On March 6, 1944, a foul odor had residents near 21 Rue Le Sueur in Paris’s 16th district feeling disgusted. Five days later, a neighbor went to the three-story home to speak to the homeowner. As he went to knock, he saw a sign stating the owner had left for a month and to send all mail to a forwarding address.
The neighbor called the police. Two policemen on bikes arrived to see the home’s chimney belching out a thick smoke with a horrific odor. The police contacted the local fire department and Dr. Marcel Petiot, the home’s owner. Petiot said he would return home.
Firefighters arrived and entered the building. What they found was beyond horrific.
In the basement, firefighters found dead bodies being dissolved in quicklime and in another part of the home were enough body parts for ten corpses. Firefighters had discovered a house of horrors. Doctor Marcel Petiot claimed he was part of the French resistance and had disposed of German enemies. But no one from any of the major resistance groups acknowledged the doctor as a freedom fighter.
The truth about the corpses in Petiot’s home was nearly impossible to believe.
Word had spread that a French doctor named Marcel Petiot was smuggling people out of France. But only if they could pay his service fee. To wealthy Jewish citizens, Dr. Petiot must have been a savior. But instead of providing a safe passage, Petiot was providing a passage leading to death.
Petiot could easily be the poster boy for evil. He sold false escape routes and used the code name Dr. Eugene. If you had 25,000 Francs, you could escape to Argentina or anywhere else in South America through Portugal.
He took money from Jews, criminals or anyone else who wanted to leave France. Most of Petiot’s victims, however, were Jewish because Germany had occupied France and was persecuting Jews.
The doctor also had two accomplices who provided him with customers. He told his victims he needed to vaccinate them before they could leave France. Petiot then injected and killed them with cyanide.
After his victims died, Petiot stole their jewelry, cash and other valuables. He originally dumped the bodies into the Seine River. But as the bodies piled up, he needed to find an easier way to dispose of them. He began dissolving bodies in the basement by using quicklime while incinerating other bodies in a furnace.
French investigators arrested Petiot’s brother Maurice for his part in the crime. He delivered quicklime to Petiot. Authorities also arrested Petiot’s wife Georgette and several other accomplices.
On June 6, 1944, authorities placed Petiot’s case on hold because of Operation Overlord—also known as D-Day. Allied forces had landed on the beaches of Normandy to liberate France from the Germans.
Petiot hid from authorities. After moving in with a patient named Georges Redouté, Petiot grew a beard and assumed various aliases. On October 31, 1944, someone recognized Petiot. Apparently the fake beard wasn’t a great disguise. When arrested, Petiot had a pistol, money and various false documents.
He continued to proclaim his innocence and said he had killed Germans. He then changed his story and claimed someone else had killed the people in his home. But Petiot got nowhere with his lies. It’s believed he may have killed over 60 people and stolen 200 million francs. He admitted to killing 19 of the 27 victims in his apartment.
The court sentenced him to death.
On May 25, 1946. Dr. Marcel Petiot’s head was chopped off by a guillotine. As a doctor, Petiot should have worked to heal people. Instead, he murdered and robbed the people who had trusted him.
Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and avid reader. He can be contacted through his website at www.themarcabe.com, through Facebook: www.facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. And be sure to listen to his podcast at www.spreaker.com/show/the-marcabe.