Stelescu also attacked the Guard's leader for maintaining secret contacts with the authorities and receiving bribes and subsidies, claiming that, in 1935, during the repression of the Guard, the leader had taken refuge in the residence of a female relative of Elena Lupescu, the King's mistress — "While everybody was staying in Jilava, and in other prisons, you were being sheltered by a lady. She was a person adverse to your action. How did you get along so well?". He also challenged Codreanu's public image by suggesting that the Guard's leader was in reality a bon viveur, as well as uncultured and a plagiarist. On one occasion, he defied Codreanu's violent methods, writing an open letter stating: "I am to be killed, I ask for one indulgence, let the 'Chief' in person come do it, and, if possible, not in the back".