Marković affair

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The Marković affair (also the Marković case ; French affair Marković ) is the name given to the murder of the Yugoslav Stevan Marković (also: Stefan Markovic), which took place in the vicinity of the actor Alain Delon and which turned into a political affair in France at the turn of 1968/69 expanded. Although the exact circumstances of the crime were not investigated, the murder was linked to the presidential candidate Georges Pompidou and had an impact on the relationship between the top French politicians of the time.

prehistory

The actor Alain Delon met his girlfriend, Nathalie Barthélémy , through his Yugoslav friend and servant Miloš Milošević . After Delon and Barthélémy became a couple, Milošević left France and went to Hollywood in the USA, where he and Barbara Ann Thomason, the wife of the actor Mickey Rooney , who is well-known with Alain Delon , moved to Thomason's bedroom in 1966 under circumstances that were not entirely clear died a violent death. Before he left, Miloš Milošević had recommended his cousin and compatriot Stevan Marković (* 1937) to Delon as his successor. Ten years earlier he had illegally immigrated to France, had several criminal records and had contacts in the Parisian milieu . Marković moved into Delon's house, was referred to as a friend, and worked for the actor as a chauffeur, bodyguard, and party organizer. When Delon's relationship with his wife Nathalie worsened, Marković was to monitor them on behalf of Delon.

murder

On September 22, 1968, Marković was seen on the way to a meeting with the convicted François Marcantoni , a friend of Delon, for the last time. At that time he was living in a Delon apartment in Paris with compatriot Uroš Milićević. On October 1, 1968, a homeless man found Marković's body in a garbage dump near Élancourt in the greater Paris area. The autopsy revealed that the murdered man had been beaten up and shot in the head a few days earlier. Marković had struggled before his death; the body was gagged and packed in a plastic bag.

examination

The investigation into the crime was led by the young Versailles examining magistrate René Patard, the investigation by the Paris "Brigade Mobile" carried out. A first autopsy came to the conclusion that Marković had died from blows to the head. After a clue, a second autopsy on October 28, 1968 found that there had also been a fatal headshot, the 9 mm projectile was still in the head of the victim. Obviously, the bullet was supposed to be hidden at this point by subsequently smashing the skull.

On October 5, the victim's brother, Alexander Marković, who lives in Belgrade , presented three letters to the Paris police, which Milićević had forwarded to him via the Yugoslav Vuk Blagojević on Marković's instructions. In one of the three letters written in Serbo-Croatian , Delon and Marcantoni were accused of an impending act of violence:

"If something should happen to me, stick to Alain Delon, his wife and his companion François Marcantoni, a Corsican and real gangster, residing at Boulevard des Batignolles 42"

- Article in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit on February 14, 1969

After the availability of the letter, Delon was arrested on October 12, 1968 despite a febrile illness for 24 hours ("Garde à vue") and interrogated for hours. Since Delon was in St. Tropez at the suspected time of the shooting of the film The Swimming Pool (Original title: La Piscine ) , he was not charged. In addition to him, his wife Nathalie (who had to travel from London for this), his agent Georges Beaume, his driver Marcel Gasparini, the photographer friend Jean-Pierre Bonotte and other acquaintances of Delons and the victim were questioned. Patard initially brought charges against Marcantoni, who in May 1968 had acquired a mattress that was packed in a plastic bag like the one used to dispose of the Marković body, which led to Marcantoni being arrested but later dropped . In 1975 the file on the Marković case was closed without result. The witness Uroš Milićević, who was the last to see Marković, was found shot dead in a hotel in Brussels in 1976.

Motives rumors

Three possible motives for the crime were seen in the media and the public. First, the murder was attributed to clashes between rival organized crime groups. In fact, at the time, conflicts between the underworld of Paris, previously ruled by Corsican and Algerian gangs, and the petty criminals pouring in from the Balkans were the order of the day.

Others saw contract killing as possible; Delon was accused of vindictiveness because of defamation through a rumored affair of his still-wife with Marković. Reference was made to the mysterious death of former Delons bodyguard, Miloš Milošević, in January 1966 in Hollywood, in which adultery also played a role. Delon and Marcantoni are said to have been in Los Angeles that night of the murder.

A further motive was assumed that the murdered man recorded wealthy participants in compromising situations with hidden cameras at the drug and sex parties he organized and then blackmailed them. The claim that Marković had tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to sell such photos of celebrities to the media was consistent with this. It was suspected that the protagonists who felt threatened had commissioned a murder.

Political affair

The murder took on a political dimension when it was linked to politicians from the ruling Union pour la défense de la République (UDR), especially ex- Prime Minister Georges Pompidou, who had resigned a few months earlier, and his wife, Claude Pompidou . A character assassination campaign was carried out against Madame Pompidou in connection with the murder of Marković, which was to end her husband's political career.

background

Georges Pompidou was French Prime Minister under President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to July 1968 . Originally a political foster son of de Gaulle, he had aroused the displeasure of de Gaulle and a group of leading Gaullists several times during his reign . With his resignation from the post of prime minister, he followed de Gaulle's demand, who no longer provided Pompidou with any important offices. Since Pompidou was ambitious and popular, circles in the UDR feared that he might be an undesirable potential candidate for the office of President as de Gaulle's successor.

