Post by cruororism on Oct 12, 2003 10:46:32 GMT
Marcel Petiot was born in Auxerre at 3.00am on January 17, 1897. His father was postal worker Felix Petiot, nothing is known of his mother. His father died when he was 5 followed by his mother three years later. Marcel and his brother Maurice where shipped between aunts and uncles.
As he grew older Marcel had a penchant for cruelty to animals. He was found putting his cat in boiling water before smothering it. He also would poked the eyes out of birds and laugh when they tired to fly away, hitting everything in their path.
His schooling was also wrought with trouble, He was expelled several times before sitting his final exams.
After school he joined the army and was shipped off to the front. The war effected him physically and mentally, he was wounded in 1917 and doctors at the army hospital were concerned about the instability shown by the young soldier.
In 1919 he was discharged, the army citing medical unfitness. Petiot was given a disability pension.
By 1921 Petiot had conned his way into a place as a student doctor at a metal facility in Normandy. Later the same year he obtained a medical degree from Faculte de Medecine de Paris.
With his degree the young doctor set himself up as a general practitioner in Villeneuve-sur-Yvonne. All the while Petiot continued his psychiatric sessions with an army psychiatrist.
In 1926 after an enormous campaign the doctor was elected to the position of Mayor of Villeneuve-sur-Yvonne. He also hired a house keeper Louisette Delaveau who quickly became his lover. However when the doctor set his sights on marrying wealthy socialite 23 year old Georgette Lablais, he knew that Louisette had to go. Under mysterious circumstances the young house-keeper, who some say was pregnant simply vanished.
In 1930 Petiot was also question over the murder of Madame Debauve, witnesses had seen the doctor leaving the scene of the fire that accompanied the murder. Nothing ever came of the allegations against the man.
By 1931 Petiot was forced to resign his position as Mayor amidst allegations of theft of Council funds and the suspicions of his involvement of Madame Debauve's murder. Petiot was non-plussed by the claims and simply went back to practicing medicine in Paris.
Yet intrigue did not leave the man. A woman whose daughter had died while in the doctor's care was concerned that the girl had been given an overdose. Others whispered about abortions and illegal supplies of drugs. Again nothing was done.
Germany occupied France in 1938 and Petiot found the dilemma a new way to amass more fortune. He let people know he would smuggle them out of France for 25,000 francs, the cheapest offer around at the time of the occupation.
Marcel Petiot is asked by Joachim Guschinov for help in fleeing France. Being a Jew, the man was quite concerned for his saftey and wanted to flee to Argentina. He told the doctor he had heard that he could help him. On January 2, 1941 after some consideration Joachim meets with Petiot, he brings with him 5 fur coats, a million francs in cash, gold and jewels and $1,000 in US dollars sewn into the lining of a coat. The man is never seen alive again.
A patient of Petiot's Jean-Marc van Bever disappears on March 22, 1942 the pair are brought before a judge of a doctor supplying heroin to a patient. Jean-Marc was a heroin addict and authorities discovered that Petiot was feeding the man's habit. The pair, along with Jean-Marc girlfriend Jeanette Gaul appeared before the magistrate. When the case was postponed, Petiot seized the chance to get rid of the evidence in the form of Jean-Marc. Jeanette died of tetanus soon after.
Three days later Petiot rid himself of another troublesome patient. On March 25, 1942 Raymonde Baudet attempted to forge a prescription of Petiot for heroin. When Petiot found out he quickly dispensed of the girl's mother, Marthe Khait, who was an enemy of Marcel's in fear of further repercussions from the Parisian Magistrate..
Denise Hotin was a desperate woman, she had illegally had an abortion a year earlier which had reflected badly on her family when it became known. She desperately wanted to falsely prove that the abortion did not happen and return the good-name of her family. She fled to Paris to find a a doctor who would write such a certificate for her. ON June 5, 1942 she was referred to Dr Marcel Petiot by the midwife who had performed the termination. She was never seen alive again.
62 year old doctor Paul-Leon Braunberger becomes Marcel Petiot's next victim on June 20, 1942. The old man receives a telephone call from a man who claims to know him. He asks Dr Braunberger to meet him at Place de l'Etoile railway station to aid a deathly ill patient.
The doctor leaves his practice to meet the mysterious caller and the patient and is never seen alive again. He is forced to send his wife a letter claiming he had to leave in a hurry.
On July 18, 1942 Marcel Petiot becomes more brazen in his killings. This time he murders an entire family, Kurt, Margaret (Greta) and eight year old son Rene Kneller go to see Marcel Petiot about fleeing from occupied France.
They are never seen alive again save for two postcards sent to relatives saying they had made it safely to freedom.
