The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot

by Thomas Maeder

  VÉRON What are plastic explosives?

  PETIOT …

  VÉRON How do you transport plastic explosives?

  PETIOT Wait a minute, it’s coming back to me. Several comrades filled a suitcase with plastic explosives and detonated them with a bomb with a timer, and then came to hide at my house.

  VÉRON What is this “bomb with a timer?”

  PETIOT A German grenade … you know … the ones with the handle. We heard the explosion thirty minutes later—

  VÉRON German fragmentation grenades have a seven-second fuse!

  Petiot mumbled something and fell silent, glaring sullenly.

  FLORIOT Is this a trial or an entrance exam for the Polytechnic Institute?

  VÉRON This is an examination on the Resistance, and it didn’t take long to show that your client is an impostor.

  Petiot hastened to say: “You didn’t let me finish. I wasn’t going to say that it exploded half an hour later, but that half an hour later the Germans came to my house.” But he knew he had erred seriously, and Véron listened with an indulgent smile. “What right do you have to talk,” Petiot shouted, “You defender of traitors and Jews!”

  Leser ended the day’s proceedings at 6:30. Petiot, having regained his composure, said: “I hope you’re not stopping on my account. I’m not in the least bit tired.” He smiled pleasantly.

  The theatrics of the first day drew an even larger crowd the second. Leser opened with the Resistance again.

  LESER How did you go about detecting and liquidating these alleged German informers?

  PETIOT It was very simple. My comrades and I observed the civilians who came out of the rue des Saussaies. We followed them in a truck. In a secluded place, we stopped them and said we were the German police. Their reactions gave them away. We shoved them in the truck and buried them in the forest near Marly.

  DUPIN Give us some names.

  Floriot whispered, “Adrien Estébétéguy.”

  PETIOT Adrien Estébétéguy.”

  DUPIN Did you kill them yourself?

  PETIOT I killed two German motorcyclists with my secret weapon.

  VÉRON Where? How? This is not the sort of thing that passes unnoticed. We could check up on your statement.

  PETIOT You’re just searching for dramatic effect!

  VÉRON No, but I won’t tolerate having you dirty the name of the Resistance for your own ends!

  The audience applauded.

  PETIOT Shut up, you defender of Jews. You’re working for the traitor Dreyfus and you’re a double agent yourself!

  Véron raised his fist and took a step toward Petiot. “Take that back or I’ll knock your teeth in!”

  The audience laughed, and this interchange furnished headlines for all the newspapers. Even before Véron returned home that evening, his wife had read exaggerated accounts of the accused and the lawyer almost leaping at one another’s throat. Leser placated the two men and restored order. Floriot had slept through most of the interchange, sprawled across his desk.

  VÉRON Tell us about your secret weapon.

  PETIOT I’ve told you a hundred times, and I’ll tell you a thousand more until you finally understand: I’m not going to reveal information which could only be used against France.

  Floriot woke up and laughed.

  LESER Give us the names of your comrades.

  PETIOT Where have you been? I already told you I’m not giving them to you.

  LESER It would certainly help your case if you gave us the names.

  PETIOT All right. I’ll give them to you.

  LESER When?

  PETIOT As soon as I’m acquitted.

  “I rather doubt that you will be,” Leser said, with a surprising lack of impartiality that no one seemed to notice.

  PETIOT I’m sure of it.

  DUPIN Why don’t your men come forward of their own accord when they know their chief’s head is at stake?

  PETIOT You’re the one who says my head is at stake. Fortunately, you’re not the one who’s judging me, but the jurors. I have more confidence in them than in you.

  DUPIN I have given you my guarantee they will not be arrested.

  PETIOT Yes, of course, we all know that tune. You make the promises and it’s your little buddies who make the arrests.

  He was asked about the escape route and the people who had been killed when they presented themselves for escape.

  PETIOT The first victim was Jo le Boxeur. He was easy to spot as a collaborator; he had a head like a pimp—you know, like a police inspector.

