Pod Insights Conspiracy Theories The FBI's Movie Star Target: Who Killed Jean Seberg? About this episode After starring in the French New Wave classic Breathless and the American blockbuster Airport, Jean Seberg had the world’s eyes on her. But in the late 1960s, one organization watched her even more closely: the FBI. Seeing Jean’s political affiliations, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover gave the order to “neutralize” Jean. When Jean mysteriously died in 1979, people wondered exactly how far “neutralization” went.
Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @theconspiracypodTikTok: @conspiracy.pod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript 0:07 Speaker 00 People will take drastic measures to keep secrets. Now just look at all the obfuscation happening around Congress's release of the Epstein files this past year, or how Edward Snowden remains exiled after unveiling US government surveillance programs, or the case of actress Jean Seberg. In the late 60s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover gave the chilling order to "neutralize" Jean, invade her privacy, make her paranoid, spill her secrets. According to Jean's ex-husband, the FBI's plot to "neutralize" Jean killed her.
0:48 Speaker 00 But the people who harassed Jean, and the extent of what they did, that's all still classified, there, protected. Today's conspiracy theories circle around just how far the FBI went to "neutralize" Jean Seberg, whose secrets are kept and whose get exposed. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. We'd love to hear from you, so if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts, or check us out on Instagram @TheConspiracyPod.
1:32 Speaker 00 This episode contains discussions of suicide, harassment, domestic violence, weapons, substance abuse, abortion, and murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. If you or someone you know is struggling emotionally or feeling hopeless, visit spotify.com/resources. Stay with us.
1:55 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Petivity. Every cat has a few unsolved mysteries. Why the 3 a.m. zoomies? What's so fascinating about that one empty box? And at mealtime, are they actually eating differently? Or does it just seem that way? The new Petivity Smart Feeder for cats turns everyday meals into meaningful health insights, helping you identify changes in your cat's habits and be more proactive about their health. Take the mystery out of mealtime. Visit petivity.com/catfeeder to learn more.
2:38 Speaker 01 This episode is brought to you by Petivity. Cat parents are basically mealtime detectives. Who actually ate? Did they finish? Was that less than yesterday? The new Petivity Smart Feeder for cats turns everyday meals into meaningful health insights, helping you identify changes in your cat's habits and be more proactive about their health. Plus, you can feed them from anywhere. Take the mystery out of mealtime. Visit petivity.com. P E T I V I T Y dot com slash cat feeder to learn more.
3:09 Speaker 02 Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City. Introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin, and warm vanilla. Masculine leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver, and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at Macy's dot com.
3:39 Speaker 00 August 30th, 1979. A famous American actress was missing in Paris. Or so her fourth husband reported to the French police. Though legally, he wasn't her husband. And Jean Seberg wasn't as famous as she once was. It had been over 20 years since her Cinderella story charmed Americans. Back in 1956, Jean was a small-town Iowa girl. She auditioned for a nationwide casting call and beat 18,000 others for the part. She won the titular role of Joan in Saint Joan. Fast track to stardom. Until the movie flopped.
4:23 Speaker 00 But her second film brought her to Paris and her fourth film brought her critical acclaim as the flighty American girlfriend in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. Splitting her time between LA and Paris, Jean starred in more French New Wave films, as well as American blockbusters like Paint Your Wagon and Airport. She got nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, and she broke up her first marriage in true Hollywood style by having affair with her co-star Clint Eastwood. By the late 1970s, Jean's career had slowed down, but it was still newsworthy when she
5:03 Speaker 00 vanished, stayed missing for 10 days, and was finally found. They saw her car first. The white Renault 5 was parked on Rue de Generale La Perre, a tree-lined street in a wealthy neighborhood just a block from Jean's home. Although the car was literally parked in her neighborhood, no one had reported it during the prior search. Even weirder, on that same street, there was an embassy with security guards. So why didn't they notice a random car sitting for 10 days? And, obviously, this wasn't where Jean normally parked it, or it would have been found on search day one.
5:48 Speaker 00 The wild thing is, the car might have gone unnoticed even longer if one of Jean's neighbors hadn't caused a fuss because other cars were parked too close to his. In the commotion, neighbors realized that the white Renault was covered with leaves. A suspicious amount of leaves. Brushing them off, they looked through the windshield and spotted what looked like a woman sleeping in the backseat. It didn't take long to realize they'd found Jean Seberg. She was dead.
