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

CHAPTER 34. NAUFRAGEUR

1 “a veritable fire-box of political intrigue” 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), 255.

2 “true nest of tuberculosis” Ibid, 256.

3 “Petiot was a Frenchman” PC, 256.

4 “kill everyone” France-Soir, April 2, 1946.

5 “You spent five months with him” … “Whatever the outcome” PC, 257–258; Bertin, Les assassins hors-série, 258–259.

6 “without any question a real Resistant” John V. Grombach, The Great Liquidator (New York: Zebra Books, 1980), 364.

7 stylish Paris-Matin, April 2, 1946.

8 “I do not care” PC, 258.

9 “We’re making a flop” Petiot repeated this several times when the size of the audience fell. Claude Barret, L’affaire Petiot (Paris: Gallimard, 1958), 145.

10 EVERYBODY SLEEPS AT THE PETIOT TRIAL L’Aurore, April 3, 1946.

11 “Nazi faun that haunts” … “I do not insist” PC, 260–261.

12 “he did not know” This was Petiot’s statement on March 20, 1946, as noted on page 256.

13 “Ah!” she said Leser, April 2, 1946, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

14 “uniting them in death” Grombach, The Great Liquidator, 367.

15 “I have the good fortune” AN 334, AP 65, 4432.

16 “Cruel men set lanterns” AN 334, AP 65, 4474.

17 The members of the French Resistance … “wrap himself” AN 334, AP 65, 4471.

18 “very curious” … “I do not know if Petiot” AN 334, AP 65, 4470–4474.

19 “condemn him to death” AN 334, AP 65, 4475.

20 “the records of the Cour d’assises de la Seine” AN 334, AP 65, 4006, and Dupin’s handwritten version, AN 334, AP 65, 4086.

21 “Yes, to find as many cadavers” AN 334, AP 65, 4007.

22 “remarkably intelligent” AN 334, AP 65, 3306.

23 “I will show you” AN 334, AP 65, 3341.

24 Petiot made a show Paris-Matin, April 4, 1946.

25 “modern Bluebeard” AN 334, AP 65, 3311.

26 “a modern gangster” Ibid.