Man on trial for killing woman with largest breasts
Joanne Laucius
The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Citizen News Services
Friday, November 15, 2002
A French court has decided there is enough evidence to go ahead with a murder trial in the death of Lolo Ferrari, a woman billed as having the world's largest breasts.
Ms. Ferrari, 37, achieved fame as a porn star, nightclub performer and the presenter of a television program called Eurotrash, for her freakish, surgically enhanced breasts. She died at home in the south of France in March 2000.
Her husband, Eric Vigne, 54, found her dead in her bed. Mr. Vigne, described as "Svengali-like," was arrested on suspicion of homicide last March.
Ms. Ferrari met Mr. Vigne when she was 17 and still named Eve Valois.
Ms. Ferrari had more than 20 operations to transform her body and face. The Guinness Book of Records measured her bust, which had been designed by an aircraft engineer, at 54G.
Reportedly, each of her pneumonic breasts contained two litres of saline solution, and Ms. Ferrari was afraid of flying in case they exploded.
The coroner found Ms. Ferrari had died of an overdose of prescription drugs. There were also reports of alcohol and antidepressant use.
Mr. Vigne told investigators his wife had been suffering from bronchitis. On the day of her death, he let her **82** in. When he checked on her in the early afternoon, she was dead.
But an investigating magistrate in nearby Grasse asked that more tests be conducted. Several months after the death, Mr. Vigne was questioned under the French offence of "not assisting a person in peril."
Then, this spring, a team of three police scientists said they had detected cyanosis of the lips, nails and hands, a symptom of **59**. The prescription drugs she had been taking had not been fully absorbed, and there was evidence she had eaten breakfast, contrary to Mr. Vigne's claim she had **84** into the day.
There have been other elements to the case.
Despite her cult following, Ms. Ferrari was bringing in less and less money, and reportedly took a Monaco police officer as a lover before her death.
The two are believed to have spent a few hours on the night before her death at a wife-swapping club in the Riviera. Witnesses said Ms. Ferrari didn't get home until 9 a.m.
Mr. Vigne, who was married to Ms. Ferrari for 13 years, has denied any involvement in his wife's death. At one point, he was quoted as saying his wife was "the goose that laid my golden eggs."
But he also apparently had two replacements waiting in the wings.
Mr. Vigne had also paid for enhancement surgery for a pair of sisters he billed as the "Silicone Girls."