Death Becomes Him
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Sachi, do you ever feel like some people are born to be famous? And if so, who do you think was truly born for fame? Yeah, I do think some people are like especially equipped for it. Can you imagine Kim Kardashian doing anything else? No, I truly couldn't imagine it. And I do think for some people, like Kim Kardashian, being themselves is kind of enough. But for most people who try, it really isn't.

For me, it is, though. It is. It is. I knew it was going to come back to you in that way. And fine, I agree. I like to bring things home. Well, the story I'm telling you today is about a guy who was so determined to become a celebrity, he would do anything to get there. It's early November 2008, and Peter Eichen is standing on the sidewalk outside of a budget hotel in Paris.

Peter is 62 and originally from Australia. He's got thick gray hair and is always impeccably dressed. He spent decades as an executive at Warner Music, where he made millions and befriended superstars like Madonna, Rod Stewart, and Elton John. Peter retired eight years ago and has been spending more time on other things like his love life.

He's actually here in Paris to meet up with the man he recently married, Alexandre Despallier. Alex is French, handsome, charming, and about 20 years younger than Peter. But this isn't a fairytale honeymoon. Alex has recently revealed to Peter that he has two brain tumors and only has a few months to live. So about a month after their ceremony, Alex returned to France. He wanted to meet with lawyers and draw up an inheritance plan for after he dies.

Peter has just arrived here to meet up with Alex, but he's got a sinking feeling that something isn't right. For starters, Alex told Peter that he's a billionaire. He said he made a fortune through his global IT company. He also said he lived in a luxurious part of Paris in an apartment facing the Seine.

But now, Alex is saying that his apartment is being leased out at the moment, which is why he booked a hotel for them. But this hotel is not the kind of place a billionaire would stay. It's a long walk from the center of the city, and it's surrounded by sex shops and cheap restaurants.

Definitely fishy, but I will say no one likes to save a little bit of money quite like a very rich person. So that is definitely true. And Peter is willing to shrug off the weirdness. His spouse is dying and he desperately needs his support. But a few days later, Peter starts to get sick, like really sick.

He starts complaining about intense headaches and stomach pain. He even goes to the hospital, but he doesn't want to stay there for treatment. He wants to be with Alex. By the end of the week, things get so bad that French paramedics have to rush to Peter's hotel. When they get there, they find Alex crying over Peter's dead body on the bathroom floor.

Peter's sudden death sends shockwaves through the music industry. First, there's mourning. But then, there's confusion, followed by rage. And when investigators look into Peter's mysterious new husband who claims to inherit everything, they'll uncover a lifetime of secrets and lies. They'll become convinced that he's not only a con man, he might also be a murderer. ♪

From Wondery, I'm Sarah Hagee. And I'm Saatchi Cole. And this is Scamfluencers. ♪ I won't have it, I feel ♪ ♪ Legend ♪ This scam starts the way so many others do, with a desire for wealth and celebrity. But this one takes a dark turn and fast. It's about a man who will stop at nothing to become a household name. And when that doesn't work, he starts lying, deceiving, and possibly even hurting the people he claims to love the most.

This is "Death Becomes Him." Alex is born in 1968 and raised in a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Paris.

Picture a classic French storybook town with quaint houses and ancient churches. Alex's father, Marcel, is a journalist while his mother, Monique, stays at home and takes care of Alex and his two older brothers. Marcel is charming and good-looking, and he reportedly liked to say that if you're handsome, you'll get away with anything. He firmly believes that his kids will grow up to be famous, especially Alex.

Monique agrees. She spoils him and takes him on elaborate shopping sprees because she just knows he'll be a star. And it seems like Alex believes it too. He spends his teen years sneaking into Paris nightclubs, looking to meet important people like record executives and movie producers.

Around this time, he comes out as gay. This is in the early 80s, the peak of the AIDS crisis and all the homophobia surrounding it. But Alex's parents are super accepting. In fact, they allow him to turn their home into a sort of Airbnb for his rotating cast of boyfriends.

