The punk who rose from the dead and confessed to the robbery

On June 6, 2018, the trial of punk musician Gilles Bertin began in the French city of Toulouse. This guy committed a robbery in the 1980s, was considered dead for a long time, and then "returned from the other world" and confessed to the crime.

Source: BBC

In November 2017, one of the most famous lawyers in France, Christian Ethelin, was sitting at his desk and thinking about retirement when his phone rang. The call, to put it mildly, shocked the lawyer. First of all, because there was a man on the other end of the line who was declared dead several years ago. And secondly, the call was connected with an armed robbery that occurred 30 years ago.

The caller was Gilles Bertin, the vocalist of a punk band from Bordeaux called Camera Silens. The guys referred to themselves as anarchists. Britain had Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols, and France had Camera Silens. Despite the success, at the end of the 80s, the band members were poor and addicted to drugs, and several guys even contracted HIV.

The band members believed that they did not have long to live, so they decided to leave beautifully, having committed an armed robbery. In April 1988, Gilles and his accomplices attacked the collectors and stole 12 million francs (2 million euros). As a result of the attack, no one was injured, and the police quickly realized that they were dealing with newcomers. All the criminals were caught within a year, except one — Gilles Bertin.

The stolen money was never found. Some of the robbers quickly died of diseases, others served time and after prison became law-abiding citizens.

Well, Gilles Bertin is missing. In his absence, the court sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Some time later, Gilles was declared dead, and his family, including his son, who remained in Bordeaux, did not hear anything more about him.

But it turned out that this guy is more alive than all the living. After the robbery, Gilles rushed to Portugal with bags of money, where he opened a music store. Sometimes French tourists recognized him as a musician of the Camera Silens group, but Gilles assured that he had nothing to do with the group. Every time he saw a car with French license plates near the store, he thought with fear that he was being followed.

After ten years spent in Portugal, he was sure that the French police were watching him, and decided to move to Barcelona with his Spanish girlfriend. Her family took Gilles to work in their bar, and he became a bartender. The couple had a baby. But only Gilles' girlfriend knew his story, for the rest he was a man without a past.

Once Gilles was on the verge of death due to hepatitis. Then he was taken to the hospital, and doctors managed to save him. This moment was a turning point in the fate of a man. His life was saved, but he gave nothing to society in return.

In November 2017, Gilles arrived in Toulouse and surrendered to the authorities. He expected to be arrested immediately, and was very angry when he was left at large awaiting trial.

Gilles says that some people consider his past romantic, but he himself would never want to repeat it.

According to him, for three decades he lived like a game hunted by a hunter, and was ashamed of his past. At the trial, Gilles was sentenced to five years of probation.