  He spoke of Lucien Romier, of the employee at the Argentinian embassy, and of the police commissioner in Lyon.

  PETIOT I’m sorry, I have a poor memory for names. I only remember initials.

  A LAWYER What are the names of the people who actually helped escapees across the border?

  PETIOT Oh, you know, they changed names frequently.

  LAWYER How convenient.

  VÉRON How about just a few names?

  PETIOT There was Robert in the Saône-et-Loire. At Nevers, a German who committed suicide. At Orléans you met someone at the train station café.

  He was asked about his arrest.

  PETIOT They took me to the rue des Saussaies. “Oh, so you’re Dr. Eugène!” said the infamous Jodkum. He had my head crushed, suspended me by my jaw, filed my teeth. We don’t need to go into it. I saw one of my comrades lying on a stretcher, bleeding, foaming at the mouth.

  He put his head in his arms and began to sob. “Excuse me.”

  LESER Why were you released?

  PETIOT My brother paid a hundred thousand francs. My comrades were astonished to see me out, and I had great difficulty getting back into an active role.

  LESER How about the bodies at the rue Le Sueur?

  PETIOT I found a large pointed heap of them when I went there. I was very annoyed. I didn’t want that sort of thing about my house.

  LESER Is that why you asked your brother for quicklime?

  PETIOT Oh, no! The lime was for exterminating roaches, but since my comrades couldn’t haul the bodies away I had the idea of putting them in the lime. That didn’t work very well, so my two comrades thought of burning them in the stove. I had already lit it to destroy a rug infested with mites.

  Petiot had told several stories about the lime: it was to whitewash the building, to kill bugs, to destroy bodies. All the versions were in the dossier, and Dupin could have caught him in a dozen contradictions. He never did.

  Petiot was asked about his activities during the eight months he was sought. He described the battle at the place de la République and an assault on a blockhouse at the boulevard Saint-Martin.

  PETIOT It was there that I received a bullet—I mean, a bullet struck a store window just behind me.

  LESER What nature of work did you do at the Caserne de Reuilly?

  PETIOT I uncovered collaborators and interrogated them. I arrested a Duke de la Rochefoucauld, Count of la Roche-Guyon, who fought for the Germans; a woman named Bonnasseau; Fox, the director of Phillips; Muller, Cornu—

  A LAWYER Strange how his memory for names has returned.

  DUPIN You enrolled under a false name.

  PETIOT Yes, I borrowed the papers of Dr. Wetterwald. I was almost fifty years old, and he was only thirty-three.

  DUPIN You didn’t borrow them, you stole them. And every time you were called as a doctor to write a death certificate you stole the dead man’s papers.

  PETIOT That’s a lie. I only took a dead man’s papers once—Harry Baur’s, the well-known actor.

  DUPIN You don’t look anything like Harry Baur. Don’t tell me you hoped to pass for him?

  PETIOT He was tortured to death by the Nazis, and I wanted to avenge his death. I did what I did out of sportsmanship. I’m not asking for your thanks.

  LESER What did the other officers at the Caserne think of you?

  PETIOT Let them tell you. But they knew who I was.

  LESER They knew and said noth
ing?

  PETIOT I was finally denounced by a comrade, if you can call him that. Among the twelve disciples, Jesus found one Judas. Fifty men trusted me. The fifty-first was a traitor.

  DUPIN What about all the other stolen papers found on you when you were arrested?

  PETIOT There’s plenty of false information about me in the dossier. There’s thirty kilos of it.

  Dupin continued to press Petiot, but the prosecutor’s command of the facts was unsteady. Floriot advised him to learn the difference between “always” and “sometimes,” “everyone” and “a few people,” and “yes” and “no.” The two began to shout, the audience broke into hysterics, and Leser frantically tried to make himself heard.

  PETIOT [during a brief lull] Don’t I have the right to say anything? I’m involved in this, too, you know.

  VÉRON Poor fellow. Are you bored?

