Foreign News: The King Is Dead

Nachat Martini, 50, kissed his wife goodbye, waddled from the door of his chateau in suburban Servon, and got behind the wheel of his Buick. The horn began to sound insistently, and his statuesque wife Helene rushed out to find her 5-ft. 5-in., 220-lb. husband sprawled over the steering wheel, his body quivering from a massive heart attack. In a few moments, the uncrowned "King of the Place Pigalle" was dead.

Within hours, the Corsican and North African hoods who control Parisian prostitution and crime began oiling their revolvers as they eyed the tempting...