June 26, 2023 • 58 mins
Some parents leave their children an inheritance, Ric Blum left his daughter Evelyn a debt worth millions of francs. Plus, we feature the gripping interview of Liam Bartlett speaking to Ghislaine Danlois, who claims Mr Blum left her more than 300,000 Euros poorer.
Music Credits:
Theme: Identity Crisis - Myuu - thedarkpiano.com
My Belgian Rose: Elliot Shaw-Charles Hart (1918)
Unnatural Situation by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4567-unnatural-situation
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Artist website: https://incompetech.com
Deadly Sorrow - Myuu - thedarkpiano.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is the case of Marion Barter, a mother teacher
friend missing for twenty six years.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, no sign that she was going to vanish.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The bizarre circumstances surrounding her disappearance, I'm.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Not sure if it was intentional or if there's something
more foul afoot.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
If you could imagine a teacher coming straight from say
little house on the prairie to the eighties, that was
Marian Barter.
Speaker 6 (00:40):
What I say, whether you find Marian Barter dead or alive,
I honestly believe somebody has that key piece of information.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And the relentless quest of a daughter to find her mum.
Something had happened, Something has happened to make her leave.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I am one hundred percent sure, one hundred percent sure
that somebody knows something.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The lady vanishes, episode fifty two. I'm Alison Sandy and
I'm Brian Seymour. Evelyn and the Spotlight crew are at
the Park to Brussels, right in the heart of the
capital city. Flemish folk tunes crafted by campanologists or bell
(01:35):
ringers flood the regally Landscape square every hour. The old
fashioned park is lined with classical statues, trees and fountains,
and provides views of the Royal Palace and Palais Delaination,
also known as the Belgian Federal Parliament. Unusual, taking pride
(01:57):
of place at the front is an imposing statue of
King Albert, who reigned in Belgium from nineteen oh nine
to nineteen thirty four, when his country was occupied by
German soldiers during World War I, before overseeing Belgium's postwar recovery.
His achieved hero status after rejecting a German ultimatum demanding
(02:21):
free passage of their troops to access French borders. Belgium
was invaded two days later. The former monarch credited with
introducing universal male suffrage, giving all men the equal right
to vote, regardless of wealth or station. Though Belgium was
one of the last European countries to give women equal
(02:43):
voting rights in nineteen forty eight, Belgium remains a very
patriarchal society. They elected their first female prime minister in
twenty nineteen. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it,
Belgium women are a formidable and strong force in their
families and society. Case in point, Gulaye Ganois, whose daughter
(03:09):
in law Alexandra offered us the use of her Brussels
inner city home to interview her with Glaine is Laurent
or Larry. Dressed in smart dark slacks, a patterned black
and white shirt and red blazer, the fourth right octogenarian
tells us exactly what she's prepared to do in this interview.
Speaker 7 (03:36):
You you call another as a mattress.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
All right, So Gilaine, thank you, thank you so much
for doing this with pleasure. It's lovely to be able
to talk to you, even through Larry, and just to
have you here. So we we appreciate it very much.
Speaker 8 (03:57):
You know why, because I will help the person who
lose the mother that I is my reason.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sally and the other one yes, yes, yes, the name.
So let's go back to the beginning. Okay, when you
first met Rick Blom what was his name to you?
Speaker 9 (04:23):
Frederic?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
He used Frederic the A A Y.
Speaker 9 (04:27):
Yes, but he.
Speaker 8 (04:29):
Don't say that immediately the first time he signed Frederic.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And did he introduce himself to you as Frederic? Yes?
So the whole time you knew him, you knew him
as Frederick.
Speaker 9 (04:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
How did you come to meet him?
Speaker 9 (04:47):
Basic game me?
Speaker 5 (04:51):
I had placed an ad in a very popular newspaper
in Belgium. And he answered, and he wrote a letter
to me, was written in perfect French, a very nice letter.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
At you placed the ad in the paper? Why because
you were lonely?
Speaker 9 (05:12):
No, because persic.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
At the time, I got very depressed. I had spent
some time in France helping a friend who had lost everything.
The house had burned down, the car had burned. I
spent a lot of time. I stayed a lot of
time in France helping that person for paperwork, getting the
idea again, and all kinds of official papers. But I
(05:39):
got tired of that situation. But I couldn't at the time,
I wasn't able to tell my kids because they would
have told me that it was stupid to spend my
time and energy doing that.
Speaker 9 (05:51):
We should dear me Cete and mephis.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
That person was actually not a friend. That person was
one of my sons. My other sons would have thought
that I was doing too much for that one son.
Speaker 8 (06:07):
It's impossible. I must do that for my children. They
lose their father, then I stay alone to help all
the children. And this one was over head thirty times.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You were just at that stage of your life where
you needed someone for you well exactly, and when he
presented to you, you say, he wrote a beautiful letter.
What about when you met him, what did he tell
you about himself? What did he tell you? He did nothing?
Speaker 9 (06:53):
Nothing, It don't speak from him.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So he kept the information very close to his chest. Yes, yes,
so you were in effect giving him all of your
information and looking back, he was he was not giving
you anything cool exactly, very clever. Yes. But when you
(07:20):
spent some time with him, Galaan, what did he tell
you that he did back in Australia? Did he say
he was a professional man or what did he say
he did?
Speaker 9 (07:30):
Ah? I never asked that.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
But now because you ask me that thing, I understand
that he has to say something to me. But I
did not ask him, Adelie Jean.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Yeah, he was so intelligent and so and he would
say nothing, probably because he understood that I was not
going to ask anything.
Speaker 9 (08:08):
He causes more, Delia.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Did he give you the impression that he was a
successful man, a wealthy man? What did you think?
Speaker 9 (08:21):
I believe? Stupidly? I believe or what he said?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So you believed his story?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Always always, and after that, when I think about that,
I can understand.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
Because I am not like that.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
For instance, in France, I am no approximatively fifty years
in sounds of France, I know. Let me say fifteen persons,
no more, no more, and don't give my.
Speaker 9 (09:05):
Something from me.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
But you have been a successful woman. You have been
a business woman.
Speaker 9 (09:11):
Yes, yes it was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And you are you. You are very competent, and you've
been very smart.
Speaker 9 (09:17):
I have more than five hundred.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Clients, five hundred insurance clients. Yes, so even now you
are you are essentially you are beating yourself up as
to why was I so stupid? Why couldn't I see
his lives? That's that's why, Yes, you are? You are
so torn by this?
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Of course, yes, I'm beating myself up. Yes, there's a
reason why I was late today, because it's been twenty
years she passed. I think about this every day, basically.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Particularly during night, because first I am alone, the second
I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Sleep even after all this time.
Speaker 8 (10:09):
Yes, yes, because it took all my money. So every
day I have to tell my money because he asked
my money, but for a reason for my.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Children, Gilein, can I ask you, yes, how much has
this cost? How many dollars.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
Dollars I can say. I can't just say roughly roughly yes.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
In let me say if I sell all it's more No, No,
because I move, you know, I'm moving soon self house
because I sell my home in Bend.
Speaker 9 (11:00):
So I had to to follow.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And did he get that money?
Speaker 9 (11:06):
No, he does not have that money.
Speaker 8 (11:09):
No, because at the moment he understood that we did
not give it, because I gathered it to buy a
home in France, because the sin had help before.
Speaker 9 (11:28):
He needed that.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
And when Frederic understood that he was away.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Ah, So when he realized that he could not get
that last bit of money from you, that's when he left.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Absolutely, do you.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Not want to give the figure? I mean, can you say?
Are we talking a lot of money?
Speaker 9 (11:53):
Do you fit?
Speaker 5 (11:56):
On top of the money he took me had to
move and then I bought that house in France, and
on top of the price of the house, I had
to put money to renovate that house, and altogether it
went to two hundred or three hundred thousand euros a seasons.
(12:18):
On top of everything else. Then I had to find
me a place to stay when I visit my family
in Belgium. But I didn't have enough money anymore to
buy to buy an apartment directly. So I bought per
life annuity and I'm still paying today after all these years. Nowadays,
(12:39):
I paid nine hundred and eighteen euros every month for
a place where I cannot stay.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
So what he has done has had a domino effect.
Speaker 9 (12:51):
Exact more exact, more exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
But fair as I it has cost you around at
least three hundred thousand euros.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
It may it may be more, maybe more, because well
it took the money to.
Speaker 9 (13:12):
Nuvoirs.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
He also left with the bunny that he's he said
he would he would put in a bank for when
my kids would visit, and that's around seventy thousand euros Pluse.
He went away with two trunks of full of objects
and things that I wanted for me in Australia, do Maloni.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So he took valuables from you as well, and you've
never seen them again never. Plus he took advantage of
the legacy that you had for your sons. Well, you know,
that's an awful lot of money. I mean, that's that's
a lot of money. No wonder that you it's to
(13:55):
keeps you awake. After seventeen years, I needed that moning. No,
I understand this.
