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

Not having heard of the case of Dr. Marcel Petiot, I had to stop several times as I was reading Death in the City of Light to turn back to the cover and assure myself it was, in fact, a true story. The book, especially in its early pages when neighbors report a sickening odor from a chimney and police discover burned bodies in a boiler and a pit of decomposing bodies covered by lime in the courtyard, seemed more like the product of a screenwriter's over-heated imagination. But the details are true. So, too, are the details of the investigation and trial. Even the most creative screenwriter would be hard-pressed to concoct a villian like Petiot and turn him loose during the Nazi occupation of Paris. But that's exactly what happened. In a city where people "disappear" on a routine basis - some to escape, many ground up in the Nazi death machine - Petiot found it easy to procur victims. Many of the victims identified by police were either Jews or gangsters and their girlfriends seeking to escape. Officially, Petiot was convicted of 26 such killings, but clearly police suspected him in many more. Just as fascinating as the crimes is the trial. Petiot managed to elude authorities until after Paris was liberated. With France once again free, Petiot was put on trial. For his defense, Petiot and his attorney claimed that he had "liquidated" 63 people, but they were Nazis and collaborators. Petiot even claimed to be part of the Resistance, though his claims were doubted by many. Author David King turns court documents into a gripping page-turner. He even manages to stir up some sympathy for Petiot over the question of whether he received a fair trial in the post-liberation atmosphere of Paris. If the book leaves anything unresolved its because the case itself remains unresolved. There was never any indication how exactly Petiot killed his victims. Many have suggested Petiot gave his victims injections of poison, telling them the "vaccinations" were necessary for traveling abroad. King has another theory that the doctor actually may have drugged then with Morphine or peyote and then gassed his victims with hydrogren cyanide. He makes an interesting case for this, as he does for Petoit's dealings with the Paris underworld; but the world may never know for certain what happened in Petoit's strange triangular room. The only quibble I have with King's book is his occasional foray into unrelated details. Some of these, such as stories about what famous Paris residents such as Picasso were doing at the time, seem particularly jarring. It's not that the details weren't interesting. They just seemed to be inserted at random points rather than integrated into the book. Despite that, for those who are interested in the history of Paris during the occupation Death in the City of Light makes for riveting reading.

I highly recommend this multi-layered book on the crimes of the evil Dr. Petiot of Nazi-occupied Paris. The gruesome nature of the murders, the vulnerability of the victims (most being Jewish people wanted to escape the Nazis, and being fooled that the good doctor was helping them) and the intrigue of Nazi-occupied Paris makes for a very complex case. Ultimately, why did he murder numerous people (the numbers range from 23 to over 50)? For money. To steal the money and valuables of the people desperate to escape the Nazi regime. Just sickening. The money and valuables were never recovered, either. Dr. Petiot's wife and brother, along with a few enabling cronies in his scam, all escape facing justice in court. There was something about Petiot that reminded this reader of Ted Bundy: the famous psychopathic stare, relishing the limelight, trading witty barbs in court. Although the sensationalism and circus atmosphere of the trial almost ends in mistrial - and thankfully it did not, the author admits he feels that Petiot did not get a fair trial. However, the author also admits that Petiot certainly was guilty (pretty difficult to explain away numerous corpses and body parts in your house). In anyone deserved to have his head guillotined and roll "into the wicker basket with a thump", it was the evil Dr. Petiot. The book also demonstrates the wide range of human behavior highlighted during the time of a war - one can witness incredibly brave and admirable behavior, and then one can see the lowest, opportunistic, despicable and murderous behavior like that of Dr. Petiot. The author does an outstanding job of research of this complex and fascinating crime and trial during one of the most trying times in France's history. Highly recommended.

