Deathbed confession may crack case of the 1980s 'Crazy Brabant Killers'

A murder mystery, which has gripped Belgium for 30 years, may be on the cusp of being solved, after a former policeman allegedly confessed to being one of the “Crazy Brabant Killers”.

During a three-year long spree, the Brabant Killers staged over a dozen raids on supermarkets, a gunsmiths and hostels, during which they shot and killed customers, staff and even children. Their activities stopped suddenly in 1985.

The Killers’ proficiency in handling weapons raised suspicions at the time, that there was a link with the gendarmerie, a former paramilitary group police force of Belgium. Conspiracy theorists said that the group may have been part of an attempt by the far left, or right, to undermine the state.

The group, usually comprised of three disguised men, known as “the Giant”, “the Killer” and a get-away driver, “the Old Man”, would at times take petty cash and low-value goods. Other times, however, they would gun down anyone in their way.

Officials believe that they are close to finally identifying the criminals, after the brother of a retired policeman in Aalst, near Brussels, came forward and claimed that his dying sibling had confessed to being the Giant, the suspected ring leader, two years prior.

“In the beginning I was in denial because I really struggled with it,” the unnamed man told the broadcaster VTM. “But today I can say formally that this is my brother.”

Belgian justice minister, Koen Geens, is scheduled to address a committee of the Belgian federal parliament regarding the development.

The suspect, identified only as Christiaan B, was dismissed from the Diana Group, an elite police commando unit, back in 1981.

His brother’s lawyer suggested that the suspect may have been fired from the force after his gun accidentally unloaded. He was deeply bitter about the career-ending incident and began drinking heavily until his death, in 2015, he added.

The last appearance of the group, which operated in the Brabant province around Brussels, was in November 1985, when they burst into a supermarket in Aalst, firing pump-action shotguns. Eight people were killed in the raid, including a nine-year-old girl, who was waiting in a car outside.

At the time, it was believed that the group member “the Killer”, was fatally wounded by the police in that raid, though a body was never recovered.

The prosecutor general for the southern city of Mons, Ignacio de la Serna, told the AFP news wire that the new information was being taken very seriously.

“There is now a big push to advance following these revelations,” he added.

One of the group’s most infamous moments was in a grocery at Nivelles in 1983, when they killed a couple who stopped at an all-night fuel station next door and then shot police officers arriving at the scene.

During the group’s string of robberies, 28 people were killed.

Patricia Finne, a daughter of one of the 28, described the news as “the first really serious revelation in 30 years”. She told Belgian media: “I really hope that this will lead to dismantling the rest of the gang, whether they are dead or not.”