Markovic affair

 Markovic affair (deep event,  assassination,  sexual blackmail)

Stevan Marković with Alain Delon's wife Nathalie
Date	1968 - 12 January 1976
Location	France
Description	When a sexual blackmailer was killed in 196, it soon turned out he had pictures of very prominent persons, including future President Georges Pompidou and his wife.

The Marković affair was a sexual blackmail operation in France in the late 1960s, involving Yugoslav petty criminals, the Corsican mafia, French President Georges Pompidou and his wife the movie star Alain Delon, and indications of deep state involvement.

The public part of the affair started when one of Delon's bodyguards, Stevan Marković, was found dead on 1 October 1968. It soon turned out a possible motive was that Marković filmed wealthy participants in compromising situations with hidden cameras at drug and sex parties he organized, and then had attempted to blackmail them.

Both the French movie star Alain Delon and his longtime friend François Marcantoni were questioned by the police for the murder, but were released. Marković's murder is still unsolved.

There are indications that the blackmail operation was arranged by deep state circles around one of the mightiest businessmen in France, Ambroise Roux, before Marković became too greedy.

As part of the affair, sexually explicit photos allegedly of Claude Pompidou, Pompidou's wife, were found in Marković's car after his death. A former police chief and spook Lucien Aimé-Blanc, involved in obtaining the photos, stated that they had been planted by Gaullist factions who were opposed to Pompidou. George Pompidou claimed that the woman in the pictures was a prostitute who was made out to look exactly like Claude.

Stevan Marković and Miloš Milošević

Stevan Marković was born on 10 May 1937 in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia). In the 1950s Marković and his cousin Milos Milošević (aka Milos Milos) were low-level criminals in Belgrade.

Marković left Yugoslavia in 1958, heading to Italy first and then over the Alps into France, where he settled into the immigrant community in Paris. Struggling for money, he spent seven years in poverty, taking occasional jobs as a photographer, living a transient lifestyle, sleeping in boarding houses, and occasionally being on the street. Eventually, he put the skills he'd learned in Belgrade to use, becoming involved in low-level crime and ending up in a Belgian prison after acting as a getaway driver for a robbery gone wrong.

Milos met the movie star Alian Delon in 1962 when he was making a film in Belgrade in co-production with Yugoslavian studios. The film would never complete production, but during his stay in the country, Delon would hire Milos as a bodyguard (and possible lover). They went to Venice for the filming, then to Paris, where Milos would stay until 1964 when he decided to try and find fame in Hollywood, having introduced Delon to his future wife, Nathalie Barthelemy.

With Milos leaving, Delon needed a replacement bodyguard. Remembering his cousin, Milos would suggest his cousin Stevan Marković. Delon helped get him out of prison, and Marković was suddenly thrust into a new world of money and connections, with Delon knowing the kind of career criminals that Marković liked.

Milos had a similar trajectory in Hollywood, marrying showgirl Cynthia Bouron who was notorious for affairs with several prominent Hollywood names of the era. By 1965, Milos was having an illicit liaison with actress Barbara Ann Thomason, the estranged wife of Mickey Rooney. Both Milos and Thomason were found dead at Rooney's Los Angeles home in 1966, with the official inquiry finding that Milos shot Thomason with Rooney's revolver. However, rumor and context would suggest the two had been murdered. On October 20, 1973, Bouron was found dead, stuffed in the trunk of a car parked outside a grocery store in Studio City, California. She'd been tied up and beaten to death, with her killer never being found.

A heavy gambler who was often suspected of cheating, Marković was known for his high-class parties, where he would set up secret cameras throughout the house, especially in the bedrooms. He thus collected many compromising photos of the guests that could have damaged their social status.

While he most likely did this on behalf of a greater network, he the pictures for blackmail, especially since he approached several newspapers trying to sell them. Surprisingly, some of these photographs would be alleged to be directly targeting Delon and Marcantoni themselves. However, the most important photos that Marković supposedly possessed were scandalous shots of Pompidou's wife. That was a major concern to Pompidou, who was preparing to run for president.

On 1 October 1968, Marković's body was found in a public dump in the village of Élancourt, Yvelines, west of Paris. A first autopsy indicated that the victim succumbed to blows to the head and neck by a "blunt, bulky and heavy object". On October 28, a new autopsy of Marković's body is performed. It shows that the victim was killed by a 6.35 mm bullet fired in the back of the neck. Although many people had a reason to kill him, his murder is still unsolved.

