38 Facts About Marcel Petiot

Marcel Andre Henri Felix Petiot was a French medical doctor and serial killer.

Marcel Petiot was convicted of multiple murders of Jews after the discovery of the remains of 23 people in the basement of his home in Paris during World War II.

Marcel Petiot is suspected of the murder of about 60 to 200 mostly Jewish victims during his lifetime, although the true number remains unknown.

Marcel Petiot lured his victims to his home at 21 Rue Le Sueur in Paris, promising them safety.

Marcel Petiot was convicted of 26 counts of murder and was executed by guillotine in 1946.

Marcel Petiot was born on 17 January 1897 in Auxerre, Yonne, in north central France.

Marcel Petiot was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, resulting in charges being dismissed when it was judged that he had a mental illness.

Marcel Petiot volunteered for the French Army in World War I, entering service in January 1916.

Marcel Petiot was wounded and gassed in the Second Battle of the Aisne, and exhibited more symptoms of a mental breakdown.

Marcel Petiot was sent to various rest homes, where he was arrested for stealing army blankets, morphine, and other army supplies, as well as wallets, photographs, and letters; he was jailed in Orleans.

Marcel Petiot received his medical degree in December 1921 and relocated to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, where he received payment for his services both from the patients and from government medical assistance funds.

Marcel Petiot won, and while in office embezzled town funds.

The next year, Marcel Petiot married Georgette Lablais, the 23-year-old daughter of a wealthy landowner and butcher in Seignelay.

Marcel Petiot was eventually suspended as mayor in August 1931 and resigned.

However, Marcel Petiot still had many supporters, and the village council resigned in sympathy with him.

In Paris, Marcel Petiot attracted patients by using fake credentials, and built an impressive reputation for his practice at 66 Rue de Caumartin.

In 1936, Marcel Petiot was appointed medecin d'etat-civil, with authority to write death certificates.

Marcel Petiot provided false medical disability certificates to people who were drafted.

Marcel Petiot treated the illnesses of workers who had returned.

Marcel Petiot later claimed that during the period of German occupation, he was engaged in Resistance activities.

Marcel Petiot supposedly developed secret weapons that killed Germans without leaving forensic evidence, planted booby traps all over Paris, had high-level meetings with Allied commanders, and worked with a group of Spanish anti-fascists.

Grombach asserted that Marcel Petiot had reported the Katyn Forest massacre, German missile development at Peenemunde, and the names of Abwehr agents sent to the US While these claims were not corroborated by any records of other intelligence services, in 2001, some "Pond" records were discovered, including a cable that mentioned Marcel Petiot.

Marcel Petiot claimed that he could arrange a passage to Argentina or elsewhere in South America through Portugal, for a price of 25,000 francs per person.

Once victims were in his control, Marcel Petiot told them that Argentine officials required all entrants to the country to be inoculated against disease, and with this excuse injected them with cyanide.

Marcel Petiot then took all their valuables and disposed of the bodies.

At first, Marcel Petiot dumped the bodies in the Seine, but he later destroyed the bodies by submerging them in quicklime or incinerating them.

In 1941, Marcel Petiot bought a house at 21 Rue le Sueur, near the Arc de Triomphe.

Marcel Petiot purchased the house the same week that Henri Lafont returned to Paris with money and permission from the Abwehr to recruit new members for the French Gestapo.

Marcel Petiot eventually began living with a patient, Georges Redoute, let his beard grow, and adopted various aliases.

Marcel Petiot became a captain in charge of counter-espionage and prisoner interrogations.

Marcel Petiot claimed that he was innocent and that he had killed only enemies of France.

Marcel Petiot said that he had discovered the pile of bodies in 21 Rue le Sueur in February 1944, but had assumed that they were collaborators killed by members of his Resistance "network".

However, the police found that Marcel Petiot had no friends in any of the major Resistance groups.

Marcel Petiot was tried on 19 March 1946, accused of 135 criminal charges.

Marcel Petiot taunted the prosecuting lawyers and claimed that various victims had been collaborators or double agents, or that vanished people were alive and well in South America using new names.

Marcel Petiot was convicted of 26 counts of murder, and sentenced to death.

On 25 May 1946, Marcel Petiot was beheaded, after a stay of a few days due to a problem with the release mechanism of the guillotine, and buried at Ivry Cemetery.

Marcel Petiot is an important character in Roberta Kagan's book series The Auschwitz Twins.