I read this book with great anticipation having scanned the reviews and gleaned an idea for this story's potential. Undoubtedly the true crime saga of Marcel Petiot in Nazi-occupied Paris is fascinating and I give the author great credit for what looks (and reads) like thorough and balanced research. There are lots of details that pull the reader in, raising uncomfortable questions about the nature of the crime - and the barbarity of the times. *Some spoilers!* Yet I can't help feeling disappointed by this book. Unfortunately, while the writing is largely crisp and uncluttered, the storytelling itself is a mess. By this I mean that the fairly complex path of Petiot's crimes is made considerably more muddled by disjointed passages and shoddy exposition. To his credit, the best sections of the book lay the groundwork for an understanding of the killer's milieu - the demimonde of pre-war Paris, and the everpresent anxiety of living under the Nazi occupation. Yet in this, King doesn't go nearly far enough. He gives a compelling view of the Germans taking Paris, but once that act is complete, little is added to understand broadly what life was like in this environment. Moreover, too often key plot points in the story are lost in the muddle of less important details. As the narrative unfolds, we are often unable to distinguish between important characters and unimportant characters. One area of extreme importance - the history, structure and customs of the French Resistance -- is touched upon in scattershot fashion. Without a proper introduction to establish this all-important background, we find ourselves uncertain as to the provenance of key plot points - particularly as the killer himself provides a questionable view of this world with which the writer's point of view must compete. Another example: King does a terrific job of setting up the killer's nemesis, inspector Masu - yet two-thirds of the way through the book, Masu is waylaid by an accusation and taken off the case. With precious little explanation or foreshadowing, a key perspective we've invested in through half the book is altogether dropped. Worse, the major climaxes of the story - the killer's capture and eventual conviction - both happen rather quickly and with insufficient background or reflection. Key players in each of these events are introduced with little or no background and disappear once their role is played out. It's frustrating to pursue Petiot for 300 pages only to have the conclusion wrapped up so hastily. Last, and most gratuitiously, the driving mystery behind this true crime story is the nature of the crimes themselves. Ultimately, King cannot be blamed for the fact that there still remains considerable mystery behind Petiot's methods, madness and motives. But as the storyteller, he has organized the telling of what we do know about the crimes and pursuit of the killer in such a way as to muddle the mystery further rather than to present possibilities in a compelling way for us to decipher for ourselves. The most egregious example of this is the book's conclusion; King departs from his even-handed reportage to speculate on what exactly happened in Petiot's charnel house. As a reader, I was screaming "Yes! Finally!" His speculation is based on a contemporaneous account of a young man who was lured in by Petiot and yet survived. Even with the proviso that this account is not verifiable, it is, nonetheless, excruciatingly close to satisfying the mystery behind these crimes. Yet even here King drops the ball and it's maddening for the reader. We are taken blow by blow through one of Petiot's crimes as described by a surviving witness. We go all the way to the secret death chamber and Petiot going in for the kill, the eye-witness on the verge of certain death. And then the book ends. We are never told what happens next -- how this eye-witness survived to tell his tale! If this fact is unknown then this entire account is questionable at best. If this fact IS known, then we are never told why this vital information is withheld from us. So very frustrating. In sum: Great research. Chilling slice of history. Potentially fascinating characters. Botched and incomplete narrative. If you don't know this story I might still recommend the book because it's a one-of-a-kind crime by a thoroughly diabolical character. But if you're looking to understand this crime or even for masterful storytelling along the lines of Devil In the White City, you will likely be as disappointed as I was.