  Court was recessed at 4:30. When it reconvened, there were even more people packed in than before, and Petiot noted there was no place to lay his coat. The discussion turned to Denise Hotin and Madame Khaït. Petiot’s response to the Hotin accusation was simple.

  PETIOT I have news for you. I have never even heard that name before. Monsieur le Président, you may continue.

  LESER How gracious of you to permit me.

  Véron began firing questions about the Khaït disappearance.

  VÉRON Just answer yes or no, did you give Madame Khaït saline injections?

  PETIOT You are a very talented lawyer. I shall have to send you some clients.

  Floriot smiled. Véron spoke of Raymonde Baudet. Petiot gazed dreamily into space. “She was a very lovely girl.”

  VÉRON She was not. She was quite plain.

  PETIOT You met her when she was past her prime.

  VÉRON You sound like something out of a bad novel.

  This idle banter continued for some time before the president of the tribunal interrupted.

  LESER Maître Véron, please ask specific questions. This is truly extraordinary—one of them won’t ask questions and the other refuses to answer them!

  PETIOT [complaining to Véron] This is ridiculous. I sent Mademoiselle Baudet to you and it was I who paid your fees.

  This was true. Petiot had been most solicitous at the time and insisted Raymonde Baudet should have the best lawyer. He had asked Floriot for a reference, and Floriot had recommended Véron.

  VÉRON It is less dangerous for you to send me clients than for me to send them to you.

  The day closed at 5:45. Petiot learned quickly and had recognized his errors from the previous day; the newspapers showed grudging admiration for his wit and confidence. He had contradicted himself and the evidence on several points and had glossed over or ignored several others. No one believed he was telling the truth, but the prosecution lacked the skill and force needed to nail down his lies. Reporters began to keep score of the trial: Petiot had won on points the second day.

  Humor could not change the facts, though. David Perlman, a correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, interviewed Leser and two jurors as they left the courtroom. Leser told him: “Petiot is a demon, an unbelievable demon. He is a terrifying monster. He is an appalling murderer.” One juror said: “He is mad. But of course he is mad. He is intelligent, though. He has a terrible intelligence. He is guilty, and the guillotine is too swift for such a monster.” The other remarked, “We are only hearing about the bodies that were found, but how many more he killed, and how many bodies he hid, we shall never know.”

  This was an incredible breach of court procedure, and Floriot leaped at the opportunity for a mistrial. The appellate court replaced the two jurors with alternates and reprimanded Perlman, but maintained that the trial could continue. From then on, Leser scrupulously observed every procedural propriety. In retrospect, it seems remarkable that more serious measures were not taken, given that not only two jurors but the chief magistrate himself had manifested a predisposition in the case. Possibly the feeling was that the Petiot case had one ineluctable outcome, and the sooner reached, the better.

  On the third day, the trial continued with the victims. Albert Palle, writing in the former underground newspaper Combat, complained that the victims flashed by so quickly that one never had a chance to feel the tragedy in its full dimensions or perceive the victims as real human beings at all. And, as well, the horror of the war had “normalized” murder and emptied it of meaning. “Human life is sacred!” Dupin shouted, and the audience laughed. “There’s nothing to laugh about,” Leser roared indignantly. “Those of you who wish to amuse yourselves should get out and go to the theater.” Petiot’s callous dexterity had turned the trial into an entertaining duel of wits, and despite the horror of the crimes, the third day would end with the score “Prosecution 1, Petiot 2.”

  It was pointed out that Van Bever had disappeared after difficulties with Petiot, that he had written strange letters, and that some of his identity papers had been found in Petiot’s possession.

  PETIOT Big deal.

  Floriot mentioned that Van Bever had enemies in Troyes. There were questions as to whether or not he had been an addict.

  PETIOT She was certainly an addict. You only need to look at her photograph. Her whole body was covered with pimples.

  He went on to describe the sex life of Jeannette Gaul and Van Bever in minute detail. The audience burst into laughter, and Leser’s face turned purple as he tried to silence Petiot. Finally he moved on to the Guschinov case.

