Bernard Fremont (born Thierry Gervais) was a charismatic, French-born con artist and serial killer, best known for being a mentor and former lover to fellow con woman and serial killer Nicole Wallace.
Background[]
Fremont was born in France as Thierry Gervais, but he grew up in Thailand, where he learned Chinese. As a cover story, he would claim to be the son of a British diplomat and to have grown up in Taiwan. He would also begin to use the alias "Bernard Fremont". According to himself, Fremont was raised in the slums, but nothing else was known about his personal history other than that, at a certain point, he met and fell in love with a troubled Australian woman named Nicole Wallace, with whom he also entered in a mentor-pupil relationship. From 1985 to 1987, the two conned, robbed, and murdered eight tourists.
Gervais also met Hilary Marsden, an American heiress who became his disciple and was reported missing by her parents in Hong Kong in 1985. Eventually, Nicole decided to leave Fremont, afraid that he might retaliate. In order to avoid that, she planted passports belonging to their victims inside their luggage, and they were both stopped and arrested at Bangkok Airport in 1988. Wallace was sentenced to ten years in prison for the murders, while Fremont was only sentenced to eight. Hilary, who idolized Fremont, waited for his release and even changed her features and hair color to match those of Nicole, whom Fremont deemed his greatest "creation".
Slither[]
Years later, Fremont married a woman named Eileen, though it is unknown whether she was merely a fabrication used for a cover story or a real person. He also recruited two new criminal accomplices: a blonde woman named Sammie and a gay man named Marcel Costas. Together, they set up a robbery ring in New York City, where Fremont had managed to track Nicole down in 2006. Hilary poses as a real estate agent to obtain information on the targeted houses, while Fremont, Sammie, and Marcel pose as party planners to drug and usually kill their wealthy victims while their residences were being completely ransacked. Due to his grandiose self, Fremont asks screenwriter Wesley Banyon to write his biography. However, while Fremont hoped Banyon would describe him as a hero, he describes him as a murderer and a thief instead. In retaliation, Fremont orders his followers to kill him. Banyon is decapitated, with his torso being dumped in a river and his head placed by Costas in Banyon's own refrigerator. One of the group's wealthy victims, Monica Corbett, later discovers Banyon's head while at a party organized by Fremont in Banyon's loft. Because of this, Monica and her husband Russ are abducted by the group and given overdoses by Hilary, who mistakenly left Monica alive. The couple is then left in a seedy rooming house while their home is ransacked.
Detectives Goren and Eames of the Major Case Squad are assigned to the case of Russ's murder. They manage to get to Hilary through a fingerprint lifted from Banyon's refrigerator, and then to Fremont. Marsden is briefly interviewed but soon released, due to a lawyer provided by her long-lost sister Mala, who had by then become another one of Fremont's accomplices. Shortly thereafter, Marcel is strangled by Mala on Fremont's orders for indirectly exposing their ring. Eventually, Goren realizes Fremont could speak Chinese and uncovers his past as Nicole's mentor. After a failed attempt at convincing Hilary to betray him, Fremont confesses to his crimes after he is led to believe Hilary had in fact betrayed him, through brief excerpts from Banyon's biography. He is taken into custody, but later bailed out by Mala. Fremont is soon poisoned with a syringe filled with an unknown substance in a stairwell at the courthouse by Nicole.
Known Victims[]
- Unknown dates from 1985 to 1987, Thailand: Eight unnamed men (all seduced by Nicole Wallace, then robbed and killed by him)
- 2006:
- Unnamed Belgium couple (drugged and robbed with help from his accomplices)
- Unnamed Australian executive (drugged, robbed, and murdered with help from his accomplices)
- Wesley Banyon (struck in the back of the head and decapitated post-mortem by his accomplices)
- Russ and Monica Corbett (drugged, abducted, and robbed with help from his accomplices):
- Russ Corbett (overdosed on heroin by Hilary)
- Monica Corbett (attempted; overdosed by Hilary, but survived)
- Marcel Costas (personally drugged with Rohypnol, then strangled by Mala)