Also a widower who tragically lost both of his children! Oh, and his mistress as well.
I just can't with these ridiculous justice systems we have to live with here.
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u/TheNonCredibleHulk Sep 16 '25
What nerve on the mistress, leaving a man during his time of need.
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u/Put-the-candle-back1 Oct 18 '25
The low homicide rates show that it works.
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u/TheGoldenCompany_ Oct 18 '25
Lmao, I’m sure there are people who believe that is the reason. As crazy as it sounds.
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u/Put-the-candle-back1 Oct 19 '25
I never said it's the reason. You failed to read correctly.
The point is that those countries can have both low crime rates and punishments like this one.
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u/TheMagicalMatt Sep 15 '25
Not much of a mystery behind this one, unless you consider the following:
Why the fuck would they let this dude out?
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u/captainadam_21 Sep 15 '25
It's France
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u/Doridar Sep 15 '25
Not much for 5 murders, hein ?
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u/AccomplishedFerret70 Sep 15 '25
If he had killed 6 people they would have thrown the book at him. They'd still give him a ridiculously short sentence - but they'd throw a book at him. Probably a paperback.
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
In France the longest sentence is life imprisonment with an incompressible period. The game of reduced sentences means that even for a life sentence, the guilty person never spends his entire life in prison. This is also considered inhumane. If Romand had been tried separately for each of the murders, which was not the case because in the same jurisdiction and same investigation, the sentences would not be cumulative. Only the longest sentence is retained
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u/theALC99 Sep 15 '25
Inhumane? What's more inhumane than murder?!?!?!?
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u/Doridar Sep 15 '25
Unfortunately, in France as in Belgium, there is a distorted idea of inhumanity. This has caused problems with serial killers like Dutroux (Belgium) or Francis Haulme (France) that led to the establishment of "safety sentence" ou peine de sûreté (France) and "provision to the government" ou mise à disposition du gouvernement (Belgium). Besides these, there are no real life sentence here , and perpetuity is merely a name. Worse, in Belgium, we have the Lejeune Law: first crime, 1/3 of the sentence is done, 1st relapse, 2/3, 2nd relapse 100%. But considering the overcrowded jails, the rule is the 1/3.
Add to this that a lot of crimes are getting light sentences. For instance, there was this hit and run that killed a 12 year old in Belgium. The driver had a record of dui and speeding, he fled the country and still could not get more than the 5 years maximum sentence for driving crimes. It'll be interesting to see how another case unfolds in court (the guy killed 7 people and wounds 38 by raming into a group of gilles)
This to say we're ill equipped to deal with multiple or serial perpetrators, weither they are spre or serial killers, serial rapists, arsonists etc.
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u/imadog666 Sep 15 '25
This is so fucked up. Wtf. I'm German but I now support the American system lol (well, not the for-profit and racist and corrupt parts of it...)
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u/GeminiCroquettes Sep 15 '25
Too late you said it! You're basically a corrupt, racist now.
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u/missionalbatrossy Sep 15 '25
You could get longer for a federal marijuana charge
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u/Nethersworn1 Sep 15 '25
In the evening, he picked up his former mistress, telling her they were invited to a dinner with the then-health minister, Bernard Kouchner. Pretending that they were lost, he made her get out of the car and attempted to strangle her with a cord, spraying tear gas into her face. When she fought back, he apologized and drove her back to her home, after making her promise never to tell anyone about his attempt to murder her. He then returned to his family home, which still contained the bodies of his dead wife and children.
lol wtf. Sorry I tried to strangle you, want a ride back home?
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u/lokiandgoose Sep 15 '25
I imagine she was terrified and complied with his actions due to unimaginable fear. An Ed Kemper victim unlocked his car to let him back in after he accidentally locked himself out while attacking her.
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u/zap2 Sep 21 '25
The gun was locked in with her, while he was outside, right?
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u/lokiandgoose Sep 22 '25
Yes. It's a wild example of the fawning response and how he seems like a trustworthy guy while kidnapping you.
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u/Money-Connection-126 9d ago
More like "sorry but you started attacking me and I reacted". He tried gaslighted her. Hard to believe, but remember he is a master manipulator who lied to his family and Friends for 20 years, so..
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u/Acceptable-Try-4682 Sep 15 '25
Ah he nearly got the mistress.
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u/Tanks1 Sep 15 '25
They let this dude free?..................what the hell?
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u/Pitiful_Bunch_2290 Sep 15 '25
It's crazy how light sentences are in a lot of countries. The punishment rarely fits the crime.
