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Serial killer expert Stéphane Bourgoin made up his entire life, he even invented a 'murdered wife' for attention

An anonymous collective the 4ème Oeil Corporation, in January, had accused author Stéphane Bourgoin of lying about his past and exposed him as a serial liar
UPDATED MAY 13, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Famous French author Stéphane Bourgoin, whose books about serial killers have sold millions of copies, is reportedly a serial liar, an online investigation has discovered. Bourgoin who has hosted multiple French television documentaries on serial killers is widely viewed as a leading expert on the subject. 

Bourgoin has written over 40 books and has claimed to have interviewed more than 70 serial killers, including Charles Manson, and trained at the FBI’s base in Quantico, Virginia. He has also claimed that his own wife was murdered in 1976 by a man who confessed to committing a dozen murders after he was arrested two years later. Bourgoin also claimed to have ­advised the FBI, Scotland Yard, and French police on solving difficult­ murder cases. The writer even claimed to have had a brief spell as a professional footballer for the Parisian team Red Star.

An anonymous collective the 4ème Oeil Corporation, however, in January, accused the author of lying about his past. Bourgoin has now admitted to the media that his slain wife did not exist. The writer has also admitted that he never trained with the FBI, never interviewed Charles Manson, and had met fewer killers than he boasted of previously. Bourgoin acknowledged that he never worked as a professional footballer either.

Bourgoin, while talking to Paris Match last week, addressed the accusations, saying: "My lies have weighed me down. I have arrived at the balance-sheet time." The writer, in an interview with Le Parisien on May 12,  described himself as a mythomaniac. “I completely admit my faults. I am ashamed to have lied, to have concealed things,” Bourgoin said. "Sometimes I make films in my head. I have ­always wanted people to like me."

He revealed to the outlet that his non-existential wife was drawn from a young woman called Susan Bickrest he had briefly met at a bar in Florida. Bickrest, 24, was murdered in 1975 by the serial killer Gerald Stano, who eventually admitted to killing 41 women. He was executed in 1998.

 “It was bulls**t 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."

The 67-year-old told another French outlet Le Figaro that he felt he was in need of psychological counseling. He said, "all these lies are absolutely ridiculous, because if we objectively take stock of my work, I think it was enough in itself." The author said that he exaggerated and lied about his life because he had always felt that he was not really loved by people.

"I am profoundly and sincerely sorry. I am ashamed of what I did, it’s absolutely ridiculous," Bourgoin said.

The anonymous group, of eight "criminal case enthusiasts," which exposed Bourgoin, posted nine videos on YouTube in January, demonstrating the lies of the author. One of the members said: "We want him to stop making money by telling nonsense about the deaths of real people."

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