The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot

by Thomas Maeder

  PETIOT If I had wanted to kill Monsieur Guschinov, I wouldn’t have had any reason to ask him for his money ahead of time. I could have just taken it afterward.

  They returned to the subject of the Alvear Palace Hotel. Petiot gave the name of the desk clerk.

  FLORIOT Was a court-appointed commission sent to Buenos Aires to search for Guschinov?

  DUPIN Madame Guschinov telegraphed.

  FLORIOT How about the juge d’instruction? Did he send a photograph to identify this allegedly missing man?

  DUPIN It’s all in the dossier. You know it as well as I do.

  FLORIOT There’s nothing on it in the dossier, is there?

  DUPIN You know perfectly well there isn’t.

  FLORIOT Yet you’ve had plenty of time since October 1944. Don’t you think this was an oversight?

  DUPIN You’re just looking for dramatic effects.

  FLORIOT I’m just asking whether you have made a certain very simple and very important verification.

  DUPIN I don’t have to answer your questions.

  FLORIOT I can answer for you. You haven’t done a damn thing.

  LESER Let’s send a telegram.

  FLORIOT No one is missing or dead—

  He was cut off by laughter on all sides.

  FLORIOT No one is missing or dead in the Guschinov affair. How can you say he’s been murdered when you haven’t even looked for him? Send the telegram and we’ll see.

  Denise Hotin had stayed with Madame Mallard when in Paris. Madame Mallard had since died, and was represented by her daughter, Gilberte Mouron, who testified that Denise had been sent to Dr. Petiot.

  MOURON Madame Hotin stayed with my mother while being treated for pneumonia.

  PETIOT Some of the treatments you say she received are hardly consistent with pneumonia. It sounds more like an abortion.

  MOURON Oh, no, of course not. But I don’t know anything about things like that.

  She became so confused that she called Leser “doctor” and Petiot “Maître,” and left the court with the impression that she was trying to blame Petiot in order to conceal her mother’s illegal activities.

  A Monsieur Masseur was an eighty-three-year-old teacher from Neuville-Garnier. He had a gray handlebar mustache, wore a velvet-collared coat, and was somewhat senile. He looked at Leser as he began to speak.

  LESER Address the court.

  MASSEUR What court?

  LESER [pointing] That court.

  MASSEUR Oh. I know everything that goes on in Neuville-Garnier. I have lived there for twenty-three years. I was there when little Lily was born—

  LESER You mean Denise?

  MASSEUR We called her Lily. She was so cute …

  LESER Let’s start with the marriage.

  PETIOT [standing up] Let me tell you a story about a young man—

  LESER Oh, no. We don’t want to hear any stories.

  Petiot sat down.

  Masseur went on at length, repeated himself, digressed. He did not like the Hotin family and related all the scandalous stories available. He believed that Jean’s parents had chased her out, and that perhaps her husband had killed her. He began to tell the whole story over again.

  MASSEUR Yes, I remember it well. She was bareheaded when she left, and she didn’t take anything with her. Not so much as a small traveling bag. If you heard all the rumors in the town—

  LESER It must be a very noisy town. Do you have anything else to say?

  MASSEUR Oh, yes. I can tell you anything you like. Twenty-three years I’ve lived in that town, and—

  LESER Remove the witness.

  Michel Cadoret de l’Epinguen was the man who had defaulted on his escape plans and whom Véron had chanced to meet in a restaurant.

  PETIOT Ah, how do you do, Monsieur? I hope we shall have the pleasure of seeing Madame Cadoret this afternoon?

  CADORET It was through Robert Malfet and Eryane Kahan that we were put in contact with Petiot. He told us we would have to spend three days hidden in a house near the Etoile before leaving, and that we would be furnished with false identity papers. There was something very suspicious about the whole arrangement. Petiot told us we would need vaccinations to get into Argentina. He said, “These injections will render you invisible to the eyes of the world.”

  PETIOT I see it all now. The mad doctor with his syringe. It was a dark and rainy night. The wind howled under the eaves and rattled the windowpanes of the oak-paneled library—

  LESER Petiot, please.

