Hélène Pastor

Hélène Pastor (1937 – 21 May 2014) was an heiress, businesswoman and the richest woman in Monaco, "the senior surviving member of what is, in effect, Monaco’s second dynasty after the ruling Grimaldis". 

She was murdered in May 2014.

Early life

Hélène Pastor was born in 1937. Her father, Gildo Pastor, was an heir and businessman. Her paternal grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Pastor, was an Italian builder who moved to Monaco in the 1880s.

She grew up in Monaco with her two brothers, Michel Pastor and Victor Pastor.

Business

She was the owner of Helene Pastor Pallanca SAM, a real estate company. She owned Le Bahia and Émilie Palace in the Larvotto district, the Trocadero, Continental and Le Schuylkill apartment buildings, and the Gildo Pastor Center in the Fontvieilledistrict. They were worth US$3.7 billion.

She was the richest woman in Monaco. Most of her wealth came from collecting rent. In its obituary, The Daily Telegraph called her "the senior surviving member of what is, in effect, Monaco’s second dynasty after the ruling Grimaldis". She was known in Monaco as "La Vice Princesse" (English: "The Vice Princess").

Personal life

She was married twice. With her first husband, she had a daughter, Sylvia Pastor, born in 1961, who lived with Wojciech Janowski, a Polish-born businessman, for 28 years.

She then married Claude Pallanca, a dentist. They had a son, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, born in 1967.

Assassination

On 6 May 2014, she walked out of the L'Archet Hospital in western Nice, France, where she was visiting her son, and into her chauffeured car. Minutes later, a gunman fired at her car, hitting her chauffeur and herself. She was rushed to the Saint Roch hospital in central Nice. She woke up from her coma on 16 May, but died on 21 May 2014 at the Hospital St Roch in Nice. She was seventy-seven years old.

Upon her death, the Prince's Palace of Monaco released a statement saying, "HSH the Prince expresses his deep compassion to the children of Mrs Hélène Pastor-Pallanca at the announcement of her tragic passing." Her funeral was attended by Albert II, Prince of Monaco.

Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice, released the following statement, "My thoughts go out to Gildo, Hélène Pastor’s son, as well as all of her relatives. I share their pain and grief. My thoughts also go out to all the Monégasques who were devastated by this tragedy."

In June 2014, her son-in-law, Wojciech Janowski, admitted to being involved with her assassination. In 2017, Janowski and nine more individuals, including fitness trainer Pascal Dauriac and his brother-in-law Abdelkader Belkhatir, were summoned to court over for a trial.