Camille Pilet

Camille Pilet (17 February 1926 – 5 October 1994) was a Swiss member of the Order of the Solar Temple and an employee of the Swiss watch company Piaget SA for over 40 years. Pilet was influential on the growth and development of Piaget and served as its world sales director until his retirement in 1990. He was also a high-ranking member of the Solar Temple, often described as a cult, and died in their 1994 mass murder–suicide in Cheiry, Switzerland.

As Piaget's worldwide sales director, Pilet helped the company develop and was a significant influence on the brand. He assisted in the sale of Baume et Mercier to Piaget in 1964. Pilet acquired a net worth of through work outside of the watch business, mostly through real estate dealings. In 1981, after a heart attack, Pilet met homeopath Luc Jouret. He became a follower of Jouret and later joined the group he led, the Order of the Solar Temple. Pilet became the Solar Temple's primary financial benefactor and gave them millions of Swiss francs; as a result, he rose quickly in the order and likely kept the group from going bankrupt.

Seen in the order as the reincarnation of Joseph of Arimathea, Pilet claimed to receive messages from other dimensions and to channel messages from entities. Messages said to be received by Pilet suggested that the group "transit", what they called mass suicide. In 1994, 54 members of the Solar Temple, including Pilet, either killed themselves or were murdered in Switzerland and Canada. Pilet was likely a voluntary participant and helped to orchestrate the mass murder–suicides.

Early life Camille Pilet was born 17 February 1926 in La Côte-aux-Fées, in the Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. La Côte-aux-Fées is a small town of some 500 people that borders France. Pilet had a sister. Pilet was a bachelor and never married; friends recalled him as somewhat effeminate. While he still lived in his hometown, he regularly attended church.

Pilet never received a degree from any institution. Beginning in 1945, Pilet worked as a traveling salesman. He trained as a sales clerk in Fleurier. In 1959, he invited three Cuban expatriates to help them develop the American market for the brand, which they accepted, signing a distribution contract with Pilet. He was known as a workaholic; associates described him as working so hard that "his wife was the company". He also frequently visited Los Angeles. He arrived again in 1987 with a collection of 300 watches worth , which were displayed. He assisted in the sale of Baume et Mercier to Piaget in 1964, and the founding of other watch companies. and at one time had a network of 40 million francs. In the early 1960s, Pilet left his hometown for his company work.

Solar Temple Pilet became a Rosicrucian, specifically a member of the Rosicrucian order AMORC, He was known as something of a hypochondriac; He rented a luxury apartment next to Di Mambro's in Australia. Due to his death this did not occur.

Several letters were written by the group declaring their intentions in mass suicide. The letters divided the dead into three groups: "Traitors", who were to be murdered, "Immortals", who had been "helped" in death (killed) by other members, and the "Awakened", who were to commit voluntary suicide. Leading up to the deaths, the most devoted members of the order were offered several videotapes, which included their beliefs and alluded to the plans. The third tape, "Joseph of Arimathea—Message", was a combination of four parts. The first was Pilet reading out messages he had received in a trance state 8 February 1994; another incorporated him reading out another work, "". This text claims to discuss "the final Transmutation of the human into a divine man" and those who "pass through the Narrow Gate and take with them the capital Energy/Consciousness of all terrestrial Evolution, imprinted in their cells". He recounts these concepts in a trance like state while Jouret gives him the microphone. This is succeeded by what scholar Jean-Marie Abgrall described as a "strange sequence" involving 54 members of the group, and another Pilet trance message.

Two weeks before the mass suicides, Pilet bought one of the Solar Temple's three chalets in Salvan, Switzerland from Di Mambro. At an unclear time during this period the members in Salvan recorded a final video tape, later discovered by investigators, showing about a dozen of the followers in their last meal, including Jouret, Di Mambro, Pilet, and several others. During the tape, the members sing The Knights of the Round Table; in another part, Pilet tries and fails to contact the "Masters".

Death During the night from 2 to 3 October 1994, 23 members of the OTS, including Pilet, died in Cheiry, Switzerland, as part of a mass murder-suicide orchestrated by the OTS. Most of the dead in Cheiry were among the "Traitors" who had been murdered, except Pilet and Pfaehler, who were probably among the "Awakened". Pilet was likely one of the voluntary participants and orchestrators of the deaths, not those who were murdered: the Swiss police report on the Solar Temple said, "it is likely that Camille Pilet conducted the ceremony on the night of the tragedy in Cheiry." However, Pilet was ultimately legally declared a victim and not a perpetrator, so the cantons involved could not claim his assets.

For several days, investigators did not realize Pilet was among the dead, or Jouret or Di Mambro. Pilet was initially thought to have escaped the scene and to be hiding in Geneva, but within the week, Swiss authorities announced that he and the other high-ranking suspects were dead. His body was identified on October 11. Following his death, those that knew him expressed confusion about how he could have become involved in this situation; his friends considered it unimaginable and the discovery of his association with the OTS to be baffling. They did not know he was a member of the group until informed by newspapers. They said they would have "never expected" him to be in a cult, though they said it explained "why, for about two years, he'd been acting a little strange [...] we never knew where he was". They said he must have been "trapped" by it. The Swiss company Prestige Time, that had been planning to launch Pilet's watch brand, denied all involvement with the cult aspect.

Pilet was buried in La Côte-aux-Fées on 15 October. The funeral was held at a local church in neighboring Val-de-Travers. About 300 people attended his funeral, including several Piaget employees. The eulogy was delivered by a pastor and family friend; they read out some of the OTS's last messages explaining their deaths. The writers of a 1994 book covering Piaget's history, , dedicated the book to Pilet.