Ginebra · CH
True Crime Geneva
Jewel Thieves, Leaked Bank Secrets, and Death at the Beau-Rivage
¿De qué trata el paseo?
Welcome to Geneva, the polished city of diplomats, private banks and luxury watches, where the Jet d'Eau shoots into the sky above a calm blue lake. But behind the discreet brass plates and elegant lakeside facades lie stories this city would rather keep quiet: jewel thieves escaping on scooters, a banker's murder that ended before a jury, leaked bank secrets, a night assault with ladders and a cauldron of hot soup, and a grand hotel where an empress died and, almost ninety years later, a politician was found dead in a mystery that is still unsolved. On this walk we follow Geneva's most remarkable real cases, standing on the spots where they happened, where they were judged, or where they can still be seen.
Lo que verás
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1
The Pink Panthers Strike - Rue du Rhône
street
On the afternoon of 17 August 2009, four armed men in hats and wigs smashed the display cases of the jeweller Chatila on Geneva's Rue du Rhône and fled on scooters with jewellery worth about 2.6 million francs that was never recovered, and in 2013 a Geneva court sent a suspected Pink Panther to prison for nine years.
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2
The Million-Dollar Murder - Palais de Justice
courthouse
On 28 February 2005 the French banker Édouard Stern was shot four times in his Geneva penthouse by his lover Cécile Brossard, days after he froze the million dollars he had put aside for her, and in June 2009 a jury in this courthouse found her guilty of murder and sentenced her to eight and a half years.
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3
A Free Trip to Abu Dhabi - Hôtel de Ville
town_hall
In 2015 Pierre Maudet, a member of the Geneva government that meets in this town hall, let the authorities of Abu Dhabi pay for his family's trip to the Formula 1 Grand Prix and then hid who had paid. Convicted, acquitted on appeal and convicted again by the Federal Court, he received his final sentence in May 2023, just weeks after voters had put him back in government.
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4
Riot Before the Summit - Place Neuve
square
On Saturday 28 November 2009, a march of thousands against the WTO set off from Place Neuve, but about 200 masked black bloc rioters smashed windows and burned cars, the organisers called it off after about 500 metres, and 33 people were arrested.
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5
Ladders in the Longest Night - Rue de la Corraterie
street
On the night of 11 to 12 December 1602, the longest of the year by Geneva's old calendar, about 300 Savoyard mercenaries climbed the city wall that stood right here on three ladders, until a sentry's shot, a pot of soup and a falling portcullis turned the surprise attack into a rout that left 18 Genevans and some 54 attackers dead.
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6
Shootout Behind the Jeweller - Quai des Bergues
street
On Saturday 13 May 2017 two robbers dressed as women held up a jeweller on this car free quay, then traded 17 shots with the shop's security guard in the lane behind when their getaway scooter would not start. Nobody was hit, both men were caught, and the guard was acquitted three times.
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7
The Stolen Bank Files - Île Rousseau
island
From this little island in the Rhône you can see both Geneva headquarters of HSBC's Swiss private bank, whose client files, copied by IT engineer Hervé Falciani in 2006 and 2007, became the 2015 Swiss Leaks scandal. The bank paid 40 million francs to close a Geneva money laundering probe, and Falciani was sentenced to five years in absentia.
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8
Two Deaths at One Hotel - Hôtel Beau-Rivage
hotel
On 10 September 1898 the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni stabbed Empress Elisabeth of Austria on the quay outside this hotel, and she died inside within the hour. Eighty nine years later the former German state premier Uwe Barschel was found dead in room 317, a case that remains unsolved.
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