The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (26 page)

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 nothing?

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.