Speaker 8 (14:03):
I perceived from one of my friends. This also the
shoes I buy myself.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This also this a gift from your friends, A gift. Yes,
it's still very nice you look. Thank you, Jelene. Apart
from the financial cost, as significant as the money is,
what about the other cost, the emotional cost? How has
(14:36):
this changed your life?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
At the time, I was financially at ease, had that
little pension. I got that little pension because my husband
had died. He died young, he was actually older than me,
and then I was making money from my own business.
I used to work from seven am the morning until midnight.
(15:00):
But in any case, I have always preferred to be
around older people because I enjoyed a conversation, the mindsets,
and I didn't quite appreciate younger people. And all of
this led to the situation afterwards.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
When you met him, when you knew him, did he
ever tell you that he was married back in Australia? No, No,
were you shocked when you found that out?
Speaker 9 (15:32):
I don't know pardicular.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He never told me he was buried. Later, when you
were told, what did you think?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Well, hard to believe. I understood that he had lied.
So what was the plan? What did he tell you?
Speaker 9 (15:49):
The plan was, uh, married in Bali.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Married in Bali.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
Yes, he asked me, do you know what is his O? Yes?
I know, don't.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
It?
Speaker 8 (16:07):
Don't do Balier it careers?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Okay, so leave here, sell up, go to Australia via Bali,
get married in Bali, and then get back to Australia
and settle in Australia as husband and wife. Yes. Well
that would have been difficult, wouldn't it because he was
already married back in Australia. But I didn't know that.
(16:35):
Incredible so so obviously everything he was telling you was
a lie.
Speaker 8 (16:40):
Yes, at that moment when I understood what it happened, really,
I understood immediately that he was lying for whole thing.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
To the whole thing.
Speaker 9 (16:55):
Yes, he does not love me.
Speaker 8 (16:58):
No, s to not because at the moment I say
that I lose my first boy with an accident, yes,
it don't do what it was necessary?
Speaker 9 (17:19):
And at that moment I think.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You thought there's something funny there, there's something strange, Yes, yes,
because there's no emotional connection.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
Well exactly, it.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Must be very embarrassing for you to tell this story.
Why are you doing it as brave and courageous as
you are. Why are you doing it? What's the reason why?
Speaker 8 (17:44):
Maybe too well to receive help. I think because for me,
the loose of that child, it was clearly the same
face or figure lam la figure of us.
Speaker 9 (18:08):
The same face, there's the same face.
Speaker 8 (18:11):
It was exactly the same face, like my husband exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Juliane is referring to the trauma of losing her two
year old son in an accident in the early nineteen sixties.
It's something that haunts her still. She has three surviving
sons and a daughter she adopted.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
So still now it's more than fifty years that it happened.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
That thing.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Each day I think about that two or three times
a day, and the night.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
You can imagine it.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Juliane says when she told Bloom about the he seemed disinterested.
It was then she knew he did not care for
her at all.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Deposit plant a la police a fire the complaint to
the police.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
He was so smart when I went to the.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Police, fire the complaint because I wanted to prevent him
from harming other people. And actually a few well sometime
before he left, he called me on the phone and
he said, if I ever hear from you again, you'll
see what happened.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
What will happen, Sissa. So he threatened you, and at
that moment I replied.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Oh, well, to Sutrich.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Give me back everything you took from me, and he
said I did not take anything.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Did that threat scare you?
Speaker 9 (19:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
No, because I can't be scared.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
I'm not the kind of woman that can be scared
by this kind of threat coming from a swindler.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Was he trying to intimidate you too?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
He even said that he would tell everything to one
of my daughters in law. He said he had recorded everything.
But of course I could not be scared of anything
like that. But he went to the police, yes, and
filed a report. And what did they do? Did they
do anything? The first time I went to the police
(20:26):
to file a report, I went there because I was
afraid that something had happened to him. I was scared
that he would have been attacked, because he said that
he was running a risk of being attacked because well,
first of all, he was over there with my money.
(20:47):
But then the police told me that he was okay,
that there was nothing to worry about because he had
been cited at the customs between I Guesst, Belgium and Hull,
and he was he was leaving to you know, to
catch a plane. But then then, of course I understood
(21:07):
at that moment that he was actually leaving me.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So so in essence, the police could do nothing.
Speaker 9 (21:15):
No.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
No. When he was with you, did he ever talk
about poison? He wanted you to have an examination in hospital,
an examination of what of your liver? Yes, but Glaine,
(21:37):
what was wrong with your liver? Nothing?
Speaker 9 (21:40):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But did you say to him I've got a problem
with my liver. No, no, no, but he just he
brought that up. Yes, he actually told me to go
to hospital for a test, to test my liver.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
So I went. I went to the hospital. They gave
me an ultrasound for my liver and there was no problem.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
And the second because there's a new do some agency,
but it soundly.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
A problem that I actually had is that I was
suffering from apnia. And then he was referring to some
kind of pillow that you know, he was he would
use in order to suffocate people. He's it's difficult to
be very clear about it, but he made me feel
(22:29):
that he would not want people to believe that he
would have suffocated me with a pillow, and so it
was kind of relieved that I was suffering from opnia,
if you see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
But he mentioned he talked about suffocation, Yes, and then
getting you to go to the hospital for a test
for something that you all day night. That's very strange behavior.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
And he said that he would came with me.
Speaker 9 (23:01):
During the night. He stayed in my home.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Very strange.
Speaker 8 (23:07):
Yes, And then I find it it's.
Speaker 9 (23:12):
Something danger that it's not normal.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
But it is not normal that at that moment that
I find that it is not normal, Why does does
it put him out my home?
Speaker 9 (23:34):
I can understand. I cannot understand.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
What do you make of him as a man? How
do you describe him?
Speaker 9 (23:42):
Bizarre?
Speaker 8 (23:44):
Bizarre, bizarre persic It was, it was bizarre.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
We would have breakfast together, but then he would be
away for lunch away in the afternoon, and then we
would gather again in the evening. He was very interested
in old coins, and one one day we went together
(24:11):
to a cafe in Russells and in the back room
there was an event there and some people were selling
old coins, and he took to one of the vendors there,
and that man, the vendor found it very difficult to
(24:31):
say that the name the heder vari And then some
minutes later he told me that, yes, that he let
that man speak and he said stupid things, but he
didn't want to contradict him. And then following that event
we went to Actually there was another event. One day
(24:54):
he came back with an old rusted coin and he
with that coin on the side of the pillow. And
then another occasion we were we were somewhere and then
in front of a shop selling old coins, and he
insisted that I would go inside a shop to buy
(25:17):
a catalog. I said, well, why don't you go yourself?
He said, no, please do it for me. But you know, Gilin,
when you look at it now, when you look back, clearly,
at one stage you thought you loved him. But now
today what do you think of him?
Speaker 9 (25:36):
Huh?
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Plan to show a lot of negative words from the beginning.
His one and only idea was to take as much
money as possible from me.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
But of course he never loved me, that's clear, Jammy, never, Jammy.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
It's a difficult story, and it's very difficult to explain.
I had a friend and her husband was a very
successful collector. He had a lot of money. He was
a very important person. He was the director of a
university institution in Rome. I don't really remember which one.
(26:20):
But actually Frederick really insisted that he wanted to meet
that friend. But at the same time that friend, that
the woman my friend. I knew that she loved men
a lot, and I didn't want her to meet him.
And also I didn't want Frederick to be in contact
(26:42):
because it would have been risky that Frederick would take
contact with such a man.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
We can agree, I think that he's been very cruel,
But do you think he could be dangerous? Oh?
Speaker 8 (26:56):
You certainly, certainly, because at once during the nine.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Camp, I had a cramp in my leg and he
wanted to take care of me, just something, but also
I felt danger and I said no, forget.
Speaker 10 (27:29):
I refused elast but then he insisted it was just something.
But I was kid, we just something. I was feeling danger.
You felt you felt it was a dangerous way situation.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And once again I don't understand why I didn't simply
kick him out.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Then I don't understand should it's a good question, why
didn't you just get rid of it?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Because that's not me. I'm not that kind of person.
It's not my personality.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Should three pack them up?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know there are and you know this now because
people have given you the information. There are many women
who are now telling us the same story, the same
sort of story that you're telling us your story. Does
(28:32):
that make you feel better or worse?
Speaker 8 (28:38):
My complaint to the police, because I should like to
never hell something like that.
Speaker 9 (28:46):
But I know that it is because.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I was invited by the police in because he had
that accent from the region of Tourney, just like my
husband had, and I was confused about that. Samable, there's
another victim in Tournay. That's the reason why the police
(29:15):
off Tournay called me. I went there to to talk
to one police inspector and he he he well, actually
I I told my my story and then he called
the head of the station there and he said that
(29:36):
he was happy to see that I had got over it.
