22. Darlan’s Assassin Went Before a Firing Squad Thinking it Was Going to be a Sham Execution
Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle was not too perturbed by his death sentence. He was confident that he would get a stay of execution, or at worst, that there would be a sham “execution” in which the firing squad would be issued blanks instead of real bullets. As it turned out, La Chapelle did end up getting pardoned and rehabilitated by an appellate court, which ruled that his assassination of Darlan had been justifiable because it was done “in the interest of the liberation of France“.
However, that ruling was handed down in December of 1945, three years too late for La Chapelle, who was executed by a firing squad that used real bullets on December 26th, 1942, one day after he was sentenced to death. Ever since, there has been plenty of speculation that Darlan’s assassination had been engineered by Allied intelligence. The theory is that they got a patsy to pull the trigger, promising him a pardon, then swiftly executed him to silence him for good.