Philippe Daudet

The Business Philippe Daudet

Young absconder, Philippe Daudet presents himself under a false name to Georges Vidal, the administrator of the Libertaire (daily anarchist) on November 22nd, 1923. He entrusts to him his sympathy to the Anarchisme and informs him of its intention to make an attack against Raymond Poincaré (president of the Council), or Alexandre Millerand (then president of the République). The following day, he reformulates his desires of assassination Politique with the anarchistic and police informer bookseller Flaouter. This last tries from of to dissuade it and warns a police chief of the General security of its intentions.

November 24th, 1923, around 4 p.m., the taxi in which Philippe Daudet is stops abruptly on the Magenta boulevard after having heard a shot. The driver notes that its customer was reached of one ball to the head. Philippe Daudet dies two hours later with Lariboisière, anonymously. His/her father, Leon Daudet, will recognize the corpse two days later.

The General security will conclude very quickly with a suicide, but Leon Daudet does not believe in this thesis. Having been the object of various threats, he believes rather in a anarchistic Complot because he had itself be the target of an attack in February of the same year. Indeed, the young anarchist Germaine Berton envisaged to assassinate Leon Daudet, but it is his/her colleague of the French Action Marius Plateau (directing of the Camelots of the king) which was killed.

The autopsy did not make it possible to draw from défintive conclusion on what had caused the death of the Daudet young person. This event started the anger of Leon Daudet who wrote many articles in the French Action (daily newspaper) where he violently denounced the General security, the taxi driver (named Bajot), the bookseller Flaoutter (which was also the former lover of Germaine Berton) and even the republican government. These confused attacks caused him legal troubles.

Thus, Leon Daudet accepted a complaint in Diffamation on behalf of the taxi driver, which was worth to him to be condemned to 5000 francs of fine and five months of prison. After a spectacular rendering, he is imprisoned with Health on June 13rd, 1927. Thanks to the intervention of the Street pedlars of the king, he manages to escape following a false telephone call and flees in Belgium. Following this rocambolesque escape, the French press will ridicule the ministry for the Interior and the General security. Daudet will be pardoned by Daladier on December 30th, 1929 and it will return in France.

Murder or suicide?

If the business Philippe Daudet caused other lawsuits, the death of the young man will never be elucidated. The authorities maintained the thesis of the suicide, but the Daudet family and the French Action always maintained that it was of a murder with political character or a plot implying their anarchistic or republican adversaries. The anarchists had very early dissociated themselves from the business, pretexting never not to have been in liaison with Philippe Daudet before the day preceding its death.

As regards the republican plot, nothing makes it possible to accredit the thesis of it, but it is certain that Leon Daudet was disturbing (it had just been appointed of Paris), it had caused the resignation of certain ministers by its articles flamers and, because its positions of Extrême right-hand side, its credibility could easily be questioned.

This fact various gave place to multiple publications, of which a work of Mrs. Marthe Daudet dedicated to the memory of his/her son.

References

Henry Bordeaux, political Lawsuits: Germaine Berton, Philippe Daudet , in Written of Paris , No 199,1961, p. 56-64.
Rene Breval, Philippe Daudet was indeed assassinated , Paris, Éditions of the Scorpion, 1959.
Marthe Daudet, the Life and the death of Philippe , Paris, Arthème Fayard and Co, 1926.
Rene Durnerin, the truth on the assassination of Philippe Daudet . Writes shorthand pleading of Me Durnerin to the audience of May 13rd, 1927 of the court of criminal appeal of the Court of appeal, Paris, Librairie of the French Action, 1927.
Marcel Guitton and André Seguin, Of the scandal to the murder. The death of Philippe Daudet , Paris, Books of the Fortnight, 1925.
Georges-Louis-Willem Larpent (colonel), the business Philippe Daudet according to the Scherdlin indictment. The public prosecutor with the help of the assassins , Paris, Bookstore of " The Action française" , 1925.
Louis Noguères, the suicide of Philippe Daudet , marked pleading November 12th and 13rd 1925 before the Court of Assizes of the Seine, Paris, Bookstore of work, 1926.
Gabriel Oberson, a famous cause: the death of Philippe Daudet. Progress achieved at the conclusion of the lawsuit Bajot , Freiburg, Printing works of L. Delaspre, 1926.
Maurice Privat, the enigma Philippe Daudet , Paris-Neuilly, " The Documents secrets" , 1931.
Georges-Michel Thomas, Flaouter and the business Daudet , in Books of Iroise , new series, 33e year, No 1,1986, p. 56-57.
Leon Daudet." The political police. Its means and its crimes". (Chapter VI). Denoel and Steele.Paris.1934

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