The chilling true story of a serial killer who preyed on men, women, and children desperate to escape Nazi-occupied Paris.
On March 11, 1944, police were called to investigate foul-smelling
smoke pouring from the chimney of an elegant private house near the Arc
de Triomphe. In the basement of 21 rue Le Sueur, they made the first of
many gruesome discoveries: a human hand dangling from the open door of a
coal-burning stove.
Proceeding to the rear of the home,
detectives found rib cages, skulls, and internal organs strewn across
the floor and large piles of quicklime mixed with fragments of bone and
flesh. The Gestapo had two offices in the neighborhood—were Hitler’s
henchmen responsible for the carnage? Or was it the work of French
Resistance fighters purging Paris of traitors and German spies?
As the investigation unfolded, a more sinister possibility emerged. The
building’s owner, Dr. Marcel Petiot, was a handsome and charismatic
physician whose past was littered with bizarre behavior and criminal
activity. When he was finally captured eight months later, Dr. Petiot
claimed he was a loyal member of the Resistance who helped kill Nazi
collaborators. Prosecutors charged that he was a sadistic mass murderer
who lured at least twenty-seven innocent people to their deaths with
promises of escape. Estimates of the actual number of his victims ran as
high as 150 men, women, and children.
From the first stages
of the investigation to the sensational trial in which Dr. Petiot’s
superior intelligence and perverse wit were on full display, author
Thomas Maeder meticulously reconstructs one of the twentieth century’s
most fascinating and lurid murder cases. Drawing on classified police
files and interviews with surviving participants, The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot is a riveting true crime saga that that “reads like a shocking psychological thriller” (Newsweek).
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