Trio Wore Masks and Face Paint — Then Opened Fire in Grocery Stores, Killing 28 People, Including Children

Between 1982 and 1985, a masked trio dubbed the “Crazy Killers of Brabant” carried out a brutal string of raids across Belgium’s Brabant region, killing 28 people — including families and young children.

The men, who used face paint during the attacks, were nicknamed the Giant, the Killer and the Old Man by investigators and the press, according to the BBC. Despite decades of investigation, none of the suspects were ever definitively identified.

The BBC reported that the violence unfolded in two main waves and hit a wide range of targets: supermarkets, hostels, a gunsmith’s shop, a bar and a restaurant. Some victims were tortured before being killed, the outlet reported.

One of the deadliest incidents came on Nov. 9, 1985, when eight people were murdered during an attack on a Delhaize grocery store in Aalst, per the BBC.

Two brothers — then 7 and 10 — later said they saw six men in dark clothing fleeing the scene. The boys, who had a childhood hobby of recording car plates, wrote down a vehicle’s registration number in a notebook. CBS News, citing AFP, reported that the notebook was placed in the case file, but the lead was not pursued for decades — and the brothers were never questioned.

A survivor of the Aalst massacre, David Van de Steen, was seriously injured at age 9 and lost both his parents and his sister. He later recalled that his sister shouted, “Don’t shoot, that’s my dad!” before their father was killed, according to The Bulletin.

Another victim, Geneviève Van Lidth, was among the few who said she saw one attacker without a mask. In 1983, she was held at gunpoint outside her home in Plancenoit, Walloon Brabant, and her car was stolen.

She later described the man as appearing to have southern European origins, with short, curly black hair and “impeccable” French that made him seem well-educated. She also said a Peugeot 504 that followed her car was later connected to a Delhaize attack in Genval, according to The Brussels Times’ summary of her account.

“I always said he had a northern French accent, that he wasn’t Belgian,” she said, per the outlet — adding she was “99% sure” she recognized the man when shown a photograph years later.

Over the years, investigators explored whether the killings could have been part of an effort to destabilize Belgium, potentially involving current or former law enforcement officers with far-right ties, The Guardian reported. AFP reporting cited by the outlet also noted a long-standing theory that the Giant may have been a former member of the gendarmerie, Belgium’s national police force.

In 2019, a retired police officer was charged with allegedly dumping weapons and ammunition linked to the case into a canal in 1986, but he was never convicted, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian also reported in 2017 that the brother of a former Belgian policeman, Christiaan Bonkoffsky, said Bonkoffsky had confessed two years earlier to being “the Giant.” Patricia Finne, whose father was among the 28 victims, called the disclosure “the first serious revelation in 30 years.”

“I really hope that this will lead to dismantling the rest of the gang, whether they are dead or not,” she told the outlet.

Despite the violence, the amount stolen across the robberies was estimated at about €175,000, The Guardian reported.

Prosecutors later told families that investigators had checked 1,815 pieces of information, reviewed 2,748 sets of fingerprints, compared 593 DNA samples and exhumed more than 40 bodies — without identifying the killers, according to The Guardian. No one has ever been convicted.

In 2020, police released a photograph of an unidentified man holding a shotgun near a wooded lakeside area, describing it as a “vital lead,” and asked the public for help identifying him, per BBC and The Guardian reporting.

In June 2024, Belgian federal prosecutors announced they were closing the case after more than four decades, The Guardian reported. Families were told that “all possible investigative actions have been carried out,” according to the outlet.

“This means the case is now buried and it makes me very sad,” said Irena Palsterman, whose father was among the eight killed in Aalst, per the outlet.

CBS News, citing AFP, later reported that an appeals court in Mons ordered investigators to hear two additional witnesses — including the brothers who recorded the license plate number before the Aalst attack.

“We don’t want to give up,” said Kristiaan Vandenbussche, a lawyer representing victims’ families, according to the outlet.