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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Was Camus assassinated?

Kim Willsher writes in The Observer that mystery surrounds the death of French literary great, Albert Camus.

According to a theory posed by the Italian newsaper Corriere della Sera, the car crash in which Camus (pictured) was killed in 1960 was no accident.

The tragedy happened just two years after Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  In his pocket when he died was an unused return train ticket from Provence to Paris.  The writer, just 46, had intended to travel with his wife and their teenaged twins, but his publisher, Michel Gallmard offered to drive him.

Galliard's car slid on ice and crashed into a tree.  Camus was killed instantly, and Galliard died a few days later.

Until now, it has been considered an accident.  Now, it is claimed the Camus was the victim of a KGB plot, in retaliation for criticizing the Soviet Union.  It may seem a farfetched theory, but it is based on the written word -- on a diary entry written by Jan Zabrana, a Czech poet.

Zabrana writes, "I heard something very strange from the mouth of a man who knew lots of things and had very informed sources. According to him, the accident that had cost Albert Camus his life in 1960 was organized by Soviet spies.  They damaged a tyre on the car using a piece of sophisticated equipment that cut or made a hole in the wheel at speed."

The operation, according to this unnamed source, was Soviet foreign minister Shepilov.

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