Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

by David King

  6 “cries for help” Victor Avenelle in report, March 17, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II, and elaborated in his Audition, May 30, 1944, in carton n° III. See also Paris-Soir, March 28, 1944.

  7 Others claimed to hear APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II; Several biographers also cite the testimony of another Petiot family living on rue Le Sueur. There was none in 1944. But eighty-two-year-old Amais Petiot had lived on the fourth floor of No. 18 until 1942, and her husband Eugène until his death in 1935. The second oldest of their four children was also named Marcel Petiot.

  8 smaller pile of lime … brown suitcase Objets saisis rue Le Sueur, 13/3 PV No. 4, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  9 a cart Report, March 13, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III. The cart, lime, gas mask, needle, bust, the jars, and other items here were sealed as evidence by March 15, as outlined in Charles Deforeit’s report, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  10 a black satin dress Report, Objets saisis, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  11 old-fashioned woman’s hat As police learned, the former owner of 21 rue Le Sueur, Princess Colloredo-Mansfeld, had purchased it for a friend, Georgette Mazeaublanc, who lived in the house between 1932 and 1939. This woman left the hat there when she moved out. Report, March 28, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  12 twenty-two toothbrushes Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 198–199.

  13 specimens of human genitals Report, March 15, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  14 “Order from German” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 234; Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980), 10.

  15 then a twenty-four-year-old Inspector Hernis, in his investigations, later discovered her age. Note, March 22, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  16 René Nézondet remembered René Nézondet, Petiot “le possédé” (Paris: Express, 1950), 34–35.

  17 “If she returns” Frédérique Cesaire, L’Affaire Petiot: Grands procès de l’histoire (Paris: Éditions De Vecchi S.A., 1999), 14.

  18 Petiot was seen loading Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé,” 38.

  19 “A murder is” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 13.

  20 Massu was a native Massu “Biographie,” APP, KA 108, n° 93298.

  21 In January 1908 Massu personnel record, APP, KA 108, n° 93298.

  22 “Motor Car Bandits” Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009), 208–248. See also Richard Parry, The Bonnot Gang (London: Rebel Press, 1987).

  23 “good training” Georges Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres. Souvenirs du Commissaire Massu (Paris: La Tour Pointue, undated/1951), 11. The methods used at the time are described by a former chief of police judiciaire, Commissaire Guillaume, in Trente-sept ans avec la pègre (Paris: Editions de France, 1938), 44–48, 202–205.

  24 “without raising the voice” Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres, 13–14, 244.

  25 The massive, unruly Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday 1925–1939 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 216–217; Life, July 10, 1939. George Sand’s granddaughter testified at the trial, for the defense.

  26 “about forty years old” … “considered dangerous” Arrest notice, March 13, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  27 “The steps of an investigation” … “an idiot” Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres, 8.

  28 about nine thirty Alice Denis, Audition, March 12, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  29 “Yesterday evening” Raymonde Denis, Audition, March 12, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  30 a veritable prewar café Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 226.

  31 504 vials Réquisitoire définitif, December 31, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII, and for the conclusion of a large amount far surpassing the average, AN 334 AP 65, 3361.

  32 “diabolical and grimacing” Report, March 16, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  CHAPTER 4. Two WITNESSES

  1 no fewer than ninety-five AN 334, AP 65, 3313 and 3422. This part of Petiot’s practice was already being reported by Le Matin, March 14, 1944.

  2 Massu now learned Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 45–46.

  3 In early 1942 André Larue discusses some of the drug seizures at this time in Les Flics (Paris: Fayard, 1969), 213, and another view is in Gérard de Villiers, La brigade mondaine: Dossiers secrets révélés par Maurice Vincent, Officier de police principal honoraire (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1972).

  4 Jean-Marc Van Bever APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I, particularly folder 13.

  5 the most exposed See, for instance, Lucien Zimmer, Un Septennat policier: Dessous et secrets de la police républicaine (Paris: Fayard, 1967), 143–154.

  6 Petiot had written AN 334 AP 65, 4168.

  7 “go out and steal” … “only known cure” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 141.

  8 He had, however, become AN 334 AP 65, 4171.

  9 “Perhaps Jeannette had” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 23.

  10 In November 1941 AN 334 AP 65, 4182–4183.

  11 “It is no longer necessary” … a fine Grombach, The Great Liquidator, 144.

  12 “14 vials of heroin” AN 334, AP 65, 4193–4194.

  13 It was hardly his fault AN 334, AP 65, 4192–4193. Both Baudet and Desrouet would later blame each other.

  14 According to the police report Fernand Lavie, Audition, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  15 Petiot offered to make Ibid.

  16 “Do not trouble yourself” 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), 165.

