Hélène Pastor

Hélène Pastor was born in 1937.[1][2] Her father, Gildo Pastor, was an heir and businessman.[1][2][3][4] Her paternal grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Pastor, was an Italian builder who moved to Monaco in the 1880s.[1][2][3][4][5]

She grew up in Monaco with her two brothers, Michel Pastor and Victor Pastor.[2][4][5]

She was the owner of Helene Pastor Pallanca SAM, a real estate company.[6] She owned Le Bahia and Émilie Palace in the Larvotto district,[7][8] the Trocadero,[9] Continental and Le Schuylkill apartment buildings,[10][11] and the Gildo Pastor Center in the Fontvieille district.[6][12][13] They were worth US$3.7 billion.[6]

She was the richest woman in Monaco.[14][15] Most of her wealth came from collecting rent.[6] 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".[1] She was known in Monaco as "La Vice Princesse" (English: "The Vice Princess").[1][5]

She was married twice.[1] With her first husband, she had a daughter, Sylvia Pastor, born in 1961,[2][6] who lived with Wojciech Janowski, a Polish-born businessman, for 28 years.[16][17]

She then married Claude Pallanca, a dentist.[1][2] They had a son, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, born in 1967.[1][2][4][6]

On 6 May 2014, Pastor was traveling by car from the L'Archet Hospital in western Nice, France, where she had been visiting her son.[1][3][18] Minutes later, a gunman fired at her car, hitting both Pastor and her chauffeur, Mohamed Darouich.[1][3] She was rushed to the Saint Roch hospital in central Nice, and fell into a coma.[18] Darouich died from his injuries on 11 May.[19] Pastor woke up from her coma on 16 May,[20] but died five days later, on 21 May, at age 77.[2][5]

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."[4] Her funeral was attended by Albert II, Prince of Monaco.[16]

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."[4][21]

In June 2014, her son-in-law, Wojciech Janowski, admitted to being involved with her assassination.[16] 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.[22][23] On 17 October 2018, Janowski was sentenced to life in prison.[19]