Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
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19 Insults and insinuations AN 334, AP 65, 4609–4610.
20 “offended the very legitimate sensitivities” AN 334, AP 65, 4611.
21 “saluted by a number of German” AN 334, AP 65, 4614.
22 “Since you do not appear to remember” AN 334, AP 65, 4615.
23 The judge ordered Request for Dossier No. 16582, March 28, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
24 “I have not looked at your hands” … “Pétain?” AN 334, AP 65, 4623–4624.
25 “Was she tortured” Galtier-Boissière, Mon journal, 211.
26 “these equally plausible” Ibid.
CHAPTER 33. WALKOUT
1 “We respected Yvan” … “To give information” PC, 247–249.
2 “Germans, notorious collaborators” Fernand Lavie in a letter of November 30, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° IV.
3 “My mother never intended to leave” … “Yet she must know” PC, 249–251.
4 “How many witnesses” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 251. Emphasis added. Many other important witnesses were not found, not least of which was Georges Redouté, who had left town. Report, March 12, 1946, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
5 “Maître, if you manage” PC, 251.
6 “How do you explain this find?” Claude Bertin, Les assassins hors-série: Gilles de Rais, Petiot, vol. 10 of Les grands procès de l’histoire de France (Paris: Éditions de Saint-Clair, 1967), 245.
7 “The moment has not come” … “Do not speak” PC, 252–254.
8 “Very sympathetically” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 268–269.
9 “Why were you released” … “To insinuate” PC, 255.
10 “Me? An agent” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 248.
11 “you lawyers of the alleged victims” Grombach, The Great Liquidator, 356–357.
12 this chaotic session The New York Times correspondent calls it a “screaming contest.” New York Times, March 31, 1946.
CHAPTER 34. NAUFRAGEUR
1 “a veritable fire-box of political intrigue” Claude Bertin, Les assassins hors-série: Gilles de Rais, Petiot, vol. 10 of Les grands procès de l’histoire de France (Paris: Éditions de Saint-Clair, 1967), 255.
2 “true nest of tuberculosis” Ibid, 256.
3 “Petiot was a Frenchman” PC, 256.
4 “kill everyone” France-Soir, April 2, 1946.
5 “You spent five months with him” … “Whatever the outcome” PC, 257–258; Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 258–259.
6 “without any question a real Resistant” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 364.
7 stylish Paris-Matin, April 2, 1946.
8 “I do not care” PC, 258.
9 “We’re making a flop” Petiot repeated this several times when the size of the audience fell. Claude Barret, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1958), 145.
10 EVERYBODY SLEEPS AT THE PETIOT TRIAL L’Aurore, April 3, 1946.
11 “Nazi faun that haunts” … “I do not insist” PC, 260–261.
12 “he did not know” This was Petiot’s statement on March 20, 1946, as noted on page 256.
13 “Ah!” she said Leser, April 2, 1946, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
14 “uniting them in death” Grombach, The Great Liquidator, 367.
15 “I have the good fortune” AN 334, AP 65, 4432.
16 “Cruel men set lanterns” AN 334, AP 65, 4474.
17 The members of the French Resistance … “wrap himself” AN 334, AP 65, 4471.
18 “very curious” … “I do not know if Petiot” AN 334, AP 65, 4470–4474.
19 “condemn him to death” AN 334, AP 65, 4475.
20 “the records of the Cour d’assises de la Seine” AN 334, AP 65, 4006, and Dupin’s handwritten version, AN 334, AP 65, 4086.
21 “Yes, to find as many cadavers” AN 334, AP 65, 4007.
22 “remarkably intelligent” AN 334, AP 65, 3306.
23 “I will show you” AN 334, AP 65, 3341.
24 Petiot made a show Paris-Matin, April 4, 1946.
25 “modern Bluebeard” AN 334, AP 65, 3311.
26 “a modern gangster” Ibid.
CHAPTER 35. THE VERDICT
1 “herrings in a cask” Le Figaro, April 5, 1946.
2 “in a scandalous buffoonery” Libé-Soir, April 5, 1946.
3 Dupin classified Petiot’s victims AN 334, AP 65, 3385.
4 “No, Petiot, we will not allow” AN 334, AP 65, 3444.
5 “Signed, the Procureur” … “Nor you!” PC, 267, and Dupin’s continuation, AN 334 AP 65, 3445.
6 “Let Justice be done” AN 334, AP 65, 3449.
