Kriti Mehrotra
While Stéphane Bourgoin has undeniably been a key name in the true crime world for decades, Hulu’s ‘Killer Lies: Chasing A True Crime Con Man’ takes a much deeper look into him. It actually shines a light upon not only the way he portrayed himself as an industry expert for decades before all his lies came to light but also his convoluted explanations for why he did what he did. There’s no excusing his actions, his deceptions, or his obsessions, yet it does seem to be true that he only ever wished to be the very best in his field across the whole wide world.
Stéphane Bourgoin Hails From a Family of Highflyers
It was on March 14, 1953, when Stéphane was born to Franziska Glöckner and Lucien Joseph Jean Bourgoin as their only child, unaware he had at least three half-siblings from his father’s other unions. The truth is he admittedly never bonded or communicated much with either parent growing up owing to their respective ages — 43 and 56 — as well as all that they had accomplished. In fact, for him, it was as if they were untouchable real-life heroes, which is just part of why he felt like there were expectations he had to live up to from an early age in every area of life.
It turns out Stéphane’s father had indeed joined the French army at age 17 after lying on his forms, just to fight in the trenches during World War I before ultimately returning to study engineering at École Polytechnique.
As if that’s not enough, he even fought in the Second World War as a long-time civilian resistant, all the while his future wife Franziska served as a double spy so as to protect her nation. All this, and much more about this duo’s individual efforts during the wars, are actually not only verifiable but also well-documented, so their son did carry some weight on his shoulders.
Stéphane actually didn’t do well academically and even dropped out of high school without his diploma upon being expelled three times — he just wasn’t interested in this traditional path. However, now that all his ensuing career-driving lies have come to light, he believes he let his parents down in more ways than one — that he didn’t do them, their work, or their memories justice. “I know I very much disappointed my parents,” he said in the show. “What I did was s**t. My parents, who had succeeded so much in life, who had done so many things, extraordinary things. I was scared, really deeply scared that I wouldn’t achieve, just a little bit of what they had done.”
Stéphane Bourgoin’s Career Stemmed From Morbid Curiosity
Considering the way Stéphane had always maintained he wished to work in movies in any way, shape, or form, he actually came to the US in the 1970s and briefly even lived in California. He made several connections, partook in at least three B-grade erotic films, served as a columnist for such flicks, and even penned some original work that was actually made and published. However, by the time the early 1980s had rolled around, he had evolved into an employee of a small Parisian bookshop called Au Troisième Œil (The Third Eye), which he later bought. His specialty for a while was then genre films before it quickly turned to serial killers.
It was in the early 1990s that Stéphane began presenting himself as a serial killer expert, declaring he had become consumed by them after one had taken away his girlfriend Eileen from him. As per his initial accounts, he had arrived home one day to find his partner not just lying dead in a poll of her own blood but also mutilated into small pieces as well as nearly decapitated. He later even showed a beautiful picture of his late partner on national television, yet it has since come to light that this never happened – he claims a serial killer killed someone he knew but that the woman in the photo was just a random Spanish actress.
Stéphane Bourgoin Undeniably Lied a Lot Throughout His Career
It can not be denied that Stéphane’s decision to go down this route earned him a lot of sympathy over the years and even got him countless opportunities to interact with other survivors of serial killers and family members of those who’d lost a loved one. He apparently even got to interview many serial killers, but the extent of them was all a lie, too – he used to claim he interviewed 77 killers throughout his 4-decade career, but it was less than 30. However, it’s imperative to note that only 8 of them have ever been taped, and it has been indicated that he often exaggerated on national television so as to get more likes, so the actual number could be much lower.
As if that’s not enough, one of the primary aspects that brought Stéphane countless opportunities with books, television, and media was the claim he had been trained by the FBI at Quantico. But the reality is that he had only been to Quantico once – as a visitor to interview one of the world’s first-ever serial killer profilers, John Douglas, a fact that only came to light decades into his career. What’s even more shocking is that many of the claims he made on television over the years were repaired or seemed to have been taken from notes of others who had interviewed serial killers, bringing all his credibility into question.
Stéphane Bourgoin Now Leads a Relatively Quiet Life
Once Stéphane’s lies started being exposed towards the end of 2019 with the help of 4th Eye Corporation — a group of French true crime fans who had caught the discrepancies in his tales before deciding to out them — his whole world turned upside down. He initially tried to deny all the allegations and doubled down by releasing a book. Yet, the evidence was too much, driving him to gradually start conceding to some lies as well as exaggerations. However, Stéphane still gave some contradicting answers to different interviewers and wouldn’t concede to everything or get his story straight, resulting in all his publishers and sponsors dropping him.
Since then, it appears as if he has been leading a relatively quiet life in Paris, France — he continues to maintain his innocence and asserts nothing he did was criminal, so he doesn’t know why fans are angry, not realizing it was as if he took advantage of their vulnerability by asserting himself in situations he purportedly had no business in being. Nevertheless, this 71-year-old does still have the satisfaction that he got to make a few documentaries, interview many serial killers, and publish 75 books (even under the pen name Etienne Jallieu for the really gory stuff) throughout his career.
Read More: Kevin Lewis: Where is the Killer Now?
