Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Murder in Monaco is streaming on Netflix.
“There is a murder mystery to report to you tonight. The victim, an elusive billionaire banker. It raises a whole lot of questions… like who wanted him dead, and why?”
Directed by Hodges Usry, the Netflix documentary ‘Murder in Monaco’ revisits the mysterious death of billionaire Edmond Safra, who died in a fire at his Monaco penthouse in December 1999. While medical reports confirmed that Safra died from smoke inhalation, the circumstances point toward a deliberate conspiracy.
Was it the Russian Mafia? Business rivals? His ambitious wife? Or his nurse?!
Safra’s mysterious death sent shockwaves around the world and placed an intense spotlight on Monaco, long considered one of the safest tax havens for the ultra-rich. ‘Murder in Monaco’ combines archival CCTV and TV footage from 1999 with crisp, sun-soaked visuals of modern-day Monaco, keeping its re-look at the case visually engaging.
Hodges Usry and team attempt to explore all angles of the case, although viewers do not get to see major sides of the story. Edmund’s wife Lily Safra, who inherited all his wealth, died in 2022, and the documentary heavily hints that she might’ve had something do with Safra’s death.
And well, the wife of-course isn’t there to tell her side of the tale. In-fact, had she been alive, the billionaire widow would’ve probably tried to stop ‘Murder in Monaco’ from coming out, or sued the creators to death for slander.
Even in 1999, the city-state was heavily monitored with CCTV cameras and security personnel, yet no video footage ever surfaced to definitively explain what happened. But the cops had a confession, an arrest was made, and the spotlight shifted to Safra’s nurse Theodore Maher, who was convicted for arson and murder. The documentary includes an in-depth interview with Maher, who maintains his innocence throughout, even as his account sounds quite suspicious.
After a certain point, “Murder in Monaco” feels like it’s less about about Edmond Safra and more like ‘The Curious Case of Theodore Maher’. Everything that happened to Maher after his arrest seems tailor-made for a Hollywood dark comedy. Why would a nurse making thousands of dollars a month kill the goose that lays his golden paycheck? Well, the supposed truth is stranger than fiction.
“This is Ted’s life. He is always stepping in shit… it’s like an ongoing drama with this guy,” Ted’s lawyer Michael Griffith says in the documentary.
Another interviewee who brings “drama” to the documentary is Lady Colin Campbell, a castle-dwelling author and socialite. The “Murder in Monaco” trailer promised an exclusive, possibly explosive interview, but while Lady Colin is theatrical, she offers little of substance beyond calling Lily Safra a “praying mantis,” a predatory creature known to devour its mates. Her 2008 novel Empress Bianca, allegedly based on Safra, proved so controversial that a publisher destroyed copies after legal threats.
The documentary assembles journalists, legal experts, and Edmond Safra’s former head nurse to dissect the case, only to expose how deeply opinions remain split. Maher is variously viewed as a scapegoat or a mastermind, while another camp believes Lily Safra played a central role, potentially with help from the Russian mafia.
The last few minutes of ‘Murder in Monaco’ pack in a few surprising twists, some of which are almost comedic. If you don’t know anything about the Edmund Safra case, it’s best that you dive into the documentary blind, and it will prove to be an entertaining ride for true-crime enthusiasts.
Watch ‘Murder in Monaco’ on Netflix.
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