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

CHAPTER 31. “A TASTE FOR EVIL”

1 “grit its teeth” Le Pays, March 27, 1946.

2 “one hundred bony pieces” … “globular” L’Ordre, March 27, 1945, APP, Série EA, carton n° 181.

3 The latter included … “very mummified” Dérobert, Paul, et Piédelièvre, Report, January 10, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.

4 “We were able to conclude” PC, 226.

5 “No, not a scrap” Paul was referring to his section, “Examen des cheveux et des poils,” in Report, January 10, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.

6 “Five were men, five women” AN 334, AP 65, 3323.

7 “We can say that these” AN, Ibid.

8 “Not a single” … “Pardon me” PC, 226–227.

9 “putrefied and damaged” … “diptera and coleoptera” Thomas Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 235. Elaboration about the seven tubes of insects as well as the musca, muscina, ophyra, calliphoridae, drosophilidae, phoridae, piophilidae, and others is in “Rapport entomologique” inside Dérobert, Paul, et Piédelièvre, Report, January 10, 1945, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° VII.

10 “Yes, you know” L’Aurore, March 27, 1946.

11 Petiot agreed and invited himself Paris-Matin, March 27, 1946.

12 “that does not mean” … “It would have been easy” Claude Bertin, Les assassins hors-série: Gilles de Rais, Petiot, vol. 10 of Les grands procès de l’histoire de France (Paris: Éditions de Saint-Clair, 1967), 212–213.

13 “That’s only a hypothesis” … “I see” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 235–236, PC, 228–229.

14 “I have examined” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 213.

15 “fully responsible” … “His thesis received” PC, 229.

16 “ ‘mediocre’ in dissection” The laughter following this statement was noted by the Reuters correspondent, March 28, 1944.

17 “She is in good health” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 214.

18 “Sorry, but Petiot” Ibid.

19 Rougemont detected AN, 334, AP 65, 3380–3384.

20 “Monsieur de Rougemont is” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 215.

21 “If we had asked” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 238.

22 Petiot’s Resistance credentials In 2010, when the CIA declassified thousands of documents from the secretive American semi-private espionage group known as the Pond, the media widely reported that Petiot had in fact been one of its informers. This was a suggestion first made by the organization’s leader, John V. Grombach, and it is not impossible. The problem is that, even with the new documents thus far released, there is still no verifiable evidence of his work as an informer. The new files contain “no reference to Petiot,” except for a short, two- or three-sentence “summary of a report about conviction.” E-mail to author from Mark Stout, author of a forthcoming book on the Pond.

23 “Organized Resistance has never” Dewavrin to Marcel Jullian, Le Mystère Petiot (Paris: Edition No. 1, 1980), 153. See also Dupin’s theory that Fly-Tox was the name the British used for an individual and Petiot merely adopted it, AN, 334 AP, 65, 3352.

24 “I refuse to tell you” … “Obviously” Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 217.

25 doubtful Reuters, for example, March 27, 1946.

26 “Monsieur Ibarne” Maeder, The Unspeakable Crimes, 240; PC, 232; L’Aurore describes Petiot as showing extreme anger at this witness, March 27, 1946.

27 “On the contrary” PC, 232.