  17 Khaït also recalled AN 334, AP 65, 4201.

  18 The maid, who received the letters AN 334, AP 65, 4206.

  19 “You wretch!” Le Matin, March 14, 1944, and Petiot’s reply, Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 51.

  20 “Rest assured” Marcel Jullian, Le Mystère Petiot (Paris: Edition No. 1, 1980), 142; Georges Massu reports the incident with slightly different words in L’enquête Petiot, 52.

  CHAPTER 5. “100,000 AUTOPSIES”

  1 “The New Landru” Le Petit Parisien, March 13, 1944.

  2 “burned alive” L’Oeuvre, March 13, 1944.

  3 “demonic, erotic” Le Matin, March 14, 1944.

  4 double life The question of a double life was also posed in French papers, for instance Le Petit Parisien, March 16, 1944.

  5 “shady ladies” … “twisted corpse” Associated Press, May 28, 1944.

  6 spotlights The United Press, in turn, broadcast the report in various newspapers, for instance, Milwaukee Journal, March 15, 1944. The claim had already been reported by Le Matin, March 14, 1944.

  7 “You have often heard” Georges Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres. Souvenirs du Commissaire Massu (Paris: La Tour Pointue, undated/1951), 242–243.

  8 “catastrophic” Ibid.

  9 many bodies, but no signs Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1957), 20.

  10 “I should have been” Albert Massui, Le cas du Dr Petiot (Brussels: E.D.C., 1944), 35.

  11 “A shiver ran down” … “His black eyes” Associated Press, May 4, 1944.

  12 “horrible and icy” Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 184.

  13 having trouble sleeping Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 83.

  14 “Boss” … “It’
s almost certain” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 86. Rumors of Petiot’s drug habit were soon circulated further, Le Petit Parisien, March 15, 1944.

  15 “did not want to provide” Report, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  16 “very bad reputation” Ibid.

  17 On March 11, 1930 Report, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  18 “Furiously, he pressed” Seguin’s testimony appears in Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 51. Petiot’s fingerprints are found in folder 42 of APP, Série J, carton n° I.

  19 Speculations rose Paris-Soir, March 20, 1943, and more fully in Paris-Soir, March 21, 1943.

  20 “by accident” Jean-Marc Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot (Paris: Balland 1974), 51.

  21 “anthropometric” techniques Marcel Le Clère, Histoire de la police (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1947), 105–107; Colin Beavan, Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science (New York: Hyperion 2001), 76–93.

  22 five million measurements Claude Cancès with Dominique Cellura, Alissia Grifat, and Franck Hériot, Histoire du 36, quai des Orfèvres (Paris: 2010), 53.

  23 “enthusiastic admiration” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty,” in Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009), 153.

  24 “A right foot” Dr. Paul’s testimony in F.A. Mackenzie, Landru (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1928), 201. This book was reissued in 1995 in The Notable Trials Library of Gryphon Editions with an introduction by Alan M. Dershowitz.

  25 “the doctor of” … “thigh bones, craniums, shinbones” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 78–79.

  26 Massu and Paul Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres, 212; Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 80.

  27 In most cases Premier Rapport préliminaire et succinct, APP, carton n° VII.

  28 “three garbage cans” Le Petit Parisien, March 15, 1944.

  29 “It’s not an autopsy” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 79.

  CHAPTER 6. THE WOMAN WITH THE YELLOW SUITCASE

  1 “I realized” Simone de Beauvoir, The Prime of Life, translated by Peter Green (London: Penguin Books, 1988), 13.

  2 Sartre’s friend Jean Paulhan joked Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre: A Life, translated by Anna Cancogni (New York, Pantheon Books, 1987), 187.

  3 “the strongest heterosexual” Ronald Aronson, Camus & Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004), 20.

  4 “We were like” Ibid.

  5 “Imagine what she” Olivier Todd, Camus: A Life, translated by Benjamin Ivry (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 231.

  6 “He has no right” French police report printed in Pascal Bonafoux, “Picasso, Français?”: Questions sur la naturalisation de l’artiste, in Bruno Fuligni, ed., Dans les secrets de la police: quatre siècles d’histoire, de crimes et de faits divers dans les archives de la Préfecture de police (Paris: L’Iconoclaste, 2008), 230–231. See also Pablo Picasso: dossiers de la préfecture de police, 1901–1940 by Pierre Daix and Armand Israël (Moudon, Switzerland: Editions Acatos, 2003).

  7 “Very illegally” Maurice Toesca, Cinq ans de patience 1939–1944 (Paris: É. Paul, 1975), 179.

  8 stacks of manuscripts Gerhard Heller, Un allemand à Paris 1940–1944 (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1981), 26–28.