I had gotten over it because that other woman was
at the time, she was still down and destroyed. Because
that other woman in Tourney, he had hair changed the
colover hair. He took all her money. Then he made
(30:00):
sure that she broke all contacts with the family. They
went to Bali together. He abandoned her in Bali. She
could not speak a word of English. She had no money.
Then she called the family and the family send her
money so that she could come back to Tourney.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Julane is referring to Bloom's cousin's wife, whom he also
swindled back in twenty twelve. We discussed this incident earlier
in the podcast after she spoke to our colleague Tom Rudell,
who works for the Luxembourg Word newspaper. They referred to
her as Christine, not her real name, as she feels
such deep shame and embarrassment. We have not been able
(30:40):
to speak with her directly, but we understand she has
been contacted by authorities in Australia.
Speaker 9 (30:47):
In County Little Simoe.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
When he was living at my place, he paid for
nothing and one day he had bought six polo shirts
and he insisted that.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I would them all because that's worth. That's how he was.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
He didn't want to wear anything without washing anything new,
without washing the clothes before he would wear them.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Gila, just finally, you've been very patient. No no, no,
so thank you. Is there anything you could say? Simple message?
Do you know the story of one of the women
that we are talking to Sally, whose mother she can't find,
who tells a very you know, it's a very similar story,
(31:35):
but she's still missing after all these years.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Met.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Everything I've done since the beginning, I've done for.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
This is just to help that person, Nickma, don't record
it to.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
Scuse your faith for this only as.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
I really wanted to tell my story to the reporters
in Luxembourg to you now, everything I've done is for her,
only for her, For Sally, more deficile for me. This
(32:20):
is really really deficial. It's really complicated, but I must do.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
This is in normally no of it.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I got a lot of help from my daughter in
law who's here with us.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Me prefer.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
She did better than what I could have done. She
helped me a lot.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Did do you think she'll ever find her mom? He
was a man that was capable of anything. I'm not
confident and I'm scared of what that man can still do.
I remember at the time in the courthouse in Leuven,
(33:15):
I had access to the file and I saw that
he'd been that rig Gloom had been to prison fourteen
or seventeen times, I don't remember, for different kinds of embezzlements,
stealing money and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
What I know is that.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Victims will always remain victims. The police is on the
side of wrongdoers. They go to prison, but then you
never see your money back. And that's the reason why
I'm say I'm not confident and I'm scared of what
such a man can still do.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Just stopping here for a second, we suspect July and
actually meant fourteen to seventeen charges rather than the number
of times Bloom went to prison.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
Kille Marie.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I even saw that he was married or had been
married to.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Catch some men epicky his own divorce.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Three to four weeks. Then they got a divorce.
Speaker 9 (34:11):
I don't said person that deposit plant called.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
And that woman also filed the report against that man,
because of course he went with all the money.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
A long record. It's an amazing past. In Australia, we
would call that a colorful history.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
We may be not on the pasc.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
He meant no, of course, this is not the word
I would have used at that moment. I bet you
would not. We may, but it's not laughing matter.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
A complete marchan.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
He met no.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Bafo because the impact on my life was too negative,
and now my children have to help me, although I
wanted to help them always because of that guy.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I understand. Yeah, I'm very sorry for you.
Speaker 9 (35:21):
I am still living.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And I.
Speaker 8 (35:26):
Saw my grandchildren and oh so beautiful, really really and
is some madeable kupersmedi It helps me.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Well, you have survived the experience, which is great.
Speaker 9 (35:48):
Exact, more exact, more exact.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It's clear that this has been a difficult ordeal for July,
having to tell her story yet again. Were living the
pain and trauma imposed on her by Rick Bloom. We
don't take this lightly. We know that to all this
takes on brave women like Julaine and Evelyn, who opened
their hearts to us. Julaine is a proud woman. She
goes on to talk about how her husband was in
(36:13):
the Belgian resistance during World War Two.
Speaker 9 (36:17):
Lads cash.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
And he had to hide for two years in a nattic.
Speaker 9 (36:25):
I don't la complete man.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
That's when he changed personality, hiding two years in anatic.
And then when we went for our honeymoon. I remember
we were in a restaurant somewhere in France and then
he said, madus, why did you marry me?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Mons?
Speaker 9 (36:54):
I said, Jillie, Cristomatic.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Not that you speak. I wrote it on a napkin
in order to make you happy. Then he put it
in his pocket.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
When her husband died, Gulaine hoped to find love again
with Frederic. He kind of reminded her of him.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Frederic, and I thought Frederic could be able to to
cheer me up, console me, to give me some consolation,
to give me.
Speaker 7 (37:36):
Some really normal in the constantly, if he had loved me,
he would have helped me. But he did not love me.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Helene. It's not a crime to have a broken heart.
You can't keep kicking yourself. You know what, You have
three beautiful boys and they obviously everyone loves you. You
have your your daughter in law has been helping you certainly,
so it's great, wonderful. You have to unfortunately, as tragic
(38:09):
as that is, you have to move forward and grab
the positives, don't you.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
It's difficult each day, each name.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
It's a challenge. But there are some good things. There
are some good things. Well, thank you again, clearly with pleasure.
Speaker 9 (38:30):
I owe the best for Sally.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Yeah, so do I so do I. But you know,
as I said to you, I mean there are a
lot of women. The story is, you know, his what
we would call m o modus operandi, the way he
operates very similar, very similar to all these different women
across so many different years. He's very calculating and conniving,
(39:04):
despicable to the bone. May piner exact exact exact.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Indeed, Delaine has formed the firm opinion that mister Blum
does not have a conscience, does not care about what
he's done to these women to whom he's promised so much.
Hearing Elaine's story firsthand hits Evelyn hard. She has only
(39:47):
heard bits and pieces about her father, and meeting Elaine
has been confronting. Gilaine's daughter in law, Alexandra, continues helping us,
escorting Evelyn to the Belgian suburb where she spent her
earliest years. Like Alexandra's home, it's nestled in the inner
(40:09):
city amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life. Evelyn
reflects on why we're here.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
And there's someone out there in the closure.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
This is so important for us, and the women are uniting.
I feel in this whole battle right that we're all
working together. This man who clearly hated women, he did
there's no doubt about it. And you know we've just
discovered obviously the four million frank debt that he he's
given his daughter. You know who's just come over here
(40:43):
to find that out, and.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Who is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
But not surprising.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Yeah, no, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
But it's amazing these brave women like yourself and Elaine
and Tina Monique when we go to Luxembourg and Alexandra,
you just join the course like you are. Thank you
so much, like seriously, like just giving up your time
like this and vurrying us around. It's just it's just
I just feel like this is solidarity, like we was saying, solidarity.
(41:25):
I'm so proud of us, so thank you ladies.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Allison is talking about some documents Evelyn bought over here,
written in French, which Alexandra earlier helped to translate. The
documents came from Rick Bloom and was signed in front
of a notary, a lawyer who can authenticate a signature
as genuine. What they learned from these documents was startling,
if not surprising, given who was involved.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Inheritance.
Speaker 11 (41:50):
Inheritance sure, he explains that your father refused the inheritance
of his brother and your father. I said, I don't
want the inheritance of my brother.
Speaker 9 (42:03):
I don't want I refuse to say what it.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Is that reper.
Speaker 11 (42:10):
Renounced to the inheritance of his brother.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Of his brother doesn't say what the inheritance.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Is though, no, no, you have to sign a document
to say, okay, I don't want their inheritance.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Things so called inheritance or debt amounts to four million
francs or one hundred thousand euros. Allison explains that you
can't inherit debt in Australia, but in Belgium you can.
Speaker 11 (42:34):
So this is the list of the people who could
receive their inheritance, so his wife, his two children who
were not who were to be minors at that time,
his mother, and his brother not Evelyn.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Though.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
The confusion here is whether the debt is actually Freddie,
David's Loom's late brother or his own, as that was
one of the names he used as an alias.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Because one of these seasons, one of these fake names
was Freddy.
Speaker 12 (43:09):
I know that was it.
Speaker 11 (43:10):
But when when she met he met Gila, he well,
he explained that he was good visiting David because it
was the name of his brother who saw him.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
His purpose was.
Speaker 11 (43:27):
To try to make a confusion between the names and said,
is my brother not me?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
So when you see that he's there, but this.
Speaker 9 (43:38):
Is too too kink.
Speaker 11 (43:41):
He was dead himself, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think
you understand why I don't.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Okay, So what's happened is he's inherited his death and
he's saying under give fake name which he took on
Freddy David, it's a safe name, and he said he's dead,
I can't be mine and as a result, I'm not
going to pay iron to here.
Speaker 11 (44:02):
The notary context contacts you and say I think you
have a link with the dead guy with pediavis but
of course the father is not dead.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
To understand.
