The FBI planted a false story about Jean Seberg's pregnancy in 1970, admitted it in 1979, and she was found dead in her car in Paris

Jean Seberg raised money for the Black Panthers. TIME reported in September 1979 that an FBI memo of 27 April 1970 from a Los Angeles agent proposed a rumor that her baby's father was a Black Panther leader. J. Edgar Hoover approved, writing that she "should be neutralized." On 19 May 1970 Los Angeles Times columnist Joyce Haber ran the item without her name; Newsweek and the French magazine Minute followed. Seberg, seven months pregnant, went into labor and three days later gave birth to a stillborn girl. She and her husband Romain Gary sued over the publication and won damages reported at $20,000^†. Her body was found in the back seat of her car in Paris in September 1979, aged 40. The cause was a barbiturate overdose, and it was treated as suicide. About 200 mourners, including three ex-husbands, attended her burial at Montparnasse. The FBI admitted the 1970 plot on 14 September 1979. Gary called a press conference and blamed the FBI. He died by suicide in December 1980^†. Their son Alexandre Diego Gary survived them.