Alain Delon and François Marcantoni's involvement

Alain Delon in 1959

In the mid-to-late 1960s, Alain Delon was one of the hottest movie stars in Europe. Yet, despite the money and fame, Delon was involved with the notorious Corsican gangster boss François Marcantoni.

Marcantoni was a well known Corsican mafia boss and had been a noted member of the resistance during the Second World War, receiving the War Cross and the Medal of Resistance. He had feuds with other classic names from French criminal history, such as Pierrot le Fou and Francis Vanverberghe, enjoying ingratiating himself into establishment circles and the glamorous lifestyles of people like Delon and other celebrities like Tino Rossi, Brigitte Bardot, Charles Aznavour, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Ava Gardner.

Delon had a fascination with gangsters, often seen as typecast playing them and counting real ones amongst his closest friends. He knew Petit René, Le Boxeur, Le Coréen and even Gaetano “Tany” Zampa, who was linked to The Marseille Bar Massacre and the assassination of Marcel Francisci. Speaking with the New York Times in 1970, Delon would say that his associations were

probably something you wouldn’t understand,” adding that “It’s a question of origin. I myself am Corsican, and in places like that, they still have a sense of honor and the given word. I don’t worry about what a friend does. Each one is responsible for his own act. It doesn’t matter what he does. Most of them, the gangsters I know… were my friends before I became an actor.

Dead Marković

Delon became increasingly concerned at his bodyguard’s steadily more demanding lifestyle. Delon offered Marković a large sum in severance pay which was rejected, with the bodyguard wanting more alongside unspecified conditions that the actor couldn’t meet. Most believe that it was Delon’s unwillingness to pay that made Marković turn to blackmail.

All would likely have remained well for Marković had he not decided to start shopping the photos he was taking to the national press, the bodyguard deciding to betray Delon and Marcantoni by including pictures of the pair in what he was offering. But while Delon was certainly a megastar in France and Marcantoni was a known criminal, their importance was dwarfed by who was in other photos that Marković had in his possession — Claude Pompidou, the wife of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. Both were said to have been regulars at Marković’s parties. However, tensions had arisen between De Gaulle and Pompidou during the campaign. The prime minister resigned just a month later, with Pompidou being touted as the man who should replace France’s war leader, now 78.

On September 22, 1968, Marković was last seen on his way to a meeting with the convicted François Marcantoni. At that time he was living with compatriot Uroš Milićević in a Paris apartment owned by Delon. On October 1, 1968, a homeless man found Marković's body in a rubbish dump near Élancourt, in the greater Paris area. An initial autopsy concluded that Marković had died from a blow to the head. Marković had defended himself before his death; the body was gagged and wrapped in a plastic bag.

After a tip, a second autopsy on October 28, 1968 found that he had in fact been shot execution-style. The 9 mm projectile was still in the victim's head. Apparently, the shot was intended to be hidden by subsequently smashing the skull.

On October 5, the victim's brother, Alexander Marković, who lives in Belgrade, presented three letters to the Paris police, which Milićević, on Marković's instructions, had forwarded to him. One of the three letters, written in Serbo-Croatian, accused Delon and Marcantoni of an imminent act of violence:

If anything should happen to me, stick to Alain Delon, his wife and his friend François Marcantoni, a Corsican and real gangster, residing at 42 Boulevard des Batignolles

Delon was arrested for 24 hours on October 12, 1968 (“garde à vue”) and interrogated for hours despite a fever. Since Delon was filming the film The Swimming Pool (original title: La Piscine) in St. Tropez at the suspected time of the crime, he was not charged. In addition to him, his wife Nathalie (who had to travel from London), his agent Georges Beaume, his driver Marcel Gasparini, his friend and photographer Jean-Pierre Bonotte and other acquaintances of Delon and the victim were questioned. Delon initially denied having known Marković at all. Unfortunately for him, the police had possession of letters to friends in which Marković described his dire financial situation and displeasure working for Delon and his wife.

In one letter, he hinted that he intended to “do something big” to turn his life around. The letters also identified Marcantoni, and police investigations quickly uncovered the sex parties and those involved, including Delon and the Pompidous, plus the allegations that Marković had photos of Claude Pompidou.