  9 heart beating with excitement Ibid., 117–118, his first visit to Picasso, June 1942.

  10 the drab palette Pierre Cabanne, Pablo Picasso: His Life and Times (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1977), 343.

  11 a roadside restaurant Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 87; time and placement of the stop in police report, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  12 “roasted barley” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 88.

  13 Maurice Petiot was not there He is invariably placed in the shop, but the Brigade Criminelle report indicates he was not, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I. Other reports, along with interviews with Maurice cited below, confirm the fact.

  14 thirty-one-year-old Monique would turn thirty-one in nine days.

  15 “the most extraordinary” Le Matin, March 23, 1944.

  16 Albert Neuhausen Report April 6, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  17 “We spoke of things” Report, March 13, 1944; APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  18 a black skirt Paris-Matin, March 15, 1944.

  19 a few locks Le Petit Parisien, March 16, 1944.

  20 before collapsing Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 90–91.

  21 One young man Ibid. Le Matin, March 15, 1944.

  22 Maurice, who had been apprehended Report, March 24, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  23 “short sobs” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 91, and Report, March 16, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  CHAPTER 7. “BESIDE A MONSTER”

  1 “the intrusion of” Georges Massu, Aveux Quai des Orfèvres. Souvenirs du Commissaire Massu (Paris: La Tour Pointue, undated/1951), 28–29.

  2 Massu stalled Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 94.

  3 two million bicycles Gilles Perrault and Pierre Azéma, Paris Under the Occupation (New York: The Vendome Press, 1989), 41.

  4 “Well, Madame Petiot” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 94.

  5 “I must say” Georgette Petiot, Audition, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  6 in a low, barely audible Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 94–95.

  7 “old books and antiquities” … one hour and a half later Georgette Petiot, Audition, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  8 Raymonde Hanss Report, June 18, 1936, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.

  9 “Pull yourself” … “Perhaps rue des Lombards?” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 96–102; Le Petit Parisien, March 16, 1944; Report, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  10 Wives of criminals … In which category Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 91.

  11 “a little chill” … “I have never known” Maurice Petiot, Audition, March 14, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  CHAPTER 8. A DELIVERY

  1 “Paris had been” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Paris Under the Occupation,” originally published in La France libre (1945), and reprinted in The Aftermath of War (Situations III), translated by Chris Turner (New York: Seagull Books, 2008), 22. Turner has a slightly different translation.

  2 Potatoes were peeled Lucie Aubrac, Outwitting the Gestapo, translated by Konrad Bieber, with the assistance of Betsy Wing (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 19.

  3 Wartime diets in France Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years 1940–1944 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 233. A possible exception, of course, was Italy. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 360. Paxton also thinks that France was worse off than “Eastern Europe, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia.”

  4 the “ballet of buds” Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 130.

  5 “Did she confess?” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 103.

  6 “Gentlemen” … “Simple mania” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 131, 103–106.

  7 “Assassins!” Le Petit Parisien, March 16, 1944.

  8 Georgette Petiot was driven Report March 20, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  9 Georgette’s father Report, February 6, 1945, APP, Série J, affa
ire Petiot, carton n° V.

  10 “humming, whistling, and” Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 45.

  11 “love the people” Dominique, L’affaire Petiot, 58.

  12 “Drain Petiot” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 78.

  13 “It’s a vile political” Claude Barret, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1958), 44.

  14 twenty-one residents Report, March 18, 1944; APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

  15 According to Alicot Report, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II. The stays, from September 11, 1940, to February 22, 1944, are listed, with room numbers, in a Brigade Criminelle report two days later, also in carton n° II. See also René Kraemer’s interview with Madame Alicot in Le Matin, March 28, 1944.

  CHAPTER 9. EVASION

  1 “Dr. Petiot was” René Piédelièvre, Souvenirs d’un médecin légiste (Paris: Flammarion, 1966), 78.

  2 young and beautiful Sylvie Givaudan, Marseille Police Report, March 28, 1944, APP, Série J, Affaire Petiot, carton n° I. See also Paris-Soir, March 20, 1944, and Le Parisien of the same day.

  3 Joséphine Aimée Grippay Grippay is “Josephine G” in Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 137–143.

  4 “It was good” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 138.

  5 “La Chinoise” Marseille Police, March 28, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

  6 By the time Piereschi police record, forwarded from Marseille, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I. He is “P” in Massu’s memoir.

  7 “sunny farmhouse” Fabienne Jamet, One Two Two: [122 rue de Provence] (Paris: O. Orban, 1975), translated by Derek Coltman as Palace of Sweet Sin (London: W.H. Allen, 1977), 10–11.

  8 Petiot had drawn APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.