Jean de Koven

Jean de Koven (29 March 1913 – 23 July 1937) was an American ballet dancer and dance tutor from Boston, Massachusetts, who was murdered in Paris, France, in July 1937.

She had been staying with her aunt, Ida Sackheim, in a hotel on the Left Bank, Before vanishing, De Koven was corresponding with a man who resided in another hotel in Paris from which he later moved away. Later ransom notes arrived and she received mysterious telephone calls. Police could not locate the contact man even though he advertised frequently in the Paris edition of an American newspaper. By September, Sackheim offered a reward requesting information which would lead to the finding of De Koven's presumed abductors.

Police found De Koven's body doubled up in a shallow grave under a porch. Weidmann's other victims were realtor Raymond Lesobre, theatrical producer Roger LeBlond, chauffeur Joseph Couffy, Fritz Frommer, a young German he had met in jail, and private nurse Janine Keller. LeBlond was lured to his car by one of two female "decoys", where he was killed at Neuilly.

Killer's profile Weidmann murdered De Koven in July 1937. A native of Frankfurt, Germany, he had come to Paris the previous March to avoid military service. In 1926, at the age of 18, he emigrated to Canada where he joined a gang that robbed a wheat company's paymaster in Saskatchewan. He was sentenced to a year in prison and was later deported. Weidmann served prison time in Frankfurt for assault and robbery before he was released in December 1936.

Weidmann and his helpers preyed on people who appeared wealthy, mainly American and English tourists. It is thought that he met De Koven while he was working as an interpreter at the Paris Exhibition. He spoke English and French fluently. Police traced him to an expensive dance bar, the Pavillon Bleu, in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, about a 15-minute walk from his villa. Weidmann strangled his victims or shot them from behind. He apparently had a fetish for men's shoes, as the four men he murdered were found shoeless. She is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Queens, New York.