Docteur Satan: The Serial Killer Doctor Of Nazi-Occupied Paris | Wartime Crime | Timeline

access to hundreds more exclusive history documentaries by downloading the history hit app [Music] [Music] France World War II after Hitler's forces swiftly conquer the country they rule the nation with an iron fist the French people have much to fear you're not only just dodging Germans you're dodging a lot of French bureaucrats and policemen employed by the Germans who are as Keen as the Germans to get you with enemies waiting in the shadows in the nation's capital Paris another threat emerges a serial killer is on the loose preying on those desperately looking to flee the Nazi regime shamelessly ruthlessly took advantage of the situation for his own gain this is the incredible story of the demon doctor of Paris and the dramatic Chase to put an end to his Reign of Terror [Music] [Music] May 1940 Adolf Hitler's war machine is on the move through Europe having conquered the Netherlands in Belgium now the Vermont is on the verge of making its biggest conquest of the war France when the Germans invade France and defeat the French army so quickly they've got all of France at their feet the Germans were everywhere there was utter humiliation to the French on June the 22nd after a ferocious six-week Onslaught the French government is forced to concede defeat as the German occupation Begins for those living in the country's capital Paris Life Changes overnight the tricolor the French national flag was banned and replaced by the swastika Paris was moved on to German time you had Germans everywhere German soldiers but also auxiliary staff particularly in the center and particularly around tourist sites you had black and white signposts to help the Germans find their way around Paris the French were very proud people and suddenly have your country taken over and be powerless in your own land and have despots reveling in the joys of your city was was absolutely you know horrifying to the French people yet Hitler's Reign is not without support the country is divided into two by its Nazi conquerors with an occupied Zone in the north run by the German military and a free zone in the South governed by the French themselves known as Vichy France this Zone however is the domain of Marshall Philippe petone's authoritarian regime and it instantly falls into step with the Nazi's master plan throwing the French people into a world in which they can trust no one there's no freedom of the press there's no freedom of speech everything's very heavily censored people have to be very careful what they say because remember not only are the Germans there in control but they enlist this huge apparatus of collaborationists as distinct from collaborators collaborators were just people that said I'm going to go along to get along the collaborationists were people who said I'm going to make my future with the Germans I'm going to Hitch my wagon to the Nazi wagon and there's plenty of these people despite these risks defiant French Patriots form the resistance but members of this underground Army are under constant threat of execution [Music] with the Nazis and the French State ruling over the nation with an iron fist the crime rate Falls dramatically few wishing to attract the attention of the authorities yet for one murderer this hostile environment creates the perfect hunting ground his presence goes undetected until March 1944 when a gruesome Discovery is made at 21 ruler Sur a large uninhabited house in an upmarket Paris neighborhood for five days a foul smelling smoke poured from the Germany of number 21 ulyssa discover the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of the most famous people and events in history history hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through exclusive documentaries from the world's top historians travel with us to the bloody Battle of Stalingrad or uncover the lives of the people who called Pompei home we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 of their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout after five days this one couple couldn't take to stink anymore she was vomiting they were ill so he called the fire brigade upon their arrival the fire brigade find the house unoccupied a note by the door explains that the owner is away for the month and gives a forwarding address in the nearby town of ozer on the street they are met by a neighbor who gives them the phone number for the owner of the property a Dr Marcel petio they called patio's number he answered and he said have you gone in yet and they said no and he said well wait right there I'll be there in 15 minutes I waited about a half an hour and when nobody had arrived they they climbed up to a second floor window broke in and traced the source of the the smoke to the the basement in the basement the firemen stumble upon a horrific scene in the center of a coal burning stove are the remains of a human arm and on the floor surrounding it are assorted rib cages jaw bones and large chunks of charred unidentifiable flesh from at least 10 victims when the police arrived to inspect further they discover a pit of quick lime in the garage and within it the remains of even more victims as officers cordon off the crime scene a mysterious stranger appears a man on a green bicycle wrote up and identified himself as the brother of