Little Prince Author Gunned Down By Own Fan

World War II Luftwaffe veteran Horst Rippert has just discovered, more than half a century after the fact, that he was personally responsible for the death of his favorite writer, French pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

According to the Mail on Sunday, a biographer of Saint-Exupery discovered the terrible link between the novelist, who published The Little Prince and seven other books, and the now 88-year-old former flying ace. Said Ruppert:

If I had known it was Saint-Exupery, I would never have shot him down. I loved his books. I knew he was a French pilot, but he was probably my favourite author at the time. ...I am shocked and sorry. Who knows what other books he would have gone on to write?

Who knows, indeed? Beyond The Little Prince, Exupery's work is barely known outside the French-speaking world. Perhaps he had another masterpiece in him, another book that would please and enlighten us the same way his most famous book has done.

It's an ugly story, and a bitter irony. And, you know, I'm starting to think that whole Third Reich thing was just a rotten idea. But I'm tempted to some ugly, ugly cynicism here. Like, anybody who shoots down 28 people, as Ruppert managed to do, is bound to be killing somebody's hero--might as well be his own...?

Ugh. Sorry.

War is a lousy business, y'all. Everybody knock it off.

How a German wartime flying ace discovered he shot down his hero [Mail on Sunday]
[via: Gawker]