At 10:30 on 12 November 1958, Freddy Haefflinger steps out of the Banque Copine on the banks of the Meuse in Dinant, Belgium. The lean, pale man lights a cigarette – a Gitane. That is the agreed sign: The manager and only employee of the small bank is indeed alone. And so, the heist begins.

Two men approach the bank: Anatole Clément, with short-cropped hair and a long beard, and Adolphe Nicolay, with a thin moustache. A fourth man, Eddy Voelker, leans inconspicuously against a vehicle on the opposite bank of the Meuse and observes what is happening.

The three well-dressed robbers enter the bank and leave again a few minutes later. The bank employee, 64-year-old Lucien Monin, lies dead on the floor – strangled with his own woollen scarf.

The perpetrators flee with almost 200,000 Belgian francs from the vault and 3,000 francs from Monin’s wallet. But they don’t get far in their silver-grey Citroën.

Robbery at the fourth attempt

For Adolphe Nicolay, a 32-year-old man from Luxembourg, it was his fourth attempt at robbery. Just a few weeks earlier, he and his wife, Gerda, had taken over the Hotel Derneden in Bigonville, a village in Luxembourg’s west, near the border to Belgium. Nicolay was heavily in debt and had several criminal convictions.

In September 1958, he entered the Banque Copine in the Rue des Combattants in Dinant for the first time, by chance, to change money. He notices that only one employee is present – ideal conditions for a robbery.

Shortly before the robbery, Nicolay (here with an “i”) and his wife had taken over a hotel in Bigonville – at a time when he was already several hundred thousand francs in debt. © Photo credit: Screenshot: eLuxemburgensia

In the weeks that followed, Nicolay returned to Dinant three times, armed and each time with different companions. However, his accomplices jumped ship shortly before the heist or failed to turn up at all. Nicolay obviously didn’t want to strike alone.

A trio for all occasions

In November 1958, he found his collaborators. Anatole Clément, a 22-year-old Frenchman born in Brussels, living in the Grand Duchy and married, is joined by Eddy Voelker, a 28-year-old butcher from Rombas in France, and Freddy Haefflinger, a 24-year-old fitter from Cattenom.

They meet in Thionville on 11 November to discuss the details. That night, Nicolay steals the silver-grey Citroën belonging to Jacques Dahm, a journeyman baker, from the Place de Nancy in Hollerich. Together with Clément, he drives to Ciney on the morning of 12 November, where they meet Voelker and Haefflinger, who arrived from Thionville in a Renault Frégate, Voelker’s lavish family vehicle.

Voelker takes up position on Avenue Churchill. Nicolay drives down the Rue des Combattants, turns round and parks the Citroën right in front of the bank. Haefflinger enters the branch to change a banknote. When it is clear that Monin is alone, he lights a cigarette in front of the entrance – the starting signal.

Big haul – and one dead man

Nicolay enters, pretends to want to change money too, but then grabs the completely surprised Lucien Monin by his scarf, punches him and chokes him for several minutes. Because Monin still fights back violently, Nicolay calls Haefflinger for help, who grabs the victim’s legs. A Gitane stub is later found in Monin’s trouser cuff. Clément collects the money: 195,920 Belgian francs. The perpetrators flee. Monin lies lifeless on the floor of the bank with a bloated face.

After only 12km, the getaway car’s engine suddenly gives out. Near Celles, the perpetrators abandon the Citroën with Luxembourg licence plates in the woods, along with the victim’s hat. Voelker’s Frégate proves its worth. The trail of the bank robbers is lost in the dense Ardennes forest – for the time being.

In Luxembourg, the case and the possible connection to the Grand Duchy quickly make the rounds.

A talkative girlfriend babbles

At a trial for a series of thefts involving Nicolay and a certain Jean Heusbourg, Heusbourg’s girlfriend makes a momentous remark: she is annoyed that Nicolay got away with a light sentence, even though he had organised the Dinant coup. The investigators get to work.

Nicolay is arrested in February 1959. He denies the attack. However, he repeatedly contradicts himself in his accounts. At the same time, the investigators tighten the net around his accomplices. Jean Klein, who was involved in one of the earlier failed attempts, becomes a key witness. Because Nicolay does not pay his debts despite the successful robbery, Klein testifies.

Voelker and Haefflinger are arrested in France in July 1959, ClĂ©ment in July in FrĂ©jus on the CĂ´te d’Azur. His sudden disappearance from Luxembourg was noticed immediately after the Dinant heist.

Confrontation in the priest’s garden

The trial is complicated by a legal dilemma: the murder took place in Belgium, was planned by a Luxembourg national and carried out with three Frenchmen who were imprisoned in France. The French Code Napoléon prohibits extradition. As a result, there are two trials: in Luxembourg against Nicolay and in Metz against the three Frenchmen.

Their statements largely coincide – except for one point: who killed Monin? Nicolay accuses Haefflinger of having strangled the victim with his hands, which explains his bloody gloves. Clément and Haefflinger, on the other hand, confirm that Nicolay killed Monin with the scarf. The Belgian forensic report also confirms that Monin was strangled with his own scarf.

A showdown ensues. On 6 October 1959, a white line is drawn in the orchard of the local priest in Frisange, which straddles the border between France and Luxembourg. A tent is erected exactly on this line, with a table in the centre: Luxembourg magistrates are seated on the left and French magistrates on the right.

Haefflinger testifies that Nicolay pulled the scarf so tightly that the victim’s veins swelled up. Nicolay himself states that he merely held Monin down and hit him. Clément meanwhile describes Nicolay as the one who “should have done the job”. The charge against the Luxembourger is therefore murder.

The second most severe sentence

Adolphe Nicolay was sentenced to forced labour for life on 5 December 1961. The court found him guilty of violent theft and the use of violence against Lucien Monin, which led to the victim’s death – without this death having been intentional. The more serious charge that the murder was committed to facilitate the theft or to secure impunity is not upheld. Nicolay thus receives the second most severe sentence possible at the time – the death penalty was not abolished in Luxembourg until 1979.

On 26 February 1962, the Luxemburger Wort reported on the verdict against the three Frenchmen © Photo credit: Screenshot: eLuxemburgensia

In February 1962, the three accomplices are sentenced by the Moselle Assize Court in Metz: Anatole Clément and Eddy Voelker are each sentenced to 15 years in prison, Freddy Haefflinger to 12 years. All three defendants are granted mitigating circumstances. Haefflinger receives the most lenient sentence, as he is the only one without a criminal record.

Nicolay’s great escape

In March 1964, Adolphe Nicolay makes headlines again. Together with fellow inmate François Levionnois, he tried to break out of the base prison. The escape had been planned for a long time: in the prison workshop, the two worked on a chair, hollowing out its leg to hide metal saw blades inside. At the same time, they made a two-metre-long rope ladder from scraps of fabric and string, which they intended to use to climb over the prison wall. Nicolay promised his fellow prisoner a new car if he helped him escape.

On the night of 23 March, Nicolay dug a hole in the floor of his cell on the second floor. It led directly into Levionnois’ cell below. Together they also broke through the floor of his cell and entered an office on the ground floor through another opening.

Several bars had already been sawn through when they were discovered by a guard. The Luxemburger Wort reported at the time that Nicolay and Levionnois were transferred to another cell with their eyes downcast. It was one of four escape attempts in the first four months of 1964. Others were more successful. But that’s another story.

Transparency note: The article reconstructs the case solely on the basis of contemporary reporting by the Luxemburger Wort (1958-1964).

(This story was first published in the Luxemburger Wort. Translated using AI, edited by Cordula Schnuer.)