An Unsolved Murder

Abstract

Abstract As knowledge of the legionary articles spread, defending Eliade’s innocence became more difficult, and continuing to do so threatened Culianu’s reputation for intellectual independence. To resolve the dilemma—and the contradictory demands of scholarly integrity and personal loyalty—he sought to publish Ricketts’s translation of those articles, along with others that could be characterized as philo-Semitic, accompanied with an interpretive apparatus that would construe the problematic evidence as exculpatory. Although he sought to hide this initiative from Mrs. Eliade, she learned of it, took legal steps to block it, and began viewing him with suspicion. Notwithstanding her ferocious opposition, Culianu made three attempts to bring out such a volume, and papers related to it were on his desk at the time of his death. Many theories have been about who was responsible for his murder, which most attribute to the Romanian secret service or to former legionaries living in Chicago. While both theories are plausible, there are serious problems with both. Culianu’s desperate wish to preserve the translated legionary articles suggests they were somehow connected to the threats on his life. The possibility emerges that Christinel Eliade, enraged at what she experienced as a profound betrayal, voiced her outrage to someone who decided to solve the problem for her.