7 “the pleasure of a hunting dog” Le Figaro, April 5, 1946.
8 “monster, an assassin, a thief” AN 334, AP 65, 4092.
9 what really, Floriot asked AN 334 AP 65, 4119–4120.
10 “executed in the name of the Resistance” AN 334, AP 65, 4120.
11 “There is no crime or misdemeanor” AN 334, AP 65, 4340–4341.
12 Madame Braunberger, Floriot noted AN 334, AP 65, 4274.
13 “opened fifteen times” AN 334, AP 65, 4277.
14 Could it perhaps be “B.P.” AN 334, AP 65, 4280.
15 he states it AN 334, AP 65, 4282; PC, 280.
16 “really something incredible” … “to your ears” AN 334, AP 65, 4289–4292.
17 “A sample?” … “They resemble each” AN 334, AP 65, 4300–4301.
18 “hats off for the hat trick” Jean-Marc Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot (Paris: Balland, 1974), 261.
19 The patriot and hero Many accounts make Floriot end by saying that he, too, would always be proud of having defended Petiot, but those words are not in the stenographic account.
20 “I commend Petiot to your hands” AN 334, AP 65, 4430.
21 “the greatest defense summation” Associated Press, April 5, 1946.
22 “I cannot … nothing” AN 334 AP 65, 4430.
23 “Is the above mentioned” Claude Bertin, Les assassins hors-série: Gilles de Rais, Petiot, vol. 10 of Les grands procès de l’histoire de France (Paris: Éditions de Saint-Clair, 1967), 283; Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 277.
24 “suffocating and reeling” France-Soir, April 5, 1946.
25 Marcel Petiot was AP 30.W.4, 17.
26 “hollowing out his sockets” Le Monde, April 5, 1946.
27 “I must be avenged!” PC, 292.
CHAPTER 36. TIMBERS OF JUSTICE
1 “Nothing more can” … “Life is made of” Frédérique Cesaire, L’Affaire Petiot. Grands procès de l’histoire (Paris: Editions De Vecchi S. A., 1999), 48.
2 In February of 1955 Report, February 8, 1955, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.
3 “cooked the case” Canberra Times (Australia), April 6, 1946.
4 “terrifying monster” New York Herald Tribune (international edition), March 20, 1946.
5 “dangerous to himself and to others” Ceiller, Rapport Medico-Legal, July 22, 1936, citing the Law of 1838, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
6 later expressed doubts According to John V. Grombach, Dupin “definitely stated that he believed Petiot to be positively insane.” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), note to page 297.
7 Paulette Dreyfus would receive AP, 30.W.4.18–27.
8 Guschinow with 500,000 Not 100,000 as invariably reported. AP 30. W.4.21.
9 Relatives of the Wolff family Despite the portrait in Petiot biographies, the relatives of the Wolff and Kneller families did receive compensation, AP 30.W.4.23 and AP 30.W.4.25.
10 Authorities suspected Paris-Matin, May 23, 1946.
11 “When are they going” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little
, Brown and Company, 1980), 285.
12 Anatole Deibler, had suffered Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday 1925–1939 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1972), 217.
13 a harpsichord maker This was Tobias Schmidt. See Stanley Karnow’s portrait in Paris in the Fifties (New York: Times Books, 1999), 166–167.
14 “last breath of air” Rayner Heppenstall, Bluebeard and After: Three Decades of Murder in France (London: Peter Owen, 1972), 158.
15 Petiot, mocking Jean-Marc Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot (Paris: Balland, 1974), 9. Varaut heard the story from René Floriot, in L’Aurore, April 30, 1974.
16 “Petiot, have courage” Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot, 7.
17 “How long is he” Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot, 8.
18 “Gentlemen, I am” PC, 294.
19 “I only see” Serge Jacquemard, Petiot, Docteur Satan (Paris: FleuveNoir, 1993), 214.
20 “No,” he said Marcel Jullian, Le mystère Petiot (Paris: Edition No. 1, 1980), 167.
21 “A pity” Jacquemard, Petiot, Docteur Satan, 214.
22 According to Obrecht André Obrecht, Le Carnet noir du bourreau: Mémoires d’André Obrecht, l’homme qui exécuta 322 condamnés (Paris: Editions Gerard de Villiers, 1989), 197.
23 “For the first time” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 287; Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot, 12.