Speaker 11 (44:20):
So for the notary it's not clear because he don't yes,
but maybe he made something to make people believe that
he said as editor didn't head. Of course he had
problems with the police at that time. If he said no,
(44:40):
no other problem from and he explained that he took
the furniture because it was the rented apartment, so he
put the furniture some somewhere.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Okay, the not a real because the the apartment was rented.
Speaker 11 (45:02):
So there is a debt four million francs of debt
to the States. Access to the States four millions really neutral.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
So potentially that was my father's debt.
Speaker 11 (45:20):
Wow, I better get on with renouncing that. Renounce as
soon as removed.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Don't sign this documents.
Speaker 11 (45:28):
The family is not closed for maybe they are waiting
for this body.
Speaker 9 (45:33):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
So just to confirm, Evelyn has a one hundred thousand
euro debt her father has effectively bequeathed to her, which
she now has to renounce. We don't know if it
was a debt of his own making or the real
Freddy David, as there are rumors Freddy had a gambling problem.
That isn't all though. Evelyn reveals another document relating to
the estate of her grandmother, who also died in nineteen
(45:59):
seventy seven, not long after a loaner.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Private agreement in place and we're trying.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Evelyn and Allison visit a notary named Jerome Otto in Brussels,
whose mother apparently witnessed the signing of the document basically
at his office. They discussed further, immediately realizing Rick Bloom's
own claims again formed the proof of his lives.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Willie Wooters aka Frederic DEHEEVERI when he was in Torney prison,
made an agreement on your angel brother Chris's behalf, that
the settlement of your grandmother's estate, which is bizarre, right
because he told you that he didn't know you existed,
remember that's right.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Yeah, yeah, he did tell me that. He Yeah, when
I first met him.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Which was twenty years later, so yeah, he said that he.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
You know, when I asked him, why hadn't he come
to try to find me as my father, first question
really that I wanted to know and to have answered,
and he said that because he didn't know I existed.
So that until the Belgium Consulate in Australia contacted him
(47:08):
to let him know that I was looking for him.
He didn't even know until that moment that my mother
had passed away, soies, I was in my twenties by
that stage, which I now know all of that that's
a lie. But this the state of my grandmother has
has I'm not sure about the authenticity of the inheritance
(47:32):
document itself, but the document that that I got that
came to me through the Belgium Consulate in Australia, it
was translated and in that translation it said that he
had made a private arrangement with the doctor of law
(47:54):
in nineteen seventy eight. We've got a document that I
was even that was meant to represent I think that
the will of my grandmother, which was translated. I don't
have the document anymore at the only time it was
in my twenties of skin in this document. Why is
(48:18):
his name even in her estate, I'm not sure why.
Why is the fact that he's made a private agreement
on your being by behalf and your brother my brothers
while he's in prison. I'm not quite sure what all
that means. So we're just trying to get to the
bottom of that.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
And this is the other thing that's interesting with that,
because when you raised that about the settlement with him,
which we discussed earlier, he said, well, obviously he acted
like he knew nothing about it.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
If he acted like he knew nothing about it, and
he said that he would be making a trip to
Belgium and that he may know relative or a friend
of a relative of my mother's that he may be
able to contact and find some information out for me,
(49:11):
and that on his return he let me know if
he discovered anything. So he obviously his story was that
he didn't know anything about me. So the fact that
he was involved in making legal agreements on my behalf,
you know, not something that he was forthcoming about at all.
(49:31):
But we don't know.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, we don't know the details. So that's what we're
here for. Because Jerome, this is the firm Jerome.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
It's because this is a legacy business through his families.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
It was his.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
I think it was his mother, Jerome's witness witness. That's
a private arrangement that was put together between Willie Waters and.
Speaker 9 (50:01):
Doctor of law.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
So might they just that he has appointed that doctor
of law to act as some type of a proper
attorney or proxy on behalf of my brother and I
and that this notary signed that private agreement off and
then we would have to go then to that power
(50:24):
of attorney to find out then how that power of
attorney got used.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
And that was in ninety in seventy, and.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
So really not sure, but anyone who's going to uncover.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
But yes, then after that they can look accepting at
the file. But also we can see if we can
obtain some documents from the consulate, from the consulate and
maybe they might be able to help us to So
what documents do we want in the consulate.
Speaker 4 (50:53):
From the consulate, we're looking for my grandmother's will. We're
looking for any translated copies of that that they may
have and when for the power of attorney documents that
they that they had us sign, my brother and I sign.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Unfortunately, the notary does not have a copy of the
original private agreement that says he will make inquiries on
Evelyn's behalf. You'll remember in the previous episode, Evelyn recounted
how her father offered to find out what happened to
her grandmother's inheritance as he was going to Belgium and
he knew somebody you could maybe help.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
He said to me that I really wish I could
remember the name of the person that he said that
he had contact with.
Speaker 9 (51:41):
But what he said to me was he said.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
That there's an extended family in Belgium that knew that
alone had two children, that those children were in Australia,
and that the rumor that people had heard was that
(52:04):
a private arrangement had been made between Joseph Birou, my
grandmother's second husband, and my step father, whereby Joseph biro
would have the rights to keep the majority of the
(52:25):
finances from my grandmother's estate and Michael could keep the daughter.
That's what he came back and said to me.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
This was devastating for Evelyn. We're still waiting to hear
back from the Belgian notary about all of this, and
rest assured we won't give up trying to find out
more about Evelyn's lost legacy until we have answers. Thanks
to Alexandra, however, we did discover the building that belonged
(52:57):
to her grandmother was sold by Bureau and his new wife.
He then moved to the country.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
It had a lot more life when I was young
in this place, and I have fond, very fond memories.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, up until you were seven, line, it was a
pretty good life, right, it was pretty good. Yeah, and
then everything came tumbling down because that's when she lived.
That's when everyone lost her mum at seven years old.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
And so it's very young.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
It's a young yea. Here I was in Australia and
I had left here to go to live in Australia
permanently with my mother, and I had a husband, and
I wasn't there long. Do you remember being told it
happened at the school where I was in the office.
(53:52):
I think.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
And how he told you.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
I think the principal of the school and my stepfather together.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
What do you remember about your mom?
Speaker 4 (54:05):
I remember her chasing me around the house with a
wooden spoon quite frequently.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I got the wooden spin growing up, did you Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:14):
I've had a few of those broken.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
Yeah, but it's so funny. I can't remember anything she said,
but I can remember the sound of her voice in
Hungarian and in French and always telling me, you know,
not to do that, don't touch that.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
But she was so young too.
Speaker 4 (54:38):
She was thirty one when she died.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, but so she yeah, she was in her twenties,
early twenties, Yeah, because she had you do you remember
your grandmother at all?
Speaker 4 (54:50):
I do remember my grandmother.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:53):
I remember my grandmother being sick and being in bed
a lot. So you know, my grandmother was beautiful and
she's to teach me how to knit and yeah, she
taught me lots of And.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
Did you go to school.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
I went to school here as well, somewhere I don't
know where, not for long. I was probably speaking English
around five or six years old because I was going
to Australia with my mother. So my English women have
been very good, typic In and a five year old's
(55:28):
fluent French isn't the same as adults French.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Eveyln was telling me about how the Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo she related to that girl that have you
ever read the stick lasson Snip? Well, there's a lady.
There's a girl in that and she's strong and she's
she's tough, you know, but she has a lot of
tattoos and the nose ring and all this sort of
(55:56):
soul piercings and and ultimately the story leads her to
her relatives. Yeah, do you remember?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Evelyn is talking about Lisbet Solander, the hero of the
Millennium trilogy of novels beginning with The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo. The author was Swedish journalist Steve Larsen, who
died in two thousand and four just before his first
book was published, topping bestseller charts and spawning multiple feature films.
(56:23):
His original title for the first book was Men who
Hate Women.
Speaker 4 (56:29):
Her father who tried to bury her and kill her.
I remember that part of the story.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
I didn't get that far.
Speaker 12 (56:37):
Oh yeah, god, yeah, Like she has all these troubles,
but eventually, as she slowly uncovers things.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
The troubles end up leading to her father, who who
then tries.
Speaker 6 (56:54):
To kill her.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Evelyn confesses to Allison she did used to have a
lot of tattoos and piercings, most of which have now
been removed.
Speaker 9 (57:03):
You have to no sign.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
Next time, the team travels to Luxembourg to catch up
with an old friend. He says she bore witness to
one of Rick Bloom's Frederick the Head's criminal ventures.
Speaker 9 (57:17):
If you come back once, I will imaged to go
to I told you.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
If you knew Marion or have any information about her
or her whereabouts, we'd love to hear from you. Our
website is sevennews dot com dot au, slash news slash
the Lady Vanishers, and you can also message us here.
You can also send us an anonymous tip at the
(57:53):
Lady Vanishes dot org. If you like what you're hearing,
don't forget to subscribe. Please rate and review our series.
