Death in the City of Light : The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

by King, David

• ISBN13: 9780307452894
• ISBN10: 0307452891
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-20
• Publisher: Crown

Summary

Death in the City of Lightis the gripping, true story of a brutal serial killer who unleashed his own reign of terror in Nazi-Occupied Paris. As decapitated heads and dismembered body parts surfaced in the Seine, Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu, head of the Brigade Criminelle, was tasked with tracking down the elusive murderer in a twilight world of Gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld. The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma. He was the ;People's Doctor, ; known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor. Petiot, however, would soon be charged with twenty-seven murders, though authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150. Who was being slaughtered, and why? Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills? Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance? Or did he work for no one other than himself? Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness. When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers. But the trial soon became a circus. Attempting to try all twenty-seven cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease. His attorney, René Floriot, a rising star in the world of criminal defense, also effectively, if aggressively, countered the charges. Soon, despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and over one ton of evidence, Petiot's brilliance and wit threatened to win the day. Drawing extensively on many new sources, including the massive, classified French police file on Dr. Petiot, Death in the City of Lightis a brilliant evocation of Nazi-Occupied Paris and a harrowing exploration of murder, betrayal, and evil of staggering proportions.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
German Night	p. 9
The People's Doctor	p. 18
Preliminary Findings	p. 29
Two Witnesses	p. 39
"100,000 Autopsies"	p. 49
The Woman with the Yellow Suitcase	p. 60
"Beside a Monster"	p. 67
A Delivery	p. 74
Evasion	p. 82
"Goodbye Arrogance"	p. 90
Sightings	p. 94
The Gestapo File	p. 105
Postcards from the Other Side	p. 118
Destination Argentina	p. 127
War in the Shadows	p. 139
The Attic	p. 146
Frustration	p. 156
Nine More	p. 164
The List	p. 172
Apocalyptic Weeks	p. 178
"P.S. Destroy All My Letters"	p. 188
At Saint-Mandé-Tourelle Station	p. 193
Interrogations	p. 202
Beating Chance?	p. 214
The Knellers	p. 225
The Petiot Circus	p. 236
"Not in Danger of Death"	p. 246
Two to One	p. 253
Inside Murder House	p. 260
Black Fingernails	p. 269
"A Taste for Evil"	p. 275
The Hairdresser, the Makeup Artist, and the Adventuress	p. 287
Walkout	p. 295
Naufrageur	p. 302
The Verdict	p. 310
Timbers of Justice	p. 320
The Loot	p. 327
Epilogue	p. 335
Acknowledgments	p. 343
Selected Bibliography	p. 347
Notes	p. 358
Illustration Credits	p. 401
Index	p. 402
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