When Alex is 16, he starts dating a 40-year-old music producer named Ashil Martinez. Ashil is blonde, heavy set, and most importantly to Alex, well-connected. He's also 100 years old to him. And his parents are letting this guy like hang out at their house? Yeah, and Ashil is obsessed with Alex. He's willing to do anything to make Alex's dreams come true.

Achille believes that releasing a single might propel Alex to stardom. So he buys the rights to a song from a popular French songwriter and arranges for studio time with a big deal producer. Achille pays for everything. It seems like Alex is on the verge of fulfilling his parents' dreams and becoming a star. But then he claims he's been diagnosed with HIV. He tells everyone that doctors have only given him six months to live.

He drops out of school and he starts causing trouble. He steals his dad's credit cards and buys designer watches and jewelry. But when his family finds out what he's been up to, they let it go. He's got a lot on his plate with his HIV diagnosis and they probably don't want to stress him out even more.

Monique becomes even more doting than before. She does everything for her sick son. She cooks and cleans for him and keeps a kitchen stocked with his favorite chocolate. She checks in on him constantly, affectionately calling him mon sucre, my sugar. Alex has his parents and his boyfriend wrapped around his finger. He might claim to be on his deathbed, but he's also on the verge of achieving his pop star dreams.

It's 1987, about three years after Alex recorded his first single, and about as long since he said he was dying. Clearly, that didn't turn out to be true. We don't know a ton about his health around this time, but some people who know him suspect he was never really sick at all. He's 19 now, and more importantly, his single is finally going to drop. It's called L'Amour Amour, which means love until death. L'Amour Amour

Sachi, can you please describe the cover art for us? Oh, it's amazing. It's so 80s. It looks like a Siberian husky in a denim jacket with a little mop of hair looking at me very intensely. Yeah.

It's extremely someone-get-this-guy brown contact lenses. Yeah. His eyes are too blue. I think I hate it, but I'm not sure. I'm open to hearing more. Well, now that the song is out, it's time for Alex to do what he does best, schmooze. Ashil starts bringing him around to dinner parties and events around Paris, hoping to drum up buzz for his new single. ♪

But the song doesn't become a hit, and Alex decides to ditch a shiel shortly after it's released. He lands a small part in a TV show and starts hanging out with a glamorous new social scene. He spends his nights smoking on balconies and flirting with older, well-established men. He's always searching for anyone who might be useful to him. One day, he ends up across a table from a famous criminal defense attorney named Olivier Metzner.

Olivier is about twice as old as Alex, and he's known in France for defending unsavory characters in high-profile cases. We actually have a photo of the two men together. Care to describe them?

Well, they look like an evil senator and the young man he's going to eat in order to get another term in office. Yeah, I mean, the age gap sounds big on paper and it looks crazier in this photo. It looks enormous. Yeah, but Alex knows that Olivier is smitten with him and he decides to play hard to get. He later tells Le Monde newspaper about his early interactions with Olivier. Quote,

I said, Grandpa, nothing will ever happen between us. I resisted him and therefore he was very much in love with me. But Olivier has something Alex can't resist. Money and a willingness to share it. Soon enough, Alex has his own room at Olivier's luxury Parisian apartment. But he still wants something even Olivier can't give him. Industry connections. And he's about to travel halfway across the world to get them.

Not long after he meets Olivier, Alex gets invited to a music conference in San Francisco. There, he meets a hotshot executive at Warner Music Group, Peter Eichen. Peter's job is basically to turn the company's artists into full-blown celebrities in Australia.

Alex is still just 19 years old, but he's a very successful flirt by now. And Peter is immediately attracted to him. He and Alex spend a few months traveling the world together, everywhere from Seoul to Madrid to Miami. And Alex quickly leverages Peter's industry connections. He goes on shopping sprees with Elton John and visits Madonna at her house. We actually have a picture of Alex, Elton, and Peter. ♪

It's always funny when we do these scam stories and we find people who really do touch fame. Like they get very, very, very close. And here he is with Elton John in a nice little hat. He's got a little red hat on with some peacock feathers. Yeah, it's like I've never really seen him look like that. Yeah, he just looks like a guy here. It's just like a weird Polaroid photo. Yeah, it's not like the most glamorous he's looked. And I probably would not clock that as Elton John.

