| Richard Chanfray |
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| 1940 births | |
| chanfray, richard | |
| 1983 deaths | |
| alchemists | |
| people from lyon | |
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Richard Chanfray ( Lyon , 1940 - Saint Tropez , 1983 ) was a French public figure in the 1970s . He claimed to be the Comte De Saint-Germain and appeared in numerous European television shows transmutating Lead into Gold , without apparent tricks. BIOGRAPHY The magic career of Richard Chanfray started in 1973 in a Parisian theater, where he was announced as "the man who transmutes lead into gold". Apparently, he was able to do that without any tricks. No one discovered his secret. He was born in 1940 in the French city of Lyon . He grew up on the streets, with casual works, often stealing, he finished striking an old woman with a bar to get her money. He was arrested and condemned to six years. Street was his school, and prison his university. He abandoned the jail with a new fabricated personality. He read some antique books in prison, and learned about Comte de Saint Germain, the mysterious Alchemist , capable of transmutating plumb into gold, brew potions, and acquire the immortality. Richard adopted that personality, exploiting the high society likes for Magic and Esoterism . In a few months, he became rich and famous. He was Counselor to many famous people, with quite accurate Divinations . In 1976 he met the singer Dalida , at the height of her fame. Her husband ( Lucien Morisse ) and her lover ( Luigi Tenco ) both committed suicide in a tragic manner. When Dalida met the false count, she fell in love immediately. Chanfray was a paranoic, and Dalida realized quickly. He always slept with a shotgun under the bed. When, after arriving home late one night, he found a naked man in his kitchen and he shot him. He was the noun's lover, and fortunatly was only wounded superficially. However, Chanfray spent a year in prison, and had to pay the man 500,000 French Franc s. That was the beginning of the end. They ran out of money and Richard tried music, painting, and sculpture, all without success. Dalida and the count separated, and despite his problems, Richard continued being part of the star system of Paris and Saint Tropez . He became the lover of the Trintignan "baroness", Paula De Loos , whose title was so false as that of the "count" Saint Germaine. But, she was millionare and Chanfray started to suspect about the movements of Paula's money administrator, and ended up pointing a rifle at his neck. Another demand, another judgment and once again prison and indemnization. The baroness, overwhelmed by credits, couldn't help him. His last appearance in public was in a party in Saint Tropez, in June 1983. He was very thin, had white hair and an exhausted sight. In 14th July, in a town next to Saint Tropez, Paula and Richard ingested a great quantity of barbiturates while inhalating the gases of his car. Nearby, a letter of goodbye: "I leave and I bring her with me, because she is so like me..." PROCLAIMED POWERS Richard Chanfray claimed to have lots of powers, most of them related to Alchemy . He also claimed on numerous occaisions that his knowledge came from a 'mysterious man' whom he had met with in the past. He swore not to reveal said persons identity, and never did. Some of Chanfray's powers claimed to be:
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