Hello everyone,

Some of you possibly know the French writer, crime commentator and profiler Stéphane Bourgoin. He boasts (rightly, so to say) of having met dozens of serial killers - mostly American ones - whom he managed to interview whilst those were in death row. These multiple-days interviews, sometimes filmed and related in his numerous books on the matter, have made him a well-known figure in the French Media and an inevitable interviewee when it comes to comment on serial killers habits or psychology. He is also a fiction writer who wrote many detective novels.

In almost all of his interviews, he begins explaining his interest for serial killers by briefly relating a personal drama. His then-girlfriend or wife was assassinated in the United States while he was living there during the 1970s. He never provides more than a few details about the murder, which vary according to the interviews. I have gathered dozens of articles where the murder is mentioned; here are the main facts that emerge from the review of press, with important variations.

- Bourgoin's friend's name is Eileen
- Her age was 24 when she was killed
- Reporter year of murder is 1976 in almost all interviews, except one occurence of 1978
- Eileen was murdered in California (around 75% of time) or in New York (City) (rest of the time). Amongst the first cases, LA area is often refered to.
- Bourgoin was the one to discover the corpse (always), at his/her/their place.
- Eileen had been raped and murdered with laceration, her body was "cut into pieces".
- Eileen's killer was allegedly arrested two years after this murder (which would bring us to 1978 or 1980), and it was established that he have murdered a dozen people in several states of the U.S.
- In a single article, dated 2005, it is said that he was sentenced to death 18 years earlier, thus in 1987. In addition, it was mentioned that he was still in death row at the date of the articles (most of them published after 2010).
- Bourgoin confessed not to have been able to interview properly Eileen's murderer, whom he said to have met in 1986. Therefore, this should exclude murderers whom he dedicated articles, books and filmed interviews to (and a number of those were active in California at the time and should therefore and logically, be excluded).

There is only one known picture of Eileen, which is shot next to Bourgoin:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ei8iUHqtMO...B%2Beileen.jpg


I am perplexed about this story, obviously, as it seems impossible to find any case that matches sufficiently the information despite a broad database and litterature on the internet concerning American serial killers. It goes without saying that Bourgoin purposely changed pieces of information to blur anyone who would try to recognize the case. I do not envisage he could have completely invented this kind of story. It is however stimulating to try to get to the bottom of this. An another disturbing detail is the absence of any occurence on the internet of Bourgoin testifying at a trial, which he would surely have done had he in effect discovered the corpse. Below, i put a link to an English-speaking thread that briefly comments the question as well


http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sho...rder-of-Eileen


I am at your disposal for all complementary information, since I could have forgotten important facts.