French writer home safe after apparent kidnapping

May 5, 1982

Jean-Edern Hallier, a French writer missing for eight days and presumed kidnapped, turned up apparently unharmed in central Paris early Tuesday morning, police said. Police at first doubted whether Mr. Hallier, often described by critics as an avid publicity-seeker, had been kidnapped or was merely staging an elaborate publicity stunt. But they said two French news agencies received letters from a group calling itself the ''French revolutionary brigades'' saying it had kidnapped the writer.