But all the while, Olivier is still in the picture. Alex splits his time between Peter's place in Manhattan and Olivier's apartment in Paris. He gets used to spending other people's money on private jets and designer clothes. This doesn't last long, though. After just a few months, Peter and Alex go through an abrupt breakup. We're not sure what happened, but maybe Peter started to feel like hanging out with a teenager wasn't the best look for him.

Alex will later claim that the two kept in touch and saw each other every now and then, but others say it was a full, clean break. Either way, Alex is cut off from Peter's world of celebrity and glamour.

It seems like he sees Olivier a lot less too. He returns to his parents' house in the Paris suburbs. Over the next few years, Alex keeps trying to become rich and famous without help from Peter and Olivier, but none of it really takes him anywhere. Alex decides that if he wants to make it on his own in show business, he'll have to use a trick that's worked since he was a kid. All he has to do is lie.

It's the early 90s, and Alex is now in his mid-20s. He's got a new boyfriend, a talented young composer and musician. We'll call him Julien, which is the alias he's given in a book called The Master and the Assassin. It's by a journalist named Sophie Benet. She spoke with Julien for the book, but didn't include much about his life outside of Alex, probably to protect his identity. What we do know from the book is that Julien is madly in love with Alex. He's been in love with her for a long time.

He's actually moved into Alex's parents' place and they're working on an album that they just know is going to launch both of their careers. Alex's mom is thrilled to have her youngest son back at home. She does his and Julien's laundry. She cooks for them. And when Alex says they need more space to record music, she even knocks down a wall to make Alex's bedroom bigger. When that's not enough, his parents give up their own room and start sleeping in the living room.

Can you imagine a world where your parents would give you their bedroom like that in any context? Like just apply that to anything else with like you and your parents dynamics. You as the child. Never.

Never. Maybe if I was dying and I needed hospital equipment. My dad used to get mad at me when I brought my toys into their bedroom. Well, during this time, Alex starts telling Julienne he has a big secret. He says Monique isn't his real mom. His real mom is a famous Hollywood actress. He won't reveal her name, but he says that once her album is done, he and Julienne will be able to move to the U.S. and hang out with her and her friends.

Huge stars like Elton John and Liza Minnelli. One day at dinner, Alex says he can't hide his secret any longer. He reveals to Julien that he's the long-lost son of Elizabeth Taylor. Also, that Roger Moore is his dad. When Julien hears this, his eyes narrow with disbelief. He asks, are you sure? ♪

Alex immediately blows up. He starts screaming at Julien and hitting him until he falls over. Julien's scared, but he stays. He tells himself this was just a bad moment. It will pass. After all, they're in love. And once they finish their album, they'll both be superstars. But Alex continues to be cruel.

He also constantly says that Julian's life would be worthless without him. Okay, cool. So he's a liar and he sucks. Yeah, he sucks big time. But Julian keeps telling himself that eventually things will get better. He's hopeful that they've got a real shot at success, especially given Alex's industry connections. But around this time, Julian starts getting sick and breathless.

And before long, it gets so bad that he can't get out of bed. He's constantly throwing up. He's weak and his whole body is in pain. As he lies in Alex's childhood bedroom, staring up at the ceiling, he thinks he's going to die. Finally, Julien gathers the strength to get his stuff together and leave without saying a word. He returns to his parents' house and almost immediately he starts feeling better. He stops throwing up and the pain in his stomach goes away.

He's left with a horrifying suspicion. Alex had been poisoning him. The few people he tells don't believe him, but Julien is positive that's what happened. Julien managed to see Alex's dark side and make it out alive. But as Alex gets older and more desperate, not everyone will be so lucky.

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It's 2001, about a decade has passed since Julien left. Alex is 33 now, and his life isn't going at all how he expected. No album, no TV jobs, and no fame. Without an income or seemingly any prospects, Alex is still living at home with his parents.