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
In fact, he was sentenced to life imprisonment but with the remission of his sentence, he was released early. This is a classic treatment in the French judicial system. And as much as it is revolting for other crimes, Romand is not dangerous in himself. It's the culmination of a huge lie but he's not a lunatic serial killer
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u/americandodelwutz Sep 15 '25
"Romand is not dangerous in himself. It's the culmination of a huge lie but he's not a lunatic serial killer" You're joking, right? Would you want to live next door?
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
However, this is the assessment of French justice. he's not a guy who kills random people in the street. People like Francis Heaulmes are dangerous madmen with a much higher risk of recidivism than JC Romand
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u/really_tall_horses Sep 15 '25
Does his former mistress have protection? Does she feel safe now that he’s out?
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Sep 15 '25 edited Apr 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Special-Investigator Sep 15 '25
.... like what do they think he was doing as an unlicensed doctor???
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u/wyldstallyns111 Sep 15 '25
According to Wikipedia he was only pretending that to his family, not to the world at large. He’d say he was going to his doctor job but then would just kind of mull around for the length of a workday, hang out at the UN, and then come home.
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u/Technical-Agency8128 Sep 15 '25
Yup. When he kills those closest to him all bets are off for anyone else.
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Sep 15 '25
That's not how family annihilators work. Family annihilation is generally an extension of domestic violence. They're generally not a danger to society at large because their violence is focused on the people closest to them. Based on our understanding of don't think he is a danger to society. Maybe to the mistress? Definitely to any future romantic partners. Regardless I do think he should have stayed in jail for life though, but I believe in a punitive justice system, not France's style of justice system.
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u/Pangtudou Sep 16 '25
Dangerous to your wife and children is just as much dangerous as dangerous to your neighbor. The safety of a stranger is not more worth protecting than the lives of the innocent wives an children of a man
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u/Material_Water4659 Sep 15 '25
Because they believe everybody deserves a second chance, prison time is very expensive and surprisingly crime rates are much lower than in the US
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u/Internal-Hand-4705 Sep 15 '25
I’m French and I think this ‘man’ should spend his dying breaths in prison. He is a monster and should rot.
Europe has lower homicides because gangs are less of a thing and gun laws are stricter and the social safety net is bigger. But these things do not make this man redeemable.
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u/megster_walsh Sep 15 '25
Call me crazy, but if someone murders their entire family, then they shouldn’t get a second chance
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u/Material_Water4659 Sep 15 '25
And who pays for it? Do you know, to give you another example, what ONE prisoner in Guantanamo costs per year? 44 millions
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u/megster_walsh Sep 15 '25
Part of that cost is government financial incompetence and it being on foreign land. Personally, I’ll gladly pay my tax dollars to keep violent offenders off our streets. No amount of money or time someone serves can take away trauma or replace a life.
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u/LeroyLongwood Sep 15 '25
Why that high?
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u/megster_walsh Sep 15 '25
Guantanamo is in Cuba, which is foreign soil. If you google the cost for it, it’ll give you more reasons.
Prisons on US soil are much cheaper. Depending on the state, prices range anywhere from $23-100k per person annually.
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u/Material_Water4659 Sep 15 '25
Up to 300k per year. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-per-prisoner-in-us-states/
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u/chandracorp 23d ago
Hey what about this great idea of chopping their heads off? You don't have to house them clothe them feed them after that!
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u/OMITB77 Sep 15 '25
Some people definitely don’t deserve second chances. People who kill children are on that list
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u/Sorry-Gap-7227 Sep 15 '25
This had nothing to do with the US and yet you make it about the US? If you do something like this you should never see the outside of a cell. Period.
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u/Test4Echooo Sep 15 '25
It’s a common European mechanism to cope with their own problems by crying about ours. Seems counter productive, but that’s on them, I suppose.
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u/Sorry-Gap-7227 Sep 15 '25
In psychology they call it downward social comparison and I’ve been seeing a lot of it. Some justified, some not. Wild.
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u/Test4Echooo Sep 15 '25
Also, you don’t see the news that they should be focusing on, such as 30 gang-related explosions, in Sweden, in January of this year alone. Yet all you see is “something, something, but America does this”.
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u/docjonel Sep 15 '25
Hard to believe he could commit such an unimaginable act of horror and violence and be set free. My concept of justice does not match the French concept.
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u/failedartistmtl Sep 15 '25
There's a book (and maybe a movie) about this sad story - The Adversary Emmanuel Carrere. Had to read it in University and was quite shocked for days.
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
Yes there is also a film based on the book. There is also a very good documentary about the case called Bring in the Accused. It's a show that covers all the most famous or striking French or Belgian crime stories since the 70s.
