Throughout the 1980s, a shadow hung over the country of Belgium.

nowhere was this malignant fear felt more than in the area around the country's capital,

Brussels.

This shadow went by a variety of names. They started out as the gang of

brahbit, called De Bende van Neville by the locals. Both names were reflective of the

area they terrorized. This gang, which consisted of three unknown subjects, began rather small.

They stole goods from grocery stores and restaurants, but they would continue to escalate.

Over the span of a few years, their reputation grew, as did their brutality.

They became as feared in Belgium as figures such as the zodiac or jack the river.

But their targets did not exist in isolated pockets. Their victims weren't people inside

of a confined space or in some sleepy lovers' lane in the woods. They weren't of a particular

age range or social bracket. Their targets were everyone. People just like you and I,

heading to the store to get a six pack of beer or ingredients for tonight's dinner.

Their targets were in the one spot they felt safe, in public and occasionally even in broad daylight.

What began as a seemingly harmless group of thieves who began their crime spree with a single

firearm in 1982 had grown to epic proportions just a couple of years later. The gang eventually earned

another nickname, the mad killers of Belgium, and theories regarding their identities infected

Belgian culture. Even to this day, you can't ask someone in Belgium about the case without getting

their opinion on who's responsible. On the random history of Belgium podcast, the host reflects

upon this case, calling it Belgium's version of the JFK assassination. And I find that fitting,

not only because of how much it affected the country, growing public distrust and resentment of

their own government, but injecting the zeitgeist of an entire nation with conspiracy theories,

...