Pierre Goldman
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Pierre Goldman, (June 22 1944, Lyon, September 20 1979,Paris) was a French left-wing intellectual who engaged himself in illegalism and was assassinated mysteriously. It has been suspected that the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) death squad was involved in his murder. His half-brother Jean-Jacques Goldman is a popular French singer.
Biography
Pierre Goldman was born at the end of World War II from a Polish Jewish family who actively participated in the interior French resistance movement. Pierre Goldman, who admired his parents' behaviour during the war, went to Venezuela in 1968, where he passed a year in the guerrilla. Returning to France in September 1969, he took out several hold-ups engaging himself in a kind of propaganda of the deed. In 1974, he was given a life-sentence by the Paris cour d'assises after being accused of a bloody hold-up on December 19, 1969, which he denied having committed (although he recognized three other hold-ups). The sentence was then cancelled by the Cour de cassation. He was finally acquitted of the murders that had taken place during the December 19, 1969 hold-up, but condemned to twelve years of prison for the other three hold-up. However, because of the length of his preventive detention and good behaviour, he was quickly released. Afterward, he collaborated to left-wing newspapers such as the Temps Modernes or Libération.
September 20, 1979 assassination
On September 20, 1979, he was assassinated at point-blank range. Eye-witnesses described three Spanish-looking persons. The police first suspected the mafia, however the murder was revendicated to the AFP news agency in the name of an unknown far-right group, "Honneur de la police" ("Police's Honour").
The perpetrators of Pierre Goldman's murder haven't been found. Various theories exist. The most serious one points to Marseilles' criminal underground, which would have assassinated him on behalf of the GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación), a death squad set up by Spanish officials to fight ETA in the 1980s. Pierre Goldman allegedly was helping ETA get weapons and planned to create an organization to fight the GAL. On the other side, VSD magazine points out toward the French secret services. Pierre Goldman's funeral was followed by 15 000 persons.
In April 2006, Libération published an interview of former police officer Lucien Aimé-Blanc, who stated that one of his informants, Jean-Pierre Maïone, had admitted, a few years later, having killed Goldman on behalf of the GAL: "Marseille boys members of GAL killed him with Maïone, who also talked about a commandant, former member of the SDECE [French secret service], without revealing me his identity." ()
Bibliography
- Souvenirs obscurs d'un juif polonais né en France, Le Seuil, 1975.
- L'ordinaire mésaventure d'Archibald Rapoport (1977)
- La vie rêvée de Pierre Goldman by Antoine Casubolo (2005, ISBN 2350760073)
- Pierre Goldman, le frère de l'ombre by Michaël Prazan, (2005, ISBN 2020678950)
- Matricule 518.941-2.87 : prison de Fresnes : correspondance d'un prévenu avec son professeur, Amnassar (2005, ISBN 2350730441)
References
External links
- () [link] June 9, 2005 Nouvel Observateur article on Michaël Prazan's book
- () [About Pierre Goldman] (on Jean-Jacques Goldman's website)
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