6:23 Speaker 00 The Paris police noted that the car door was unlocked and the interior reeked of decomposition. Inside, they found a bottle full of mineral water and empty boxes of Jean's prescription medication. At first glance, her body showed no obvious signs of violence. They assumed she died by suicide. And that became the official story of Jean Seberg's death. But that story stops before her autopsy, because the meds from the empty boxes, they weren't found in Jean's system. What was found? A blood alcohol level of 7.94 grams per liter. That's .79%.
7:08 Speaker 00 In the US, .08% is the legal limit for driving. .79 is fatal. Even .6 renders someone comatose. So there's no way Jean was able to drive or even walk with that blood alcohol level. She probably wouldn't have even been able to finish her last drink. But there was no sign of alcohol in her car. The only bottle was full of water. And even if Jean somehow managed to drink somewhere else and walk back to her car, it didn't seem like she'd intended to drive at all that night. She'd left her license and glasses at home. Well, she needed those glasses to drive.
7:50 Speaker 00 Even sober, she'd have attracted attention trying to parallel park without them. The police quickly formed a new theory. Jean wasn't alone when she went missing. Someone had left her in the car, either dead or comatose. And it seemed like they'd staged the scene. The empty medication boxes, the leaves on the car, all planted to make it look as if Jean accidentally or intentionally overdosed.
8:23 Speaker 00 Now, Jean was known to mix alcohol and prescription drugs on a much smaller scale. So whoever left her behind was familiar with her habits. It gets creepier. Days before Jean's disappearance, she'd asked her friends for help, drawing concern that someone might hurt her, someone might be after her, someone was watching her. And after her death, it came out that important documents were missing from Jean's home, including the memoir she'd been working on. Her husband said Jean took the papers and pillboxes with her the last time he saw her,
9:07 Speaker 00 but they weren't found with her body or anywhere ever. And with the sheer amount of alcohol in Jean's system, it seemed more likely it had entered her blood via an injection rather than a drink, like an attack. The French police puzzled over who could be responsible. Shortly after Jean's body was found, her ex-husband, novelist Romain Garis, came forward with his theory. Quote, "It is the FBI. Jean Seberg was destroyed by the FBI."
9:50 Speaker 00 Romain Garis called a press conference at his publisher's office to share his theory with the world. In front of the live news cameras, he waved around pages from Jean's FBI file. They'd released a copy to Jean, and she'd asked him to take it public if anything ever happened to her. At this point, Romain didn't have the autopsy results. He didn't know that Jean's death was more suspicious than it first seemed, but he had proof of his own, an FBI memo from director J. Edgar Hoover himself, saying, quote, "Jean Seberg should be neutralized."
10:34 Speaker 00 After his bombshell press conference, Ramon Garri said, "Nothing." When asked for comments in the following months, he said he'd done what he could to clear his son's mother's name and reputation. Though he may have been keeping quiet for legal reasons, the following summer, a Paris judge opened a formal investigation into Jean's death. Filing charges against persons unknown for non-assistance of a person in danger, Ramon Garri was named as an injured party representing his and Jean's son.
11:15 Speaker 00 Okay, so to break it down, Jean's death was suspicious. The Parisian authorities blamed a mystery figure who chose to let Jean die, and Jean's ex blamed the FBI. The investigation moved forward for six months until Ramon Garri suddenly died, also allegedly by suicide. Jean's case remained open, but without Ramon pushing it forward, it went cold. The authorities didn't have proof Jean was murdered, but they didn't have proof she wasn't.
11:56 Speaker 00 Jean's death slowly faded into history until new details came to light. Details the FBI had kept highly classified, and for good reason. They proved the FBI put a target on Jean's back and suggested they might have pulled the trigger.
12:21 Speaker 03 Shaq here. What's it like to buy a car from Carvana 100% online and get it delivered to your door? Let me tell you. Your car is here, Mr. Shaq. Thank you, Mr. Carvana guy. Can't wait to take it for a spin. Only the best for you, Mr. Shaq. Hey, have you always been so big, tall, and handsome? Not always. I was 6'10" once. Seven days to love it or return it, Mr. Shaq. Not that I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven-day return policy at carvana.com.
12:54 Speaker 04 Gray roots entering the chat, uninvited? Garnier's got you. Garnier Color Sensation Root Retouch covers up to 100% of grays in just 10 minutes. No ammonia, no mess, and the color lasts up to four weeks. It's as easy to apply as shampoo. Plus, it's vegan and cruelty-free. 10 minutes. Sensational color. Sensational price. With those savings, your next girls' night is basically free. Find your perfect match at walmart.com or at a store near you.
