The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (28 page)

PETIOT
[choking with emotion] Thank you.

Pinault recovered himself and gave evidence showing that Petiot and Cumulo looked nothing alike.

PINAULT
And among all the people I interviewed, none had ever heard of Dr. Petiot or Dr. Eugène.

PETIOT
You just made a mistake, that's all. But don't worry, it's not your fault.

FLORIOT
Didn't your investigations show that Guélin was working for the Germans?

PINAULT
He was an informer, yes.

FLORIOT
Haven't two bodies found near Marly been identified?

PINAULT
Well, it's not within my jurisdiction, but I have heard that two Gestapo agents were found buried near the woods at Marly.

An inspector Poirier took the stand. He had spoken with several hundred of Petiot's patients, he testified, and many of them were frightened by the doctor's eyes.

PETIOT
Here we go. They're going to start saying I'm crazy again.

Floriot forced Poirier to admit that Eryane Kahan was an adventuress and that Lafont, before his execution, had acknowledged the participation of Réocreux and Estébétéguy in his group. Floriot then read a 1942 police report stating that Dr. Braunberger had returned home several days after his wife reported him missing, and he gently chided Poirier for making unproved assertions. The report had been only a means of closing a seemingly pointless investigation, and had no basis in fact. But fact quickly seemed to be losing its importance in the trial. The press chalked up another round for Petiot and ridiculed the incompetence of Dupin and Leser.

On the fifth day, the court was scheduled to go to the rue Le Sueur. Petiot had demanded that the jurors see the building about which so many lies had been written and discover for themselves just how innocent it really was. Professor Charles Sannié, the director of the Identité Judiciaire, took the stand. He had conducted the inspection of the building, and now gave the court a long and tedious description of what they were about to see. Long before he finished, the journalists went to their cars and raced madly across Paris, running red lights and shouting to startled policemen and pedestrians: “Get the hell out of the way! Petiot is coming!”

At 2:00
P.M.
the official proceedings moved from the Palais de Justice. Leser daintily lifted the hem of his scarlet robes as he descended the steps. Petiot turned his coat collar up against the rain and smiled at the onlookers. The streets around the court building had been barricaded, and fifteen cars and a swarm of motorcycle police waited to effect the move with, as one person claimed, the maximum amount of chaos and discomfort.

The rue Le Sueur was closed to traffic, and three hundred policemen were stationed along the block to maintain order. Spectators crowded every window and shop, and repeatedly burst through police lines to get a closer look at Petiot. Flanked by two inspectors and surrounded by gendarmes, the handcuffed Petiot was led into his house. “Peculiar homecoming reception, don't you think?” he asked one of Floriot's assistants.

Leser did his best to retain some semblance of dignity. Dupin looked irritable and sulked throughout the visit. A fine rain continued to fall, and the long judicial robes dragged in the mud and sodden lime. The journalists, audience, and neighbors tried to fight their way past the police. One reporter was thrown to the ground, the sleeve of a gendarme's uniform was ripped off, and Maurice Petiot's wife Monique was seen kicking another policeman. Someone tried to close the front door. Leser shouted: “My God, don't do that! Court is in session and it must be a public audience! Isn't that so, Maître Floriot?” Floriot grinned. Leaving the courtroom had been an unusual step, and there were a thousand opportunities for a mistrial.

The crowd forced its way in and set off in all directions. The library was ransacked. Someone threw a bale of papers out of a window to those waiting in the street. Mothers, with the newspapers' maps of the building in their hands, showed their children the stove and the pit. Leser frantically tried to collect the members of his court. One group of lawyers posed in the courtyard, smiling, with human thighbones in their hands, while photographers took pictures.

The court moved into the doctor's consultation room. No one had thought to have the electricity turned on. Candles were brought, and the whole visit was punctuated by the striking of matches as they blew out.

PETIOT
Truly this is enlightened justice!

The avocat général, his robes covered with plaster dust and cobwebs, moodily explained the layout of the building.

DUPIN
From here, the victim followed that corridor, which leads to the triangular room, where he thought there was an exit. He entered, and tried to open the door on the far wall. Before he discovered that it was false, the door behind him closed. It was locked with a chain and had no knob on the inside.

Leser, Dupin, Petiot, Floriot, Sannié, and three jurors managed to pack themselves into the triangular room. Their candle blew out; no one could find a match, nor did they dare move in the utter darkness. A cry went up, and a few moments later a policeman pushed through with a flashlight, like Diogenes gone astray. They noticed that the viewer was not in the wall.

FLORIOT
Where is the viewer? It was supposed to be under seals.

SANNIÉ
I don't know.

FLORIOT
You don't know! You had better find it or you should lose your job.

SANNIÉ
I think it was left in the courtroom.

PETIOT
Despite Monsieur Dupin's macabre description, I had intended to install a radiation therapy machine in this room.

SANNIÉ
Don't be ridiculous. You couldn't even get an examination table in here, much less the machinery.

DUPIN
This is where you killed your victims after locking them in.

PETIOT
If you know anything about construction, you can see that the walls are only thin plaster. That wouldn't hold anyone. Besides, it's impossible to kill anybody in this little hole. Monsieur le Président, how would you go about killing someone in here?

A JUROR
Petiot told us the executions took place in a truck.

PETIOT
[nonchalantly] Oh, well, of course you can kill anywhere. [Suddenly losing his temper] If I had told you I had never killed anyone, I could understand your obstinacy. But I admit that I executed several people, so what difference does it make whether they were killed here or there? Why do you keep harping on such silly things? The rest of the world really is going to think we're a bunch of imbeciles in France!