  CADORET He had dirty hands, which we found unusual for a medical doctor.

  Petiot laughed.

  CADORET He asked us for money. A real Resistance member does not work for gain.

  PETIOT Weren’t you asked for ninety thousand francs at first?

  CADORET I don’t recall.

  PETIOT Think. It’s very important. That’s what saved your life.

  The audience gasped.

  PETIOT No one would have paid such an absurd sum except an informer who was getting his money free from the Gestapo. When you balked, I knew that you were not an informer like the others Eryane sent, and I gave your money back and refused to take you.

  FLORIOT Did you refuse to go, or did Petiot refuse to take you?

  CADORET I must admit we contacted him, prepared to tell him that we had changed our minds. But before we could say anything he announced that he could not help us after all, and gave us our money back.

  Joseph Scarella was a restaurant chef who had met Petiot when Scarella was about to be sent to Germany for forced labor. When he took the stand, he asked Leser whether he should not be disqualified as a witness. Several days before the trial opened, he had gone to see Floriot and asked how he should act on the stand. Floriot had told him, “Follow the dictates of your conscience.”

  LESER I hardly think that disqualifies you. Thank you for your candor.

  SCARELLA Petiot gave me a certificate saying I had syphilis so that I didn’t have to go work in Germany.

  PETIOT It was a false certificate.

  SCARELLA I should certainly hope so! Petiot asked if I didn’t want to leave the country altogether. I was very eager to go; there wasn’t much work for a master chef under the Occupation unless you wanted to cook for the Germans. I do not cook for the enemy. Petiot said I would need to take about a hundred thousand francs with me, because it might be some time before I found work abroad. He asked if I had a wife or family. I told him I had a wife. He said I should take her along, because he didn’t want her to come pestering him all the time asking for news of me the way some people did. My wife didn’t want to go. I was lucky to escape.

  It was 5:15 P.M. The next several scheduled witnesses had gone for a walk and could not be found.

  DUPIN What are we going to do this evening, then?

  LESER I, for one, am going to rest.

  Tuesday, march 26, was the day of the experts. Dr. Albert Paul took the stand. He rolled up his shirtsleeves and smilingly rocked back and forth throughout his testimony. He appeared to know all five hundred pages of the coroner’s report by heart, and recited a litany of human remains: shoulder blades, collarbones, vertebrae, two “voluminous and globular skulls,” feet, thigh bones, pelves, fingers, two peritoneal walls, five kilograms of hair—some long, some short—several skillfully detached scalps. The guard next to Petiot recoiled in horror when Dr. Paul described how the faces and scalps had been peeled away from the skulls in a single piece. Petiot didn’t listen, but whispered to Floriot.

  DUPIN How many bodies were there?

  PAUL Who knows? We were able to reconstruct ten bodies, but if one takes into consideration the fifteen kilograms of charred bones, the vast quantities of small fragments, and the large amount of hair, it is obvious that there were many, many more.

  DUPIN Were you able to determine the ages and sexes of the victims?

  PAUL Half were men, half women. They were between twenty-five and fifty.

  DUPIN When did they die?

&
nbsp; PAUL The fire and lime had so badly damaged the corpses that it was impossible to determine the time of death.

  DUPIN Could you determine the cause of death?

  PAUL No, I’m afraid not. No bullet wounds. No skull fractures. Of course they could have been stabbed, strangled, asphyxiated, or poisoned, but there’s no way to tell. There are so many ways to kill people. Or an injection, if you like, but I’m not one to hypothesize. One curious thing that I did notice was that many of the bodies had scalpel marks in the thigh. When I’m performing an autopsy, I don’t put my scalpel down on the table, but I stick it into the thigh, the way you stick a pin in a pincushion.

  DUPIN Weren’t similar bodies found in the Seine in 1942?

  PAUL Yes, indeed. Between May 1942 and January 1943, thirteen bodies were fished out of the river. Since then, things have returned to normal—three or four a week. [Laughing] At the time, I was afraid it was one of my students. They were all carved up in the same way, and it was very well done.

  FLORIOT I would like to point out that Dr. Petiot never took a dissection course when he was in medical school.