13:24 Speaker 00 In 1971, burglars broke into the FBI's Pennsylvania office. Their name? The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. Their goal? Steal 1,000 pages of classified info. Their decoy? The heavyweight boxing championships. Joe Frazier versus Muhammad Ali. And the burglars hoped that with everyone distracted by the match, they could pry open some locks and walk out with manila folders. They succeeded. Days later, the stolen files hit the desk of The Washington Post, who reported on them. Those 1,000 pages held damning revelations.
14:06 Speaker 00 Namely, the existence of a program called COINTELPRO. If it sounds familiar, yeah, we covered it on this show a few years ago. But here's what you need to know for this story. Starting in 1956, the US government spied on its own citizens. They listened in on phone calls and took pictures from afar. But it gets worse. Those deemed threats, people involved with certain political groups, were targeted for harassment. Think threatening letters, planting false rumors, and blackmail. And that's just what we know about.
14:50 Speaker 00 You see, those 1,000 pages weren't all of it. Millions of pages of COINTELPRO documents remain classified. And that doesn't count the pages J. Edgar Hoover personally ordered his secretary to destroy.
15:09 Speaker 00 So suffice it to say Hoover and his team had no intent of their dirty work ever coming to light. But after review by the Senate's Church Committee, the FBI was ordered to share the COINTELPRO surveillance files with all targets harmed by the program. Including Jean Seberg. Roman Garry was right. The FBI really had put her on a watch list. She received her file in 1976, then passed it to Roman for safekeeping. Both Jean and Roman died before publishing the contents of her file, but starting in
15:50 Speaker 00 the 1980s, FOIA requests brought the information to the light of day. Oh, somewhat. As of 2026, parts of Jean's file are still redacted and entire pages remain classified. We reached out to the FBI to ask why and got crickets. But the slow drip of FOIA requests did reveal this story. In mid 1968, Jean boarded a plane and met a man who'd changed her life, Hakim Jamal. They look like two total opposites in one of those serendipitous rom-com meet-cutes.
16:32 Speaker 00 Her, a rich blonde actress from the cornfields of Iowa. Him, the self-styled cousin of Malcolm X, complete with matching glasses, just for style, he had good vision, and a rap sheet. But they both love jet-setting, having affairs, and making the world a better place. Hakim had a current fundraiser to do just that, and Jean had a bleeding heart, so they hit it off. Once they landed in Los Angeles, Jean became a major supporter of Hakim's organization, donating money to fund a Montessori school and free breakfast programs, hosting celebrity fundraisers, and by one account, buying Hakim a station wagon.
17:19 Speaker 00 Well, this all sounds awesome. What could go wrong? Well, you need the context. This was the 1960s, and Hakim's charity was the Black Panther Party. According to the Black Panther Party, they were a political organization committed to a society where children never went hungry, adults had safe homes and jobs, and black people didn't fear police brutality. According to the FBI, they were terrorists. Yes, the Black Panthers weren't shy about exercising their Second Amendment rights. They liked big guns. But in America, anyone could get those guns.
18:02 Speaker 00 By and large, their actions were legal. More legal than the FBI's. Anyway, the FBI made the Black Panther Party, or BPP, a target of COINTELPRO. By the time Jean Seberg got involved, the FBI already had double agents on the inside. Now, one of COINTELPRO's main tactics was to infiltrate groups, then tear them apart from within. Or, at the very least, get good intel. The identities of the double agents are still classified. So we don't know who tattled on Jean,
18:42 Speaker 00 but the FBI pretty quickly discovered she was donating money and recruiting other actors to do the same. So she became COINTELPRO's newest target. All for the crime of donating money so kids could eat and go to school. Now, to be clear, Jean's confirmed support of the BPP was all protected under the First Amendment. But the FBI didn't want her exercising those rights. They wanted to censor her and find a way to stop her. According to released FBI records, they wiretapped Jean's phone,
19:25 Speaker 00 tracked her movements, and searched her luggage at the airport. That's all confirmed fact. But Jean also reported that during this period, someone, maybe the FBI, maybe not, made threatening phone calls, shot through her windows, and poisoned her cats. And, this is wild, Jean wasn't alone here. Other big-name actors, like Marlon Brando, Vanessa Redgrave, Donald Sutherland, and John Voight openly supported the BPP. Hakeem Jamal was a bit of a clout chaser. He even once tried to shoot his shot with the Queen of England.
20:09 Speaker 00 Tip of the cap. That didn't work out for him, but Jean Seberg did. Some sources report that, in total, Jean gave the BPP $150,000. That's over $1.3 million in 2026. Other sources list a more conservative $20,000, not counting Jean's time, use of her home, renting cars under her name, and tapping her film industry rolodex. As Jean's support of the BPP ramped up, the FBI's crosshairs tightened. They considered barring her future re-entry to the US from France. But it gets worse.