It's bright and early one morning. Everything is quiet in the house when suddenly there's a loud thud from the living room. Alex and his family rush over to find Alex's father, Marcel, collapsed on the ground. They call an ambulance and rush him to the hospital where he slips into a coma for two days. By some miracle, doctors are able to bring him back, but they say it was a close call.

The family is relieved and confused. Marcel has always been healthy and obsessed with staying fit. The doctors run some tests and find he overdosed on prescription pills. Marcel swears he would never try to hurt himself, but the doctors don't believe him. They think he did it on purpose. They send him home and tell his family to watch for signs of depression and substance abuse.

Alex isn't super close with his father, but he immediately starts caring for him. And once his dad starts feeling a little better, Alex suggests they take a trip together, just the two of them. Marcel agrees. He thinks the fresh air would probably do him some good. So the two men head down to the family's second home in a beautiful seaside town. When they arrive, Alex makes his dad a soup. He insists it will make him feel better and urges Marcel to eat it. All of it.

A while later, Alex calls his mother back at the house. In a choked voice, he tells her, "Dad is dead." He says he tried his best to bring him back to life, but it was too late. Marcel died in his arms after overdosing on his medication. Alex's siblings rush to the house as quickly as possible. But when they get there, they find Alex has already cremated his father's body and scattered his ashes in the ocean.

Okay, so his dad mysteriously dies under his care after he feeds him a big soup.

And instead of waiting for his siblings to get there, he immediately cremates his father and disposes of his remains. I don't even know how that's even legal. And the family is also confused, but they're so deep in their grief that they decide to not question Alex. The police don't investigate Marcel's death and the family tells his friends that he killed himself.

It's a dark time for the family, and it only gets darker. Over the next few months, both of Alex's grandmothers die under Alex's care. And a short while later, Monique is found lifeless, clutching rosary beads and surrounded by pill bottles. A suicide note claimed she was too distraught to go on living without her husband. She was just 60 years old.

Sarah, what? What is going on with this family? I know. And once again, Alex handles everything. A quick cremation and funeral and an inheritance he splits between his brothers.

The police investigate Monique's death, but ultimately rule it a suicide by drug overdose. But his brothers aren't satisfied. They think the suicide note was suspicious and that Alex had something to do with it. So they file a complaint with the police. In it, they say that when they confronted Alex, he threatened to kill them. One brother tells the police that Alex is, quote, obsessed with money, a swindler, and a liar.

He also says Alex is a hypochondriac, constantly inventing new illnesses to get sympathy from those around him. But the complaint never seems to go anywhere. And by the time it's filed, Alex has already vanished from the country. Turns out he's fled to the escapism capital of the world, Los Angeles. ♪

It's a year later, and a 60-year-old woman named Marcel Becker is sitting at the bar at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She has short, dark hair, tan skin, and wears shiny gold jewelry. She looks a bit like Kris Jenner. Her tiny white dog, Dom Perignon, is by her side. She's originally from Morocco, but now she lives here at the hotel. It's got beautiful pools, lush greenery, and a celebrity clientele.

Marcel's a billionaire, so she fits right in. One sunny day, she's lounging in her private cabana when she hears a voice of a young man speaking French. She speaks French too, so she introduces herself. The man says his name is Alex. He's in his early 30s and he's living at the hotel too.

Soon, Marcel and Alex start spending hours by the pool together, day after day. They quickly realize they have a lot in common. Marcel is a widow and tells Alex that her stepson recently died under mysterious circumstances. Alex tells Marcel that he's also lost family recently. He says he's an orphan grieving his billionaire parents, and that

and that he's come to LA to start over. I am immediately protective of Marcel and very concerned about what is going to happen to her. While Marcel thinks they're both lonely, grieving, and weighed down by money they don't know what to do with, soon enough, she's taking Alex out to fabulous dinners and buying him luxury gifts like diamond cufflinks, fancy watches, and a full-length mink and leather coat.

Alex tells Marcel about his fear, that if he were to die, all of his riches and beautiful apartments would go to waste. He has no next of kin, no family on his will. So he proposes an idea to Marcel, something that will link them together as their own kind of family. He says, let's get married.