  PAUL That’s a shame, because he dissects very well.

  FLORIOT I beg your pardon. You should say, “The dissector dissects very well.”

  Dr. Piédelièvre presented another portion of the coroner’s report. Petiot feigned passionate interest, sitting with one hand jammed in his pocket while he feverishly took notes with the other. Floriot laid his head on his arm and went to sleep.

  PIÉDELIÈVRE I’m afraid the bodies were so putrefied and damaged by the quicklime that it was impossible to make any estimation of the time of death.

  PETIOT Isn’t there a method using insect larvae?

  PIÉDELIÈVRE Yes. The diptera and coleoptera lay eggs on corpses. By measuring the size of the larvae and examining their tracks as they burrow through the flesh, one can arrive at a fairly accurate estimation. In this case, the lime and fire had destroyed the traces of the insects.

  PETIOT Yes, of course, you’re a coroner and know these things much better than I. Diptera and coleoptera … hmm. This is fascinating, could you tell me more about it?

  PIÉDELIÈVRE It doesn’t really have anything to do with the case at hand.

  PETIOT No, perhaps not. But if you will permit me, I would like to drop by and discuss it a bit further after the trial is over.

  Professor Henri Griffon of the police toxicology lab had examined the viscera for traces of toxic substances. He had found nothing. He suggested that the triangular room had been used as a gas chamber. Floriot woke up, yawned, polished his glasses.

  FLORIOT It would have made a very poor gas chamber. There was a large gap under the door.

  GRIFFON It could have been stopped up with a rug.

  FLORIOT That’s only an hypothesis. Can you produce this rug?

  A JUROR What kind of gas would have been used?

  GRIFFON Just about any kind, except perhaps lighting gas, since there was no jet in the room. I should also mention that I found five-hundred-and-four ampoules of morphine at the rue Caumartin. That’s a huge amount.

  PETIOT I used it for painless childbirths.

  FLORIOT Did you find any poisons at the rue Caumartin?

  GRIFFON Only the morphine.

  FLORIOT Morphine is not a poison.

  GRIFFON That depends upon the dose administered.

  FLORIOT Was there any morphine at the rue Le Sueur?

  GRIFFON No.

  FLORIOT I see. No poison at the rue Le Sueur. No way to block the opening in this famous gas chamber of yours. Nothing at all? Thank you very much.

  Three psychiatrists had examined Petiot before the trial to determine his legal responsibility for his acts. One of them, Dr. Génil-Perrin, had also examined Petiot in 1937 and had commented at that time on his attempt to feign insanity.

  GÉNIL-PERRIN I have examined Petiot and found him to be remarkably intelligent, and endowed with an extraordinary gift for repartee …

  The audience laughed and Dupin assured the doctor that they had already noticed this even without the benefit of his professional eye.

  GÉNIL-PERRIN … but a stunted moral development. He is entirely responsible for his acts.

  A DR. GOURIOU Petiot is perverse, amoral, and a simulator. Throughout his life he has pretended insanity whenever it suited his convenience. I do not consider him to be a monster, but insufficient moral education has permitted him to acquire a taste for evil.

  FLORIOT His patients found him extremely competent and utterly devoted.

  GOURIOU In some doctors I have treated, mental disorders manifest themselves through an exaggerated devotion to their patients.

  FLORIOT Did Petiot ever try to feign insanity with you?

  GOURIOU No. He lied to us about any number of things, but not about that.

  FLORIOT In your report, you say that Petiot completed his medical studies in a “mysterious” fashion. Do you know the grades he received on his examinations?

  GOURIOU I saw his grades. I recall that he got “medicore” in dissection. He managed to avoid taking certain courses generally considered essential. His thesis was received with the notation “very good,” but that’s not difficult. One can buy a thesis if one wants to. At any rate, a thesis is based on book learning, and gives no evaluation of the true personal integrity of the physician.

  FLORIOT You seem to be insinuating a lot of things for which you have no proof. Tell me, you examined Petiot’s family as well. How did you find his sister?

  Gouriou hesitated. “She is quite normal.”