the owner of the house and the police escorted him inside took him down to the basement and he said my God my head might be at stake and they weren't at all surprised by that but he identified himself as a member of the resistance he said I have I'm sure that you've notified the German authorities of this discovery and I have hundreds of resistance files back at my house that I have to destroy before the Germans can get their hands on it the first thought that the police pad was that these were dead Germans and collaborators and that this mysterious person on the green bicycle was in fact a resistant so they let him go hours later the police discovered that the mysterious stranger was Dr Marcel petio himself a warrant is immediately issued for his arrest yet when officers arrive at his other home both petio and his wife have already packed and fled as a Manhunt Begins the investigation is handed over to commissary one of the most decorated veterans in the Paris Police Force he went to the house and he went round into the basement other police came to the house including his number two and the chief pathologist has the police continued to look in the house on the ruler sewer they found what looked like it had been fitted up as a doctor's examination room and right next to it there was a mysterious small triangular room it had a door that could only be opened from the outside and it had heavy iron bolts fastened in one wall in a way that suspiciously suggested that they were there to fasten somebody to the wall and directly across from the bolts there was a peephole the sort that you have in an apartment door to look out to see who's there the discovery instantly draws massu's attention the peephole suggest that this was not simply a slaughterhouse but a torture chamber he looked through and he looked straight onto the wall with the iron wings so he realized whoever had been tied to those rings had been watched through the people March the 11th 1944 the evening papers across Paris and Jose are the first to report the discovery of the bodies and The Manhunt for both Marcel petio and his wife Georgette for the citizens of occupied France the grisly Affair of the demon doctor of Paris proves an engrossing distraction people were intrigued it was so gruesome the Press were able to sensationalize that it raised a lot of questions it raised questions about who did this was this really put to you or was it somebody else why did he do this I think the fact that he was a doctor was an important factor in that period the doctor has a very high status pillar of society man you can trust and the Very notion of a doctor is somebody who looks after us who looks after people cares for people makes them well and so this is a complete negation of what we traditionally think of as a doctor orders his team actively caught the media hoping to gather as much information from the public as possible and the French police need all the help they can get the bodies discovered offer little in the way of evidence there was a very well-known and flamboyant medical examiner Dr Albert Paul who loved the press and the Press loved him because he made outrageous statements he said that in the quick line they had found three garbage cans full of small bones but there was no way to determine how any of the people had died they were too badly decomposed one thing that did concern him was that the thighs of some of the legs had stab wounds in them and they were very similar to some bodies that had been found floating in the sand a year or so earlier which also had stab wounds in the thighs and the thing that particularly concerned Dr Paul about that was as a coroner he said sometime when you're doing an autopsy when you're picking up another instrument you don't put your scalpel down you use the thigh as a pincushion Dr pool's observations all but confirmed that the murderer had medical training and as masu turned his attention to the nine bodies discovered in the river sen between 1942 and 1943 suspecting that they may be victims of the same killer a telegram from the Gestapo arrives that complicates matters further it reveals that the Nazis arrested Dr petio a year earlier suspecting him of being a prominent member of the French Resistance if is true could petio be a covert assassin yet a witness soon emerges to paint a far more disturbing picture of petio's resistance activities couple of days after the discovery of the bodies on the rule of sewer the business partner of a Jewish Furrier named Johan gushanov came to commissary masu and told him about The Disappearance of gushanov back in 1941 when the Germans were beginning to crack down more on Jews in Paris gushnov who was treated by by patio as a physician decided that he needed to escape from the country so patio told him that he could help him with that he had an escape Network he was involved in the resistance organization that he would have to be vaccinated he would do the vaccination and then he would be taken across France to the Spanish border into Spain which was neutral and then to a port in Africa to sail to Argentina so grushnov took a one and a half million dollars worth of cash and silver and gold and diamonds and went with patio and was never seen again so the business partner when he had heard about the discovery of the rule of sewer went to Oklahoma soon told him this story