20:51 Speaker 00 Over a decade into COINTELPRO, the FBI stopped sharing intel with the CIA. They had no oversight beyond Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Hoover had no accountability. In 1970, he wrote in a memo that Jean Seberg, quote, "should be neutralized at the least."
21:13 Speaker 00 So, the FBI started a small-scale smear campaign, sending memos labeling Jean a national security threat to various other government officials. This was a common tactic in Hoover's playbook. He may not have shared all his intel, but he shared his list of enemies. It was slow, secret defamation. Around the same time, Jean Seberg learned she was pregnant. And because they were surveilling her, so did the FBI. Exactly when she conceived depends on who you ask. The Bureau said December 1969. Jean pinpointed it to January 1970.
21:58 Speaker 00 And her husband, Ramon Gari, claimed it happened that February. The timing only matters because the FBI, specifically the Director of the FBI, decided this pregnancy was, quote, "exploitable."
22:17 Speaker 00 So, FBI agents formulated a plan to spread a rumor that Jean's child was fathered by a Black Panther, specifically Masai Hewitt.
22:31 Speaker 00 He was the BPP Minister of Education and another COINTELPRO target. And he was dating Jean's friend Elaine Brown, another BPP leader. As the FBI memo lays out, it's a "several birds, one stone" scenario. Embarrass Elaine, make BPP members question Masai, and destroy Jean's reputation. And again, here's where the 1960s context is really important. Interracial marriage had only been legal nationwide for about two years, since the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision.
23:10 Speaker 00 In some states, anti-miscegenation laws were still on the books and enforced. So, a lot of American moviegoers would have a problem with Jean if she had a black baby. The racist backlash could ruin her career, which was only getting bigger. In spring 1970, Jean was the top-billed woman in the biggest movie in theaters: Airport. It made over $100 million, earned 10 Oscar nominations, and, most importantly, made Jean a household name. But if the FBI had their way, she wouldn't stay one.
23:52 Speaker 00 They schemed to plant the paternity story as a blind item in Hollywood gossip columns. In April, the agents passed this plan up the chain of command for approval. They were told to wait a few months until Jean was visibly pregnant, to protect their sources. Not "no," just "not yet." But somehow, barely two weeks later, on May 19, 1970, the LA Times printed a blind item. It described a beautiful blonde Miss A, whose first movie flopped. She had a European husband and, quote, "lived what she believed when it came to social justice."
24:32 Speaker 00 And it ended with, quote, "Topic A is the baby Miss A is expecting and its father. Papa's said to be a rather prominent Black Panther." After the article ran, the LA Bureau of the FBI sent a memo to Director J. Edgar Hoover enclosing a clipping of the article. The memo has major redactions. Perhaps it's proof of a completed mission.
25:03 Speaker 00 Over the next few weeks, other gossip columnists printed variations of the rumor. The story buzzed across America. But in Europe, Jean tried to brush it off. With no names, she could claim it was about some other blonde American actress with a European husband and a bent for social justice, whose first movie flopped. Jane Fonda fits this exact description. Yeah, really. I mean, oddly specific, but not specific enough. Jane Fonda wasn't visibly pregnant, but neither was Jean. And if anyone asked, Jean said she was expecting a baby with Romain Goury, her husband. And Romain openly agreed.
25:45 Speaker 00 Through the summer, Jean continued supporting the BPP in Paris, even saying she'd act as their representative in Switzerland. While Jean was in Switzerland, Newsweek picked up the rumors, but their story named names. Jean's name. Jean was incensed. It was one thing to smear her. Personally, she didn't even have a problem with the allegation. So what if she dated a black man? But to slander her unborn child and make them a target of racism before they were even born? That was reprehensible. Jean told her friends she'd be suing Newsweek for defamation.
26:28 Speaker 00 But her first priority was delivering a healthy baby. Still, it rankled Jean. She drank and took sedatives to cope. Back in 1970, most people didn't know that was dangerous. A few days after the Newsweek article dropped, Jean went into early labor. In a Swiss hospital, she gave birth to her daughter Nina Hart-Goury. She was roughly two months premature and weighed just about three pounds. Everyone who met baby Nina agreed. She was white. It seemed like the whole story would blow over. Jean and Romain would raise Nina, and everyone would see the obvious truth.
