Torture and Death of Jew Deepen Fears in France

Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man, spent the last weeks of his life tormented and tortured by his captors and splashed with acid in a low-ceilinged pump room in Bagneux, France.

"I knew they had someone down there," said a young French-Arab man in the doorway of a building adjacent to the one where Mr. Halimi was held. "I didn't know they were torturing him."

But it is clear that plenty of people did know, both that Mr. Halimi was being tortured and that he was Jewish. The police think at least 20 people participated in his abduction and the subsequent negotiations for ransom.