Pierre Chanal ([pjɛʁ ʃanal]; 18 November 1946 – 15 October 2003) was a French soldier and suspected serial killer.
He was convicted of the rape and kidnapping of a young man, Balázs Falvay, whom he picked up hitchhiking in 1988.
On 9 August 1988, police from Saône-et-Loire spotted a Volkswagen Type 2 microbus parked on a dead-end road leading to a TGV line that was under construction in the town of Bussières.
The police approached the vehicle, thinking that it might belong to environmentalists opposed to the TGV project.
Pierre Chanal was inside the vehicle and, when questioned by one of the policemen, explained that he was an "NCO taking advantage of some leave time to do some tourism."
During the processing of the vehicle, the police found sex toys and a camera with images that included the scenes described by the hitchhiker.
[3] On 23 October 1990, the Saône-et-Loire Assize Court condemned Pierre Chanal to 10 years in prison.