  FLORIOT Are you certain?

  GOURIOU As certain as I can be after a brief psychiatric examination.

  FLORIOT Psychiatry moves in strange ways. Petiot does not have a sister.

  Gouriou fled the box amid peals of laughter.

  Dr. Georges Heuyer complained that Petiot had been difficult to examine, since he had wanted to ask all the questions himself. The audience laughed, Petiot rolled his eyes, Floriot settled down to go to sleep, Leser felt he was losing his grip and recessed the court.

  Edouard de Rougemont, a pompous graphologist with a flowing white beard, had examined the Van Bever, Khaït, Hotin, and Braunberger letters. His reports had been written by hand, in Gothic script, with important words illuminated in red, the whole sewn together with gold braid. With an affection bordering on lasciviousness, he discussed the curves of certain letters and the hand’s movement while making certain sweeps.

  ROUGEMONT In conclusion, all of the things I have told you lead one to believe that these letters were written in a state of agitation. Either they were dictated to the author or the author was under constraint. It is not impossible that he or she was drugged at the time.

  FLORIOT [in awe] You can tell all these things just from the handwriting?

  ROUGEMONT Yes, Maître. Why, a skillful graphologist can plumb the depths of a man’s soul through his handwriting. He can even tell whether the writer is lying or telling the truth.

  Floriot quickly scribbled on a sheet of paper.

  FLORIOT None can be more skillful than you. Here. Could you tell me whether I truly believe what I have just written?

  ROUGEMONT Yes, of course. “Monsieur de Rougemont is a great scholar who never makes a mistake.”

  He blushed deeply.

  FLORIOT If we had asked Petiot to write out his story and Monsieur de Rougemont to read it, we could have dispensed with this whole trial.

  Colonel André Dewavrin was called to the stand. He was a mysterious figure, de Gaulle’s right-hand man during the war, and an important leader in the Resistance. Many people had come to the trial today merely to glimpse him. Rather than Dewavrin, a Monsieur Vandeuille appeared in his stead.

  LESER One does not send substitutes to court.

  Vandeuille departed with dignity.

  Jacques Ibarne (aka Yonnet), the journalist for Résistance and Military Security officer who had conducted part of the investigation of Petiot’s
Resistance activity, came next.

  IBARNE The article “Petiot, Soldier of the Reich” was based on a police interrogation of a man named Charles Rolland. I subsequently discovered that its contents were entirely false, but I had published it with the caution that I took no responsibility for the information given.

  FLORIOT After writing an article like that, Monsieur, a journalist should not have undertaken the military investigation you performed. You were hardly the most objective judge of the facts.

  Ibarne mentioned that after publication of the article he had been summoned to Floriot’s office and given Petiot’s reply. A discussion arose as to whether a lawyer had the right to communicate correspondence he had received from a murderer being sought by the police. The lawyers asked each other, Dupin asked Leser, Leser asked the court clerk. No one seemed to know.

  Ibarne described the results of his investigation. Petiot had never known Cumulo, Brossolette, or any members of Rainbow. No one had ever heard of Dr. Eugène or Fly-Tox, and the formation of an autonomous extermination group such as Petiot described would never have been permitted in the organized Resistance. Petiot had shared a cell at Fresnes for some time with a man named Lateulade, since dead in deportation, who had known Cumulo and Rainbow and could have discussed them with his cellmate. Petiot fired hateful glances at Yonnet-Ibarne throughout his testimony.

  VÉRON Petiot, you say that you killed thirty-three collaborators and thirty German soldiers. You have told us how you liquidated two soldiers in June 1940. Tell us about the twenty-eight others.

  PETIOT I had more respect for them than I did for your client.

  VÉRON How did you trap them? How did you kill them?

  PETIOT They were my patients.

  VÉRON But you were not allowed to treat Germans. You were even required by law to post a sign to that effect on your door.

  PETIOT I won’t answer your questions. I didn’t work for decorations or praise. When there are oppressors, there will always be avengers.

  VÉRON How did you kill them?

  PETIOT That’s none of your damn business!

  VÉRON What did you do with the bodies?