Jean-Claude Romand was studying medicine in the 1970s, but he skipped one exam and failed the class. He could have just taken that class again, but he instead decided to drop out and claim to have finished his studies and become a doctor. He got married and had two kids and told them all that he worked for the World Health Organization.
Sometimes, he’d leave on “business trips,” which were just vacations he’d take alone. For money, he had his wife’s earnings as well as property that his parents gifted him. He also had a rich mistress, as he was French. When all that ran short, he pulled a Ponzi scheme on his friends. He kept this going for a total of 18 years. He never actually worked for the WHO during this time. He’d simply go to the WHO building as a visitor, which anyone could do.
His family never discovered he’d lied about being a doctor. Instead, his friends realized he was scamming them, and Romand figured it was only a matter of time till everything else became revealed as well. So, he chose murder — not murdering his friends but killed the people who would feel most ashamed of him when they learned the truth.
On January 9, 1993, he beat his wife to death with a rolling pin. He slept beside the corpse that night, and the next day, he shot both his children. He drove his mistress out for a date and tried to strangle her. He failed at this killing, so he apologized and moved on. He did succeed at killing his parents, shooting them both. His father had lent him the gun. Then, just in case any odd readers were still rooting for him, he killed the family dog. He now swallowed some pills (arguably not enough for a serious suicide attempt), dumped gasoline around the house and set it on fire.