Patard initially brought charges against Marcantoni, who in May 1968 had purchased a mattress packed in a plastic bag of the kind used to dispose of the body of Marković, which led to Marcantoni being held in custody, but later released.

In 1975 the file on the Marković case was closed without result. The witness Uroš Milićević, who was the last to see Marković, was found shot dead in a hotel in Brussels in 1976.

Rumors swirled that Delon had been involved in the killing as Marković had him on camera having gay sex, which many believed would hurt his status as a sex symbol and major European movie star. However, when questioned on the BBC over the matter in 1969, Delon was happy to hint that he was bisexual without directly saying so, seeming to contradict the belief that he’d want to cover up his sexuality. However, what exactly what act were on film, is still unknown. Delon's commanding officer during the war in Indochina described hims as "a sadist, a boy who enjoyed killing, a sexual deviant.”

Akov's allegations

At the end of October, the examining magistrate René Patard received a letter addressed to Alain Delon by a Yugoslav held in the prison of Fresnes. The author is named Boriboj Akov (Akow). Aged 25, he is imprisoned for theft, concealment and possession of weapons. His letter, dated October 10, was intercepted by the prison services. It is written in French, whereas, according to Georges Pompidou, Akov is only an “illiterate little hoodlum”, a police informer to boot. Akov expresses himself as a friend of the Delon family, indicates that he has learned of Marković's death and declares “to sympathize with the emotion” that Alain Delon must feel. On October 30, Inspector Georges Manceau went to Fresnes to question Akov. This one delivers, on the behavior of Marković, a testimony which corresponds to the rumors which agitate all Paris. Marković would photograph his female conquests in lascivious poses, in order to blackmail them. The two Yugoslavs would have participated in "fine parties" in the company of women of the upper class. Akov goes further: he is said to have accompanied Marković to an “orgy” organized in a villa in Montfort-l'Amaury, in which “the Prime Minister's wife” also took part.

These allegations are so huge that the police officer asks Akov to be careful and asks him to provide proof of what he is saying. Akov then changes his mind and is content with innocuous statements on the record. Manceau reports on the interview to Commissioner Samson and then takes a few days off. On his return, he finds that his office has been broken into and that the notes he took – apart from the minutes – during the interview have disappeared. Commissioner Samson explains to him that it was he who stole them in order to send them urgently to the Minister of the Interior, Raymond Marcellin.

On November 5, Judge Patard hears Akov in Fresnes. He maintains having participated during the summer of 1966 in an evening in a villa of Montfort-l'Amaury. However, he declares that he saw nothing abnormal and denies having mentioned “the Prime Minister's wife. This hearing record, which nullifies Akov's previous statements. The villa of Montfort-l'Amaury where the evening took place is identified as being that of the industrialist Ambroise Roux.

Involvement of the Pompidous

Claude Pomdiou, the wife of future French President Georges Pompidou

Georges Pompidou, who also attended the parties

The Pompidou couple, especially Claude Pompidou, belonged (at least until Pompidou took office as Prime Minister in 1962) to the jet set of Paris and St. Tropez. They associated with intellectuals and artists

The death of Stevan Marković provoked many rumours, many suggesting the existence of group sex photos with Madame Pompidou. Pompidou was then running his campaign for presidency and wanted to dispel them as soon as possible. He formally told the public that all the talk concerning the Marković affair were rumours. Pompidou himself accused Louis Wallon and Henri Capitant of using the French espionage service SDECE to set him up. He admitted that he and his wife had been at parties with Marković and Delon. Some claimed that Pompidou ordered Marković's murder in revenge for the supposed photos of his wife. Even though he claimed the woman in the photos was a prostitute who simply greatly resembled his wife, the rumours would still hurt his campaign. After he nevertheless won the 1969 election, he named Alexandre de Marenches as the head of the SDECE with an order to reform it.

Pompidou was convinced that a group of Gaullists were responsible for the character assassination campaign against him and his wife.

A former police chief, Lucien Aimé-Blanc, who had long been involved with the SDECE, claimed in his memoirs that an anonymous friend asked him to produce a prostitute who was blonde and in her forties, who was then used as Madame Pompidou's lookalike and photographed her in compromising positions with another woman.

Rumour

Jean Violet was reputed to have been involved in the Markovic affair.

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References

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