Provenance and early years Christian Didier was born at
Saint Dié, then a small and relatively isolated industrial town in the
Vosges foothills to the south-east of
Nancy. His father is described in sources as an "artisan hairdresser", with whom he was frequently involved in violent conflict. Despite more than one attempt, he never passed his
school final exams. Later, testifying at his trial in 1995, Marie-Thérèse Didier, his mother, described a troubled childhood and youth, characterised by failure at school, rejection by girls and possible employers, and suicidal concerns.
Chauffeur to the stars Between 1974 and 1983 he held a driving job, working as a chauffeur for a number of high-profile celebrities. Based in Paris, he rubbed shoulders with stars such as
Salvador Dalí,
Charlie Chaplin,
Richard Burton,
David Bowie,
Catherine Deneuve and
Romy Schneider. In May 1985, he nevertheless published one of his books, "La Balade d'Early Bird", at his own expense.
Publicity An early publicity stunt involved walking the 300 miles from Paris to Strasbourg in 1980 with an unpublished book of memoires concerning his travels in Australia under one arm.) Subsequent commentators – albeit in most cases only after the killing of René Bousquet six years later – have said the court should have taken Didier's actions at the
Prison Saint-Paul much more seriously.
René Bousquet It was now that Didier selected a new target:
René Bousquet, On the morning of 8 June 1993, Cristian Didier lit a candle to
Saint Joan of Arc. or five bullets Now he started telephoning the media. "I'm the one who's killed this piece of shit. I have a message for you" (''" C'est moi qui ai tué cette ordure, j'ai un message à vous délivrer."
) Journalists from Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the first to arrive, followed by representatives from Libération'',
Television France 1 and
Radio Monte Carlo. He also called
Television France 2, but the secretaries taking his call decided he was a fantasist and refused to connect him to the news desk. Didier was sentenced to ten years of
criminal detention. There were also times when he appeared deeply and genuinely contrite. Back in 1993, Didier's trial had attracted extensive press coverage, and following his sentencing a support committee was set up, comprising various "patriots" and those representing wartime deportees to the death camps. The trial of
Maurice Papon in 1997/98 generated a renewed media focus on Didier and an intensified campaign for his release. The council of Saint-Dié, his
home town, submitted a request for clemency to the
Court of Assizes in
Paris on his behalf. In 2013, Christian Didier launched a defamation case against the author
Alain Minc. In a biographical book on
René Bousquet published the previous year, Minc had described Didier as "fou" (
loosely, "crazy", "mad"). (In respect of a slightly earlier legal case triggered by the same book, the author
Alain Minc fared less well: when the plagiarism case launched by the Paris author
Pascale Froment came to trial it was determined that Minc should pay Froment damages of €5,000, along with a contribution to court costs of €6,000.) Didier's final written piece, a short autobiographical volume entitled
Fugaces traits de plume… en roue libre! was completed in 2014. It appears never to have been published, albeit there are mentions of it having at one stage been accessible online. He gave his final press interview in April 2015, still concerned to obtain some form of public rehabilitation. Christian Didier died at
Saint-Dié on 14 May 2015. ==Further reading==