27:13 Speaker 00 Except tragically, Nina died just two days after her birth. Jean spiraled in her grief, clinging to her hope for vindication. She arranged for Nina's funeral to be held in her hometown in Iowa with an open casket service open to the public. She invited the press and hired a photographer, all in an effort to prove that her baby was not the child of a Black Panther. The funeral laid that rumor to rest, but Jean still struggled. She and Ramon sued Newsweek, and Jean formally withdrew her support of the BPP.
27:56 Speaker 00 However, that same day, Jean pledged that she donate the lion's share of the money from the libel suit against Newsweek to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC. It's a civil rights organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr. and in 1970, it was also a COINTELPRO target, which meant, in the eyes of the FBI, Jean Seberg had not been neutralized. The following December, the FBI put a new label on Jean's file: Security Index Priority 3.
28:38 Speaker 00 This put Jean on a list of people to be detained in event of a national emergency, similar to what the US government did to Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. Clearly, the FBI wasn't done with Jean. They surveilled her for at least another year, until they were caught in 1971 and forced to shut down COINTELPRO.
29:06 Speaker 00 Case closed? Not quite. Theories persist that parts of COINTELPRO continued under different names and inside different offices. Jean's friend, Don Quinn, alleges that Jean was put on a Hollywood blacklist because Jean's career fizzled, despite co-starring in 1970's big summer blockbuster. Others thought Jean was actively monitored until her death, Jean included. She felt like she was being watched, so she hired bodyguards and even checked herself in for inpatient mental health treatment.
29:45 Speaker 00 When the US Senate ordered the FBI to inform Jean that they literally had spied on her, it re-traumatized her. How could she trust they were telling the truth when they said they weren't still watching her? But worst of all, Jean's FBI files contain the memos plotting to plant false rumors about baby Nina, the same false rumors Jean blamed for Nina's premature birth and death. As Jean and Ramon saw it, the FBI killed their baby. Ramon said Jean fell into a paranoid grieving spiral.
30:26 Speaker 00 The FBI pushed her to the point of mental illness and then to suicide. But when all this information came to light, the FBI took an interesting stance. Oh, they did not plant the paternity rumors. I'm sorry, what? Yes, the FBI takes no responsibility. According to the released FBI files, news accounts that the FBI planted the rumor are misreports. Which is wild, because when you start Googling Jean, you'll see a lot of these misleading headlines. Yes, the FBI made a plan, but someone else beat them to the punch.
31:10 Speaker 00 Someone else leaked those exact false rumors to Hollywood gossip columnists, just days after the FBI director approved them. The FBI files contain alternate theories. The story was planted by a rogue agent, a White House official, or a BPP member who didn't like Jean. But not the FBI.
31:35 Speaker 00 At one point, the Bureau even claimed that Jean was actually notified improperly. Oh, she wasn't harmed by COINTELPRO, except for the spying, the photos, the putting her on a watch list, harmless stuff. My producer emailed the FBI to confirm this story, and while the Bureau confirmed that they received her email, they didn't give any answers. To sum it all up, the FBI washes their hands of Jean Seberg and baby Nina. The official line is that Jean died by suicide.
32:16 Speaker 00 But there's a third side to this story: the press. In their Newsweek lawsuit, Jean and Ramon won a disappointingly small sum: damages for invasion of privacy, but nothing else. Newsweek's excuse was that their editor couldn't check the story because he was laid up with a twisted knee after a motor scooter accident. Meanwhile, at the LA Times, where the story first appeared, everyone involved insisted their source had no connection to the FBI. According to biographer David Richards, "The journalist got the tip from an editor who
32:58 Speaker 00 got the tip from someone on the police beat." They all say there was no connection to the FBI, but it's worth noting that the FBI plan included forwarding a letter, quote, "from a fictitious person, not from FBI." Oh, oh, so they don't just say, "Hey, we're leaking this?" Naturally, rumors persist about an FBI plant, and they spin up into the bigger conspiracy theory: that the FBI didn't stop there, that they secretly killed Jean Seberg.
33:35 Speaker 00 And not by destroying her mental health, by injecting her with alcohol. The theory sits neatly between two other mysterious death conspiracies. Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Marilyn was a bombshell blonde actress, MLK, fought for civil rights. Both were targets of COINTELPRO and allegedly, both needed to be silenced. It's easy to connect the dots to Jean, especially when you look at Jean's FBI file and discover that entire pages are still classified as of 2026.
34:18 Speaker 00 Many are marked "permanent serial charge out" and noted as located in "the special file room of the records branch." My producer reached out again to the FBI about accessing them and, oh, you guessed it, no answer. The empty pages leave room for theorists to fill in the blanks. Maybe they're records of the FBI planting the paternity rumor. Maybe they're records of illegal, ongoing surveillance post-1971. Or maybe they're records of a murder plot. Regardless, whoever was involved in those pages is still being protected.