In March 1944, the police and fire service were summoned by neighbours of a house on rue Le Sueur, part of a Parisian suburb, from which thick black smoke had been emanating for 5 days. The smell was nauseating, described as burnt rubber or burnt roast of poor quality. Further enquiry revealed the property to be an unoccupied house belonging to Dr Marcel Petiot, a respectable family physician with a flourishing practice. The firefighters entered the building and traced the smell to a small basement room. On opening the iron door, they discovered dismembered human bodies and bones. Two coal stoves were present, one roaring furiously, containing charred human remains. The room bore the stench of roasted, putrescent human flesh. Chief commissaire Massu was summoned to the scene locating rooms with works of art and antique furniture. A courtyard led to a small triangular room with thick walls. No furniture or windows were within but high on the walls were iron hooks. A viewing lens was concealed under wallpaper looking into the room. An outside former stable house contained a pit full of quicklime and decomposing bodies. This scene of carnage is the starting point of a long and perplexing investigation into the circumstances that had been witnessed. David King, using archived records of the investigative processes and subsequent events, has written an account of the chief suspect Marcel Petiot. A work of fact not fiction. King records in extreme detail the lives of Petiot's purported victims, their families, his acquaintances and also backtracking on his past life leading to the present. These are set against a Paris occupied for four years by Germans. Amongst the Nazi atrocities in Paris, Germany and elsewhere, it appears that Petoit may have been undertaking his own operation, according to the investigators.He lured desperate, wealthy, ( mainly Jews), in the hope of escaping the oppressive Nazis with the promise of passage to Argentina, taking huge fees and other items as payment. The findings in rue Le Suere suggested that few, if any, actually made the trip. David King chronicles the efforts to obtain the evidence needed for a case against Petiot and a trial. Whilst doing this he portrays Parisian life both low and high, with tales of malnourishment amongst the French people with the champagne lifestyles of the elite (high-ranking German officers, their girls and collaborators, gangsters) with scattered chapters on the society literati (Sartre, Camus, Picasso etc). Whilst adding to the timbre of Paris of this time, they do not fit in comfortably with the narrative flow of the Petiot story. The exhaustive descriptions of people and places of relevance would have benefitted from their pictorial representation, if available ( I had to make notes from my Kindle edition). This is an in-depth well-researched book with over 200 references in the bibliography. The author provides evidence that Petiot was a mass-murderer (denied by the accused). An intelligent, articulate, cultured, witty,ingenious, ruthless,ill-tempered psychopath, of little doubt. There are questions the reader needs to decide. Was Petiot working for the French resistance, the Gestapo or himself? Did he get a fair hearing? What state of mind was he in? King ends the book with his own perspective of events, in part fact, part speculation and heresay, but interesting nonetheless. Infuriatingly, he relates the story of Raphael K (from a small book King later came across) who said he had been through the whole Petiot selection process and had escaped from improbable circumstances. We, as readers, never find out how, nor what happened to him. Despite the quibbles this is a fine and fascinating document of true events surrounding this slice of history. P.S. Since this review, the subsequent comments confirm my thought that the thoroughness of the author would not have left any loop-holes. In view of this I would up my grading to 5 stars.

I love that book, we all know the story of Dr. Petiot but this book is so much more than that. It is a real and palpable look at the life in France during the occupation not all French people are Nazi "sympatiseur" and not all French people had there eyes open especially the ones in the unoccupied section of France. This book is a history book.

Paris is not only the city of light in this novel and more the city of the dark with Gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld running through the pages. It is based on a true story and that make it the more rightful. I enjoyed every word of it.

Facinating story, well told. Kept my interest from start to finish and I would recommend it to anyone interested in history.

There are lots of books about the escape networks in Nazi Europe. This one tells the obverse side of the coin. The occupation threw up new business opportunities. Sure, some established escape pipelines for patriotic reasons (particularly for allied airmen). Others regarded it as a way to cash in on desperate jews and other "undesirables". So do you run risks for nothing? Or fleece the client? Or just take the money and denounce him to the milice or the gestapo? Or do you just kill them and not have to bother with sharing the loot with the nazis? Dr Petiot, a classic psychopath, chose the last option. He and his brother got very rich. Estimates of the number of murders vary between the low 20s and more than 100 victims. His case is not just classic, it's stereotypical. Late bed-wetting, torturing animals, arson, juvenile delinquency, theft and murder. These people cannot be cured, they cannot even be treated because they do not recognise right and wrong. Petiot's trial was a farce orchestrated by Petiot. He nearly got off in the (equally deranged) atmosphere of "après-guerre". He was condemned because the jury didn't like him. He went to the guillotine with bravery, being no more attached to his own life than anyone else's. I wonder what is the purpose of interpolating the doings of J-P Sartre with Petiot is? Perhaps King is writing a book on Sartre / de Beauvoir 's ambiguous (to say the least) relationship with the nazis? Maybe he's been injuncted and this is as far as he dare go? Were Petiot's collaborators let off? Were his crimes common? I won't spoil the story, let's just say that there is no murder "mystery" here. Round my way, the locals have a saying about a jew and his luggage which is too vile to repeat. Some of them ended the war curiously well capitalised.