The Pompidou couple, especially Claude Pompidou, belonged (at least until Pompidou took office as Prime Minister) to the jet set of Paris and St. Tropez. They associated with intellectuals and artists - among them were the painter Bernard Buffet , the writer Françoise Sagan , the chansonnier Guy Béart , the singers Marie Laforêt and Juliette Greco and the actor Delon.

Becoming known of investigation results

In the course of the investigation, more than a hundred people, often with criminal backgrounds, were questioned. Many statements contradicted each other, and unbelievable accusations were made. Internal documents and statements from the press were repeatedly leaked. The Figaro published a document alleging that Marković had a relationship with the wife of a former member of the government. Assumptions that this woman was Claude Pompidou were passed on by the police. Allegedly, police investigations produced evidence that Claude Pompidou had an affair with Marković. The letter from an inmate at Fresnes Prison to Delon, which incriminated Delon and Claude Pompidou , was also made public. It was written on October 10, 1968 by an incarcerated Yugoslav friend of Marković, confiscated by the prison administration and handed over to the police. An investigation revealed that the allegedly spontaneous letter was written at the instigation of another prisoner.

The character assassination campaign peaked when police found photos of a blonde woman attending party fines in the stolen car of a lawyer involved in the case, Roland Dumas . Rumors that this woman was Claude Pompidou were circulated to the press. Subsequent investigations suggested that the theft of the vehicle had been arranged by intermediaries at the French foreign intelligence service SDECE and that the photos were forged with the help of a prostitute.

The Justice Minister René Capitant , who belongs to the left wing of the UDR , did nothing to stop the dissemination of investigation results. Despite promises to the contrary, Pompidou's successor in the office of prime minister, Maurice Couve de Murville , did not inform his predecessor about new developments in the affair.

Internal party intrigue

Pompidou was convinced that a group of Gaullists were responsible for the character assassination campaign against him and his wife. Employees from police authorities and the SDECE were deployed for this purpose. These internal party opponents Pompidou wanted to turn him off politically by disavowing his wife. The police commissioner Lucien Aimé-Blanc who was involved in the discovery of the falsified photos suspected that the people behind the action were long-standing political opponents of Pompidou's own party.

Pompidou was shocked by the campaign against his wife, he threatened the backers with "steely contempt". He suspected a central enemy in Couve de Murville. He turned to de Gaulle and asked for his assistance. Even though de Gaulle received a daily briefing on what was going on and demonstratively invited Pompidou and his wife to dinner in the Élysée Palace on January 22, 1969 , he took no measures to end the attacks. A supportive statement requested by Pompidou was not given. Pompidou then sought contact with the media and was able to convince the majority of media representatives of his point of view.

Seven years after the murder (and already after Pompidou's death), Georges Suffert (1927-2012), political editor of the French news magazine Le Point and, according to a former confidante of Pompidou, published the content of a conversation with Pompidou in June 1972 in which Pompidou discussed the former Prime Minister Couve de Murville named as responsible for the indiscretions. According to Suffert, Pompidou also ruled out that de Gaulle had ever believed the rumors that Claude Pompidou was involved in Marković's activities.

Political Impact

Pompidou felt abandoned by de Gaulle, and there was a definitive break with his former mentor. As a result of this rupture, Pompidou announced his plans to run for president in February 1969, although de Gaulle's term of office was four years and the president had declared that he would not resign. But after a referendum on reforms of the regional administration and the Senate had been rejected, de Gaulle resigned on April 29, 1969. In the following presidential elections , Pompidou prevailed in June 1969 and took over the office of French President until his death in 1974.

Pompidou never forgot the injustice done to him and his wife in the affair. He is said to have carried a notebook with him until the end of his life, in which the names of those to whom he attributed involvement in the political affair were noted. His doubts about the impartiality of state authorities and agencies led to the replacement of a number of senior officers in the police and secret services.

Impact on Delon's career

The Marković affair kept the media and the public busy for weeks because of Delon's involvement. Despite Delon's recognizable links to criminal circles, they did not harm Delon's popularity or value as an actor. They even cemented his image as a film character. The film The Clan of Sicilians (original title: Le clan des Siciliens ), which premiered at the end of the scandalous year, was a great success thanks to the media coverage of the murder case.