and all of a sudden it began to seem that in fact the bodies might be something even more Sinister than they had originally expected and that there might have been this Escape Network that in fact did not go to South America but ended at the root of sewer in the coming days masu's investigation uncovers more and more details about petio's Escape Network and it becomes apparent that gushanov was not the only desperate Parisian to look to the doctor for safe passage out of occupied France the people came they phoned they said so-and-so had left a friend of mine she was going to go to to a doctor to help her Escape I think it could be Dr Pichu so they had a list of people who they knew had been in contact with the Jew and who had disappeared as the investigation on Earth's countless potential victims massu realizes that he is dealing with a brilliant and ruthless serial killer one who is still at Large [Music] occupied Paris 1944. the police have discovered a basement littered with body parts the prime suspect Dr Marcel petio the owner of the property with a Manhunt underway lead investigator Georges Masoud begins to probe into petio's past and sends his men to ozer a town a hundred miles south of Paris where the doctor grew up interviewing the locals a disturbing picture emerges well he was a rotten child I met somebody who had grown up in the town and he said the mothers of oxaire always said that he was a bad child and would come to no good in in the end and he said well the mothers were quite right certainly I think we can certainly see signs of a troubled mind from very early on he shows signs of being very clever but also signs of all the origins that one might expect in someone who is going to become a full-blown psychopath in later life he impaled birds and insects on knitting needles he stuck pins into the eyes of the little birds he locked them into boxes shoe boxes and he didn't feed them so he could sit watching them die of hunger as he grows up petio is expelled from school after school and in his teenage years he becomes a chronic Thief yet he also develops a genuine interest in medicine and as the first world war erupts with France its Central Battleground he enlists in the hope of becoming a medic his stay on the front line is short-lived however transferred to a psychiatric unit following a nervous breakdown here doctors decide that he should be kept under constant observation military psychiatrists examined him and they found him insane I'm telling you I have absolutely no confidence that that wasn't a full-blown act so that he could get back from the front and be nandied and nursed his Psychopaths can be so very very convincing I know exactly what to say and do to obtain their objectives he was discharged as 40 mentally disabled and he was put on a pension and he received that Disability Pension until the day he died this diagnosis doesn't put an end to petio's ambitions still determined to find a career in medicine upon leaving the Army he takes advantage of a new government course to become a doctor at the end of the first world war there was a program in France to accelerate the medical education of former soldiers where you could take eight months of classes and do two years of an internship and after the first world war with all the people who had been killed they really needed to replenish the supply of Physicians so this accelerated program tried to get new doctors helping patients as quickly as possible it was never established that he really was a doctor that he really had a medical diploma he was intelligent he had spent many years in mental designs he learned a lot about illnesses about diagnosis and that's what it was it was not a doctor in 1922 the newly titled Dr Marcel petio sets about establishing himself as a medical practitioner in a small town in rural France vilnerv suyon and despite his Troubled Youth and his hospitalization here he seems to turn a corner and emerges a new man he was a Charming person he was devoted to his patients he worked long hours he treated poor people for free he would stay open nights and open on Sundays if people couldn't come at any other time he listened patiently to people some people said that they discovered after they left that they had spent more time talking about their lives with him listening attentively than they had spent talking about their complaints his patients absolutely adored him he becomes a trusted pillar of society the locals even overlooked patio's occasional lapses including minor thefts from their own homes during house calls young dashing and committed here's the Talk of the Town and in 1926 this eligible bachelor falls in love for the first time with a mysterious woman of far lower social standing her name was Louise but the townspeople called her louisette one evening he went to have dinner Louise was the maid she was 26. she didn't have a boyfriend nobody knew where she came from very soon she was his lover she went to live with him but a doctor could not have a mistress who was um domestic so they pretended she was his maid all the people knew that she was not his Maids yet petio's Rehabilitation proves to be an illusion having invited luizette to move into his home permanently the town's people begin to notice that she is putting on weight and rumors abound that petio's new partner is pregnant and then overnight she