35:03 Speaker 00 Some information is still being suppressed. But here's the thing. The FBI isn't the only party in this story who kept secrets. By some accounts, Jean Seberg is the biggest liar in this story.
35:22 Speaker 04 Gray roots entering the chat, uninvited? Garnier's got you. Garnier Color Sensation Root Retouch covers up to 100% of grays in just 10 minutes. No ammonia, no mess, and the color lasts up to four weeks. It's as easy to apply as shampoo. Plus, it's vegan and cruelty-free. 10 minutes, sensational color, sensational price. With those savings, your next girls' night is basically free. Find your perfect match at walmart.com or at a store near you.
35:52 Speaker 04 Gray roots entering the chat? Uninvited? Garnier's got you. Garnier Color Sensation Root Retouch covers up to 100% of grays in just 10 minutes. No ammonia, no mess, and the color lasts up to four weeks. It's as easy to apply as shampoo. Plus, it's vegan and cruelty-free. 10 minutes. Sensational color. Sensational price. With those savings, your next girls' night is basically free. Find your perfect match at walmart.com or at a store near you.
36:23 Speaker 00 Let's talk about what Jean Seberg didn't want you to know. This information all became public during the 80s and 90s, years after she died. And buckle up, because it's a list. First up, Jean actually did have an affair with a BPP leader. In fact, two, by her own admission, though she never named names. But other people confirmed their identities. The first was Hakeem Jamal. Turns out that airplane meet-cute really was a meet-cute. They started their affair right after meeting. One person close to Jean described the relationship as "passionate." Jean took Hakeem's six kids to Disneyland and let his whole family, even his wife,
37:06 Speaker 00 stay in her Beverly Hills home when she was out of town. In early 1969, she flew him out to Paris, where they stayed in the same hotel, but tried not to be seen in public. Now, in Paris in 1969, no one batted an eye at an interracial couple. In fact, this was an obstacle for the BPP's international fundraising efforts. The French didn't understand how bad it was in the US. But Jean worried about word getting back to America and the story harming her career. When Hakeem later proposed marriage, Jean turned him down, but they stayed in touch for years. Now, some people suspected Hakeem was playing Jean for money.
37:50 Speaker 00 Women he dated called him a liar. And when people asked why he was sleeping with a white woman, which the Black Panthers frowned on, he said it was to get money for the school. But for my money, the best arbiter of how serious the affair was, was Hakeem's wife, Dorothy. She was not a fan. She tried enlisting both Jean's agent and Jean's dad to put an end to the affair. When they declined, Dorothy hired a P.I. to collect evidence. So not only was Jean being watched by FBI agents, but also by this gumshoe. So some of the harassment Jean experienced, like feeling watched and receiving unwanted
38:32 Speaker 00 phone calls, could have been the work of Dorothy Jamal. Dorothy even showed up at Jean's house unannounced, hoping to catch them in the act and shame them into ending things. As she described it, Dorothy saw her husband's car parked outside Jean's house, thinking she'd finally caught him, she banged on the door, and a BPP member with a gun answered, but not her husband, Masai Hewitt. The man the FBI wanted to include in their paternity rumor. Jean and Masai, both in their underwear, screamed at Dorothy, while Hakeem escaped out the back door and zoomed away in his car.
39:16 Speaker 00 As you might have inferred from that story, the other BPP member Jean had an affair with was Masai Hewitt. He confirmed it to his girlfriend, Elaine Brown, and to Jean's biographer, David Richards. Their affair is much hazier, but whatever it was, it clearly caught the attention of the FBI and stuck. A little less than a year later, in April 1970, the FBI eavesdropped on a phone conversation between the pair. Jean was in Paris, but she picked up her phone in the middle of the night to answer a call from Elaine Brown. Elaine was with Masai and stayed nearby while he and Jean caught up.
39:59 Speaker 00 If you're watching the video, there's a partial transcript of their conversation on screen, but here's the gist of it. After discussing some BPP business, Jean gave Masai her big news. She decided to keep her baby. It sounds like she'd been contemplating an abortion since she was in the midst of divorcing Ramon Gari, but Ramon encouraged her to have the baby if she wanted it, and she did. Jean said she was happy. Then, she joked about how everyone Masai knew was pregnant. Laughing, he said, quote, "Oh, well, I'm going to try not to have anything to do with it."
