Murder Most
Patriotic
December 21, 1999
Dr. Marcel
Petiot, who thrived in Paris during World War II, is now forgotten;
but with a little luck, he might have been remembered today as a French
national hero.
After making a living as a doctor, drug
peddler, and abortionist, Dr. Petiot hit on a brilliant new racket during
World War II. While the German army occupied France, he discreetly put
out the word that he could arrange for people to flee the Nazi tyranny and
reach another country through a secret escape route.
Desperate, wealthy would-be refugees
furtively came to his mansion carrying all their wealth in money and
valuables. Though they were ready to pay large sums to escape, Dr. Petiot
was willing to accept only modest fees, protesting that he was a patriot,
not an extortionist.
It didn’t matter, because they
would never leave France and Dr. Petiot would get all their wealth anyway.
He took them to the cellar of his mansion where he murdered them,
probably by poisoning. The fortified cellar was equipped with a furnace in
which he disposed of their remains, while he became rich on the money
and jewels on which they had planned to live abroad.
![[Breaker quote: The strange story of Dr.
Petiot]](breakers/991221.gif)
There was little curiosity about Dr. Petiot’s victims;
during the war the Communist-infested French Resistance murdered so
many people, both German soldiers and alleged French collaborators, that
mysterious disappearances were commonplace. But many Frenchmen
accepted Resistance terrorism as patriotic acts against foreign
oppressors and native traitors.
Countless other people disappeared
voluntarily, fleeing France and the German occupation. Dr. Petiot had the
wit to see that in these chaotic conditions, an independent criminal could
flourish by catering to the desperation of those who wanted to leave
— and who would be untraceable if they should meet misfortune
along the way.
Dr. Petiot was charming, subtle, and
quick-witted. He disarmed his victims by expressing anxiety that they
might betray him; they tried to assure him that they were trustworthy,
never asking themselves whether he himself could be trusted.
One day a neighbor called the police to
complain about the foul smoke belching from Dr. Petiot’s chimney.
Breaking into the vacant house, the police found the cellar full of human
parts: skeletons, leg bones, severed hands, a skull. Other bodies were being
consumed in the roaring furnace.
A little man identifying himself as Dr.
Petiot’s brother arrived on a bicycle; he was actually Dr. Petiot
himself. He told the police that they had happened on an execution chamber
of a Resistance cell called “Groupe Fly-Tox,” where Nazis and
collaborators got their just deserts. The bones in the cellar, he explained,
were those of France’s enemies and traitors, not innocent
people.
The police accepted this explanation and,
having no wish to incur the wrath of the vindictive Resistance, decided
not to pursue the matter. With the magnificent effrontery of the true
master, Dr. Petiot thanked them in the name of “La
Resistance” and departed smartly. (Closer inspection might have
found that one of the deceased “Nazis and collaborators” was
a boy of seven years.)
Soon, however, the police realized their
mistake and put out a nationwide alert for Dr. Petiot, who had vanished. He
was eventually found in another Resistance group, where, under an
assumed name, he had ascended to the rank of captain in a mere six weeks.
He also bore various fake identification cards, including one from the
Communist Party.
At his trial, Dr. Petiot defended himself
with confidence and aplomb. Yes, he admitted, he had killed 63 people, but
they were all Nazis and collaborators who deserved their grim fate at the
hands of Groupe Fly-Tox. Instead of being tried as a criminal, he said, he
should have been decorated for heroism by General Charles de Gaulle, like
other Resistance leaders!
There was one problem with this stirring
defense: nobody had ever heard of Groupe Fly-Tox. Dr. Petiot refused to
name any confederates (he had none); the court delayed his death sentence
for more than a year in the hope that someone would step forward to
confirm that Groupe Fly-Tox had actually existed. None did. In May 1946
Dr. Petiot paid with his head on the guillotine.
If only he had been able to prove he was a
bona fide terrorist, Dr. Petiot might have gotten not the guillotine but a
monument.
Joseph Sobran
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