9. The Immortal Comte De Saint Germain
As Queen warbler Freddie Mercury once pondered, who wants to live forever? The answer would seem to be ‘Count de Saint Germain’, a historical figure who was born in the late 1600’s and officially died in 1783 – but may well have stuck around until at least his last rumored sighting, in 1983. At every point in time that Saint Germain has been sighted, his appearance was said to resemble a well-dressed, 45-year old man.
The Count was a famous figure amongst the 18th century French aristocracy. He was an accomplished painter, violinist, spoke 12 languages and was a brilliant alchemist, accumulating great wealth by turning metal into pure gold. He also claimed to have discovered the secret to eternal life, leading to sightings of him in 1785 – he was chosen as the official representative for a freemasons conference when he was already a year ‘dead’. Stranger still, he was sighted in France and Germany well into the 19th century, following the death of Marie Antoinette.
A man claiming to be the Count, Richard Chanfrey, appeared on french TV in 1970 and turned lead into gold to prove his claim. Whether or not Chanfrey was the Count, we’ll never know; he committed suicide in 1983. Although there was a suicide note, no body was ever found…
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