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

CHAPTER 30. BLACK FINGERNAILS

1 “It is absurd” Claude Bertin, Les assassins hors-série: Gilles de Rais, Petiot, vol. 10. Les grands procès de l’histoire de France. Paris: Éditions de Saint-Clair, 1967, 191.

2 “Did you find any” PC, 210.

3 “No, we did not” Ibid.

4 “Why do these civil servants” Le Figaro, March 23, 1946.

5 Although he had not Georges Massu, L’enquête Petiot: La plus grande affaire criminelle du siècle (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 245, 247–250, 253–254.

6 “I can assert” … “Who is the criminal” PC, 213–215.

7 “Yet you have” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 197.

8 “how many” Paris-Matin, March 25, 1946; L’Aurore, March 25, 1946.

9 “completely unknown” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 199.

10 “an adventurer without scruple” Jean-Marc Varaut, L’abominable Dr. Petiot (Paris: Ballard, 1974), 213.

11 “Before he accused Petiot” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 226–227.

12 “the Parisian newspapers continue” PC, 216–217. One example of such a photograph is Paris-Matin, March 23, 1946.

13 “thin as an umbrella” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 227.

14 With quivering voice St. Petersburg Times, March 26, 1944.

15 “You are very intelligent” … “render us invisible” PC, 219–223. Cadoret de l’Epinguen elaborated his points in a series of interviews and police reports from December 1944, in APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VI.

16 Robert Malfet Liberation-Soir, January 27, 1945, and a report of January 12, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VI.

17 “The mad doctor” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 232. Petiot scoffing is in Paris-Matin, March 26, 1946.

18 “his secretary” Report, December 13, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VI.

19 “He had black stains” AN, 334, AP 65, 3365–3366.

20 “It’s very important” PC, 224.

21 “Will we have the pleasure” Ibid.