Marcel is completely shocked. This is coming out of the blue and her feelings for Alex are more maternal than romantic. But either way, she feels bonded to him. So she makes a counter offer. What if she adopts him?

Do these people understand you can write a will to give anything to anybody that you have? Like you can give shit to your cat. You don't have to have legal binds with people to give them things. I think it's more she's flattered and it's like, no, what if we still find a way to be tied together? That goes deeper than a will. But he brought it up.

Well, not long after, on Alex's 34th birthday, he and Marcel head to a Los Angeles courthouse and sign the adoption papers. A video from this day later winds up on YouTube. It shows Marcel gifting him an expensive watch. Afterwards, they kiss on the cheek and she tenderly touches his face.

But the sweet moment doesn't last long. Because later that day, Alex demands that Marcel add him to her will immediately. You know, to make things official. And he asks her to set up an allowance for him. I feel like for someone who owns all this property that he wants to bestow to his wife. Mom. Mom. Wife-mom. His fiancé-wife-mom friend. And yet he needs an allowance? Yeah.

Yeah, he also abruptly leaves the Beverly Hills Hotel, leaving Marcel to cover his $30,000 tab. Marcel refuses to pay it. She's having second thoughts about adopting this man she barely knows. So she secretly hires a private eye. And over the next few days, the investigator calls her with a shocking discovery. Alex isn't a billionaire. He's not even a millionaire. And it sure seems like he just wants to be close to Marcel for her money.

She and Alex go out to dinner together one night, but before she can confront him, she takes a sip of her drink and immediately doubles over in pain and urges Alex to call the hospital. The paramedics arrive and whisk her away. She survives, but is convinced that Alex poisoned her. Though she doesn't get the police involved, she does file papers to annul her adoption, just 10 days after it began.

Marcel has dodged a bullet. But Alex's next target won't be so lucky. About five years later, in the spring of 2008, Peter Eichen is at home in Sydney, Australia. He's in his early 60s and has retired from Warner Music Group.

For the last few years, he's been enjoying a quiet life in luxury, spending most of his time in a massive penthouse with panoramic views of the Sydney Harbour. It's got a rooftop garden and expensive furniture. And he's a serious neat freak, so he keeps it all impeccably clean. One day, his phone rings. It's Alex, the guy he met at that music conference in San Francisco in the late 80s and dated for a few months after that.

Alex is 39 now and says he's in Sydney for a tech conference. He wants to catch up. Peter is surprised but intrigued. Alex tells Peter that he founded an IT company that's made billions and that one of the richest men in the world wants to buy some of his technology for $8 billion. Peter is thrilled for him. He and Alex quickly fall back into a romance with long lunches, candlelit dinners, and nights at Peter's penthouse.

But then comes the bad news. Alex says he's suffering from two inoperable brain tumors. He says he'll be dead by his 40th birthday. Alex tells Peter that this is actually the reason he reached out to him. He wanted to reconnect with his one true love, and he wants Peter to inherit his fortune after he dies.

I am so troubled by how tenuous the grasp on inheritance law is with all these people. You don't need to do this. Well, Peter's head is spinning. He doesn't tend to rush into relationships, but he's flooded with love and sympathy for Alex, so he decides to go with his heart. He says he'll marry Alex. They tie the knot a few months later in October. They have a civil ceremony in London where Peter lives part-time.

But the wedded bliss doesn't last long. The day after the wedding, Peter emails a friend for advice. He says Alex is urging him to update his will and make him the sole beneficiary. Peter's wary, and he doesn't know what to do. Meanwhile, Alex is crying all the time. He says he's having seizures and that when the next one comes, it will most likely leave him a vegetable.

He asks Peter to hold him all night long through the pain. Peter is an emotional mess. He's upset about Alex's health, but he also has his doubts. He confides in friends about what's going on, and he makes a plan to confront Alex about all the inconsistencies in his stories.

A few weeks after the wedding, Alex flies to Paris. He says he needs to meet with his lawyers to make arrangements before he dies. Peter decides to meet him there. This is when he winds up at the cheap hotel and starts getting violently sick. Peter is admitted to the hospital, complaining about headaches and stomach pain. Doctors try to get him to stay for treatment, but he's hysterical and uncooperative. He ends up leaving.