Dupin kept trying to speak, but no one paid much attention. He finally pouted: “Will you let me say something? If things are going to continue like this, I'm leaving.” As the conversation went on around him, Dupin left and wandered aimlessly from room to room. The rest of the jurors and lawyers were ushered into the triangular room in three shifts. Outside, the people wandered about, and Leser rushed around trying desperately to keep order: “No smoking in the courtroom!” “Silence in the court!” The strangely informal circumstances promoted a certain camaraderie, and one lawyer who had vehemently attacked Petiot was heard chatting with him: “Listen, my dear fellow …” “Yes, of course, old chap …”

The court arrived at the stables and found Dupin there, but he dashed off. “Wait a minute and I'll get out of your way,” he said. “You'll have more room like that.” As they stood in front of the pit, Petiot turned pale, tottered, and almost fell in. When they descended the stairs to look at the stove, he stumbled again. Journalists wrote that at last his crimes had proved too much for him. It turned out that Petiot was taken from prison in the morning before breakfast and returned after dinner: he had eaten only a slice of bread and a bowl of thin soup each evening for the past four days, and was merely faint from hunger. Leser made sure he was better fed from then on.

SANNIÉ
Human remains were found here and here. On the landing over there was a sack with half of a corpse in it.

PETIOT
It was a German army mail sack, wasn't it?

SANNIÉ
I believe it was a cement bag.

FLORIOT
I assume you know where this sack is. You do have it under seals, don't you?

Sannié flushed and mumbled incoherently.

FLORIOT
This is really incredible!

The court forced its way back to the waiting cars. The crowd shouted: “Death to the assassin!” Despite Petiot's confidence, the rue Le Sueur had seemed more horrifying than most people had previously imagined, and several jurors reported having nightmares about it for days afterward.

Back at the Palais de Justice, Sannié returned to the stand and described the house again. Floriot forced him to admit that Petiot's fingerprints had not been found anywhere. No one really listened. Most of the crowd would not even have come back except that Massu was scheduled to speak.

When Massu took the stand, Petiot returned to the question of the German army mail sack on the steps at the rue Le Sueur.

MASSU
I think it looked more like a potato sack.

PETIOT
Where is it now? Did you keep it?

MASSU
I think the Identité Judiciaire has it.

FLORIOT
That's what they think, too, but nobody around here seems to be sure of anything.

Floriot questioned Massu on minute details of the dossier. Massu could only reply that “Inspector Batut handled that, you would have to ask him.” Or Inspector Poirier had covered another point, or Pascaud, Hernis, Renonciat, X, Y, Z …

FLORIOT
Tell me then, commissaire, just what did
you
do as chief of the Criminal Brigade?

MASSU
I directed criminal investigations.

FLORIOT
I see.

The court was left with the impression that the entire investigation had been conducted in the most careless fashion imaginable.

The trial reopened at 1:00
P.M.
on the sixth day, and the hall was so crowded that a foreign journalist was squeezed into the prisoner's box with Petiot, who smiled amiably and edged over to make room. In the audience were Prince Rainier of Monaco and the wife of Félix Gouin, the provisional president of the Republic.

The first witness was Marius Batut, Massu's competent assistant. If Floriot expected more easy victories, he was disappointed by the inspector with a face like a friendly prizefighter and a firm command of the facts. Batut described parts of the investigation, the discovery of the suitcases, and the identification of several victims. Floriot tried to trip him up on procedural details, but Batut always had the right answer and had always conducted his investigation strictly according to law. Petiot remained silent, digging his pencil point into the wood of his box.

BATUT
I would like to add that the Germans took a great interest in the affair. They followed the investigation, asked us questions, and required us to file a daily report.

LESER
What do you think of the Kahan woman?

BATUT
I do not believe that she worked for the Gestapo. The Germans said we could arrest her if we liked. They weren't interested in her. Her friend Dr. Saint-Pierre asked me not to turn her over to the Germans if we caught her.

VÉRON
Collaborators were not usually afraid of the Germans.

BATUT
No. Nor of us. Whenever we arrested them, they were generally released two or three days later. They came back to see us afterward; they were all very polite.

VÉRON
After his arrest, did Petiot make any accusations against Madame Kahan?

BATUT
No, he did not.

VÉRON
Do you think that the Wolffs and the Basches were Gestapo informers?

BATUT
I can swear under oath that they were not.

VÉRON
What do you know about Yvan Dreyfus?

BATUT
Not much. Just what I've read in the reports.

VÉRON
What was Guélin accused of?

BATUT
Intelligence with the enemy.

VÉRON
Do you think, then, that his testimony about Dreyfus's work for the Germans can be believed?

FLORIOT
[interrupting] Didn't Dreyfus work for the Germans?

BATUT
I don't think so.

FLORIOT
To regain his freedom, didn't he agree to do a certain job for the Germans?

BATUT
I would have to say yes. He was a poor unfortunate like the rest of them. To get out of prison he agreed to furnish some information, the importance of which he had no way of knowing.

FLORIOT
Then why did you say he didn't work for the Germans?

BATUT
You're trying to confuse me. I warn you, you won't succeed.

DUPIN
Maître Floriot, you have already spent fifteen minutes picking at this witness for no purpose.

FLORIOT
If you had spent even five minutes reading the dossier, you would see the purpose. For two days the police have been trying to confuse the issue. Their testimony goes on forever and they never say anything. I am just trying to pin down some precise facts. Inspector Batut, were the suitcases shown to the victims' families during the Occupation?

BATUT
Not as far as I know.

FLORIOT
Why not?

BATUT
Maître, you seem to be forgetting that we
were
under the Occupation.

FLORIOT
You were in contact with the German police. Lafont came to see Monsieur Massu about Estébétéguy.

BATUT
I wasn't there. I know that Lafont was interested in some Gestapo members who had committed a robbery at Hautefort. All of them had disappeared, except for a man named Lombard, who didn't disappear.