Novel of the key to the affair

In 1986 the novel "Gorila" (German: Gorilla ) by the Yugoslav author Dušan Savković (1922–1990) was published by Knjizevne Novine in Belgrade . The story of the Yugoslav Štefan Ratarac is told, who beats up a journalist at the request of a French actor, Alain Dupré. For this he is allowed to move into the basement of the actor's villa and is held up by the actor, but is exposed to the whims of his patron. When Dupré is having an orgy, Ratarac films what is happening so that he can later blackmail the participants. Dupré then has him shot by a contract killer. The roman clef may still be considered “ required reading” for many Serbian criminals (see, for example, the Pink Panthers ), since from a Serbian perspective it describes how a south-eastern European petty criminal is ultimately denied access to the “upper class”.

literature

  • Dušan Savković: The bodyguard . Roman (original title: Gorila , Belgrad 1980), 7th edition, first edition in German, Ivanka Marković-Sontić, Belgrad 1988, OCLC 455930444 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Tolle Kerle , March 10, 1969, issue 11/1969, Der Spiegel
  2. ↑ a b c Frawley Becker, And the Stars Spoke Back: A Dialogue Coach Remembers Hollywood Players of the Sixties in Paris , ISBN 978-0-81085-157-3 , Scarecrow Press , 2004, pp. 144ff , English
  3. ↑ William Stadiem, Jet Set: The People, the plan, the glamor, and the Romance in Aviation's Glory Years , ISBN 978-0-34553-697-6 , Random House Publishing Group , 2014, p?  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , English@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / books.google.pdebooks  
  4. ↑ a b c Josef Müller-Marein , "Fall of the Unknown Cases" , February 14, 1969, Die Zeit
  5. ↑ geheimzinnige moord op twee Joegoslaven , August 12, 1976 Leidsch Dagblad , Dutch
  6. ^ A b c Paul Hofmann, Rumor Mills Grinding: Murder Case Becoming Classic French "Affaire" , November 10, 1968, The Register Guard ( Eugene ), Syndication of: The New York Times , English
  7. ^ Daniel Binswanger, Merci, Chéri !: Alone Delon , Die Weltwoche , edition 3/2005
  8. ↑ Miloš Milošević (1941-1966) had an affair with Barbara Ann Thomason, the then wife of the movie star Mickey Rooney . Both were found shot dead in Rooney's house on January 30, 1966. According to Actress attempts suicide at home of movie star, August 1958 , 14 August 2008, Los Angeles Times , English
  9. ^ A b Paul Ghali, Markovic Affair: Paris 'Dolce Vita' A web of Murder, Sex and Politics , April 14, 1969, The Pittsburgh Press , syndication of: Chicago Daily News Service , English
  10. ↑ Rodney Angove, Jet Set may take over Elysee Palace Parties , June 17, 1969, Sarasota Herald Tribune, English
  11. ^ A b c d Richard Brody, Gorilla in His Day , April 10, 2010, The New Yorker , English
  12. ^ A b William R. Nester , De Gaulle's Legacy: The Art of Power in France's Fifth Republic , ISBN 978-1-13748-395-9 , Palgrave Macmillan , 2014, p.
  13. ↑ Jean-Noel Kapferer , Rumors: Uses, Interpretations, and Images , ISBN 978-1-41285-1-558 , Transaction Publishers , New Jersey 2013, p. 34 , English
  14. ↑ a b Sascha Lehnartz, This is how the presidential women suffer in the Élysée Palace , August 25, 2014, Die Welt
  15. ↑ a b Malcolm Anderson , In Thrall to Political Change: Police and Gendarmerie in France , ISBN 978-0-19969-364-1 , Oxford University Press , Oxford 2011, p. 237 , English
  16. ↑ a b c Claude Pompidou , July 5, 2007, The Telegraph , English
  17. ^ A b Jonathan Fenby, The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the Present Day , ISBN 978-1-47112-931-5 , Simon and Schuster , 2015, p.
  18. ^ A b Erwin C. Hargrove and John E. Owens , Leadership in Context , ISBN 978-0-74252-8-536 , Rowman & Littlefield , 2003, p. 217 , English
  19. ↑ Not Jackie , July 21, 1969, Der Spiegel, issue 30/1969
  20. ^ Jacques Chirac, My Life in Politics , ISBN 978-1-13708-803-1 , Macmillan , 2012, pp.
  21. ^ Sabine Seggelke, France's President in Political Communication: Public Relations in the V Republic , ISBN 978-3-82589-9-752 , LIT Verlag , Münster 2007, pp. 145f
  22. ↑ Pompidou: A scandal resurrected , October 1, 1975, The Sydney Morning Herald , English
  23. ↑ David S. Bell, John Gaffney, The Presidents of the French Fifth Republic , ISBN 978-1-13730-284-7 , Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p. 105 , English
  24. ^ Paul Jankowski, Shades of Indignation: Political scandals in France, past and present , ISBN 978-0-85745-538-3 , Berghahn Books , p. 159 , English
  25. ↑ Günter Krenn, Romy & Alain: Eine Amour fou , ISBN 978-3-84120-662-6 , Structure Digital , 2013, p.
  26. ↑ Irmgard Hochreither, Alain Delon: "I break up when it suits me" , November 8, 2005, Stern Online
  27. ↑ Nick Rees-Roberts and Darren Waldron, Alain Delon: Style, Stardom and Masculinity , ISBN 978-1-62356-445-2 , Bloomsbury Publishing (USA), 2015, p. 84 , English
  28. ↑ on Dušan Savković see Dusan Savkovic (1922–1990) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  29. ^ A b David Samuels, Pink Panther, IV: What Alain Delon Has To Do With Robbers , Syndication of: The New Yorker. Translation: Philippe Zweifel, July 19, 2010, Berner Zeitung

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