One November night, Alex calls the paramedics. He sounds panicked and scared. He says Peter has collapsed and needs help immediately. But by the time paramedics arrive, Peter is dead. The coroner later finds that the cause of death is heart failure and hepatitis. But Peter's friends don't buy it. They're horrified and they're angry. And they're about to turn their attention to the lover Peter left behind.

When John Reed hears that his dear friend Peter has died suddenly, he's shocked. John is 59 years old and Scottish. He's a tiny guy with bushy eyebrows and white hair swept to the side.

Back in the day, he used to manage rock stars like Queen and Elton John. He was also Elton John's partner in the 1970s at the height of his fame. That's how he met Peter. These days, John lives a quieter life in London. But his world is shattered when he hears of his old friend's passing. And when he discovers that the funeral is going to take place in Paris, just two days after Peter's death,

John is angry. Peter didn't live in Paris, and many of his friends and family won't be able to fly there on such short notice. But John can. He's super rich, and he's retired. When he gets to the stone crematorium in the basement of a Paris cemetery, John is immediately skeptical.

The service is performed in French, a language Peter didn't speak. And the music is slow and dismal. It's a far cry from the Elton John song, Funeral for a Friend, which he knows Peter would have wanted to be played.

John notices Alex sobbing during the service. And even though John isn't thrilled with the slapdash funeral Alex threw together, he knows Alex could probably use some support right now. So he invites him to a small gathering he's hosting a few days later for some of Peter's friends in London.

And when Alex shows up, he looks amazing. He doesn't look sick or on the verge of dying. He's wearing a floor-length leather and mink coat, and he eats a ton at dinner. But he refuses to speak, which strikes John as odd. So John decides to keep an eye on Alex.

And over the next few weeks and months, he becomes incredibly suspicious. He soon discovers that Alex has presented a new will for Peter, which lists his name as a sole beneficiary of Peter's $20 million fortune. And a British court granted Alex probate, so he's inherited everything and he's already spending it.

Peter's friends and family are shocked. They know that Peter spent years revising his will, making sure he spread his money among his family and several charities. No one believes he would suddenly change his mind and leave everything to a guy he only just reconnected with. But it gets worse. John also hears that Alex has moved into Peter's fancy London apartment with

with a couple of friends, and that they're partying and smoking in the apartment, which Peter would have hated. They reportedly throw big dinner parties and splurge on new furniture for the house, including big screen TVs. Alex even bought three Porsches, one for him and one for each of his new roommates.

John has now gone from suspicious to enraged. He starts to look deeper into Alex. He asks a friend to visit the Manhattan address where Alex claims to have an apartment. But the doorman says he's never heard of Alex. Then John pulls up the website of Alex's supposed billion-dollar business. And it looks like a GeoCities disaster. It has links to pages about music, animation, and widgets.

The book's page is full of reviews, like one for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

This actually just endears me to our friend the murderer. It was his blog, I guess. Listen, we all had one. Well, at this point, John is freaking out. He knows something is seriously wrong. So he convinces Peter's family to go to court in England to contest the will that Alex submitted. He also looks into getting a toxicology report on Peter's remains. Turns out the policy in France for sudden death is to remove and store a person's organs for a year.

Don acts quickly, and he's able to request the report just under the deadline.

When he gets the results, he's appalled. The report finds that Peter has had at least eight substances in his blood at the time of his death, but mostly a drug called paracetamol, which is basically Tylenol. There was so much of it in his system that his official cause of death is changed to acute paracetamol poisoning. For Peter's family, this tragedy is turning into a nightmare.

They're increasingly convinced that Peter's death was no accident. They're fighting the will that there sure is a forgery, so at least Peter's actual request can be honored. And in Paris, they decide to file a complaint with the police. In it, they allege that Peter was murdered by his shady new husband. ♪ I feel like a legend ♪

It's been about a month since Peter's family got his toxicology results and filed the complaint with the Paris police. A court in England has just ruled that Alex forged Peter's will and that it's no longer valid. They freeze Alex's accounts and hand his estate over to Peter's actual heirs, relatives, friends, and charities.

