Dr Marcel Petiot was a French doctor who killed 27 people. Petiot was born on 17 January 1897. Like many murderers Petiot had a history of petty crime before he started killing people. At the age of 17 he robbed a post box. In 1916 he was conscripted into the French army. However Petiot showed many signs of mental illness. In July 1919 he was discharged from the army with a disability pension.
Despite that he was able to study medicine under an accelerated education programme for war veterans. and he qualified as a doctor in 1921. Petiot practiced medicine in Villeneuve.
Marcel Petiot became mayor of Villeneuve in 1926. In 1927 he married and they had a son the next year. Following many accusations of stealing he was suspended as mayor in 1931. He later resigned and in 1933 he moved to Paris. He purchased a building in Rue Lesueur.
In 1940 the Germans conquered France. The German army occupied northern France, including Paris. From November 1942 they occupied the whole country. Dr Petiot thought of an ingenious way to make money. Many rich people were desperate to escape from occupied France. Dr Petiot offered to arrange to smuggle them out of France to South America in return for a large sum of money.
He told them they would need a vaccination against malaria or some other infectious disease. He told them that, as a doctor he could give them the vaccination himself.
When the victim arrived at his surgery Petiot told them he would give them the required vaccination. Instead he injected them with cyanide. When the victim was dead Petiot would dispose of the body with quicklime or he burned them in a stove.
Dr Petiot killed people during 1942 and the early months of 1943. In May 1943 Petiot was arrested by the Gestapo and held on suspicion of helping people to escape from France. However he was released in December 1943. Why they released him is not certain but Dr Petiot soon returned to killing people.
Hic crimes came to light On 11 March 1944. Black smoke was pouring from a chimney of a house in Rue Lesuer. A neighbour called the police. The police phoned Dr Petiot who promised to come to the building. Thinking a chimney must be on fire the police called the fire brigade. Firemen who entered the building discovered human remains burning in a stove. When Dr Petiot arrived he informed the police that the dead bodies were those of traitors. The police allowed him to go. Petiot promptly disappeared.
Dr Petiot was arrested on 31 October 1944. He claimed he was a member of the resistance and that all the people he killed were collaborators.
However the police could find no evidence that he had ever been part of the resistance. Dr Petiot went on trial on 19 March 1946. On 4 April he was convicted of 26 murders.
(He was acquitted of one of the murders he was charged with though it is very likely he was guilty). Marcel Petiot was guillotined on 26 May 1946.
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