On Sunday March 17, 2013, around 10 a.m., the lifeless body of Olivier Metzner was found near Boëdic, an island in the Gulf of Morbihan. The autopsy confirms that the famous Parisian lawyer committed suicide. There was “no intervention by a third party,” said Vannes prosecutor Thierry Phelippeau. In addition, a letter evoking his desire to end his life is found at his home.
Tenor of the Paris bars, Olivier Metzner excels in the art of defending “the most powerful”, with a reputation as an intelligent, efficient but manipulative man. However, behind the haze of Cuban cigars that he smokes without limit hides a more secretive, more enigmatic man.
No one is allowed to approach his private life. “He was a very mysterious, very secretive man, who compartmentalized a lot” explains Sophie Bonnet, journalist who investigated the death of the lawyer and author of the book The Master and the Assassin (Robert Laffont, 2022)in Voices of Crime. From this personal life we only flush out a fascination for the ocean, hence the purchase of the island of Boëdic in 2010, and a relationship with Alexandre Despallières, for more than twenty years.
I quickly became convinced that Alexandre had something to do with that death.
Sophie Bonnet
Between the two men, it is the very antithesis. Alexandre is handsome, sunny and adored. Olivier is lonely and unloved. However, pomp and fury are the common denominators of their affair. The art of lying is a predominant knowledge of the two lovers, from their meeting until their death. “They are both great liars. I would often have the impression that these are the two facets of the same personality piece that fit together in a very mysterious way”, explains Sophie Bonnet.
It was in gay Paris in 1993 that Olivier Metzner and Alexandre Despallières met. To At the time, a young film and record producer wanted to file a complaint for poisoning, theft and fraud against Alexandre Despallières. The famous litigant is responsible for clearing this beautiful Apollo in distress. Therefore, begins a relationship of control and immorality.
He was someone you couldn’t get rid of
Sophie Bonnet
In this life of excess that takes place, one falls in love. The other is not. “I think Olivier Metzner passionately loved Alexandre Despallières. The reverse is not true, in my opinion”, confesses Sophie Bonnet. And for good reason, Alexandre Despallières found in this genius of the bar, his only means of subsistence. This is a hold on the lawyer, unfortunately in love with this angel who sows death.
This one-sided romance loses its magic when the gigolo is arrested for the murder of his former boyfriend, To fart Ikin, the famous music producer. The game has become dangerous and Olivier Metzner has a lot to lose. For Sophie Bonnet, Alexandre Despallières understands that he is about to lose the last card he has left: “From there, there is a kind of game of cat and mouse that will take place. Alexandre will persist in finding his place, making him sing, swindle, take everything that can be taken “.
Finally, their story will have a doubly fatal outcome: nine years after her lover, Alexandre Despallières died in January 2022, leaving behind unanswered questions.
>> Voices of Crime are lawyers, investigators, relatives of victims, suspects or culprits. These key witnesses confide in the microphone of RTL journalists. Unpublished testimonies, which shed new light on justice and major criminal cases today.
Twice a month, one of these Voices of Crime tells us her point of view on a criminal case. An RTL podcast.
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