an inheritance, he fled France and arrived in Ibiza. Villain thought that, by hiding out in the remote northeastern corner of Ibiza, he could live anonymously and be forgotten. In 1933, the Bay of Cala de San Vicent was a very quiet backwater with no development; there was not even a road into the valley. Villain decided to make his home there. Using local labour and help from Paul René Gauguin, the grandson of Paul Gauguin, he built a house from concrete and had almost finished the building by August, 1936. On September 13, a small detachment of soldiers arrived on the beach of Cala de San Vicent by rowboat. Eyewitnesses reported that they thought that they may have been anarchists of the FAI. These soldiers were part of a larger detachment. The force had arrived on the island to re-secure it following the mini-coup which had been orchestrated by the Nationalists under the command of Infantry Commander Juli Mestre. Villain had been away visiting a French woman in Santa Eulària des Riu when the soldiers arrived, but quickly returned home when he heard of their arrival. Feeling vulnerable, he feared that the soldiers would steal his valuables, which he had stashed in the unfinished house. Despite being repeatedly warned by his neighbours not to go back down to the cove, he still went home. Death The officer and troops who arrived on the beach that day seemed very suspicious of this Frenchman, who also antagonised the officer with his explanation of why he had set a crucifix on the hill behind his house. Apart from this outward show of religious zeal, the officer was also suspicious of where Villain had been that day, and decided to confine him to his house. He was considered to be a fascist and a spy and, as such, a threat to their plans to reoccupy the island. On the afternoon of September 17, 1936, three bombers from the Italian Air Force had flown along the coast over Cala de Sant Vicent and bombed the town of Ibiza, which could be heard even that far up the coast. It is thought that the troops, on hearing the sounds of the attack, decided to return to the capital and tried to take Villain and his valuables with them. He reacted violently to this, and as a consequence was shot in the back, with the bullet