The novelist, from the investigation file of a murder case, signs this book in which he supports Alain Laprie.
Pause in literature for Philippe Jaenada: the novelist, in a separate book from the rest of his work, puts himself at the service of a man convicted of homicide who, according to him, is innocent.
Without proof and without confession, published Thursday by Mialet-Barrault editions, is a plea for an ordinary man, in prison after a little publicized affair. Alain Laprie, 66, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for the murder in March 2004 in Pompignac, near Bordeaux, of his aunt Marie Cescon, 88.
The verdict, on appeal, was pronounced in February 2020 by the Assize Court in Angoulême. But at first instance, in Bordeaux in 2018, the accused was acquitted.
“I have to write quickly, no one will blame me (no): literature, sometimes, too bad”, begins Philippe Jaenada on the first page. And to unfold the facts, from the investigation file.
Disturbing Conclusions
Philippe Jaenada has become familiar with reading the minutes, expert opinions and other indictment orders. From the case of the 1964 murder of 10-year-old Luc Taron, which earned a certain Lucien Léger four decades behind bars, he drew In the spring of monsters (2021), which challenges many certainties.
From his examination of the Marie Cescon affair, he draws disturbing conclusions for the investigators: the octogenarian succumbed to a very violent attack on his house, which was then set on fire by the murderer. At what time ? Experts will say first that this fire started at a time when Alain Laprie left Pompignac. Then, by eluding or twisting a few established elements, at a time when the accused is at his aunt’s.
Driven to write
The demonstration, which requires the reader to remain attentive, has the merit of rigor. But she almost never was: “I don’t want to write this book. I no longer want to talk about death and news items. Even the word literature, I have nausea”, explains the author to the AFP, one year after embarking on this business.
“But once I started looking at the file, all the while being like ‘Don’t write this book,’ having my editor saying don’t write this book, it’s not good for you, for your career’, I realize that if I don’t write it down, if I tell Alain Laprie that I’m sorry he’s in prison, that it’s touching but no, then I won’t be able to pass in front of a mirror,” he adds.
Little explored genre
Rare are the books that take the opposite view of judicial truth. The gender model is The Red Sweater (1978), where the journalist Gilles Perrault intends to demonstrate the innocence of Christian Ranucci, executed for the murder of a young girl, Marie-Dolorès Rambla. “The book that marked me the most”, says Philippe Jaenada. Even if, like other connoisseurs of the file, he identifies the blind spots and exaggerations: Ranucci has killed well, slice the writer.
Guilty at all costs (1984) by Gisèle Tichané, on a rape case in 1981 where the accused was called Luc Tangorre, had a disastrous fate. Because this man supported by stars and intellectuals when he proclaimed his innocence, and pardoned by President François Mitterrand, ended up doing it again.
It is therefore his credibility that Philippe Jaenada is putting at stake. “What is needed now is for someone more powerful than me, a great lawyer, a minister, I don’t know, to take over this cause,” he said. Alain Laprie’s lawyer is preparing to file a request for review. This procedure is successful only in extremely rare cases.