  PETIOT Guschinov was taken across the Spanish border by André le Corse and Robert Martinetti.

  DUPIN How did you meet Robert Martinetti?

  PETIOT He was one of my patients. I was treating him for an affliction I don’t care to name.

  DUPIN Where is Guschinov now?

  PETIOT In South America.

  DUPIN We haven’t been able to find him.

  PETIOT South America is a big place.

  FLORIOT Have you looked? I don’t see anything in the dossier about investigators being sent to South America.

  DUPIN Inquiries were made.

  FLORIOT Yes, I have copies of your inquiries here. Madame Guschinov wrote to two people asking if, by some chance, they had seen her husband. Of course they hadn’t seen him, any more than you have seen ninety-nine percent of the people in Paris. This is ridiculous.

  PETIOT I received three letters from Guschinov on the stationery of the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires. Light blue paper, it was. By the way, did you know that in South America they slit envelopes on the side rather than at the top the way we do? Isn’t that odd?

  LESER Were you paid for this passage?

  PETIOT No … Well, yes, in a way. Guschinov was a furrier. I asked him if he had any ermine for my wife. I love ermine because of the color. Instead of ermine, Guschinov brought me five sable skins. I don’t know anything about furs. I thought they were worth about ten thousand francs. But these five skins were all exactly the same color, and it seems that’s very rare. [His voice breaking with emotion] They were worth a hundred thousand francs.

  DUPIN You told Guschinov to remove all the marks from his clothes.

  PETIOT An elementary precaution when one changes identity. If you knew anything about the Resistance—

  DUPIN I know more about the Resistance than you do.

  Petiot shrugged. “Perhaps, but not from the same side.”

  ARCHEVÊQUE Tell us the names of the members of your group.

  PETIOT What? Again? Is this going to happen every day? Are you trying to turn it into a comedy? Look, I explained this all yesterday, and you seem to be the only person who didn’t understand anything that was going on. You’re making us look like idiots. I’m ashamed of you. There are foreign journalists here covering this trial. What is the rest of the world going to think of French justice?

  The court hurried on to Dr. Braunberger.

  PETIOT I saw him for ten minutes in my life; at a luncheon following a first communion.

  PERLÈS His h
at and shirt ended up in your house.

  PETIOT We’ll see about that when the time comes.

  PERLÈS You are mentioned in one of the letters he wrote to his wife after his disappearance.

  Floriot jumped up, but Petiot motioned for him to resume his place. “Let it go.”

  PERLÈS The gentlemen of the jury will please note that the accused refuses to answer.

  This time it was Petiot who jumped up, and Floriot turned to soothe him: “Don’t answer. It’s too ridiculous.”

  Perlès droned on. Petiot scribbled or rested his head on his arms.

  LESER Listen when you’re being questioned.

  PETIOT I am listening, but it doesn’t really interest me very much.

  PERLÈS My questions interest the jurors.

  PETIOT That’s all you ask of life, isn’t it?

  PERLÈS You’re anti-Semitic.

  PETIOT No, I wasn’t before the war. I wasn’t during the Occupation. But after everything I went through in Fresnes at the hands of the Gestapo … [his voice breaking] After all that I endured and did for Jews … and now, when I see so many Jews against me, I am beginning to become anti-Semitic.

  The proceeding turned to the nine criminals and prostitutes.

  PETIOT Réocreux wanted to go to Argentina with his mistress and a friend. He paid Fourrier twenty-five thousand francs per person. François le Corse came first with a woman. Ten of my men accosted him behind the Madeleine and played the police trick. François said he was from the rue Lauriston [French Gestapo headquarters] and that Lafont would vouch for him. That was the end of François.

  LESER Describe the execution.

  Petiot pretended to be scandalized. “Goodness, you have sadistic tastes! I was not there myself, so all I can tell you is that he was hit over the head with a rubber tube filled with sand, lead, and bicycle spokes for flexibility.”

  LESER Were you present at any of the executions?