Alex agrees to turn Peter's ashes over to his family. He's also forced to turn in the keys to Peter's London apartment and return the Porsches, as well as a pair of diamond and emerald cufflinks. And Sachi, one of the things Alex blew Peter's inheritance on was a big donation to a tree planting charity, like more than a quarter of a million dollars. And now he has to ask for it back.

I guess it's nice that he bought some trees. I mean, who knows what he was planning there? Alex flees England and returns to Paris to hide out. But about six months later, in June 2010, he's arrested by French police. He's held on suspicion of killing Peter. Turns out, a woman who was the longtime partner of one of Alex's brothers had written a letter to multiple authorities detailing Alex's twisted history.

like how Peter was the fifth person to die mysteriously in his presence, how he arranged for them all to be cremated, and how he just so happened to be the beneficiary of all of their wills. After days of interrogations, Alex is thrown into prison to await trial. French authorities also arrest one of Alex's longtime companions, the person who moved into Peter's apartment and was given a Porsche. The car was gifted shortly after the friend signed on as a witness to the forged will.

Once in custody, he flips and starts telling the police everything. The case gets tons of press in France, especially after it comes to light that Alex had dated Olivier Metzner. He's one of the country's most famous criminal defense attorneys. It seems like the scales of justice are about to even out, except that the French court system is notoriously slow.

Alex gets himself one of the best lawyers in France, which might be how, in March 2011, he's granted a medical release from prison. That's less than a year after he was taken into custody. He still has to check in monthly with the police ahead of his trial, but Alex is free. He continues to maintain his innocence and moves on with his life. He also reportedly wastes no time finding new victims. He

He travels to small towns in France and lives with a series of starry-eyed older women. They all seem to be dazzled by his good looks and empty promises. They hide him from the authorities because Alex has definitely not been doing his court-mandated check-ins. After just six months, French police find Alex in the home of one of his older female companions, hiding under a pile of laundry. They throw him back in jail.

But remember, this guy has a great lawyer. Another five months later, he's released. An appeals court rules that he had not been advised of his rights when he was taken into custody. Once again, he's on probation with court-ordered check-ins. But he can roam free while the case moves oh-so-slowly through the system.

Alex is determined to never see the inside of a prison cell again. And when faced with another threat to his freedom, he's willing to take extreme risks to keep it.

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In 2013, about two years after Alex is released from prison the second time, the body of his former flame, Olivier, is found floating in the ocean near his private island. His death is later ruled a suicide. Meanwhile, Alex gets remarried to a man named Guillaume. The two move to a rural town outside of Paris where apparently they enjoy a happy, quiet life.

They have a huge garden filled with olive trees, and Guillaume seems to believe Alex's version of events.

It will never cease to amaze me how many scam artists and criminals are somehow able to find the most gullible people in the world. It is truly insane. And then in January of 2019, nine years after Alex's arrest, he's hit with a 42-page indictment. It accuses Alex of murdering his husband, his parents, and both of his grandmothers. Alex denies it all.

But before his case can go to trial, his husband tells a journalist that Alex has been hospitalized with COVID. He's placed on oxygen, and it seems like he actually might be at the end of his life. Considering all the fatal illnesses Alex has seemingly faked in the past, there are a lot of doubts about whether this is true. But sure enough, Alex dies a mysterious death within a few days before he ever sees a courtroom.

Oh my God, he dies? He gets away with murder by dying? Incredible. Yes, and no one knows the exact cause of Alex's death. Some believe that, as his husband claimed, he died from complications from COVID, and others speculate Alex planned it, perhaps even poisoning himself to make sure he had total control over his own narrative. Either way, he snatched any hope of justice for Peter and everyone else he allegedly poisoned along the way.

His husband Guillaume views things differently, seeing all of this as an injustice against Alex, who he claims was the victim of a brutal conspiracy.

