A former French police officer unmasked himself as a notorious 1980s serial killer in his suicide note, reports say

• A French serial killer known as "Le Grêle" is suspected of murdering four people in the 80s and 90s.
• An ex-officer who died by suicide Wednesday confessed to being the killer his final note, reports say.
• DNA samples taken from the former officer matched those taken from "Le Grêle" crime scenes.

A former French police officer wrote a suicide note unmasking himself as "Le Grêle," a notorious serial killer accused of committing four murders in the 1980s and 1990s, according to reports.

The 59-year-old man, identified by the French media as François V, was found dead on Wednesday in an apartment he had rented in the coastal resort of Grau-du-Roi in southern France, Le Figaro reported.

The French police contacted the man on September 24 in relation to their investigation into the serial killer, La Dépêche reported. His wife declared him missing on September 27, Le Figaro said.

On Thursday, French prosecutors said DNA samples taken from the body of François V matched DNA samples taken from past crime scenes of the serial killer, Le Figaro reported.

The killer, who was active between 1983 and 1994, was said to have a pockmarked face. The word "grêle," which means "hail" in French, is also used to described pockmarks.

The man known as François V retired as a police officer in 1988, Le Figaro reported.

Among the killer's suspected victims was Cecile Bloch, an 11-year-old girl who was murdered in Paris in 1986.

Le Grêle was also suspected of carrying out six rapes.

In his suicide note, the man identified as François V said he was "not well in life" when the killings were carried out but had since "got himself together," Le Parisien reported.