40:41 Speaker 00 Laughing herself, Jean responded, quote, "Listen, I'm afraid of you. You're a liar." Okay, so for context, Jean was referring to the fact that during their relationship, Masai told Jean he was sterile, but in the past few months, he'd impregnated both his wife and his girlfriend Elaine. Definitely not sterile. Continuing the conversation, Jean teased him even further. She nicknamed Masai Johnny Appleseed because he was, quote, "planting his little seeds around." The FBI took this as evidence that Masai was the father of Jean's baby.
41:24 Speaker 00 Even though there's no direct reference to the baby's dad in the conversation, they still made this their smoking gun. All we can actually confirm from this chat is that Masai Hewitt was surprised Jean was keeping the baby, and Ramon Gari took the pregnancy news well. But let's talk about Ramon, because he's a major player in Jean's next big secret: the timeline of her first pregnancy.
41:55 Speaker 00 Flashback to the early 1960s. When Jeanne and Romain met, they were both married to other people. That didn't stall their affair. Jeanne, a fresh 21, was already mid-divorce after her onset affair with Clint Eastwood. Romain, twice her age, kept his wife. She knew about the affair, but later said she thought it would play out quickly. While their friends knew, they kept it secret from the public. Romain was already an award-winning novelist, and Jeanne's career was taking off after Breathless. But that secret grew much harder to keep when Jeanne got pregnant, and both wanted the baby. They came up with a plan.
42:39 Speaker 00 Just fake sick? First, Jeanne had a lengthy treatment for dysentery. Then she had to recuperate from the treatment in sunny Spain. Next, she broke her leg, which allowed her to take meetings with directors from bed during her third trimester. In July 1962, Diego Gari was born. In total secrecy. Jeanne didn't even tell her parents they had a grandchild. It took another year for Romain to divorce his wife. In October 1963, Jeanne and Romain legally married. Then Romain pulled some strings with his connections from his former career as a diplomat.
43:24 Speaker 00 They helped him file a birth certificate for Diego Gari dated after the wedding. The next summer, Jeanne finally let her family meet her infant son, who was actually two. That fall, October 1964, Jeanne's parents told everyone in their hometown, "Oh, Jeanne just had a baby. How exciting." And yes, he was born a non-scandalous one year after the wedding. Jeanne and Romain kept little Diego out of the public eye and away from their friends until, by some accounts, 1966. By then, it was easier to pass their four-year-old off as a very big three-year-old.
44:07 Speaker 00 All this to say, Jeanne and Roman had a history of concocting elaborate lies to protect their child from scandal. Jeanne truly wanted to keep her kid safe and be a good mom. And when Jeanne got pregnant again in 1970, she cooked up another scheme to protect this baby. At this point, she and Roman were in the process of divorce, because, shocker, they were both kept cheating. In fact, during the approximate timeframe the baby was conceived, Jeanne slept with three different men. Real mamiya situation. Notably, none of them were Black Panthers. Dad number one was Mexican activist Carlos Ornelas Navara.
44:51 Speaker 00 He was tall, mustachioed, and, since it's relevant, looked white. Jeanne met him while shooting the film Macho Callahan in Mexico. During the shoot, Jeanne supported Mexican revolutionaries the same way she had the BPP: donating money, hosting meetings at her rental house, and having an affair with one of their members. And Jeanne actually got in hot water with the movie's producers due to her support. But Navara wasn't the only Carlos in her life. Dad number two: novelist Carlos Fuentes, another white Mexican. Though Jeanne never discussed the affair, Fuentes did, and wrote a loosely veiled
45:33 Speaker 00 novel about it, in a very similar style to... Dad number three: author Roman Garay. Even though they'd filed for divorce, the couple stayed close all his life. Roman insisted baby Nina resulted from their reunion in February 1970. It's unclear if he truly believed the baby was his, or he was committed to helping Jeanne make the baby's life easier. For nearly a decade, Jeanne maintained that Roman was the father, until 1979, when she confessed in an interview that it was actually... Carlos Ornelas Navara, the Mexican activist.
46:15 Speaker 00 Allegedly, he even visited her in Paris to claim paternity after he learned about Nina's birth and death. Carlos wanted to continue the relationship. Jean did not. For the record, when he heard about this interview, Ramon Garey said Jean only said that because she was mentally unwell. He reiterated that he was Nina's father. And for the third and final relevant cover-up, Jean lied about her health. As her mental health declined in the late 1970s, she claimed she was being treated for hepatitis. All told, well, not a reliable narrator.
46:57 Speaker 00 And this is important because it leads to a different theory. In 1970, Jean suspected she was being spied on. Even though COINTELPRO was still deeply classified, she felt like she was being watched. She didn't know who she could trust and who was sharing her secrets. So she intentionally told different people different stories about Nina's conception. Some heard the father was Ramon Garey, some heard Carlos Ornelas Navara, some might have even heard Masai Hewitt, Johnny Appleseed himself. If any of those stories came back to her, she'd know who not to trust.
