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

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.