Pierre Bonny

Pierre Bonny (1895[1] 26 December 1944) was a French police officer. As an inspector, he was the investigating officer on the 1923 Seznec case, in which he has been accused of falsifying the evidence.[2][3] He was praised as one of the most talented police officers in the country helping to solve the notorious Stavisky financial scandal in 1934.[4] In 1935 he was jailed for 3 years on corruption charges.

During the Second World War, Bonny joined the French Gestapo, known as the Carlingue. He was executed by firing squad in 1944.[5]

He is held to be the basis for the character of Monsieur Philibert in Patrick Modiano's wartime-set novel La Ronde de Nuit.[6]

References

  1. Pierre Bonny entry at France Justice
  2. Between Justice And Politics: The Ligue Des Droits De L'Homme, 1898-1945, William D. Irvine, Leland Stanford Jr University, 2007
  3. The French Against the French: Collaboration and Resistance, Milton Dank, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1974, p.214
  4. Mug shots: an archive of the famous, infamous, and most wanted, Raynal Pellicer, Abrams, 2009, pp.125-127
  5. The French Against the French: Collaboration and Resistance, Milton Dank, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1974, p.221
  6. Vichy's Afterlife: History and Counterhistory in Postwar France, Richard Joseph Golsan, University of Nebraska Press, 2000