Marcel Petiot - Holy shit Dr. Satan was real!
You don’t have to go far to find evil during World War II – Joseph Mengele, Heinrich Himmler, and Josef Kramer to name just a few. Some of the world’s most heinous acts came from the hands of these people. But what happens when the Devil comes in the form of a savior? When someone offers an escape form the ravages of war, only to find themselves in a new Hell? What kind of monster would take the trust of terrified refugees and make the fear a reality? Marcel Petiot was that monster and rightfully dubbed Dr. Satan by French media.
Born in Auxerre, Yonne, France on January 17th, 1897, Marcel Petiot started on his path to infamy early. As a child, Petiot exhibited bed wetting and animal abusive behavior; two of the McDonald’s Triad of predicting violence in later life (bed wetting, animal abuse, and fire starting). At 11 years old, Petiot stole his father’s pistol, brought it to school, and fired it in class. He also loved to steal. Anything he could get his hands on, he’d take. With his troubled youth, Petiot found himself in and out of psych wards and prisons. But then The Great War started.
At the beginning of World War I, Petiot volunteered for service and fought with the French army. During his military career, he was injured and gassed. Unlike some people that find a more disciplined way of life through military service, Petiot continued with his kleptomania, facing several disciplinary actions for stealing blankets, drugs, supplies, and other soldiers’ belongings which landed him in jail and psychiatric hospitals again. A couple of years later, in 1918, he was released and sent back to the front line. Weeks after his return, Petiot was finished with military service and was discharged when he wounded himself; some say with a grenade, others suggest he shot himself in the foot.
Having time on his hands, Petiot decided on a new career path. What would a convicted kleptomaniac diagnosed with several psychological conditions consider doing? You guessed it – become a doctor. After eight grueling months (yes that says months, not years) of medical school, he begins his medical practice in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and became a very popular doctor. Not because he was good at it necessarily. His popularity may have come from supplying narcotics and providing illegal medical procedures. Oh, and he stole stuff. In one of the better cases of irony, Petiot took residency at a hospital where he was formally a patient. It is also thought that he may have committed his first murder during this time.
Louise Delaveau was the daughter of one of Petiot’s patients with whom he had relations. Delaveau disappeared in 1926 and no trace of her was found. Petiot’s neighbors said they witnessed him load a large trunk into his car. A trunk similar to the one that was later found to have a dismembered corpse inside. While the authorities investigated the disappearance, they ruled that Delaveau must have run off and closed the case. That same year, Petiot decided on another career change, that of a politician.
In 1926, Marcel Petiot ran for and won in a landslide, the office of the mayor of Villeneuve. Now, having such a prominent position had to straighten this career criminal out, right? Wrong. While serving as mayor, Petiot was suspended twice. His crimes? Voter fraud. Just kidding, he stole. This time it was money embezzling town funds. After his second suspension, Petiot decided he was done with the mayoral office and instead ran for – and won – a councilor seat, and he promptly started stealing again. This time electricity. But by the time he was going to lose his seat, he already moved to Paris. And here is were Dr. Satan earns his title.
1940. Nazis occupy Paris. A significant French resistance was formed and Petiot posed as one of the resistance fighters. While he didn’t fight physically, he offered refugees an opportunity to leave the country telling them that he could get them to Argentina by way of Portugal. He charged people 25,000 French francs (over $400 in 1940’s money; approximately $7500 in 2020). Under the guise of Argentina being very strict on refugees, Petiot gave them Typhoid inoculations. Only he wasn’t injecting them with the vaccine. Instead, Petiot would inject them with cyanide. To dispose of the bodies, he’d dump them in the river. But then parts started washing up and Petiot had to devise another plan.
In 1941, Petiot purchased a house and continued his practice until 1944. Apparently, he wasn’t doing a great job of disposing of the bodies, or there were just too many. The stench of decay and the continuous smoke billowing from the house’s chimney became too much for neighbors to take and they called the authorities. What they found was beyond any nightmare Roth, Barker, or Zombie could ever dream.
When the police entered Petiot’s house, they found coal stoves burning full blast; body parts mixed with coal and quicklime; 33 pounds of bones; 24 pounds of unburnt body parts; 11 pounds of hair including 10 full scalps; and 3 trash cans of human remains. There were sinks and tubs large enough to drain bodies of their blood. And if that wasn’t gruesome enough, authorities found a soundproof room with shackles embedded into the walls and a peephole centered in the door. Police issued an arrest order for Petiot immediately. And here is where this story gets crazier.
Since the order to arrest Petiot was issued by the Germans, French resistance fighters assumed it was because he was killing Germans and Nazi sympathizers. So, with the help of his friends and others, Petiot was able to disappear changing his appearance and name. Soon though, word got out that Petiot was not who he appeared to be; he was no hero, he was a monster. While “undercover”, Petiot was rumored to have joined a team of resistance fighters that were sent out to search for this Dr. Satan. The stones on this guy! His luck would run out on Halloween 1944 when someone recognized him at a metro station where he was arrested.
Petiot claimed that his victims were collaborators, but officials weren’t buying it. He then changed his story telling the courts that the people that were missing were relocated to South America as promised. The piles of human remains told a different story. In the end, Petiot confessed to 19 murders though parts of 23 people were found in his house. He was suspected of a lot more – anywhere from 60 to upwards of 160 people murdered. After only 3 hours of deliberation, the jury found Marcel Petiot guilty of 26 premeditated murders. On the day of his execution, the original guillotine malfunctioned and his date with death was postponed until a portable guillotine could be found and delivered. On May 25th, 1946, witnesses to the execution said that Petiot had a smile on his face as the blade dropped, spilling his severed head into the basket.
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