It helps new listeners find us. Presenter and executive producer
Alison Sandy, investigative journalist Brian Seymour, producer and writer Sally Eels,
(58:15):
sound design Mark Wright, graphics, Jason Blandford, Transcripts and translation
Estelle Sanchez. The theme and much of the music by
Nicholas Gasparini at the Darkpiano dot com. Thanks again to
the Alliance Francis. This is a seven News production.
This is the case of Marion Barter, a mother teacher
friend missing for twenty six years.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, no sign that she was going to vanish.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The bizarre circumstances surrounding her disappearance, I'm.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Not sure if it was intentional or if there's something
more foul afoot.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
If you could imagine a teacher coming straight from say
little house on the prairie to the eighties, that was
Marian Barter.
Speaker 6 (00:40):
What I say, whether you find Marian Barter dead or alive,
I honestly believe somebody has that key piece of information.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And the relentless quest of a daughter to find her mum.
Something had happened, Something has happened to make her leave.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I am one hundred percent sure, one hundred percent sure
that somebody knows something.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The lady vanishes, episode fifty two. I'm Alison Sandy and
I'm Brian Seymour. Evelyn and the Spotlight crew are at
the Park to Brussels, right in the heart of the
capital city. Flemish folk tunes crafted by campanologists or bell
(01:35):
ringers flood the regally Landscape square every hour. The old
fashioned park is lined with classical statues, trees and fountains,
and provides views of the Royal Palace and Palais Delaination,
also known as the Belgian Federal Parliament. Unusual, taking pride
(01:57):
of place at the front is an imposing statue of
King Albert, who reigned in Belgium from nineteen oh nine
to nineteen thirty four, when his country was occupied by
German soldiers during World War I, before overseeing Belgium's postwar recovery.
His achieved hero status after rejecting a German ultimatum demanding
(02:21):
free passage of their troops to access French borders. Belgium
was invaded two days later. The former monarch credited with
introducing universal male suffrage, giving all men the equal right
to vote, regardless of wealth or station. Though Belgium was
one of the last European countries to give women equal
(02:43):
voting rights in nineteen forty eight, Belgium remains a very
patriarchal society. They elected their first female prime minister in
twenty nineteen. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it,
Belgium women are a formidable and strong force in their
families and society. Case in point, Gulaye Ganois, whose daughter
(03:09):
in law Alexandra offered us the use of her Brussels
inner city home to interview her with Glaine is Laurent
or Larry. Dressed in smart dark slacks, a patterned black
and white shirt and red blazer, the fourth right octogenarian
tells us exactly what she's prepared to do in this interview.
Speaker 7 (03:36):
You you call another as a mattress.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
All right, So Gilaine, thank you, thank you so much
for doing this with pleasure. It's lovely to be able
to talk to you, even through Larry, and just to
have you here. So we we appreciate it very much.
Speaker 8 (03:57):
You know why, because I will help the person who
lose the mother that I is my reason.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Sally and the other one yes, yes, yes, the name.
So let's go back to the beginning. Okay, when you
first met Rick Blom what was his name to you?
Speaker 9 (04:23):
Frederic?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
He used Frederic the A A Y.
Speaker 9 (04:27):
Yes, but he.
Speaker 8 (04:29):
Don't say that immediately the first time he signed Frederic.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And did he introduce himself to you as Frederic? Yes?
So the whole time you knew him, you knew him
as Frederick.
Speaker 9 (04:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
How did you come to meet him?
Speaker 9 (04:47):
Basic game me?
Speaker 5 (04:51):
I had placed an ad in a very popular newspaper
in Belgium. And he answered, and he wrote a letter
to me, was written in perfect French, a very nice letter.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
At you placed the ad in the paper? Why because
you were lonely?
Speaker 9 (05:12):
No, because persic.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
At the time, I got very depressed. I had spent
some time in France helping a friend who had lost everything.
The house had burned down, the car had burned. I
spent a lot of time. I stayed a lot of
time in France helping that person for paperwork, getting the
idea again, and all kinds of official papers. But I
(05:39):
got tired of that situation. But I couldn't at the time,
I wasn't able to tell my kids because they would
have told me that it was stupid to spend my
time and energy doing that.
Speaker 9 (05:51):
We should dear me Cete and mephis.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
That person was actually not a friend. That person was
one of my sons. My other sons would have thought
that I was doing too much for that one son.
Speaker 8 (06:07):
It's impossible. I must do that for my children. They
lose their father, then I stay alone to help all
the children. And this one was over head thirty times.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You were just at that stage of your life where
you needed someone for you well exactly, and when he
presented to you, you say, he wrote a beautiful letter.
What about when you met him, what did he tell
you about himself? What did he tell you? He did nothing?
Speaker 9 (06:53):
Nothing, It don't speak from him.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So he kept the information very close to his chest. Yes, yes,
so you were in effect giving him all of your
information and looking back, he was he was not giving
you anything cool exactly, very clever. Yes. But when you
(07:20):
spent some time with him, Galaan, what did he tell
you that he did back in Australia? Did he say
he was a professional man or what did he say
he did?
Speaker 9 (07:30):
Ah? I never asked that.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
But now because you ask me that thing, I understand
that he has to say something to me. But I
did not ask him, Adelie Jean.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Yeah, he was so intelligent and so and he would
say nothing, probably because he understood that I was not
going to ask anything.
Speaker 9 (08:08):
He causes more, Delia.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Did he give you the impression that he was a
successful man, a wealthy man? What did you think?
Speaker 9 (08:21):
I believe? Stupidly? I believe or what he said?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So you believed his story?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Always always, and after that, when I think about that,
I can understand.
Speaker 9 (08:39):
Because I am not like that.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
For instance, in France, I am no approximatively fifty years
in sounds of France, I know. Let me say fifteen persons,
no more, no more, and don't give my.
Speaker 9 (09:05):
Something from me.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
But you have been a successful woman. You have been
a business woman.
Speaker 9 (09:11):
Yes, yes it was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And you are you. You are very competent, and you've
been very smart.
Speaker 9 (09:17):
I have more than five hundred.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Clients, five hundred insurance clients. Yes, so even now you
are you are essentially you are beating yourself up as
to why was I so stupid? Why couldn't I see
his lives? That's that's why, Yes, you are? You are
so torn by this?
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Of course, yes, I'm beating myself up. Yes, there's a
reason why I was late today, because it's been twenty
years she passed. I think about this every day, basically.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Particularly during night, because first I am alone, the second
I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Sleep even after all this time.
Speaker 8 (10:09):
Yes, yes, because it took all my money. So every
day I have to tell my money because he asked
my money, but for a reason for my.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Children, Gilein, can I ask you, yes, how much has
this cost? How many dollars.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
Dollars I can say. I can't just say roughly roughly yes.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
In let me say if I sell all it's more No, No,
because I move, you know, I'm moving soon self house
because I sell my home in Bend.
Speaker 9 (11:00):
So I had to to follow.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And did he get that money?
Speaker 9 (11:06):
No, he does not have that money.
Speaker 8 (11:09):
No, because at the moment he understood that we did
not give it, because I gathered it to buy a
home in France, because the sin had help before.
Speaker 9 (11:28):
He needed that.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
And when Frederic understood that he was away.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Ah, So when he realized that he could not get
that last bit of money from you, that's when he left.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Absolutely, do you.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Not want to give the figure? I mean, can you say?
Are we talking a lot of money?
Speaker 9 (11:53):
Do you fit?
Speaker 5 (11:56):
On top of the money he took me had to
move and then I bought that house in France, and
on top of the price of the house, I had
to put money to renovate that house, and altogether it
went to two hundred or three hundred thousand euros a seasons.
(12:18):
On top of everything else. Then I had to find
me a place to stay when I visit my family
in Belgium. But I didn't have enough money anymore to
buy to buy an apartment directly. So I bought per
life annuity and I'm still paying today after all these years. Nowadays,
(12:39):
I paid nine hundred and eighteen euros every month for
a place where I cannot stay.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
So what he has done has had a domino effect.
Speaker 9 (12:51):
Exact more exact, more exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
But fair as I it has cost you around at
least three hundred thousand euros.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
It may it may be more, maybe more, because well
it took the money to.
Speaker 9 (13:12):
Nuvoirs.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
He also left with the bunny that he's he said
he would he would put in a bank for when
my kids would visit, and that's around seventy thousand euros Pluse.
He went away with two trunks of full of objects
and things that I wanted for me in Australia, do Maloni.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So he took valuables from you as well, and you've
never seen them again never. Plus he took advantage of
the legacy that you had for your sons. Well, you know,
that's an awful lot of money. I mean, that's that's
a lot of money. No wonder that you it's to
(13:55):
keeps you awake. After seventeen years, I needed that moning. No,
I understand this.
Speaker 8 (14:03):
I perceived from one of my friends. This also the
shoes I buy myself.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This also this a gift from your friends, A gift. Yes,
it's still very nice you look. Thank you, Jelene. Apart
from the financial cost, as significant as the money is,
what about the other cost, the emotional cost? How has
(14:36):
this changed your life?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
At the time, I was financially at ease, had that
little pension. I got that little pension because my husband
had died. He died young, he was actually older than me,
and then I was making money from my own business.
