Page Content (OCR)
police. recent articles in the papers. "Yes," he said, "I've dropped everything." 145 PURPLE JUSTICE explained they were the remains of a Roman via built by Julius Caesar. I doubt if the inhabitants of the Purple Justice know that they live on a spot where Roman legions were marching two thousand years ago on their way to conquer Britain. When I visited Pontoise again in June of 1980 to investigate the Fontaine case, these childhood memories came flooding back. I could understand the circumstances that surrounded Franck's experience, and I was in a better position than Guieu or Esterle to consider the evidence. And the evidence did not make any sense. First among all the contradictions, of course, is an important fact already noted by other investigators: the last thing Fontaine and his friends should have wanted was to call the attention of the police to their situation. They were already on file as suspicious characters. They were driving illegally, without a permit or insurance, and they were known to the local authorities in an unfavorable light. There are even some doubts about the legal origin of the clothes they intended to sell in Gisors. It must have taken a strong shock indeed for them to call the The second contradiction was even more enormous. If the case was a hoax, where was Franck Fontaine between Monday, November 26, and Monday, December 3, 1979? Nobody answers this question. Curi- ously, none of the journalists who eagerly reported Prevost's confession bothered to make this very simple inquiry. One of my associates in this affair, whom I will call Francis Leuhan, wrote to me in August 1983 after he went to see Prevost. This afternoon I saw our friend Prevost again. He collapsed on his living room sofa. He seemed depressed. His hair has grown to extreme proportions, and | thought 1 saw a man even more enig- matic than in 1979. You know, when you look someone in the eyes like that, cold, there are things that do not lie. It is obvious he has taken another step beyond the "margins" of society. When the first surprise was gone I spoke to him about the