vanishes without a trace the doctor complains to friends that his young lover has left him yet a discovery in the Yon River soon after provides a more disturbing version of events one Sunday a bad smell Rose from the river the townspeople went to see what it was and they found a trunk caught in bushes beside the river and they opened it and they looked inside and they found the headless body of a young woman people immediately said it was louisette romantic love is absolutely genuine for the majority of the population we are coded evolutionary to be capable of feeling very powerful emotions when we fall in love with someone that ain't going to happen with the psychopath what will happen is going through the motions but it's no substance to it at all it is entirely superficial did patio see louisette as an obstacle to his growing ambition although many townspeople speculate that he is responsible for the body in the river it is never identified and the case runs cold the doctor meanwhile remains free to pursue an even greater office within the town and only months later petio runs for the position of Mayor of the illness his election was a little bit funny it occurred soon after The Disappearance of Louise at below and one dramatic moment was he dragged himself painfully up to the stage and said I must confess that I am guilty of a very serious crime and everybody gasped and after a dramatic pause he said I Stand Accused of loving the People Too Much he promised to people he would reform the town and the people loved that that's what people wanted to hear elected by a landslide during his time in office the doctor finds himself a young wife Georgette before his reign as mayor slowly unravels accused first of attempted fraud and then of embezzlement of town funds within five years petio's political career in vilnerv Sir John is in Ruins video was suspended twice as mayor and two suspensions meant you were dismissed so he was dismissed so he decided he was leaving he was going to Paris so he arrived in Paris in January 1933 just when Hitler became chancellor of Germany within a decade petio will be in a position to use Hitler's occupation of France as a cover for his own Twisted activities A Reign of Terror that seeks to take advantage of the people most in fear for their lives late 1930s here suspected murderer and convicted fraudster Dr Marcel petio Works to re-establish his reputation after being driven out of the rural Town Wilner [Music] and for seven years he remains on his best behavior but in May 1914 Everything Changes Hitler's War Machine rumbles into France and quickly overpowers Allied Forces the French government flees Paris and a mass Exodus follows the residents of the city fearful of the occupation to come as Nazi Stormtroopers marched down the streets of Paris in June they enter a ghost town its inhabitants scattered across the countryside yet petio himself remains defiantly in his apartment with his wife and their young son the parisians fled Paris because you stood at his window and he was appalled at their behavior and he told his family they will not flee and he also said they will not suffer because of the war he will provide for them while the doctor begins planning how to prosper under this new Nazi regime the German authorities themselves focus on a very simple Mission the German military had a very clear view of what they wanted they didn't want any trouble they worked very hard to give the impression that nothing had really changed and that's to reassure the parisians who are there and to encourage people to return over time a sense of status quo is restored and the returning parisians grow accustomed to their new lives under German occupation yet this combination of Nazi rule in the North and the authoritarian Vichy government in the South becomes untenable for one group in particular France's Jewish community the coming of the Nazis Taps into deep-rooted prejudices within certain quarters of the nation's population especially the vitiates and the collaborationists now in power there's a great deal of anti-Semitism a feeling that Jews ran the media Jews ran the department stores that put smaller shops and Artisans out of business and so they are happy to begin kind of side tracking Jews kicking them out of government jobs removing them from the police removing them from the military the Germans ordered all Jews in Paris to register at police stations pizza for his part issued a directive that Jews could no longer be in the higher echelons of the Civil Service of the Army and the old Jewish teachers University and school teachers had to resign by the end of the year and then as did the occupation progresses the measures against the Jews increase fearing for their safety many in the Jewish Community consider fleeing the country something that is outlawed by the authorities their only hope the resistance the clandestine Army of French Patriots operating in the shadows these Rebels have set up secret Escape networks that can escort those desperate to leave occupied countries to Freedom but these roots out are both expensive and fraught with Danger The Escape Routes were part of the resistance activities from the very start there was an Escape Route which ran through Brittany and across the channel others down to points on the Pyrenees getting people into Spain and then if necessary down