André Bonhomme was one of the four founding members of the Priory of Sion in Annemasse (Haute-Savoie, France) in 1956, along with Pierre Plantard. He was tired of being harassed by enquiries about the nature of the association and never wanted any publicity – refusing to be interviewed on radio or television. He didn’t understand where people got the idea that the Priory of Sion was anything other than what it was – just a small group of friends



Testimony One

Here is what André Bonhomme said in a telephone interview in 1995 to one of the makers of the “Timewatch” documentary The History of a Mystery (from a copy of a Private File):


“The Priory of Sion does not exist anymore. We were never involved in any activities of a political nature. It was four friends who came together to have fun. We called ourselves the Priory of Sion because there was a mountain by the same name close-by. I haven’t seen Plantard in over 20 years and I don’t know what he’s up to but he always had a great imagination. I don’t know why people try to make such a big thing out of nothing” (at that time André Bonhomme was living in Lucinges, Haute-Savoie, France)



Testimony Two

Quoting Geoffrey Basil Smith, from correspondence dated 9 April 1986, who obtained his information from Christopher Scargill, who was commissioned to do research on a proposed “Timewatch” documentary that never materialised:


“Bonhomme runs a Plastics Factory in the French Alps, near Annemasse, and Chris Scargill telephoned him. He said he was embarrassed by the whole affair, had never heard of Rennes-le-Château, hadn’t seen Plantard for years, said the 1956 group never intented the Priory to be taken so seriously, and that it was… surprise, surprise… a group along the lines of the Boy Scouts !!!”

Testimony Three

Quoting Geoffrey Basil Smith, from correspondence dated 14 April 1986:

“I eventually managed to contact André Bonhomme at his home telephone number on Saturday night. Bonhomme understandably seemed cautious, perhaps a little frightened, weary, somewhat embarrassed and very reluctant to reveal anything. This is understandable since he is now a senior executive (Director General) of a company and doesn’t want reminding of the antics of a young man of 22. I appreciate this and I for one will never mention Bonhomme by name in anything I write. The man sounded innocent to me and his articles in ‘Circuit’ 1956 on the social problems facing people in certain areas over housing was, in fact, very commendable – certainly not Traditional Right-Wing Catholicism! Anyway, Bonhomme wanted to know, in his broken, hesitant English, if I knew Plantard, if I knew he lived in Paris, what my job was, etc., and then said it was difficult to speak on the phone, said he was not really interested in the subject, it all happened a very long time ago, and reluctantly agreed to my writing to him (although he gave a worried ‘no’ when I said I’d written to him c/o S.N.C.I. marked ‘personal’). All he then said was ‘I knew Mr Plantard in 1957 (he obviously meant 1956), now I don’t know him.’ The poor devil obviously had nothing to do with Plantard’s 1960’s/70s/80s lunatic fringe actions which turned an apparently innocent and quite admirable little association into an eccentric and fake esoteric/Hermetic lies/factory”