Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
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5 four thousand tons Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951), 386–387.
6 “the key to France” Anthony Beevor and Artemis Cooper, Paris After the Liberation 1944–1949 (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 36.
7 De Gaulle wanted Charles de Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc., 1998), 631–632.
8 “Paris must not” Larry Collins with Dominique Lapierre, Is Paris Burning? (New York: Pocket Books, Inc., 1966), unpaginated introduction; Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000), 189.
9 The French police rebelled C. Angeli and P. Gillet, La police dans la politique (1944–1954)(Paris: Éditions Bernard Grasset, 1967), 57–74.
10 Under the leadership Marcel Le Clère describes the role of the guardians of peace in particular in Histoire de la police (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1947), 124–125.
11 The pilot believed Gregor Dallas, 1945: The War That Never Ended (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 179; Charles de Gaulle’s version, The Complete War Memoirs, 634–635.
12 “To this city” Collins, Is Paris Burning?, 30.
13 “sparkling torpedoes” Beevor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation 1944–1949, 34.
14 “purple-faced generals” Ibid.
15 “crossroads of death” Willis Thornton, The Liberation of Paris (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), 167.
16 With forces estimated Beavor and Cooper, Paris After the Liberation 1944–1949, 33.
17 Grand Palais Edmond Dubois, Paris sans lumière (Lausanne: Payot, 1946), 208.
18 “roped to the turret” Collins with Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 175.
19 “Tous Aux Barricades” Comité parisien de Libération, Albert Ouzoulias (Colonel André), Les Batillons de la jeunesse: le colonel Fabien et d’autres jeunes dans la résistance, dans les maquis et l’insurrection parisienne (Paris: Éditions Sociales, 1967), 439–440.
20 “What the hell, Brad” … “Is Paris burning?” Collins with Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 203, 220, 221, 302.
21 “olive drab jeeps” Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio: From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 398.
22 “The greatness of man” … “The night of truth,” Combat, August 25, 1944, printed with a slightly different translation in Camus at Combat: Writing 1944–1947. Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi Trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 18.
23 “Paris,” he shouted Gregor Dallas, 1945, 21; De Gaulle later described it as an “improvised reply,” The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, 649–650.
24 “I was drunk” Gilles Perrault and Pierre Azéma, Paris Under the Occupation (New York: The Vendome Press, 1989), 56.
25 “the loveliest, brightest” Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 322.
CHAPTER 21. “P.S. DESTROY ALL MY LETTERS”
1 “provisionally released” Réquisitoire définitif, December 31, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.
2 Massu, a firm believer Georges Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres. Souvenirs du Commissaire Massu (Paris: La Tour Pointue, undated/1951), 151.
3 “I was almost arrested” … “P.S. Destroy” Marguerite Braunberger to juge d’instruction, September 6, 1944, printed in Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1957), 62–63; AN 334, AP 65, 3378.
4 “ma chère amie” Ibid.
5 “Ma chère Maggi” Ibid; Marguerite Braunberger, Audition, December 4, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
6 “a baptism or first communion” Ibid.
7 “either a genius or a madman” Raymond Vallée, Audition, December 5, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
8 “I’m going to give” … anything else, other than Marguerite Braunberger, letter to juge d’instruction, September 6, 1944, and Report, December 11, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V. Marcel Braunberger confirmed receiving a letter as well. Marcel Braunberger, Audition, December 8, 1944, also in carton n° V.
9 she reported her husband’s disappearance Report, March 26, 1946, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
10 The case was closed Braunberger dossier, No. 95, 543 closed on January 9, 1943, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
CHAPTER 22. AT SAINT-MANDÉ-TOURELLE STATION
1 “The Mad Butcher” … “a swarthy, sinister-looking” United Press, August 31, 1944.
2 “He is only too real” Ibid.
3 “We have identified 54 victims” Ibid; Washington Post, November 3, 1944. The first part of this quote was also published by the New York Times, August 31, 1944.
4 a twenty-nine-year-old Italian woman Laetitia Toureaux is the subject of a fascinating new book by Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite, Murder in the Métro: Laetitia Toureaux and the Cagoule in 1930s France (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010).
5 “hooded ones” Maurice Pujo coined the term after the Ku Klux Klan. Bertram M. Gordon, Collaborationism in France During the Second World War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980), 58.
6 Perhaps he had New York Times, August 31, 1944.
7 forwarded by attorney Jacques Yonnet, Audition, November 7, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
8 “Dear Mr. Editor” … “Having lost” Résistance, October 18, 1944. Special thanks to Magali Androuin at the archives of the Préfecture de Police for showing me the original letter, which, given its state (ripped to pieces), is held outside the dossier.
9 Colonel Rol Liberation-Soir, November 4, 1944. For more on Colonel Rol’s life in general, see Roger Bourderon, Rol-Tanguy (Paris: Tallandier, 2004).
10 The first priority in the reckoning Megan Koreman, The Expectation of Justice: France, 1944–1946 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 92.
