Tour · Marsiglia · Opera house
The Emperor of the Night - Opera de Marseille
Around this opera house spread the nightclub quarter that the milieu boss Gaetan, known as Tany, Zampa ruled as the self-styled emperor of the night, until his war with the rival gangster Jacques Imbert, called Jacky le Mat, who survived twenty-two projectiles in a 1977 ambush, was linked by police to the still unsolved Bar du Telephone massacre of 1978 in which ten people were shot dead.
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The Opera de Marseille is one of the great lyric theatres of France, rebuilt in sleek Art Deco style in nineteen twenty four after the original house was gutted by fire. For decades the streets around it formed the beating heart of the city's nightlife, a dense quarter of cabarets, bars and clubs, and that glamour made it the natural turf of the Marseille milieu, the local organised-crime underworld. Its most feared figure was Gaetan Zampa, nicknamed Tany, a former pimp who rose to control most of the clubs and bars in the city and styled himself the emperor of the night. His grip was challenged by a one-time associate, Jacques Imbert, known as Jacky le Mat, and their rivalry exploded into a gang war. In 1977 Imbert survived an ambush in which doctors removed twenty-two projectiles from his body. The bloodshed peaked a year later in the Bar du Telephone massacre, a case that has never been solved. Zampa himself was found hanged in his cell in Les Baumettes prison in 1984.
Fatti principali
- 22 projectiles — Jacques 'Jacky le Mat' Imbert survived a 1977 ambush in which doctors removed twenty-two projectiles, including seven bullets, from his body.
- 10 victims — Ten people were shot dead in the 1978 Bar du Telephone massacre, a milieu killing that was never solved and for which no one was convicted.
- 1984 year — Gaetan 'Tany' Zampa, the self-styled emperor of the night, was found hanged in his cell in Les Baumettes prison in 1984.
📍 Rue Molière 2, 13001, Marseille