I used to work from seven am the morning until midnight.
(15:00):
But in any case, I have always preferred to be
around older people because I enjoyed a conversation, the mindsets,
and I didn't quite appreciate younger people. And all of
this led to the situation afterwards.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
When you met him, when you knew him, did he
ever tell you that he was married back in Australia? No, No,
were you shocked when you found that out?
Speaker 9 (15:32):
I don't know pardicular.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He never told me he was buried. Later, when you
were told, what did you think?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Well, hard to believe. I understood that he had lied.
So what was the plan? What did he tell you?
Speaker 9 (15:49):
The plan was, uh, married in Bali.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Married in Bali.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
Yes, he asked me, do you know what is his O? Yes?
I know, don't.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
It?
Speaker 8 (16:07):
Don't do Balier it careers?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Okay, so leave here, sell up, go to Australia via Bali,
get married in Bali, and then get back to Australia
and settle in Australia as husband and wife. Yes. Well
that would have been difficult, wouldn't it because he was
already married back in Australia. But I didn't know that.
(16:35):
Incredible so so obviously everything he was telling you was
a lie.
Speaker 8 (16:40):
Yes, at that moment when I understood what it happened, really,
I understood immediately that he was lying for whole thing.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
To the whole thing.
Speaker 9 (16:55):
Yes, he does not love me.
Speaker 8 (16:58):
No, s to not because at the moment I say
that I lose my first boy with an accident, yes,
it don't do what it was necessary?
Speaker 9 (17:19):
And at that moment I think.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You thought there's something funny there, there's something strange, Yes, yes,
because there's no emotional connection.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
Well exactly, it.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Must be very embarrassing for you to tell this story.
Why are you doing it as brave and courageous as
you are. Why are you doing it? What's the reason why?
Speaker 8 (17:44):
Maybe too well to receive help. I think because for me,
the loose of that child, it was clearly the same
face or figure lam la figure of us.
Speaker 9 (18:08):
The same face, there's the same face.
Speaker 8 (18:11):
It was exactly the same face, like my husband exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Juliane is referring to the trauma of losing her two
year old son in an accident in the early nineteen sixties.
It's something that haunts her still. She has three surviving
sons and a daughter she adopted.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
So still now it's more than fifty years that it happened.
Speaker 9 (18:40):
That thing.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Each day I think about that two or three times
a day, and the night.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
You can imagine it.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Juliane says when she told Bloom about the he seemed disinterested.
It was then she knew he did not care for
her at all.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Deposit plant a la police a fire the complaint to
the police.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
He was so smart when I went to the.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Police, fire the complaint because I wanted to prevent him
from harming other people. And actually a few well sometime
before he left, he called me on the phone and
he said, if I ever hear from you again, you'll
see what happened.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
What will happen, Sissa. So he threatened you, and at
that moment I replied.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Oh, well, to Sutrich.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Give me back everything you took from me, and he
said I did not take anything.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Did that threat scare you?
Speaker 9 (19:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
No, because I can't be scared.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
I'm not the kind of woman that can be scared
by this kind of threat coming from a swindler.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Was he trying to intimidate you too?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
He even said that he would tell everything to one
of my daughters in law. He said he had recorded everything.
But of course I could not be scared of anything
like that. But he went to the police, yes, and
filed a report. And what did they do? Did they
do anything? The first time I went to the police
(20:26):
to file a report, I went there because I was
afraid that something had happened to him. I was scared
that he would have been attacked, because he said that
he was running a risk of being attacked because well,
first of all, he was over there with my money.
(20:47):
But then the police told me that he was okay,
that there was nothing to worry about because he had
been cited at the customs between I Guesst, Belgium and Hull,
and he was he was leaving to you know, to
catch a plane. But then then, of course I understood
(21:07):
at that moment that he was actually leaving me.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So so in essence, the police could do nothing.
Speaker 9 (21:15):
No.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
No. When he was with you, did he ever talk
about poison? He wanted you to have an examination in hospital,
an examination of what of your liver? Yes, but Glaine,
(21:37):
what was wrong with your liver? Nothing?
Speaker 9 (21:40):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But did you say to him I've got a problem
with my liver. No, no, no, but he just he
brought that up. Yes, he actually told me to go
to hospital for a test, to test my liver.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
So I went. I went to the hospital. They gave
me an ultrasound for my liver and there was no problem.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
And the second because there's a new do some agency,
but it soundly.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
A problem that I actually had is that I was
suffering from apnia. And then he was referring to some
kind of pillow that you know, he was he would
use in order to suffocate people. He's it's difficult to
be very clear about it, but he made me feel
(22:29):
that he would not want people to believe that he
would have suffocated me with a pillow, and so it
was kind of relieved that I was suffering from opnia,
if you see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
But he mentioned he talked about suffocation, Yes, and then
getting you to go to the hospital for a test
for something that you all day night. That's very strange behavior.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
And he said that he would came with me.
Speaker 9 (23:01):
During the night. He stayed in my home.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Very strange.
Speaker 8 (23:07):
Yes, And then I find it it's.
Speaker 9 (23:12):
Something danger that it's not normal.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
But it is not normal that at that moment that
I find that it is not normal, Why does does
it put him out my home?
Speaker 9 (23:34):
I can understand. I cannot understand.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
What do you make of him as a man? How
do you describe him?
Speaker 9 (23:42):
Bizarre?
Speaker 8 (23:44):
Bizarre, bizarre persic It was, it was bizarre.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
We would have breakfast together, but then he would be
away for lunch away in the afternoon, and then we
would gather again in the evening. He was very interested
in old coins, and one one day we went together
(24:11):
to a cafe in Russells and in the back room
there was an event there and some people were selling
old coins, and he took to one of the vendors there,
and that man, the vendor found it very difficult to
(24:31):
say that the name the heder vari And then some
minutes later he told me that, yes, that he let
that man speak and he said stupid things, but he
didn't want to contradict him. And then following that event
we went to Actually there was another event. One day
(24:54):
he came back with an old rusted coin and he
with that coin on the side of the pillow. And
then another occasion we were we were somewhere and then
in front of a shop selling old coins, and he
insisted that I would go inside a shop to buy
(25:17):
a catalog. I said, well, why don't you go yourself?
He said, no, please do it for me. But you know, Gilin,
when you look at it now, when you look back, clearly,
at one stage you thought you loved him. But now
today what do you think of him?
Speaker 9 (25:36):
Huh?
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Plan to show a lot of negative words from the beginning.
His one and only idea was to take as much
money as possible from me.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
But of course he never loved me, that's clear, Jammy, never, Jammy.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
It's a difficult story, and it's very difficult to explain.
I had a friend and her husband was a very
successful collector. He had a lot of money. He was
a very important person. He was the director of a
university institution in Rome. I don't really remember which one.
(26:20):
But actually Frederick really insisted that he wanted to meet
that friend. But at the same time that friend, that
the woman my friend. I knew that she loved men
a lot, and I didn't want her to meet him.
And also I didn't want Frederick to be in contact
(26:42):
because it would have been risky that Frederick would take
contact with such a man.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
We can agree, I think that he's been very cruel,
But do you think he could be dangerous? Oh?
Speaker 8 (26:56):
You certainly, certainly, because at once during the nine.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Camp, I had a cramp in my leg and he
wanted to take care of me, just something, but also
I felt danger and I said no, forget.
Speaker 10 (27:29):
I refused elast but then he insisted it was just something.
But I was kid, we just something. I was feeling danger.
You felt you felt it was a dangerous way situation.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And once again I don't understand why I didn't simply
kick him out.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Then I don't understand should it's a good question, why
didn't you just get rid of it?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Because that's not me. I'm not that kind of person.
It's not my personality.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Should three pack them up?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know there are and you know this now because
people have given you the information. There are many women
who are now telling us the same story, the same
sort of story that you're telling us your story. Does
(28:32):
that make you feel better or worse?
Speaker 8 (28:38):
My complaint to the police, because I should like to
never hell something like that.
Speaker 9 (28:46):
But I know that it is because.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
I was invited by the police in because he had
that accent from the region of Tourney, just like my
husband had, and I was confused about that. Samable, there's
another victim in Tournay. That's the reason why the police
(29:15):
off Tournay called me. I went there to to talk
to one police inspector and he he he well, actually
I I told my my story and then he called
the head of the station there and he said that
(29:36):
he was happy to see that I had got over it.
I had gotten over it because that other woman was
at the time, she was still down and destroyed. Because
that other woman in Tourney, he had hair changed the
colover hair. He took all her money. Then he made
(30:00):
sure that she broke all contacts with the family. They
went to Bali together. He abandoned her in Bali. She
could not speak a word of English. She had no money.
