by Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation | June 17, 2022
The Marquis De Morès returned to France, where he became heavily embroiled in the intrigues of French politics. He ran for the Paris City Council, became a rabid anti-Semite, became involved in a plot to overthrow the French government, tried to organize a railroad in Indo-China, and concocted a grandiose scheme to unite all of Islam against England and the Jews.
In 1896, he went to Libya with a plan to stir up the Arabs against the English advances into Africa. On the morning of June 9, 1896, he was ambushed, shot, and killed in the Sahara Desert by a group of Touareg tribesman. The Marquise insisted the Touaregs were hired by his political enemies, but it is possible that they simply killed him for the gold he was carrying. Had he lived five more days, he would have been thirty-eight years old.
This story was excerpted from Rolf Sletten’s book, “Medora – Boom, Bust, and Resurrection.”