Tommy Recco, the murderer of three employees of the Mammouth de Béziers in December 1979, died on the night of Thursday to Friday November 21 at the age of 91. He had been incarcerated since 1980 and was the oldest prisoner in France. Guy Maurel, the husband of one of the three victims of Béziers, who dedicated his life to the fight against Recco, reacts.
“Recco is dead.” Despite the illness which greatly weakened him, we feel, in these few words, a form of jubilation on the part of the Biterrois Guy Maurel. Within a month, it will be 26 years since Recco murdered his wife, Sylvette (27), with a bullet to the head, on December 20, 1979 in the Mammouth de Béziers. Tommy Recco died during the night of Thursday to Friday, November 21, in Salon-de-Provence. He was transferred from his Borgo prison last September for health reasons and Guy Maurel feared that he would be released.
“Yes, it’s a satisfaction to know that he didn’t die free. Yes, I’m happy, but can we rejoice in someone’s death? And on the contrary I have a regret. I was never able to meet him. I would have loved him to tell me how he had brought my wife into that room where he killed all three of them. I think I could have attacked him to make him confess. You know, when I knew he was hospitalized, I even imagined dressing up as a doctor to go see him on his hospital bed.”rehashes Guy Maurel. A Guy Maurel who always said that if Recco got out, he would settle his score, even if it meant going to prison: “It makes me happy that he is dead. It saves me from going to ruin him if he had been released due to illness… It’s terrible, but I have the feeling of having been a prisoner of this drama all my life. His death took away the possibility of speaking to him.”
When I knew he was hospitalized, I even imagined dressing up as a doctor to go see him in his hospital bed.
Alongside Guy Maurel, his brother, Serge, but also his daughter, Sylvie. She was six years old on the day of the tragedy. “You realize that if the little girl’s grandmother had not forgotten her wallet, she would have died too. She used to join her mother, with her grandmother, at the end of the day and always went with her to return her cash to the safe room.” The septuagenarian’s voice chokes. And he repeats: “I miss knowing how she ended up there that day. I feel like I was never told the truth.”
“Mom was always there with us”
Guy Maurel takes a deep breath: “the last time I saw my wife was on Midi Libre. You published a photo of the three victims, face down, lying in the vault. It was in 1979.” Sylvie takes over. She is also very moved and has her eyes full of tears: “Dad was always there for me. But it’s not easy to live with such a story. He remarried, I had a brother, but mom was always there with us. He fought for me when a psychologist decided to place me. He told them ‘I lost my wife and you want to take my daughter away. Never.” And I stayed with him.
“This morning, when I learned of Recco’s death, I cried, and even my brother, who never knew Mom. I never imagined that this story had touched him so much. Recco, it was the fight of his life. He fought like no one else to keep him locked up until the end.” And Sylvie Maurel recalls:“In this affair, we forgot a lot of people, my uncle, my grandparents. They suffered so much from all that. Today, it’s over.”
Very close to the family of the other victims of Recco
Since 1979, every Sunday, Guy Maurel goes to the Neuf cemetery in Béziers, to his wife’s grave. He also forged very strong ties with the families of the two other victims, Renée Chamaillou, who died at the age of 28, and Josette Alcaraz, at the age of 27. Henriette Alcaraz, Josette’s mother, died on September 19, at the age of 102 years and a few months. She went every day to see her daughter at the Poilhes cemetery. “There’s only me left.” Guy Maurel addresses his brother: “We are going to go see them, all of them, at the cemetery, in Poilhes and in Sauvian, I am going to go and tell them that it is over, that he is dead.” And to his daughter:“We’re going to go see her later (this Friday) to tell him.”
Guy Maurel is not in good shape, but he is still combative. And in his steel blue eyes, we can still guess the rage that drives him and that has helped him all his life. “I have a wish. I want to go to Propriano, to Recco’s grave. Not for the funeral, later. I want to see the photo of this guy with all his family, to be sure that he is really there. I will spit on him. Maybe that will put an end to this torture.”