11 An estimated ten to twenty thousand women Fabrice Virgili estimates twenty thousand in Shorn Women: Gender and Punishment in Liberation France (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2002), 1.
12 A recent study Jean-Paul Picaper and Ludwig Norz, Enfants Maudits: ils sont 200,000, on les appelait les “enfants de Boches” (Paris: Syrtes, 2004).
13 In all, about 310,000 cases Philippe Burrin, France Under the Germans: Collaboration and Compromise, translated by Janet Lloyd (New York: The New Press, 1996), 459.
14 More recent studies Henry Rousso, “L’épuration en France: une histoire inachevée” Vingtième Siècle no. 33 (January–March, 1992); H. R. Kedward put the number between 10,000 and 12,000 in Occupied France: Collaboration and Resistance 1940–1944 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985), 77, and a few studies, returning full circle, place the figure higher. For more on the debate, see Christopher Lloyd’s first-rate Collaboration and Resistance in Occupied France: Representing Treason and Sacrifice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 39–40.
15 “stock market in a moment” Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1995), 266.
16 France, he said, was using René Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé” (Paris: Express, 1950), 117.
17 At 10:45 Captain Simonin, Arrest of Dr. Petiot, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
18 as he punched his ticket letter to Decaux, Alain Decaux, C’était le xxe siècle: la guerre absolue 1940–1945 (Paris: Perrin, 1998), 293, and asking for the time comes from an interview with one of the officers, in France-Soir, December 3, 1975.
19 “no longer sully the honor” Jean-Marc Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot (Paris: Ballard, 1974), 185.
20 The murder suspect carried Captain Simonin, Report, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V; Commission Rogatoire, November 2, 1944, also in carton n° V.
21 “We believe we have fulfilled” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes o
f Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 155. See also the Front-National, November 3, 1944, and L’Humanité, November 3, 1944.
22 the DGER The BCRA had become DGSS and then DGER in what Lucien Zimmer called a “ballet of initials” in Un Septennat policier: Dessous et secrets de la police républicaine (Paris: Fayard, 1967), 216.
23 He was later identified Résistance, March 13, 1946. The article was written by Jacques Yonnet, the same journalist who penned the previous “Petiot, Soldat du Reich.” APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
24 “It’s unbelievable” … “To think that I have been alone” Dylma interview in L’Oeuvre, November 3, 1944.
25 He was accused of four specific charges Massu’s Epuration dossier, APP, KB 74.
26 “dining on several occasions” Jean-Marc Berlière with Laurent Chabrun, Policiers français sous l’occupation: d’après les archives de l’épuration (Paris: Perrin, 2009), 141–142.
27 “the end of a rope” Commission Rogatoire, November 2, 1944, the first of thirty-three identified items in his possession, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
28 suicide attempt … “anti-national act” Berlière, Policiers français, 141, 145; Massu’s Epuration dossier, APP, KB 74.
29 “A good colleague” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 239.
30 “haunted the Palais de Justice” Télé Programme Magazine, February 2–8, 1958, 4th year—N° 119, 7–9, translation by Stephen Trussel, December 2003. For more on Simenon and Maigret, see his excellent website, trussel.com.
31 “I took all my models” Ibid.
CHAPTER 23. INTERROGATIONS
1 “a hero of the Resistance” … later Simonin would say Simonin to Decaux, Alain Decaux, C’était le xxe siècle, 293, 284–288.
2 Petiot denied … He returned to rue Le Sueur Marcel Petiot, Procès-verbal d’interrogatoire, October 31, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
3 Years later Simonin told this to Marcel Jullian, Le Mystère Petiot (Paris: Edition No. 1, 1980), 203.
4 “My conscience does not” Alomée Planel, Docteur Satan ou L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, 1978), 250; Front National, November 3, 1944.
5 “A demon for detail” Time, July 28, 1967. See also Françoise Giroud vous présente le tout-Paris. Préface de Marcel Achard (Paris: Gallimard, 1952), 88–93.
6 Mussolini, who at the height Information on Magda Fontages’s relationship with Mussolini comes from his chaffeur, Ercole Boratto, whose memoir was discovered by Mario J. Cereghino in 2004, in his work with Giorgio Cavalleri and Franco Giannantoni, La Fine: Gli ultimi giorni di Benito Mussolini nei documenti dei servizi segreti americani (1945–1946) (Milan: Garzanti, 2009).
7 Petiot’s sector was reserved Pierre Montagnon, 42, rue de la Santé: une prison politique, 1867–1968 (Paris: Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, 1996), 259.
8 “I have been” … “A five-ton truck” Marcel Petiot, November 2, 1944, published in Planel, Docteur Satan, 254–258.
9 When a handful Megan Koreman, The Expectation of Justice: France, 1944–1946 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 50.
10 “too uncultivated” Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 179.
11 “in a great disorder” … “I was absolutely bewildered” Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1957), 111–112.
12 April 4, 1936 Report, April 6, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
13 “bash his face in” Ibid.