to Gibraltar or to Lisbon and to get across the demarcation line you needed the help of someone called a passer who was someone who helped you pass through get over the demarcation line and it wasn't always easy and they weren't always reliable it is within this hostile environment the Dr Marcel petio spots an opportunity due to wartime conditions and German plundering of France's resources the people of Paris are impoverished yet since the start of the occupation the doctor has thrived supplementing his income with various illicit activities including selling narcotics to drug addicts and offering illegal abortions his criminal schemes are so successful he's able to purchase a second home with the prophets a large property at 21 Rue La sir still wanting more in late 1941 he visits local barber Raul Fourier a man with Connections in the Parisian underworld and here petio concocts an elaborate Story the Jew told free that he's a resistant he is the head of a resistance cell named flight talks and fly talks had an escape Network so if they knew of anybody who wanted to flee from France and the Nazis especially Jews fly talks could help them [Music] he said his undercover name was Dr ozen pitio lays out the full deal for a minimum of 25 000 francs he can provide false papers and vaccinations and take the escapees to a safe house where they will be met by a people Smuggler this individual will then take them into Spain and from here they will travel to sanctuary in Argentina it also told Fourier that potential escapists should bring their most valuable possessions along watches jewelry cash gold bullion patio offers Fourier a share of flytox's fee if he can spread the word and identify potential escapees within a matter of weeks through his underworld contacts the barber provides petio with his first set of Exiles a group of French criminals who have fallen foul of the Nazis these include thief and pimp Joe the boxer his mistress Claudia Shamu and hardened criminal and collaborator Adrian labask between the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 eight of this criminal gang are met individually by petio and taken to his house at 21 ruler Sur here they receive their vaccinations and afterwards none of them are ever seen alive again the Escape network is up and running it was possible for him to really invite his victims to package themselves perfectly as victims you had people who were desperate to escape you asked them to take everything they own and convert it into gold jewels and and liquid cash to bring few possessions because you're going to be traveling light not tell anybody where you're going don't bring any identification papers remove all the marking from your clothes they made themselves into perfect untraceable victims form and in an occupied City in which the Nazis were already imprisoning and executing Jews criminals and partisans those apparently departing to Argentina through petio are never reported missing people disappeared not only Jews French and their Village has never heard from them again and they wouldn't go to the police because going to the police was going to the Germans so put your thoughts this was a splendid opportunity to murder these people to steal from them nobody would look for them committing what he believes to be the perfect crime patio is convinced that no one can put an end to his killing spree that is until an unexpected run-in with the Nazi regime puts Theory to the test occupied Paris 1942 a city of Silent suffering and divided loyalties as the abuses of the Nazi regime and the French puppet state escalate those persecuted Jews criminals and Patriots begin to look for ways out of the country for the murderous Dr Marcel petio their desperation offers an opportunity assuming the identity Dr Eugene a member of the resistance word spreads that he is helping those in need flee through an underground Escape network but in fact he is luring these individuals to his property to be robbed and murdered all the while their family and friends believe these victims are making it to Safety in South America it was a very cleverly cunningly put together plan he took advantage at a time when the affordances of the era that is his country being overrun with people who are desperate to leave to shamelessly and ruthlessly took advantage of the situation for his own gain and while petio's murderous plan is set in motion the Nazi's own war crimes intensify on a far larger scale at the Von C Conference in January 1942 the final solution a program to systematically exterminate Europe's Jewish population is revealed while the Germans construct death camps in the East the Vichy government of France agrees to collaborate with this project in June the first Roundup takes place in Paris at the winter velodrome in which thousands of Jews are detained many are then transferred to a Paris concentration camp droncy before being deported to Auschwitz these Jews are captured not by Nazi soldiers but by the French police the vitiates are enlisted in removing the Jews of France and to this day it's a it's a source of great controversy the relative ease with which the vichyites surrendered the Jews of France to the gas Chambers people didn't know exactly where they were going neither the people who were going nor any relatives they had but what they knew was that Jews were being rounded up put