May 13, 2020, 02:21 PM
12131French serial-killer expert admits serial lies, including murder of imaginary wife
What's this guy's next gig? Working for CNN would be perfect.
https://currently.att.yahoo.co...erial-114414373.htmlFrench serial-killer expert admits serial lies, including murder of imaginary wifeAlison Flood
The GuardianMay 13, 2020, 6:44 AM CDT
An online investigation has exposed French author Stéphane Bourgoin, whose books about serial killers have sold millions of copies in France, as a serial liar.
Bourgoin is the author of more than 40 books and is widely viewed as a leading expert on murderers, having hosted a number of French television documentaries on the subject. He has claimed to have interviewed more than 70 serial killers, trained at the FBI’s base in Quantico, Virginia, and that his own wife was murdered in 1976, by a man who confessed to a dozen murders on his arrest two years later.
But in January, anonymous collective the 4ème Oeil Corporation accused him of lying about his past, and Bourgoin has now admitted to the French press that the wife never existed. He also acknowledged that he never trained with the FBI, never interviewed Charles Manson, met far fewer killers than he has previously claimed, and never worked as a professional footballer – another claim he had made.
“My lies have weighed me down,” he told Paris Match last week in his first interview about the accusations. “I have arrived at the balance-sheet time.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Le Parisien on Tuesday, he went further, describing himself as a mythomaniac. “I completely admit my faults. I am ashamed to have lied, to have concealed things,” Bourgoin said.
The wife he had said was murdered never existed, he admitted, saying that she was drawn from a young woman called Susan Bickrest, who he briefly met in a Florida bar. In 1975, 24-year-old Bickrest was murdered by the serial killer Gerald Stano, who later admitted to killing 41 women and was executed in 1998.
“It was bullshit that I took on,” Bourgoin told Le Parisien. “I didn’t want people to know the real identity of someone who was not my partner, but someone who I had met five or six times in Daytona Beach, and who I liked.”
Bourgoin told Le Figaro that he felt he needed psychological counselling, and that “all these lies are absolutely ridiculous, because if we objectively take stock of my work, I think it was enough in itself”. He said he had exaggerated and lied about his life because he had always felt he was not really loved.
“I am profoundly and sincerely sorry. I am ashamed of what I did, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
May 13, 2020, 02:40 PM
arfmelWonder if he’s seen Morgan Fairchild naked, several times?
May 13, 2020, 02:45 PM
ZSMICHAELDuring my Residency there was a patient on the psychiatric unit who claimed to be a famous surgeon. It was later found out the his credentials were totally bogus and that his reason for admission had to do with dodging the authorities. The guy was incredibly bright and convincing. It was not until his case was chosen for Rounds that his scheme was uncovered.
The term mythomaniac is a new one for me. He could rival Brian Williams but he would need a serious makeover. Maybe real late CNN.
May 13, 2020, 03:28 PM
IntrepidTravelerquote:
“all these lies are absolutely ridiculous, because if we objectively take stock of my work, I think it was enough in itself”
Yeah, no. I don't think it works this way. In addition to "mythomaniac", I'd add "narcissist".
May 13, 2020, 03:49 PM
2012BOSS302There are experts just like him in the media, climate change and infectious disease fields. Actually quite a few other ones.
May 13, 2020, 04:33 PM
parabellumThis just further reinforces my opinion that everyone on the planet is full of shit.
May 13, 2020, 04:46 PM
ChuckFinleyThere's medication for that

May 13, 2020, 04:48 PM
parabellumYeah? Well, you're gonna need about 8 billion doses.