On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the start of the Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès affair (also known as the "killing of Nantes"), two non-stop news channels devote a large space on their antennas to this fivefold murder : BFMTV and LCI. With the first episode of its series entitled
The keys to the enigma,
BFMTV captured the attention of 566,000 people in prime time Monday, April 19, against 326,000 for the first evening on LCI. The two channels are far from being the only ones to take advantage of this subject which fascinates crowds and the media alike.
The first documentary to take advantage of the public interest in this macabre affair was W9, a year after the start of the affair, recounted in
The house of horror: the Dupont de Ligonnès affair.
It is the first in a series of fifteen long informative formats offered by TF1, France 2, NRJ12 or, since July 2020, by Netflix.
Docufictions and fictions have also proliferated with, for example, a mini-series proposed by M6
An ordinary man,
broadcast in September 2020.
A
Society
investigation
raided the shelves
However, the prize for the greatest number of occurrences of the subject belongs to the written press, where articles and various surveys number in the hundreds.
The first article announcing these murders is signed
Ouest-France
, a regional daily in Nantes, quickly followed by all the headlines of the French news press.
Yet after the initial shock wave in 2011, the story slowly lost public interest.
Then, she abruptly returned to center stage on two occasions.
The first date of a media boom in 2019 around the identification of a man who was thought - wrongly - to be the missing killer.
The face of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was everywhere, history had its first rebound.
The second arrived a few months later, when the double dossier appeared in the magazine
Society
, printed in 270,000 copies, against 70,000 in normal times, then sold in book form.
A victim of its success, a parallel sales market had even developed.
Read also: Out of stock for the issue of "Society" devoted to the Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès affair
But what explains such an excitement? According to experts in the field, the recipe for such a high-profile story is complex. For Virginie Spies, semiologist and audiovisual media analyst, it is the seemingly banal aspect of the good Christian family that fascinated the public.
“
In this kind of unusual business, we always find the testimony of a neighbor explaining that the killer and his family were nevertheless sympathetic. Which gives the impression that this kind of affair could happen to everyone
,
”
analyzes the researcher. The theme of the double life also fascinates him,
"
as in the Roman affair, his life was based on a web of lies
"
, judge Virginie Spies.And lies attract.
"
Read a detective novel in real life
"
If the story easily seduces Mr. Everybody, it also knows how to hold him in suspense.
For 10 years, the end of the story has remained unknown.
A mystery which
"
arouses fantasies
"
, according to Lucie Jouvet Legrand, doctor in socio-anthropology specializing in questions of justice.
"The
more time passes, the less likely we are to know the purpose of the story, which arouses the interest of the general public all the more in the long term,
"
explains the expert.
Following this file amounts to
"
reading a detective novel in real life
"
, adds Lucie Jouvet Legrand.
The story comes out of the customary classic news item in the local press, it is the story of the unreal that has become real.
The media also gain.
With each new survey, it is the assurance of amassing a maximum of readers, listeners, or viewers.
The
Society's
event file
being tangible proof for the written press.
Television is not to be outdone, the fiction
An ordinary man
has captured 2.57 million French people
,
or the
"
big audience
"
claimed by Netflix in the JDD, which however refuses to communicate on a precise figure.
Read also:
Grégory
: Netflix does the autopsy of the Grégory Villemin affair
The enthusiasm around the Dupont de Ligonnès affair is to a lesser extent reminiscent of that around the little Grégory affair. This other crime that hit the headlines in the 80s is known for its twists and adaptations, even that of Netflix.
