Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris (57 page)

  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.

  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 chantran.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.

  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.

10
On September 11, 1944
Marthe Wetterwald,
Audition
, November 20, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.

11
He wanted to help
Petiot had obtained Wetterwald’s name after trying the same method two days before offering to help in the release of another physican, who, in the middle of his pitch, walked into the room. Marguerite Gérard,
Audition
, November 20, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V.

12
He was a leader
François Wetterwald,
Audition
, November 13, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° V. See also Wetterwald’s memoir,
Vengeance: Histoire d’un corps franc
(Paris: Mouvement Vengeance, 1946).

13
12,884 Jewish men, women, and children
There were 3,031 men, 5,802 women, and 4,051 children between the ages of two and sixteen. Serge Klarsfeld,
Vichy-Auschwitz
(Paris: Fayard 1983), 121–122.

14
“I know, this appears suspect”
Ernest Jorin,
Audition
, November 6, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° IV.

15
Roart was struck
Report, October 10, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° IV.

16
a woman’s black coat
Ibid.

17
though she could not say for certain
Ibid.

18
the mutilated remains of a young boy
Asnières report, August 19, 1942, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.

19
Petiot suddenly refused L’Aurore
, November 6, 1945, and
Franc-Tireur
, November 9, 1945.

20
“On what date did you buy” … “Write ‘ditto’ ”
The interrogation is in Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert,
L’affaire Petiot
(Paris: Gallimard, 1957), 162.

21
all charges would be dropped Combat
, January 4, 1946.

22
“Yet it is certain that” Réquisitoire définitif
, December 31, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.

For the trial of Marcel Petiot, most diligent biographers draw upon the text in Jacques Perry and Jane Chabert,
L’affaire Petiot
(Paris: Gallimard, 1957), hereafter PC. I have also supplemented my account with the
Extract des minutes de la cour d’assises de la Seine
, preserved in the Archives de Paris 30.W.4 and the stenographic record in the Archives Nationales at AN 334 AP 65. For the reactions of attorneys, jurors, and members of the audience, I have drawn upon a number of testimonies in newspapers, memoirs, diaries, and other eyewitness accounts. Citations are used for direct quotations or for more contentious points. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are my own.

  1
“the most sensational” Washington Post
, March 18, 1946.

  2
All jurors
The drawing of the jurors is covered in
Extrait des Minutes du Greffier de la Cour d’Appel de Paris
, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

  3
His assistant … to the prosecution
Thomas Maeder,
The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 192, 185.

  4
“devil’s poet”
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), 142.

  5
Petiot took off
Alain Decaux, present that day, described it in
C’était le xxe siècle: la guerre absolue 1940–1945
(Paris: Perrin, 1998), 298.

  6
“Gentlemen, please”
Bertin,
Les assassins hors-série
, 143.

  7
“willful homicide”
PC, 175; Maeder,
The Unspeakable Crimes
, 194.

  8
stooped over Spokane Daily Chronicle
, March 19, 1946.

  9
“like the edge”
PC, 174.

10
he looked younger New York Times
, March 19, 1946.

11
The dark circles under his eyes
Jean Galtier-Boissière,
Mon journal dans la drôle de paix
(Paris: La jeune Parque, 1947), 206.

12
“famous hypnotic stare” Sydney Morning Herald
, March 19, 1946. The
Chicago Daily Tribune
noted the staring sometimes at victims’ families, and Francine Bonitzer said it was a murderous glare in
L’Aurore
, March 19, 1946.

13
“What about Colonel” … “She told everyone”
Bertin,
Les assassins hors-série
, 143–148. Report, February 6, 1946, APP, Série J, Affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

14
“Don’t mention it”
Reported by Jean-François Dominique, who covered the trial as a reporter for
La Républic du Sud-Ouest
, in his
L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats
(Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 199.

15
“My first murder”
PC, 176.

16
Petiot had good Le Figaro
, March 22, 1946.

17
St. Antony
Galtier-Boissière,
Mon journal
, 206.

18
“That was a story” … “Yes, I was convicted”
PC, 176–177.

19
“Next you are going to tell”
Maeder,
The Unspeakable Crimes
, 195.

20
“the prospectus of a quack!” … “No one ever knows”
PC, 177–178.

21
“Nothing is simpler” … “there was no Resistance”
PC, 179–180.

22
public that looked back
The low opinion of the legal profession, particularly judges, is described by Megan Koreman in
The Expectation of Justice: France, 1944–1946
(Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 98.

23
After a heckler suggested
René Nézondet,
Petiot “le Possédé”
(Paris: Express, 1950), 145.

24
One film producer
John V. Grombach,
The Great Liquidator
(New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 294.

25
“What are plastic explosives?”
Bertin,
Les assassins hors-série
, 156.

26
“Is this” … “Why?”
PC, 181–182. Reactions and Petiot’s words at the end are in
L’Aube
, March 19, 1946, and
Le Pays
, March 19, 1946.