24 “Gentlemen, I have” Claude Barret, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1958), 9. CHAPTER 37. THE LOOT
25 “stone by stone” Parisien-Libéré, July 5, 1952; Franc-Tireur, April 23, 1953; APP, Série EA, carton n° 181.
26 “Go where you know” Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 213.
27 According to this theory Ronald Seth, Petiot: Victim of Chance (London: Hutchinson, 1963), 206.
28 In early February Serge Jacquemard, La Bande Bonny-Lafont (Paris: Fleuve Noir, 1992), 181–183.
29 As remarkable as it sounds There were German searches of rue Caumartin, as well as rue de Reuilly, but never rue le Sueur. AN 334 AP 65, 4394. Reports of German visitors to the property were not confirmed by the police, and one admitted visit (they left the lights on by mistake) was from June 1944. Kriminalpolizei, Bericht, June 12, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.
30 Danos served the gangster Éric Guillon, Abel Danos, dit “le mammouth”: entre Résistance et Gestapo (Paris: Fayard, 2006).
31 Adrien the Basque’s brother By the autumn of 1944, Jacques Yonnet was also making this comment to investigators. Jacques Yonnet, Audition, November 7, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
32 Lafont officially denied Henri Chamberlin, Audition, November 22, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.
33 “physician of the pissoir” … “my uncle” Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 81–84.
34 Cap Doumia, outside Algier Grégory Auda, Les belles année du “milieu” 1940–1944: Le grand banditisme dans la machine répressive allemande en France (Paris: Éditions Michalon, 2002), 65–66. Lafont purchased the farm in Clavie’s name, BDIC, Fonds Delarue Report September 10, 1944, and September 19, 1944, F Delta RES 787 6.
35 Lafont had just received Philippe Aziz, Tu Trahiras sans vergogne: Histoire de deux ‘collabos’ Bonny et Lafont (Paris: Fayard, 1970), 49–53.
36 Oral testimony Henry Sergg, Paris Gestapo (Paris: Grancher, 1989), 80–82. Petiot also admitted that some members of the French Gestapo had in fact been inadvertently led back to rue Le Sueur in his Audition, November 5, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.
37 It was indeed this time APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII contains many reports of the findings.
38 “Dr. P” … “knows everything” Dominique, L’affaire Petiot, 118. Petiot hints that he knew many unknown things about Lafont’s gang on rue Lauriston in Audition par Section Spéciale, November 10, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.
EPILOGUE
1 distance-operated syringe René Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé” (Paris: Express, 1950), 76–78.
2 “I do not have to know” … “stinking atmosphere” Albert Massui, Le cas du Dr Petiot (Brussels: E.D.C., 1944), 66–76.
3 “a load of crap” Henry Sergg, Paris Gestapo (Paris: Grancher, 1989), 88.
4 Raphaël’s testimony Raphaël K escaped Petiot, he said, thanks to some extraordinary good fortune. The door to the triangular room had somehow not latched shut. He managed to wiggle out, exit through the narrow corridor, and after coming out of a window into the courtyard, reach the street. Petiot, due to some “incomprehensible distraction,” was nowhere in sight. Raphaël was sick for some time afterward.
5 He could create This is very similar to the method adopted by Nevada in June 1930, when they changed their execution procedure. Scott Christianson, The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 98–99.
Illustration Credits
1.1 © Albert Harlingue / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.2 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.3 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.4 Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection, New York
1.5 Albert Harlingue / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.6 Courtesy of Le Matin, photographer unknown
1.7 Photo by author, used with permission of the Service des Archives et du Musée de la Préfecture de police
1.8 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.9 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.10 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.11 Courtesy of Le Matin, photographer unknown
1.12 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.13 Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection, New York
1.14 Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection, New York
1.15 French Photographer (20th century) Private Collection / Archives Charmet / The Bridgeman Art Library
1.16 © LAPI / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.17 Photo by author, used with permission of the Service des Archives et du Musée de la Préfecture de police
1.18 Photo by author, used with permission of the Service des Archives et du Musée de la Préfecture de police
1.19 © Roger-Viollet / The Image Works
1.20 Marcel Petiot, Le hasard vaincu (1946)
1.21 Marcel Petiot, Le hasard vaincu (1946)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID KING is the author of the acclaimed Vienna, 1814 and Finding Atlantis. A Fulbright Scholar with a master’s degree from Cambridge University, he taught European history at the University of Kentucky for several years. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and children.