Update Robert Boulin: murder or suicide. In 2011, I posted that the death of Robert Boulin remains a mystery. Yes, he was in troubled waters. However, the manner in which he died and the way he was found, do not match suicide.
While checking the papers and the Internet, I found an article from February of this year that I missed before. A movie came out in France about Boulin: Crime d’Etat. Also, someone who never spoke publicly before (if I understand the article correctly) now says he knew Boulin took his own life because he looked defeated shortly before his death.
Boulin’s advisor Luc la Fay reported that Boulin was not just feeling down because of a deteriorating relationship with Valery Giscard d’Estaing. He faced other problems such as the Ramatuelle case (scandal referring to land he bought for a holiday home), calls for his resignation and, a double page in a newspaper involving his son, Bertrand, in a case of pedophilia. His workers supposedly heard a type writer all night and drafts of suicide notes were supposedly found in the trash. And then Boulin was found dead.
There is a Bertrand Boulin mentioned in relation to statutory rape. I found online an open letter calling for the abolition of the age of consent. “An open letter was published in Paris’ Le Monde, on the eve of the trial of three Frenchmen, Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien et Jean Burckardt, all accused of having consented sex with 13 and 14 year old adolescents (girls and boys). Two of them were then in temporary custody since 1973 and the letter referred to this fact as “scandalous”. The letter can be read in English here. If you scroll down to see who signed it you will find “docteur Michel Bon, psychosociologue Bertrand Boulin.” I am not sure whether Boulin mistakenly was not named separately or whether Bon signed as Boulin’s doctor. The letter was signed by 69 people.
Is it possible that Boulin cracked under the pressure? Of course. But the manner in which he died and how he was found, remain red flags to me.
Francis Deswarte was that first officer and also the first to see Boulin’s body. According to the official verdict, Boulin drowned after taking barbiturates.
Mr Deswarte said that he had been the first to see the minister’s body in the pool in the forest of Rambouillet, on the morning of 30 October 1979. He was called in to look for a senior citizen who might have taken his own life. I quote from the BBC:
“After spotting a car behind a wood pile, he saw the body in nearby water, said to have been 50cm (19in) deep. He was kneeling, with his head out of the water, looking towards the car,” said Mr Deswarte.
Asked about the official verdict of death by drowning, he replied: “Robert Boulin did not drown. It is not possible. He was virtually on all fours, his head out of the water. “I am convinced that he was trying to crawl to the bank. And then, he had marks on his face like red scratches.” The former officer said he had been taken off the case 30 minutes later.
Two or three months afterwards, Mr Deswarte was called in for questioning and asked by police to change his version of the events, he told 20 Minutes. “When I talked about the marks on his face, they explained to me that emergency workers had dropped the body when they removed it from the pond. “But that is not true. I was there. The emergency workers removed it without any difficulty.” Asked why he had finally chosen to speak out, he said he had heard “a lot of lies” and wanted to tell the truth.”
If you have any links to articles describing the latest movie that came out about Boulin, let me know! The IMDB does not tell us much about the movie and when I checked, I did not see any reviews.