Who did Van Gogh confess to that he did n't have any children ?
By ignoring the well - known psychological state of Van Gogh ( given to self-inflicting harm , self-mortification ) and much more reliable testimony ( from Adeline Ravoux , daughter of the inn keeper Gustave Ravoux , the owner of the gun ) , Naifeh and Smith instead make a lot of assumptions on the circumstances around the incident , and misrepresent what Rene Secretan said sixty - six years later in 1956 , who did not confess shooting Van Gogh .