The conference in Paris was attended by several hundred people as well as the different wire services, radio and television.
Addressing the attendance are from left to right : Dr. Paul Fornes, Professor Ludes, Dr. Kintz, the Coordinator of the Conference, Ben Weider, President of ths INS, Col, Émile Gueguen and Jean Tranié
NAPOLEON'S ASSASSINATION PROVEN
To our website viewers,
The press conference held in Paris on June 1, 2001 at the Maison de la Mutualité was a resounding success and settled once and for all the controversy surrounding the causes of Napoleon's death.
The scientific experts concluded that:
the Emperor did not die of cancer; he was poisoned with arsenic.
The historians concluded that:
the perpetrators were the English ministers and the Comte díArtois, the future Charles X. It was they who ordered the assassination, which was carried out by their respective hired killers, Governor Hudson Lowe and Count Charles de Montholon.
You will no doubt remember that during the meeting of the Senate on May 4, 2000, a number of toxicologists requested that Napoleon's hair be analyzed by a French laboratory equipped with the most modern facilities. They argue that science has made enormous progress since the analyses carried out by Professor Hamilton Smith at the beginning of the 1960s and that the more recent tests by the FBI were performed on only two very short segments (17 and 14 mm).
This is why I have gathered five locks of Napoleon's hair, the authenticity of which is beyond question and have confided them to the worldís leading hair analysis specialist, Dr. Pascal Kintz, of the Strasbourg Forensic Medicine Institute, who is President of the French analytical toxicology society.
Dr. Kintz is convinced that Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning. The hairs contain arsenic concentrations ranging from 6.99 ng/mg to 38.53 ng/mg (a normal concentration is less than 1 ng/mg.) Dr Kintz also emphasized that the hair had been thoroughly decontaminated before analysis in order to remove all traces of exogenous arsenic (cosmetics, dusting for conservation purposes, wallpaper, etc.) and that the quantities of arsenic detected are of biological origin, in other words, they were transmitted through the blood as the hair was growing.
Before Dr. Kintz presented the findings of his research, Dr. Paul Fornès, an anatomical pathologist at the Georges Pompidou Hospital, and senior lecturer at the University, demonstrated, based on his detailed study of the autopsy reports, that Napoleon did not die of cancer. He thereby confirmed the positions taken by Dr. Tardot, on May 4, 2000 in the Senate and Professor Israël in his letter of September 6, 2000.
In the second part, Jean Tranié, a world-renowned historian and director of the Revue Napoléon, gave a lecture on the circumstances of Napoleon's deportation and his living environment on St. Helena.
Colonel Gueguen cited excerpts from the journals of witnesses Gorrequer, OíMeara, Verling, Jackson, Bertrand and Marchand, which left no doubt as to the complicity of Hudson Lowe and Montholon in the assassination.
Our conference was an extraordinary success with the media. Most television and radio channels and over 500 newspapers and magazines the world over covered the event. I have attached several press clippings and a videocassette; in a little while you will be receiving a videorecording of the conference.
This, for me, is the culmination of 50 years of research, and I cannot express how happy I am to have succeeded in fulfilling the wish expressed by the Emperor a few days before his death: ìI want the true cause of my death to be made known.î
I now want to ask you to help me to bring Napoleon out of the ghetto to which he has been consigned since 1871. The document Napoleon in Paris (which you can find on our Web site) will serve as a starting point for this great project. Other goals include:
ï restoring the Vendôme Column to its original name: The Column of the Grande Armée
ï resituating the beautiful bronze 3.25m statue that currently stands under the clock in the Cour des Invalides to the Esplanade of the same name. The hexagonal or octagonal base could bear an inscription attesting to the great peacetime accomplishments of the First Consul and Emperor.
ï changing the name of the Esplanade des Invalides to the Esplanade de líEmpereur
I wish to assure you of my complete, unswerving commitment to our common cause and to express my sincerest thanks for your support.
Yours very truly,
Ben Weider, C.M. C.Q., Ph.D.
President
The Press Conference held in Paris on June 1st created quite a renewed interest in the circumstances surrounding the death of the Emperor and generated many newspaper articles around the world. These articles show that the poisoning thesis is now accepted as fact. Ben Weider will have been successful in his patient endeavor to prove what he has believed for many years.
Hereafter are a few selected newspaper clipings of articles published following the Paris Press Conference