14 According to this document Reports of April 6 and June 18, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
15 “If I hadn’t given it” Ibid.
16 “wept convulsively” Dr. Ceillier, Rapport Medico-Legal, July 22, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
17 “mental debility” … “dangerous to himself and others” Ibid.
18 The physician arrived APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I, folder 43.
19 “cyclothymic” Dr. Achille Delmas, August 15, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
20 “to justify his past acts” Ibid.
21 “attempting a variety of simultaneous tasks” Ibid.
22 “calm, lucid, and non-delirious” Dr. Rogues de Fursac, Medical Report, August 18, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
23 “a state of mental equilibrium” Dr. Achille Delmas, August 25, 1936, Extrait du registre du contrôle de psychiatrie de la Vo Région, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
24 “I am absolutely sane in mind” Marcel Petiot to the procureur de la république, August 18, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
25 “amoral and unbalanced” … “should not weigh excessively” Rapport Medico-Legal, December 19, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
CHAPTER 24. BEATING CHANCE?
1 “Cigarette Butt” Petiot signed a poem with this nickname. APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.
2 “It would be marvelous” Ibid.
3 “If Petiot is condemned” René Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé” (Paris: Express, 1950), 123–124.
4 “very cultivated, very intelligent” France-Soir, March 16, 1946.
5 “I never saw” Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé,” 128.
6 “meatballs” … “virgin forest” Marcel Petiot, Le Hasard vaincu (Paris: Roger Amiard, 1946), 14, 341, 1, 5–6.
7 “Petiot Exposition” Jacques Delarue and Anne Manson, “L’affaire Landru de la Libération: Docteur Petiot 21, Rue Lesueur,” in Gilbert Guilleminault et al., eds., Les lendemains qui ne chantaient pas (Paris: Denoël, 1962), 54.
8 “very esteemed” Jean Duchesne, Audition, November 27, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
9 “he had belonged to a group” Ibid.
10 “participated in the murder” Jean Duchesne, Audition, November 28, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
11 the owner of the five-room apartment Yvonne Salvage, Audition, December 10, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
12 About nine o’clock one evening … “make the cadavers disappear” Georges Redouté, Audition, November 4, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
13 a “Corsican” Ibid. Marguerite Durez, Audition, November 5, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
14 “During the time” … “always alone” Georges Redouté, Audition, November 4, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
15 “a drum with German colors” Perquisition, November 4, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
16 Petiot had called this Georges Redouté, Audition, November 4, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
17 a “game of poker” Ibid.
18 “I was convinced at that moment” … “the war, the Germans” Emilie Bézayrie, Audition, November 6, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
19 “true patriot” … “I did not go to the police” Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1957), 113.
20 Petiot, laughing, offered Delarue and Manson, “L’affaire Landru,” 51.
21 Lieutenant Jacques Yonnet Many biographers confuse the surname and the alias. The correct surname is Yonnet.
22 wounded by a German grenade Jacques Yonnet was still feeling the effects June 16, 1944, describing how fragments “roam about in my side, my hip, my neck. They tickle, prick, scratch, throb, and sometimes leave me prostrate with attacks of absolutely unbearable convulsive pain.” Jacques Yonnet, Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City, translated by Christine Donougher (London: Dedalus, 2006), 165.
23 the twenty-five-year-old Charbonneaux Hubert Charbonneaux, “Hommage à Jean Charbonneaux (1918–1943),” last updated December 22, 2007, which can be read at the recommended Turma Vengeance website, at chantra
n.vengeance. free.fr/Doc/Charbonneaux05.pdf
24 inventor of the bath torture Jacques Delarue, Trafics et crimes sous l’occupation (Paris: Fayard, 1968), 45–52.
25 identifying one hundred V-1 George Martelli, The Man Who Saved London: The Story of Michel Hollard (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1961), 8, 154–155, 167.
26 No one in Agir Many other Resistants who would have moved in his circles denied any knowledge as well, including Claire Davinroy, Audition, October 31, 1944; Dr. Vic Dupont, Audition, November 13, 1944; and widows of fallen leaders, such as Gilberte Brossolette, Report, March 21, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
27 “A guy who did nothing” DGER Report, Conclusions, May 3, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V and IV.
CHAPTER 25. THE KNELLERS
1 “Shit! I’ll run over there” Hazel Rowley, Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005), 147.
2 “land of freedom and equality” Ibid, 150.
3 “that doctrine which makes” … “Existentialism defines” Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre: A Life, translated by Anna Cancogni (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), 249–251.
4 “Too Many Attend Sartre” Ronald Aronson, Camus & Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004), 47.
5 “the hairy adolescents” … P.T. Barnum Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre, 261.
6 what the historian Ronald Aronson Ronald Aronson, Camus & Sartre, 48.
7 A journalist asked Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 171.
8 “constitutional delinquent” … “completely amoral” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 266–269.
9 “[Petiot’s] hesitations, his contradictions” DGER Report, Conclusions, May 3, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V and IV.