In June 2022, a trial went forward without Alex. His two accomplices were tried for falsifying Peter's will. They were found guilty and each sentenced to more than two years in prison. Alex was just 53 years old when he died. But with his relative youth, charm, and endless willingness to lie to get what he wanted, he managed to leave behind a legacy of pain, confusion, and sadness that will last decades more. ♪

Sachi, what can you even say about a story like that? The thing about this one that I think is interesting and frankly feels a little different than some of the other ones that we've done is it's just the same thing over and over again. Like he just kept meeting the most gullible person in the world and then would be like, hey, I'm in love with you. What if we got married and gave each other all of our riches because I'm dying?

I have all these questions sort of about who he told and when he told them. Like, did he tell other people he was terminal and then he wouldn't die, but his spouse would die? Was he the kind of person where everyone knew, like, don't get close to him because you're going to die?

mysteriously after you eat soup. It's hard to understand how convincing someone like this can be, I guess, until you're confronted with someone this evil. Like, I feel like that's the only explanation that I can possibly have for how any of this continued to happen. I have empathy, obviously, for all these people who got got by this guy because he sounds like a straight up serial killer.

However, I think some people really want to be taken. Like, these are not good lies. These are not well-constructed lies. These lies don't make any sense. This is Black Widow stuff. It's 100% that. The lies don't make any sense. And, you know, he wasn't that beautiful. Like...

Plenty of people marry for money or are able to seduce older men who are rich. That's not like a new thing. But that he was able to do this so many times, it really blows my mind. I cannot stop thinking about that part.

And just killing his whole family like that. And they were like really nice to him. His motivation for everything seemingly was that he wanted to be famous. He wanted people to like give a shit about him. And then he just killed anybody who cared about him. When he was adopted by Marcel, that alone is an amazing grift. He could have pretended like he lost all of his money and he needed help and that she needed to take care of him. And it seems like she would have until she died organically. And instead he murdered her.

At that point, he was so deep into his scam and he still wasn't even patient where it's like, this woman agreed to everything. You don't need to kill her yet. Nor do you need to like, be like, give me all your money right now. He was stupid, lazy, and monstrous. What a wretched trifecta. This is one of the darkest ones you've ever told me, Haggy, I think. He's true evil and just absolutely insane. Well...

What did we learn? Okay, I really do think a lot of this went on because of France. Yeah. Where it's like this very like, oh, you know, like we just, people die. Like, I hate it. So laissez-faire, they invented the term. You just let someone cremate someone like that out of nowhere? Yeah.

Too casual. Everybody was drinking wine, smoking their cigarettes. They're just like, oh yeah, that's his son. We'll let him cremate him even though the rest of his family isn't here. I know. All the law enforcement was probably so busy riding their BC clets with their beckets. Yes, absolutely. They were really like, oh yeah, white guy must be innocent. Hey.

handsome white guy who hung out with Elton John, he would never. Elton John would never know a criminal. No. And it is crazy when you also think about how many terrible, like, serial killer types someone as famous as Elton John has come across. You know what I mean? Just like, you've probably met the craziest people on Earth and you didn't even know it at that moment. I guess maybe the key is to just not meet Elton John. I'm on track.

I think a lesson I'm learning is anyone who wants to be famous is capable of a lot of harm. That's probably true. If you are actively trying to be famous, take a look in the mirror. Think about why. Think about if the world needs it. And the answer is probably no. And if you're French, it's definitely no. No. No. No.

This is Death Becomes Him. I'm Sarah Hagge. And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencers at wondery.com. We

We used many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were the book The Master and the Assassin by Sophie Binet, the Love Until Death podcast series by Mark Steele, Le Monde's The Thousand Lives of Alessandra Despallier by Gaspard Delim, Bloomberg's The Talented Mr. Despallier by Brad Stone, and Andrew Horney's reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald. Gabrielle Jolet wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagee.

Sarah Enni is our story editor and producer, and Eric Thurm is our story editor. Backchecking by Will Totlin. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia.

Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesound Sync. Our coordinating producer is Desi Blaylock and our managing producer is Matt Gant. Jeanine Cornelow and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peary. Our producers are John Reed, Yasmin Ward, and Kate Young. ♪

Our senior producers are Jen Swan and Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Erin O'Flaherty for Wondery. If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.