Passport to freedom: French Killer-doctor's reign ends in gallows
Petiot readily admitted knowing all those Jews. “I gave them drugs…. they were all addicts and in my own way, I was destroying the bloody Jews! Women? I did abortions. Each abortion meant one damned Jew less,” he told the Germans. They were inwardly delighted! They kept Petiot in prison for three months and then released him. They were just pleasing the nosy neighbours and making it appear that justice was being done by Germans. Soon the chimneys became active and once more with the unbearable stench. Now the Germans had lost control of France and the war was drawing to a close. Neighbours complained once more and the French police now in charge swung into action.
Petiot was happy in his city home with his unsuspecting happy wife. The cops searched his ‘nursing home’ once more. And the shock shook even the cops filling them with sheer horror and utter disbelief when they saw what was inside. Heaps of human bones… Skulls, big and small… A collection of hair, long and short. The setup looked like a mini-Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp!
The French police questioned Petiot once more and he had yet another ingenious explanation! “Friends, you know… I was in a German prison… the bloody Gestapo tortured me endlessly… Why? I was active in out French Resistance Movement and all the bones and skulls you see here belong to the traitors to out Liberation Movement… our leaders tried them for disloyalty to our noble cause and awarded death sentence. I as a doctor carried out the sad duty…. You know… I made it as painless as possible…...”
The French cops were impressed! They praised Petiot for his patriotic fervour and hinted that they should destroy all traces of human remains. The French cops supplied the required quick lime the very next day! After a week pretty awkward for the missing and the cops decided to take a second look at this nursing home. Now they found was a collection of jewels, diamonds... Furs… rare paintings, antiques and.... Plenty of cash and sackfuls of quicklime and chemicals, and a long list of ‘patients’ with their names and their addresses…. Most of them the cops learnt were Jews who have not even heard of the French Resistance Movement!
France was rocked by shock and the hunt for the Petiot was on... His friends were pimps.... or passport brokers were questioned, but he could not be traced. Some believed that he had joined the Nazis and there are many more wild theories about his whereabouts. France Liberation Day! A day of joy and glory… a day of celebration and processions … the French army proud in their victory marched down the famed Champs Elysees…. The gallant Gaelic shoulders, walked…. Left… right.... left... right... with their medals.... caps... pom-poms, and the wanted doctor was in their midst!
The cops could scarcely believe their eyes and swiftly picked up Petiot! The trial was a sizzling sensation all over Europe. The jury inspected ‘the nursing home’ and they recoiled in sheer horror. Petiot was sentenced to death in May 1946, and more than several decades later, even today Frenchmen talk about the clever doctor sadist.
Next week: His favourite drink-- a glass of blood!
(The writer is a renowned film historian)
