In 1922, Félix Dzerzhinsky, People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs and head of the GPU, decided to purchase Cadillac cars for the dignitaries of the political police. However, at that time, the purchase of new luxury vehicles was prohibited due to the famine affecting several regions of the USSR, particularly the Volga basin.
The order followed an official channel. Since only second-hand vehicles could be purchased, a middleman was tasked with handling the matter: Leon Turrou, then stationed in Moscow with the American Relief Administration (A.R.A.), and close to Dzerzhinsky and the leaders of the GPU. In January 1923, Turrou resigned from his post as translator and assistant to Colonel Haskell, head of the American humanitarian mission, citing weariness at being constantly monitored.
Turrou then contacted a Russian agent assigned to oversee the affair, and traveled to Paris to look for Cadillacs.
Ad published Feb 7, 1923 L'AUTO
He placed an advertisement in the newspaper L’AUTO, which brought him into contact with Pierre Quéméneur and, indirectly, with Guillaume Seznec. Having to return to the United States in March to bring back his family, he came back a few weeks later to finalize the contract for the purchase of Cadillacs and trucks.
Accused of spying for the Bolsheviks, Turrou wished, upon his return to the United States, to join the FBI’s counterintelligence service. To conceal his identity, he adopted an alias that Seznec pronounced “Chardy” or “Sherdy.” He also forged documents in the name of the American Chamber of Commerce, located at 32 rue Taitbout in Paris, to make it appear that the operation was being organized by Americans.
Returning to France, probably aboard the transatlantic liner Berengaria, Turrou arranged to meet Pierre Quéméneur on Saturday, May 26, 1923. Quéméneur was to hand him a large sum of money to secure exclusive rights to the Cadillac and truck market, as well as to pay a deposit. But Turrou learned, from his Russian contact, that the Cadillac contract had been canceled. That same week, Dzerzhinsky repurchased the American Relief Administration’s vehicles, including 24 Cadillacs.
Turrou, who now held a large sum of money that included all of the Seznec couple’s savings, squandered it in Monaco, living lavishly. After losing everything, he left France and returned to the United States on July 8, 1923, aboard the Berengaria. On that same day, Guillaume Seznec, accused of murdering Pierre Quéméneur, proclaimed his innocence. Inspector Bonny wrote a report mentioning a certain Swede "Sherdin" thus closing the Cadillac affair, which the courts deemed a pure invention by Seznec.
After various odd jobs, Leon Turrou joined the FBI in 1929. Dismissed in 1938, he gained some notoriety by publishing books and presenting himself as the former head of American counterintelligence. In 1939, he made partial admissions regarding the Cadillac affair, calling it a “calamity.” After World War II, he settled in France, where he died in Paris in 1986, never having sought to clear Seznec’s name.