into camp and disappearing and no letters no Communications from them and it was as if this was happening and and obviously a lot of people couldn't couldn't get out but it was an option for people with money to try and find a way to get out at least get to the unoccupied Zone where there'd be less pressure and one family who do have the money to flee from the city are the canelas a German couple with a young son Kurt and Margaret kneller were German Jews who had left Germany in 1933 when Hitler came to power on the first day of the Roundup at the velodrome Diva the Gestapo came to the canola's apartment fortunately they weren't at home at the time Unfortunately they decided to escape using Dr paccio's Escape Network the canelas were German Jews on that day of the Roundup they went to a friend who was not Jewish they went to hide with her they then told her that a very kind doctor a saint of a man is going to help them to escape France they were never seen again however a couple of weeks later parts of bodies were found floating in the sand which included a man's head parts of a woman's body and the vertically sectioned body of an eight-year-old boy these are the first of nine bodies discovered by police over the coming months throughout 1942 more and more desperate Jews come to the doctor for help through his unwitting Escape Network accomplices the barber Ralph Fourier and the actor Edmund Panter and they all meet a similar end in April 1943 however the doctor's activities are detected not by police officers investigating the murders but by the German authorities yet the Gestapo are not hunting a murderer they take pettia's cover story at face value an informant told the Germans that there was an escape organization out of a barber shop and there was a mysterious doctor who they hadn't been able to identify who was really responsible for so the Gestapo went to the barbershop they arrested Fourier and pantard they tortured these two they very quickly gave Dr Eugene's real name his address and even his telephone number the game is up petio is dragged into Frain prison and subjected to a brutal interrogation by gestapo commissary Robert yodcom he'd rather than come clean and explain his criminal scheme which saw him murder the very same people the Nazis are targeting the doctor sticks to his cover story and suffers for months at the hands of his captors they tortured him for eight months they beat him they filed his teeth they compressed his head and iron bands trying to find out more about the Escape Network genuine resistance who were imprisoned with him said that he was the bravest person they had ever seen that he taunted the Germans he ridiculed them he laughed at them they were in awe of his courage and dedication and they believed that he was genuinely irresistant and fearless despite his refusal to cooperate in January 1944 the Gestapo releases Marcel patio planning to monitor the doctor further on the outside this multiple murderer is free to stalk the streets of Paris once again fearful that his actual crimes will be discovered and with bodies littering the floor of his ruler sir basement petio returns to dispose of the evidence he has 400 kilos of quicklime delivered fires up his furnace and Begins the grisly process and in burning the very bodies that implicate him he exposes himself in March the Fateful Discovery is made why why did you do that he seemed to have planned everything else so well why was it so stupid doing that well my opinion is he had been arrested by the Gestapo he had gone through a terrible torture he was back in Paris and he wanted to get rid of the bodies he had just one idea and he said get rid of the bodies as yours masu's Manhunt gets underway in a France still under German rule the tables are about to turn the Allies are coming and once again Dr Marcel petio would use this to his own advantage Nazi occupied France 1944 a nationwide manhunt is underway for Dr Marcel petio a ruthless serial killer suspected of over 20 murders yet the search is soon disrupted as the second world war enters a decisive new stage the Allies are coming and France is transformed once again into a Battleground within cities Countrywide the resistance joined the fight the D-Day invasion was the beginning of June 1944 and it took about two months for the Allies to make their way across Normandy to Paris as soon as the Allies landed the resistance everywhere started blowing up Bridges blowing up trains doing everything they could to make sure that the Germans couldn't send reinforcements and in Paris the resistance put up barriers in the street and began attacking the Germans and creating as much chaos as they possibly could The Liberation of Paris is accomplished by the Americans British and Canadians advancing from the Normandy beaches the French Resistance though is important in securing the city from from within the existence of large and growing numbers of resistors who now are emboldened to become resistors by the Turning of the tide leads to the rapid pacification of Paris and its preservation as one of the jewels of civilization they were kissing the gis and giving them flowers and roses it was their liberation Ferris was free your occupation was over With Victory comes an immediate regime change and the Vichy government of collaborationists is toppled while celebrations break out across the