Another well known writer to (allegedly) fall foul of a governments hired assassins was Albert Camus. Famous for absurdist works such as The Stranger and The Fall, Camus died in 1960 when his car careened off an icy road and into a tree. The alternate theory of his death was first publicised by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. They cite an apparent missing passage in the diary of Czech poet Jan Zábrana, which claims Camus had fallen foul of the Russian government to such an extent they deemed it necessary to silence him forever. I heard something very strange from the mouth of a man who knew lots of things and had very informed sources. According to him, the accident that had cost Albert Camus his life in 1960 was organised by Soviet spies. They damaged a tyre on the car using a sophisticated piece of equipment that cut or made a hole in the wheel at speed. Camus was a vocal critic of communist Russia, publicly denouncing the Soviets actions in suppressing a Hungarian uprising of 1956, as well as providing public support for writer Boris Pasternak, whose novel Dr Zhivago was banned by Josef Stalin. Whether this was enough to justify assassinating him is matter for debate, although its worth pointing out how Camus biographers and other experts vehemently deny this version of events.