People have been left spooked after seeing a clip of a serial killer on a TV quiz show amid an ongoing 30-year manhunt looking to bring him to justice.
Francois Verove, a retired police officer from France, is believed to have committed 31 murders and rapes until the late 90s including the rape of three known minors.
Francois Verove appears on a TV quiz show amid a 30-year manhunt for him:Using a pair of handcuffs that he had when he was serving as an officer, he lured or kidnapped multiple women and girls before raping and oftentimes murdering them.
Perhaps his most notorious case was the murder of Cecile Bloch, who was only 11 and was traveling to school when she bumped into the killer in a lift.
Francois Verove was linked to 31 murders throughout his life. Credit: MarioGuti/Getty
She was raped and murdered before her body was thrown into her home's basement where she was later discovered.
Other cases involved the murder of Gilles Politi, a 38-year-old aerial technician, and Irmgard Müller, a German au pair employed by Politi's family, in an apartment in Paris.
As per a report by The Sun, their bodies were discovered together in the apartment: Politi had been stripped naked and forced to lie face down, with his arms and legs bound in a choke lace.
Müller had been hung by her arms from the upright frame of a bunk bed, her throat slashed with a knife.
Both victims had suffered physical torture via cigarette burns before death.
The killer was never caught, even despite a court sketch being released to the public.
Given his extensive list of crimes, as well as his identity being known to the police, people were shocked to discover that Verove - also known by the name Le Grele meaning the pockmarked killer - had appeared on the national quiz show Tout Le Monde Veut Prendre Sa Place (Everyone Wants to Take His Place).
Almost two decades later in 2019, the shameless killer appeared unbothered as he chatted with French presenter Nagui Fam on national TV.
Footage shows Verove standing proud with no signs of hesitation or guilt as the presenter introduced him as "François from La Grande-Motte."
The host shook hands with him as he asked him a few questions, to which the killer responded, giving details about his policing career.
"You were a policeman," said presenter Nagui as per The Telegraph, who translated the exchange. "Yes, on foot, on motorbike and horseback," the killer responded with a smile.
He added that he operated in the Bois de Boulogne – a park notorious for its prostitutes – where he "kept walkers safe" in the day.
However during the quiz round, the 59-year-old failed to answer two general knowledge questions on the Olympics and tuberculosis vaccinations correctly and was subsequently eliminated from the game.
Naturally, people were left spooked by it all, with many commenting under the clip expressing their shock at the situation.
"The guy had time to participate in game shows with that on his conscience, crazy!" wrote one user while another added: "A killer...a psychopath is a very friendly person...very intelligent..."
A third even stated: "Nagui facing a serial killer, if he knew at that time..."
Just two years after the show, he went on to take his own life and left a suicide note in which he confessed to his crimes without revealing any identities of his victims.
The outlet reported that his note allegedly told his wife that "There were times when I couldn’t stand it and I had to destroy, sully, kill someone innocent" before telling her what he did.
Referring to himself as a "criminal with mad rage," he also added that he stopped committing crimes in 1997.
After his death, a police probe linked him back to 31 rapes and murders he committed in Paris in the '80s and '90s.
