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

CHAPTER 16. THE ATTIC

1 “the most passionate” Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 232–234.

2 “Adrien the Basque” Philippe Aziz, Tu Trahiras sans vergogne: Histoire de deux ‘collabos’ Bonny et Lafont (Paris: Fayard, 1970), 44; APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I; AN, 334, AP 65, 4317–4318.

3 A forty-five-year-old Grégory Auda, Les belles années de “milieu,” 1940–1944 (Paris: Editions Michalon, 2002), 63, and AN, 334 AP 65, 4317–4318.

4 Devisenschützkommando Jacques Delarue, Trafics et crimes sous l’occupation (Paris: Fayard, 1968), 40.

5 some thirty-eight thousand apartments Jean-Marc Dreyfus, “Almost-Camps” in Paris: The Difficult Description of Three Annexes of Drancy—Austerlitz, Lévitan, and Bassano, July 1943 to August 1944,” in Jonathan Petropoulos and John K. Roth, eds., Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), 225.

6 Approximately one thousand cases Detailed description from a victim of one such case in October 1943 is in BDIC, Fonds Delarue F Delta RES 787 6.

7 with a scar two inches long Report, March 27, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

8 “Gine Volna” Report, April 15, 1944; APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

9 “La Chinoise” Marseille Police, March 28, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

10 100-franc note Fourrier acknowledged that this was a sign. Nouvelle Audition, March 19, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III, and discovery at rue Caumartin, Perquisition, March 15, 1944, also in n° III. See also Report, May 6, 1944, in same carton and later media attention, such as Le Petit Parisien, March 23, 1944.

11 An inspector observing … “to simmer” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 179–180.

12 “1000 to 2000 bottles of cognac” René Nézondet, Audition, March 17, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

13 “white as a sheet” … distance-operated syringe René Nézondet, Audition, March 22, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III; this also appears in René Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé” (Paris: Express, 1950), 70–75.

14 “Why did you not inform” … “horrible truth” Ibid.

15 Commissaire Massu asked Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 185.

16 “fainted, or almost fainted” Nézondet, Petiot “le Possédé,” 80. Aimée Lesage did not believe the faints were genuine interrogation, March 25, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

17 an old truck Augusta Debarre, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

18 the vehicle was gray Andrée Marçais, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

19 “With my daughter” Yvonne Staeffen, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

20 TRANSPORTS AVENUE DAUMESNIL Angèle Lalanne, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

21 One of them Report, undated, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

22 Lion verified Maurice Lion, Audition, March 31, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

23 A quick visit Brigade Criminelle Report, September 10, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VI.

24 His wife, Simone-Andrée Report, April 1, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II.

25 Half of the village Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 214–215.

26 “the most tragic cargo” Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 219.

27 Rain splashed Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 219–220.

28 a luggage room Ibid.

29 The contents Report, April 6, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I.

30 311 handkerchiefs Another tally found 366.

31 Massu hoped Massu, L’enquête Petiot, 221–222.