47:40 Speaker 00 Jean probably didn't expect any of these stories to reach the newspaper, but when one version wound up in Newsweek, it horrifically backfired. This does neatly absolve the FBI of planting the story, and if they didn't plant the story, they probably didn't kill Jean. But what about Jean's mental health struggles? Could that all be blamed on the FBI's harassment, as Ramon Garey claimed? Well, it definitely didn't help, but it wasn't the only factor.
48:17 Speaker 00 Jean became nationally famous at 17, immediately facing the pressures of fame and media scrutiny. At the same time, the director of her first two films, Otto Preminger, verbally abused and exploited her. Jean described him as “the world’s most charming dinner guest and the world’s most sadistic director.” For example, during the scene in St. Joan where Joan of Arc burns at the stake, the fire blazed out of control and literally burned Jean at the stake. And that’s the footage Preminger used in the movie’s final cut.
49:01 Speaker 00 Decades later, Jean’s final husband, Ahmed Hosni, physically and financially abused her. He forced her to sell her $11 million Paris apartment to invest in his restaurant. When that failed, he refused to return the money. It took a posthumous lawsuit to return some of the stolen cash to Jean’s son. Jean tried to leave Hosni, but he had her life savings, and he threatened her safety. So, multiple factors seemingly harmed Jean’s mental health. But there’s still a huge lingering question. Paris authorities never
49:41 Speaker 00 proved Jean died by suicide. They just shelved the case without answers. Even in the 2020s, French media reports questioned Jean’s death significantly more than American outlets. But they don’t all point fingers at the FBI. They point to Ahmed Hosni, and Jean’s death being a case of domestic violence turned fatal.
50:08 Speaker 00 Theorists bring up Hosni's connections to the Algerian underworld. How he vanished months after Jean died. How officers had to track him down for the inquest. And after serving time for theft charges, he disappeared again. Permanently. Most suspicious of all, Hosni's actions around Jean's death. He told police she left the house wearing only a blanket, but Jean was found in a nightgown. Hosni said she took the car, but had no answer when police asked why Jean didn't take her glasses, which she needed to drive. Or why police searching the apartment found those glasses, Jean's driver's license,
50:54 Speaker 00 and her money locked in a suitcase. Odd when that same driver's license had been reported as lost months prior. At best, Hosni's story suggests he hid the glasses and license so Jean couldn't get far if she ran. At worst, Hosni's story suggests he killed her. In the weeks before her disappearance, Hosni told Jean's friends that she attempted suicide, which they felt was a lie. And while Jean was missing, witnesses noticed a man who looked like Hosni on the street Jean's car was parked on. He stood near the car with a group of other men.
51:39 Speaker 00 But like with the FBI, there's no hard evidence Ahmed Hosni killed Jean. So.
51:49 Speaker 00 Was her death the result of a massive misunderstanding and grave error? Or was something sinister done? As one senator wrote to the FBI about Jean's case, "If neutralized comes, can liquidate be far behind."
52:09 Speaker 00 All we know is that Jean died tragically with her secrets exposed to the world. And regardless of how far they went, the FBI agents who harassed her are still protected in 2026, given freedom to live out their lives peacefully. So pay attention to who gets censored and who gets free speech, whose secrets get exposed and whose stay classified, and who benefits from staying in the shadows.
52:51 Speaker 00 Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at the conspiracy pod. If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts. For more information on Jean Seberg, amongst the many sources we used, we found David Richards' book, Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story, as well as Jean's official FBI file, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth.
53:31 Speaker 00 This episode was written and researched by Maggie Admire, edited by Pete Ritchie, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video edited, and sound designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.
53:59 Speaker 05 When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI. Vanta gets you compliant fast with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more, and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring. Hyperbound, a YC-backed startup, used Vanta to unlock the Fortune 100 in under a year. Snowfire got audit-ready in a month and closed a multimillion-dollar deal. Trust matters. Get started at vanta.com.
54:28 Speaker 06 If you're building AI agents, you should check out Strands Agents. It's an open source SDK for Python and TypeScript. The idea is simple. Give a model some tools, let it decide what to call and when, and loop until it's done. No chain configs, no graph orchestration, and works with any model provider. It's also open source and built and tested for production agents. Get started at strandsagents.com.
Previous JFK's Murdered Mistress: Mary Pinchot Meyer Next Mexico's Elvis: Long Live Pedro Infante! Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated