On March 17, 1993 Jean-Louis Fargette was assassinated in Italy. The man nicknamed "The Great" and who reigned over the Var milieu for a long time.

Valletta Cemetery, March 24, 1993. Nearly 2,000 people came to say goodbye. A funeral wreath sets the scene, worthy of a Coppola film: "You are the boss and you always will be . "


March the next year.

Two men were charged Thursday with the murder of a member of Parliament who had launched a campaign against organized crime in the south of France.

Yann Piat was shot and killed Feb. 25 in her car by a man riding on the back of a motorcycle near her home in Hyeres on the French Riviera.

Her driver was wounded.

A judge in Toulon, about 6 miles (10 km) miles from Hyeres, Thursday evening charged Epifanio Pericolo, a 29-year-old Italian restaurateur, and Denis Labadie, 27, with 'assassination and attempted assassination' in connection with the attack, court sources said.

Labadie is alleged to have fired the shots from the passenger seat while Pericolo drove the motorcycle.

The two men have been linked with Jean-Louis Fargette, an organized crime godfather on the Riviera who was killed last year in San Remo, Italy, where he had gone to escape French authorities.

The sources said police Thursday released Fargette's three brothers from custody in Toulon a day after detaining them for questioning in connection with Piat's murder.

Piat, 44, a centrist member of Parliament, had launched a campaign against organized crime in the French Riviera. Friends said she had recently received death threats.