city there are some who are far less jubilant for those who aided the Germans there are brutal repercussions as angry parisians set up people's courts and begin serving out tough Street Justice to bring order to the city the resistance become the French forces of the Interior the ffi and they help police the liberated streets but with its open recruitment policy this voluntary Army also becomes the perfect hiding place for fugitives looking to escape their past everybody who just wanted to help and be patriotic join the ffr and collaborators when joined the ffi do hide patio joined the ffi and they made him a captain having assumed the name Henry Valerie and undeterred by the wide scale operation that has been hunting him for months Dr Marcel petio never leaves Paris at all remaining one step ahead of the police and proving a Master of Disguise he even played a role in The Liberation of Paris the detective in charge of the Manhunt sees an opportunity in newly liberated France with the Press free once again he leaks a fake news story to a reporter one which exposes petio as a Nazi collaborator masu clearly knew that with somebody like patio and he knew enough about him by then that this was going to make him very angry which indeed it did within a few days a letter from Marcel patio reached the newspaper boasting of how he had better resist him how he had never collaborated and so on the police looked at the handwriting on the letter and they knew from some of the internal information that one it suggested that patio was still in Paris and two that he was probably serving in the French forces of the Interior so they sent samples of the handwriting around to officers in the French forces of the interior and asked them to compare them to the handwriting of all of the officers in the ffi stationed in Paris masseuse trap Works within weeks The elusive Dr Marcel petio is finally caught protesting his innocence and claiming any murders were legitimate resistance executions he is immediately placed on death row here he waits for more than a year before his case is brought to trial and having fallen out of the headlines following the liberation of France as he arrives at court petio comes to the Forefront once again intelligent confident and entertaining he maintains his innocence like a master Showman this is a sensational case when people have been following this in the newspapers for two years by then and Patio had been so defiant and announced ahead of time that he was going to have fun that this was going to be an entertaining trial so nobody knew what was going to happen with him it really is one person said was the theatrical event of the year suddenly he was famous Infamous yes but to him he was famous and he wasn't guilty oh no backstory puts him on the map people have now got it let's have a look at him what does he look like people are looking for an answer and they get an answer but it's an answer that is full of ambiguities it isn't like videos on trial and then they decide he's insane and not fit to stand trial no we have a man who's standing up and putting forward a very elaborate story to defend himself patio was accused of 27 murders he claimed that he had killed 63 people but he said his were all justifiable homicides for people like gushanov he said I got him out of France he's in South America South America is a big place go find him for Joe the boxer and the The Pimps and collaborators he said yes I killed him and I'm very proud of it I should get a medal rather than being prosecuted why are you persecuting me this way no matter how engrossing his performance his story falls apart under the prosecution's cross-examination while his wife and unwitting accomplices are exonerated petio accepts no guilt whatsoever and maintains that he was acting only on orders as a genuine member of the resistance as the trial concludes the jury swiftly delivers a verdict of guilty and on May 25th 1946 petio is executed as he stands beside the guillotine he addresses the audience and tells them look away this won't be pretty after the blade comes down a court official looks at his severed head and later reports that petio was smiling you'll only have to see right at the last when he's facing the guillotine and good riddance too I might add even that's a smiling Affair turn away this won't be pretty Psychopathic it is totally grotesque what he did it's truly shocking truly Dreadful and it is marvelous that finally Justice came to him he wanted more whatever a doctor made was not enough for him he wanted more more and more and more and more would he have become a serial killer if the war had never happened I don't think so the war gave him a fantastic opportunity to enrich himself and to enrich himself he had to go foreign

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 261,749

Keywords: Controversial figures, Crimes that shocked the world, Criminal behavior, Criminal deception, Dark figures in history, Dark history, Dark secrets, Historical events, Historical figures, Historical investigations, Historical past, Investigative journalism, Matt Lewis, Murderous instincts, Psychological profile, Suppressed history, Timeline - World History Documentaries, War criminals, War-time atrocities, War-time mindset, World renowned historians

Id: ihBg11F0Ijc

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 18 2023