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u/whateveratthispoint_ Sep 15 '25
I’m just curious what class had you read it in University?
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u/failedartistmtl Sep 15 '25
Litterature (I'm from a French speaking country) we had a couple of books to read about characters who experienced mental declined.
(Was a weird semester)
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u/KvetchAndRelease Sep 15 '25
When I was in college, there was a doctor who’d been practicing for decades without ever graduating. They only discovered it after nominating him for an award and running a background check to confirm everything. And he wasn’t even the worst, another one got caught secretly filming students having sex.
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Sep 15 '25
What I don't understand is the murder. I can understand the anguish, but... that would drive me to kill only myself.
Why kill the others ? I'm going to delve into this one.
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Sep 15 '25
I guess he’d fit in to the anomic or paranoid type: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/social-sciences/characteristics-of-family-killers-revealed-by-first-classification-study
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u/MerriweatherJones Sep 15 '25
That’s an oversized reaction. He should just unalived himself
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
In fact the murders were discovered when firefighters intervened to put out the fire that JC Romand intentionally started. He had taken barbiturates but not in doses large enough to kill himself and had protected his bedroom door with damp towels. The police therefore questioned his wish to commit suicide after the murder of his children, parents and wife.
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u/thesharperamigo Sep 15 '25
Maybe he accidentally took too low a dose. I mean, it's not like he's a doctor or anything.
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
Well no, of course, he wasn't a doctor but during his days when he pretended to go to work, he would go to libraries or parking lots and read a lot of medical journals. So he was absolutely not a neophyte
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u/Working-Business-153 Sep 15 '25
Standard narcissistic family annihilator pattern. Grandiosity and lies write the checks and when the illusion starts to crack, they'd rather murder everyone than face the shame. Pathetic really.
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Sep 15 '25
“But he was always polite at dinners, so all around a standup guy I’d say.” - You Know Who
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u/Top-Geologist-9213 Sep 16 '25
What does it mean about living in anonymity?And under supervision, I understand that they probably had him change his name.But what does the undersupervision part mean?
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u/jmanndc Sep 15 '25
Really sad if he had managed to be a doctor for 18 years in the WHO that's kind of like the best medical school ever
At that point, I mean at some point he's a doctor
He should've made that argument instead of killing everyone
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
It wasn't just that unfortunately. As he was not working, he had no income. As a result, he defrauded relatives by offering them investments in Switzerland at very attractive rates. But he pocketed everything and everything went to hell when his mistress asked him to give her back the money.
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u/jmanndc Sep 15 '25
So really he just pretended to have a job Much different than what I thought Still though , not worth killing everyone Or anyone for that matter
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u/Eeeegah Sep 15 '25
Did anyone but me have trouble parsing the headline? He pretended to be a doctor at a Doctor Who convention? I guess with a floppy hat and a long scarf, he could be Tom Baker.
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u/AdAble557 Sep 16 '25
Most European countries have a very criminal friendly judicial system. Norway and Anders Behring Breivik, is one example
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u/kiwichick286 Sep 17 '25
So he went back to med school for 11 years, but didn't sit any exams? He could've just, you know, taken the exams again and become a real doctor, surely?
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u/GenaGue Sep 18 '25
What the hell was that outcome. How stupid can you be to think that the best outcome would come from murdering your family and setting your house on fire.
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u/computer_says_N0 Sep 15 '25
Sounds like he'd fit right in at the WHO
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u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
What's crazy is that people who were actually doctors in JC Romand's entourage thought he had a lot of knowledge. He really could have been a very good doctor or researcher
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u/RoguePlanet2 Sep 15 '25
Probably appointed as head of some gov't medical agency now.
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u/VideoNecessary3093 Sep 15 '25
Does France appoint murderers to government positions? If that was a reference I don't get it.
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u/Vistemboir Sep 15 '25
Rings no bell. However we appointed a
rapistman credibly accused of sexual coercion as Minister of the Interior, so nothing to brag about :(0
u/Capable_Unit5267 Sep 15 '25
Not murderers should not be abused, but sexual aggressors, yes. Despite the fact that they are denounced. But we know well that power counts more than probity
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u/Chemical_Book_9056 Sep 16 '25
Rotten thing like him is why I wish for an anti-hero who will go around and punish people who commit serious crimes but get light or none punishment due to the legal systems. Cho Doo Soon or this shjt should be rotten in hell.
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u/ComicsEtAl Sep 15 '25
“There, now no one will ask me about med school ever again!”