Who Was Pierre Goldman, and Who Is "Serge l'Arménien"?
Pierre Goldman (1944-1979) was a French far-left militant, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974 for the double murder on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, acquitted in 1976, then gunned down in a Paris street on September 20, 1979 — a crime that has never been solved. "Serge l'Arménien," for his part, is not a protagonist of the Goldman court case: it is the nickname of a former unofficial agent based on the French Riviera, an unsettling witness in the counter-investigation into the death of Coluche conducted by Jean Depussé and Antoine Casubolo Ferro. And it is that same Antoine Casubolo who is now the author of the definitive counter-investigation into the life and death of Pierre Goldman.
Who Was Pierre Goldman?
Born on June 22, 1944, in Lyon, Pierre Goldman was the son of Alter Goldman and Janine Sochaczewska, Polish Jews active in the Resistance. The elder half-brother of singer Jean-Jacques Goldman, he became a militant in the Union des étudiants communistes in the early 1960s, then joined guerrilla groups in Venezuela in 1968. Back in Paris on October 1, 1969, he drifted into armed crime. Arrested on April 8, 1970, he admitted to three armed robberies but denied the fourth one attributed to him: the hold-up of the pharmacy on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir on December 19, 1969, in which two pharmacists, Simone Delaunay and Jeanne Aubert, were killed. In prison he wrote Souvenirs obscurs d'un juif polonais né en France (1975), which made him an intellectual figure.
The Goldman Trial: From Life Sentence to Acquittal (1974-1976)
In December 1974, the Paris cour d'assises sentenced him to life imprisonment for the double murder. The verdict triggered a wave of protest: a support committee brought together leading intellectuals convinced of his innocence. On November 20, 1975, the Court of Cassation overturned the trial on procedural grounds. Retried before the cour d'assises of the Somme, in Amiens, from April 26 to May 4, 1976, Goldman was acquitted of the double murder and sentenced to twelve years in prison for the robberies he admitted to. He walked out of prison on October 5, 1976, with the aura of a victim of a miscarriage of justice. That extraordinary trial inspired Cédric Kahn's film The Goldman Case (2023).
The Assassination of September 20, 1979
On September 20, 1979, Pierre Goldman was shot dead with several bullets in the middle of the street, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, by a hit squad that was never identified. A shadowy group calling itself "Honneur de la police" claimed responsibility by telephone, though its existence was never established. His funeral, on September 27 at Père-Lachaise cemetery, drew more than 10,000 people. The investigation never came to anything. Over the years, several leads have been put forward: former police officer Lucien Aimé-Blanc claimed that his informant Jean-Pierre Maïone-Libaude had confessed the murder to him; a 2010 documentary named René Resciniti de Says; other works point to the Marseille underworld or to parallel covert outfits. None of these hypotheses has ever been confirmed by the courts.
Who Is "Serge l'Arménien"?
Contrary to what some searches suggest, "Serge l'Arménien" does not appear in the Goldman case file: he surfaces in another counter-investigation by Antoine Casubolo, devoted to the death of Coluche. According to the account of Jean Depussé — a journalist, friend of Pierre Goldman and co-author of Coluche, l'accident. Contre-enquête — this former "barbouze" (undercover operative) settled on the French Riviera confided to him, in the summer of 1987, that men linked to the intelligence services had used his property as a base at the time of the comedian's accident. A few weeks after that meeting, "Serge l'Arménien" was shot five times in the chest as he left his home. This testimony, impossible to verify, is presented by the authors as one of the grey areas of the case — not as proof.
What Antoine Casubolo's Counter-Investigation Reveals
A member of the Paris bar, journalist and documentary filmmaker, Antoine Casubolo Ferro has been investigating the Goldman affair for twenty years. In La vérité sur Pierre Goldman, sa vie, sa mort démythifiées (Digital Index Editore, Révoltes series), he goes back over the case piece by piece: unpublished documents, witness accounts, contradictions in the militant narratives. His conclusion, openly stated and controversial, runs counter to the myth: in his view, Goldman did indeed take part in the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir hold-up — while the 1976 acquittal remains, in law, final. Above all, the author puts forward "a plausible and disconcerting answer" to the question that has remained open: who killed Pierre Goldman, and why? The digital edition is enriched with previously unreleased audio interviews with key witnesses.
FAQ
Was Pierre Goldman Found Guilty of the Double Murder at the Pharmacy?
No. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974, he was retried and acquitted of the double murder on May 4, 1976, by the cour d'assises of the Somme. He did, however, serve a sentence for the three robberies he admitted to.
Who Assassinated Pierre Goldman on September 20, 1979?
Officially, no one knows: the crime has never been solved, and the claim of responsibility by "Honneur de la police" was never authenticated. Several hypotheses have circulated since 1979; Antoine Casubolo offers his own reasoned answer in his counter-investigation.
Is "Serge l'Arménien" Connected to the Goldman Affair?
Not directly. The nickname refers to a witness — later murdered — in the counter-investigation into the death of Coluche. The link runs through the authors: Jean Depussé was a friend of Pierre Goldman, and Antoine Casubolo wrote both counter-investigations.
What Is the Connection Between Pierre Goldman and Jean-Jacques Goldman?
Pierre was the elder half-brother of singer Jean-Jacques Goldman; both were sons of Alter Goldman, a Jewish Resistance fighter of Polish origin. The singer has always maintained great discretion about this family history.
