In 1968, Colonel Turrou was the President of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States based in Paris. The association had published a booklet for the 50th anniversary of the armistice of the First World War (1918-1968). On this occasion, a subscription was launched to erect a statue of General Pershing, the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Force, in Paris.
The photo above, taken in 1967, shows the location of the future statue of General Pershing. On the right is Leon Turrou, in the center is the United States Ambassador to France, Charles Bohlen, and on the left is the President of the Paris Council, Paul Faber.
Colonel Turrou had come a long way since May 26, 1923, when he had a meeting at 8:30 a.m. with Pierre Quéméneur in a brasserie in Paris. As I demonstrated in my book, "The Seznec Case: The FBI Archives," he was the intermediary in this Cadillac affair involving the Soviet Union, the famous Sherdly. After this meeting, he disappeared, spending the money, approximately the equivalent of $6000, in Monaco. The next day, Pierre Quémeneur died in Morlaix with a blood-stained sales agreement by his side. Upon his return, with the Cadillac, Guillaume Seznec would say, "We lost all our savings..."
Turrou, after living a lavish lifestyle, also lost "all his savings" in gambling. He had to have money wired to him by his wife and a Russian friend, Davidowsky, in order to return to the United States. He traveled aboard the transatlantic ship Berengaria, departing from Cherbourg on July 7, 1923.
Leon Turrou spoke several languages: English, Russian, French...
He spoke French very well, but sometimes he couldn't ignore small forgivable subtleties. Personally, I would have translated "erected a statue" as "élever," "dresser," or "ériger" une statue. I leave it to you to appreciate for yourself the effect of the insert published in the association's veterans' magazine.
Projet d'Erection d'une statue du General Pershing / Project to Erect a Statue of General Pershing