Then she called the family and the family send her
money so that she could come back to Tourney.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Julane is referring to Bloom's cousin's wife, whom he also
swindled back in twenty twelve. We discussed this incident earlier
in the podcast after she spoke to our colleague Tom Rudell,
who works for the Luxembourg Word newspaper. They referred to
her as Christine, not her real name, as she feels
such deep shame and embarrassment. We have not been able
(30:40):
to speak with her directly, but we understand she has
been contacted by authorities in Australia.
Speaker 9 (30:47):
In County Little Simoe.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
When he was living at my place, he paid for
nothing and one day he had bought six polo shirts
and he insisted that.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I would them all because that's worth. That's how he was.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
He didn't want to wear anything without washing anything new,
without washing the clothes before he would wear them.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Gila, just finally, you've been very patient. No no, no,
so thank you. Is there anything you could say? Simple message?
Do you know the story of one of the women
that we are talking to Sally, whose mother she can't find,
who tells a very you know, it's a very similar story,
(31:35):
but she's still missing after all these years.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Met.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Everything I've done since the beginning, I've done for.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
This is just to help that person, Nickma, don't record
it to.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
Scuse your faith for this only as.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
I really wanted to tell my story to the reporters
in Luxembourg to you now, everything I've done is for her,
only for her, For Sally, more deficile for me. This
(32:20):
is really really deficial. It's really complicated, but I must do.
Speaker 9 (32:30):
This is in normally no of it.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I got a lot of help from my daughter in
law who's here with us.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Me prefer.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
She did better than what I could have done. She
helped me a lot.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Did do you think she'll ever find her mom? He
was a man that was capable of anything. I'm not
confident and I'm scared of what that man can still do.
I remember at the time in the courthouse in Leuven,
(33:15):
I had access to the file and I saw that
he'd been that rig Gloom had been to prison fourteen
or seventeen times, I don't remember, for different kinds of embezzlements,
stealing money and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
What I know is that.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Victims will always remain victims. The police is on the
side of wrongdoers. They go to prison, but then you
never see your money back. And that's the reason why
I'm say I'm not confident and I'm scared of what
such a man can still do.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Just stopping here for a second, we suspect July and
actually meant fourteen to seventeen charges rather than the number
of times Bloom went to prison.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
Kille Marie.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I even saw that he was married or had been
married to.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Catch some men epicky his own divorce.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Three to four weeks. Then they got a divorce.
Speaker 9 (34:11):
I don't said person that deposit plant called.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
And that woman also filed the report against that man,
because of course he went with all the money.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
A long record. It's an amazing past. In Australia, we
would call that a colorful history.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
We may be not on the pasc.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
He meant no, of course, this is not the word
I would have used at that moment. I bet you
would not. We may, but it's not laughing matter.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
A complete marchan.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
He met no.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Bafo because the impact on my life was too negative,
and now my children have to help me, although I
wanted to help them always because of that guy.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I understand. Yeah, I'm very sorry for you.
Speaker 9 (35:21):
I am still living.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And I.
Speaker 8 (35:26):
Saw my grandchildren and oh so beautiful, really really and
is some madeable kupersmedi It helps me.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Well, you have survived the experience, which is great.
Speaker 9 (35:48):
Exact, more exact, more exact.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It's clear that this has been a difficult ordeal for July,
having to tell her story yet again. Were living the
pain and trauma imposed on her by Rick Bloom. We
don't take this lightly. We know that to all this
takes on brave women like Julaine and Evelyn, who opened
their hearts to us. Julaine is a proud woman. She
goes on to talk about how her husband was in
(36:13):
the Belgian resistance during World War Two.
Speaker 9 (36:17):
Lads cash.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
And he had to hide for two years in a nattic.
Speaker 9 (36:25):
I don't la complete man.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
That's when he changed personality, hiding two years in anatic.
And then when we went for our honeymoon. I remember
we were in a restaurant somewhere in France and then
he said, madus, why did you marry me?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Mons?
Speaker 9 (36:54):
I said, Jillie, Cristomatic.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Not that you speak. I wrote it on a napkin
in order to make you happy. Then he put it
in his pocket.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
When her husband died, Gulaine hoped to find love again
with Frederic. He kind of reminded her of him.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Frederic, and I thought Frederic could be able to to
cheer me up, console me, to give me some consolation,
to give me.
Speaker 7 (37:36):
Some really normal in the constantly, if he had loved me,
he would have helped me. But he did not love me.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Helene. It's not a crime to have a broken heart.
You can't keep kicking yourself. You know what, You have
three beautiful boys and they obviously everyone loves you. You
have your your daughter in law has been helping you certainly,
so it's great, wonderful. You have to unfortunately, as tragic
(38:09):
as that is, you have to move forward and grab
the positives, don't you.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
It's difficult each day, each name.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
It's a challenge. But there are some good things. There
are some good things. Well, thank you again, clearly with pleasure.
Speaker 9 (38:30):
I owe the best for Sally.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Yeah, so do I so do I. But you know,
as I said to you, I mean there are a
lot of women. The story is, you know, his what
we would call m o modus operandi, the way he
operates very similar, very similar to all these different women
across so many different years. He's very calculating and conniving,
(39:04):
despicable to the bone. May piner exact exact exact.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Indeed, Delaine has formed the firm opinion that mister Blum
does not have a conscience, does not care about what
he's done to these women to whom he's promised so much.
Hearing Elaine's story firsthand hits Evelyn hard. She has only
(39:47):
heard bits and pieces about her father, and meeting Elaine
has been confronting. Gilaine's daughter in law, Alexandra, continues helping us,
escorting Evelyn to the Belgian suburb where she spent her
earliest years. Like Alexandra's home, it's nestled in the inner
(40:09):
city amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life. Evelyn
reflects on why we're here.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
And there's someone out there in the closure.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
This is so important for us, and the women are uniting.
I feel in this whole battle right that we're all
working together. This man who clearly hated women, he did
there's no doubt about it. And you know we've just
discovered obviously the four million frank debt that he he's
given his daughter. You know who's just come over here
(40:43):
to find that out, and.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Who is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
But not surprising.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Yeah, no, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
But it's amazing these brave women like yourself and Elaine
and Tina Monique when we go to Luxembourg and Alexandra,
you just join the course like you are. Thank you
so much, like seriously, like just giving up your time
like this and vurrying us around. It's just it's just
I just feel like this is solidarity, like we was saying, solidarity.
(41:25):
I'm so proud of us, so thank you ladies.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Allison is talking about some documents Evelyn bought over here,
written in French, which Alexandra earlier helped to translate. The
documents came from Rick Bloom and was signed in front
of a notary, a lawyer who can authenticate a signature
as genuine. What they learned from these documents was startling,
if not surprising, given who was involved.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
Inheritance.
Speaker 11 (41:50):
Inheritance sure, he explains that your father refused the inheritance
of his brother and your father. I said, I don't
want the inheritance of my brother.
Speaker 9 (42:03):
I don't want I refuse to say what it.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Is that reper.
Speaker 11 (42:10):
Renounced to the inheritance of his brother.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Of his brother doesn't say what the inheritance.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Is though, no, no, you have to sign a document
to say, okay, I don't want their inheritance.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Things so called inheritance or debt amounts to four million
francs or one hundred thousand euros. Allison explains that you
can't inherit debt in Australia, but in Belgium you can.
Speaker 11 (42:34):
So this is the list of the people who could
receive their inheritance, so his wife, his two children who
were not who were to be minors at that time,
his mother, and his brother not Evelyn.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Though.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
The confusion here is whether the debt is actually Freddie,
David's Loom's late brother or his own, as that was
one of the names he used as an alias.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Because one of these seasons, one of these fake names
was Freddy.
Speaker 12 (43:09):
I know that was it.
Speaker 11 (43:10):
But when when she met he met Gila, he well,
he explained that he was good visiting David because it
was the name of his brother who saw him.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
His purpose was.
Speaker 11 (43:27):
To try to make a confusion between the names and said,
is my brother not me?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
So when you see that he's there, but this.
Speaker 9 (43:38):
Is too too kink.
Speaker 11 (43:41):
He was dead himself, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think
you understand why I don't.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Okay, So what's happened is he's inherited his death and
he's saying under give fake name which he took on
Freddy David, it's a safe name, and he said he's dead,
I can't be mine and as a result, I'm not
going to pay iron to here.
Speaker 11 (44:02):
The notary context contacts you and say I think you
have a link with the dead guy with pediavis but
of course the father is not dead.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
To understand.
Speaker 11 (44:20):
So for the notary it's not clear because he don't yes,
but maybe he made something to make people believe that
he said as editor didn't head. Of course he had
problems with the police at that time. If he said no,
(44:40):
no other problem from and he explained that he took
the furniture because it was the rented apartment, so he
put the furniture some somewhere.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Okay, the not a real because the the apartment was rented.
