BBC - Great Crimes and Trials Series 3 Set 1 (1995) Part Part 2 Gaston Dominici and the Drummond Murders

Stabbings, shootings, genocide, torture, abduction, robbery, serial killing and mass suicide are just a few of the horrific crimes explored in Great Crimes and Trials. True stories carefully researched and reconstructed with actual archive footage. Cases which have become almost legendary in the annals of crime and detection. Serial killers, gangsters, assassins and war criminals - Great Crimes and Trials sheds light on crimes that shocked the world, bringing back memories of some of the most notorious cases of the twentieth century. The murders of John Lennon and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, the unsolved Zodiac murders and the treasonous crimes of Lord Haw-Haw are all covered here in exacting detail, alongside other shocking stories of murder and mayhem. From the violent mob rule of the thirties to the fairly recent phenomenon of the serial killer, the motives, behavior patterns and killing techniques of some of the world's most evil felons are explored. Their detection, capture and trials are examined to give a complete picture of how crine and justice have evolved through the twentieth century. Narrated by Robert Powell, Great Crimes and Trials combines new and archive interviews to reconstruct each story, analysing the individual and his motive, explaining how the crime was committed and showing breakthroughs in investigations alongside details of the trial. With its researchers gaining unprecedented access to picture libraries and over 250,000 hours of archive footage, these are the definitive accounts of these appalling murders.

Part 2 Gaston Dominici and the Drummond Murders

The brutal murder of Sir Jack Drummond and his family in the lonely Provencal countryside led to a sensational trial and the eventual sentencing of a peasant farmer to the guillotine. On the morning of 5 August 1952, the bodies of distinguished biochemist Sir Jack Drummond, his wife Anne, and their 10-year-old daughter Elizabeth were found by Gustave Dominici near his family home. Sir Jack and his wife had been shot, while their daughter had been brutally beaten with the butt of a rifle. The murder of British citizens on French soil caused a media sensation and threatened a diplomatic incident. French police eventually arrested and charged Gustave's father, a 75-year-old farmer Gaston Dominici, as the murderer responsible for what became known as 'l'Affaire Dominici'. Sentenced to death in 1957, Dominici's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment before he was released in 1960 on compassionate grounds of poor health, eventually dying in 1965. But had the police been right? Was he guilty, and if so what could have been his motivation for murder?If not, who had really killed the Drummond family, and why?

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