Speaker 11 (45:02):
So there is a debt four million francs of debt
to the States. Access to the States four millions really neutral.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
So potentially that was my father's debt.
Speaker 11 (45:20):
Wow, I better get on with renouncing that. Renounce as
soon as removed.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Don't sign this documents.
Speaker 11 (45:28):
The family is not closed for maybe they are waiting
for this body.
Speaker 9 (45:33):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
So just to confirm, Evelyn has a one hundred thousand
euro debt her father has effectively bequeathed to her, which
she now has to renounce. We don't know if it
was a debt of his own making or the real
Freddy David, as there are rumors Freddy had a gambling problem.
That isn't all though. Evelyn reveals another document relating to
the estate of her grandmother, who also died in nineteen
(45:59):
seventy seven, not long after a loaner.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Private agreement in place and we're trying.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Evelyn and Allison visit a notary named Jerome Otto in Brussels,
whose mother apparently witnessed the signing of the document basically
at his office. They discussed further, immediately realizing Rick Bloom's
own claims again formed the proof of his lives.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Willie Wooters aka Frederic DEHEEVERI when he was in Torney prison,
made an agreement on your angel brother Chris's behalf, that
the settlement of your grandmother's estate, which is bizarre, right
because he told you that he didn't know you existed,
remember that's right.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Yeah, yeah, he did tell me that. He Yeah, when
I first met him.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Which was twenty years later, so yeah, he said that he.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
You know, when I asked him, why hadn't he come
to try to find me as my father, first question
really that I wanted to know and to have answered,
and he said that because he didn't know I existed.
So that until the Belgium Consulate in Australia contacted him
(47:08):
to let him know that I was looking for him.
He didn't even know until that moment that my mother
had passed away, soies, I was in my twenties by
that stage, which I now know all of that that's
a lie. But this the state of my grandmother has
has I'm not sure about the authenticity of the inheritance
(47:32):
document itself, but the document that that I got that
came to me through the Belgium Consulate in Australia, it
was translated and in that translation it said that he
had made a private arrangement with the doctor of law
(47:54):
in nineteen seventy eight. We've got a document that I
was even that was meant to represent I think that
the will of my grandmother, which was translated. I don't
have the document anymore at the only time it was
in my twenties of skin in this document. Why is
(48:18):
his name even in her estate, I'm not sure why.
Why is the fact that he's made a private agreement
on your being by behalf and your brother my brothers
while he's in prison. I'm not quite sure what all
that means. So we're just trying to get to the
bottom of that.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
And this is the other thing that's interesting with that,
because when you raised that about the settlement with him,
which we discussed earlier, he said, well, obviously he acted
like he knew nothing about it.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
If he acted like he knew nothing about it, and
he said that he would be making a trip to
Belgium and that he may know relative or a friend
of a relative of my mother's that he may be
able to contact and find some information out for me,
(49:11):
and that on his return he let me know if
he discovered anything. So he obviously his story was that
he didn't know anything about me. So the fact that
he was involved in making legal agreements on my behalf,
you know, not something that he was forthcoming about at all.
(49:31):
But we don't know.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, we don't know the details. So that's what we're
here for. Because Jerome, this is the firm Jerome.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
It's because this is a legacy business through his families.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
It was his.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
I think it was his mother, Jerome's witness witness. That's
a private arrangement that was put together between Willie Waters and.
Speaker 9 (50:01):
Doctor of law.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
So might they just that he has appointed that doctor
of law to act as some type of a proper
attorney or proxy on behalf of my brother and I
and that this notary signed that private agreement off and
then we would have to go then to that power
(50:24):
of attorney to find out then how that power of
attorney got used.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
And that was in ninety in seventy, and.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
So really not sure, but anyone who's going to uncover.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
But yes, then after that they can look accepting at
the file. But also we can see if we can
obtain some documents from the consulate, from the consulate and
maybe they might be able to help us to So
what documents do we want in the consulate.
Speaker 4 (50:53):
From the consulate, we're looking for my grandmother's will. We're
looking for any translated copies of that that they may
have and when for the power of attorney documents that
they that they had us sign, my brother and I sign.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Unfortunately, the notary does not have a copy of the
original private agreement that says he will make inquiries on
Evelyn's behalf. You'll remember in the previous episode, Evelyn recounted
how her father offered to find out what happened to
her grandmother's inheritance as he was going to Belgium and
he knew somebody you could maybe help.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
He said to me that I really wish I could
remember the name of the person that he said that
he had contact with.
Speaker 9 (51:41):
But what he said to me was he said.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
That there's an extended family in Belgium that knew that
alone had two children, that those children were in Australia,
and that the rumor that people had heard was that
(52:04):
a private arrangement had been made between Joseph Birou, my
grandmother's second husband, and my step father, whereby Joseph biro
would have the rights to keep the majority of the
(52:25):
finances from my grandmother's estate and Michael could keep the daughter.
That's what he came back and said to me.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
This was devastating for Evelyn. We're still waiting to hear
back from the Belgian notary about all of this, and
rest assured we won't give up trying to find out
more about Evelyn's lost legacy until we have answers. Thanks
to Alexandra, however, we did discover the building that belonged
(52:57):
to her grandmother was sold by Bureau and his new wife.
He then moved to the country.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
It had a lot more life when I was young
in this place, and I have fond, very fond memories.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, up until you were seven, line, it was a
pretty good life, right, it was pretty good. Yeah, and
then everything came tumbling down because that's when she lived.
That's when everyone lost her mum at seven years old.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
And so it's very young.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
It's a young yea. Here I was in Australia and
I had left here to go to live in Australia
permanently with my mother, and I had a husband, and
I wasn't there long. Do you remember being told it
happened at the school where I was in the office.
(53:52):
I think.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
And how he told you.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
I think the principal of the school and my stepfather together.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
What do you remember about your mom?
Speaker 4 (54:05):
I remember her chasing me around the house with a
wooden spoon quite frequently.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I got the wooden spin growing up, did you Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:14):
I've had a few of those broken.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
Yeah, but it's so funny. I can't remember anything she said,
but I can remember the sound of her voice in
Hungarian and in French and always telling me, you know,
not to do that, don't touch that.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
But she was so young too.
Speaker 4 (54:38):
She was thirty one when she died.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, but so she yeah, she was in her twenties,
early twenties, Yeah, because she had you do you remember
your grandmother at all?
Speaker 4 (54:50):
I do remember my grandmother.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:53):
I remember my grandmother being sick and being in bed
a lot. So you know, my grandmother was beautiful and
she's to teach me how to knit and yeah, she
taught me lots of And.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
Did you go to school.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
I went to school here as well, somewhere I don't
know where, not for long. I was probably speaking English
around five or six years old because I was going
to Australia with my mother. So my English women have
been very good, typic In and a five year old's
(55:28):
fluent French isn't the same as adults French.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Eveyln was telling me about how the Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo she related to that girl that have you
ever read the stick lasson Snip? Well, there's a lady.
There's a girl in that and she's strong and she's
she's tough, you know, but she has a lot of
tattoos and the nose ring and all this sort of
(55:56):
soul piercings and and ultimately the story leads her to
her relatives. Yeah, do you remember?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Evelyn is talking about Lisbet Solander, the hero of the
Millennium trilogy of novels beginning with The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo. The author was Swedish journalist Steve Larsen, who
died in two thousand and four just before his first
book was published, topping bestseller charts and spawning multiple feature films.
(56:23):
His original title for the first book was Men who
Hate Women.
Speaker 4 (56:29):
Her father who tried to bury her and kill her.
I remember that part of the story.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
I didn't get that far.
Speaker 12 (56:37):
Oh yeah, god, yeah, Like she has all these troubles,
but eventually, as she slowly uncovers things.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
The troubles end up leading to her father, who who
then tries.
Speaker 6 (56:54):
To kill her.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Evelyn confesses to Allison she did used to have a
lot of tattoos and piercings, most of which have now
been removed.
Speaker 9 (57:03):
You have to no sign.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
Next time, the team travels to Luxembourg to catch up
with an old friend. He says she bore witness to
one of Rick Bloom's Frederick the Head's criminal ventures.
Speaker 9 (57:17):
If you come back once, I will imaged to go
to I told you.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
If you knew Marion or have any information about her
or her whereabouts, we'd love to hear from you. Our
website is sevennews dot com dot au, slash news slash
the Lady Vanishers, and you can also message us here.
You can also send us an anonymous tip at the
(57:53):
Lady Vanishes dot org. If you like what you're hearing,
don't forget to subscribe. Please rate and review our series.
It helps new listeners find us. Presenter and executive producer
Alison Sandy, investigative journalist Brian Seymour, producer and writer Sally Eels,
(58:15):
sound design Mark Wright, graphics, Jason Blandford, Transcripts and translation
Estelle Sanchez. The theme and much of the music by
Nicholas Gasparini at the Darkpiano dot com. Thanks again to
the Alliance Francis. This is a seven News production.
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