Dr. Satan: Marcel Petiot

During World War II, Dr. Marcel Petiot posed as a French Resistance fighter, promising to help people escape Nazi-occupied France. Instead, this serial killer lured dozens of innocent victims into his home, where he murdered them for their money. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House Original. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @crimehouse for more true crime content.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Vanessa Richardson?

  Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, there's another show I want to tell you about. It's called What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Plus, Connor's infectious energy that'll make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  This is Crime House.

• 0:43Vanessa Richardson?

  Hope inspires us to dream, to love, to persevere. But, hope can also blind us to the truth, lead us down treacherous paths, and ultimately into the clutches of evil. That's what happened to the victims of Dr. Marcel Petiot. Seeking to escape the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe, dozens of refugees trusted him with their lives. When they entered Dr. Petiot's stately townhouse in Paris, they believed he was their salvation. Little did they know, he was about to become their executioner.

• 1:37Vanessa Richardson?

  The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate. And sometimes, the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable. This is Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original. Every Monday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and violent offenders. This is a special one-part episode on Dr. Marcel Petiot, a French physician who offered to help people flee the Nazi regime during World War II. But instead of facilitating their escape, Dr. Petiot murdered and robbed them, earning the terrifying nickname "Dr. Satan."

• 2:23Vanessa Richardson?

  At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters. And to enhance your Mind of a Serial Killer listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and for special one-part episodes like this one, you'll get access three days before its wide release, plus exciting bonus content. I'm Vanessa Richardson.

• 2:57Tristin Engels?

  And I'm Dr. Tristin Engels. As Vanessa takes you through our subject's stories, I will be here helping her dive into these killers' minds as we try to understand how someone can do such horrible things.

• 3:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Before we get into the story, you should know it contains depictions of murder and violent crime. Listener discretion is advised. Now, join us as we explore the life and crimes of Dr. Marcel Petiot, dive into his mind, and, as always, ask the question, what makes a serial killer? As a child, Marcel Petiot didn't have much stability in his life. He was born in Auxerre, France, on January 17, 1897. His parents were blue-collar postal workers who had to travel a lot, so they frequently

• 3:54Vanessa Richardson?

  left Marcel in the care of his aunt, Henriette. Being passed around like this seemed to have a profound effect on Marcel. From a young age, his anger manifested in dangerous, violent ways, often at the expense of harmless animals. It's been said that he impaled insects with Henriette's knitting needles, imprisoned and tortured tiny birds, and even smothered the family cat to death.

• 4:22Tristin Engels?

  Let's explore some possible explanations for this behavior at such a young age, because it appears at least that it's following parental neglect or inconsistent parenting.

• 4:34Vanessa Richardson?

  Uh huh.

• 4:34Tristin Engels?

  There are a group of disruptive and impulse control disorders that affect children and adolescents, and they are highly correlated with childhood abuse and neglect, meaning children in homes where there is abuse or neglect are at a greater risk of developing these conditions. And that includes inconsistent parenting, much like you're describing here for Marcel. Since Marcel is quite young, there's two that would be worth ruling out, the first being a condition called intermittent explosive disorder, and you must be at least six years old to be diagnosed with it. The condition's characterized by frequent impulsive

• 5:14Tristin Engels?

  outbursts of aggression such as fights, destruction of property, and violence toward people and animals, which fits here. But the caveat with this condition is that these actions are purely impulsive and not for any specific objective. And I'm not sure that is what is happening here with Marcel. It feels like Marcel has an objective with smothering the family cat and of course, impaling insects. Oppositional defiant disorder is another condition that falls under these impulse control disorders, and it manifests as a frequent and persistent pattern of angry or irritable mood, argumentative or defiant behavior, especially toward authority, as well as vindictiveness. Smothering the family

• 5:59Tristin Engels?

  cat could have been a form of vindication in response to a lack of parental involvement or inconsistent caregiving, and these conditions can also be co-occurring.

• 6:11Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Marcel's Aunt Henriette had no idea how to handle his behavior, all of those outbursts. Anytime he acted out, she would take him to early morning mass, hoping religion could instill some sense of morals in him. Well, it didn't work. Marcel hated it so much, he later claimed the experience turned him into an atheist. And as Marcel got older, his problems continued in the classroom. He was actually a naturally gifted student. By the time Marcel was five, he could read better than kids twice his age. But his intelligence didn't stop him from causing trouble. When Marcel was 11, he stole a revolver from his father and fired it into his classroom's ceiling during a history lesson.

• 6:56Vanessa Richardson?

  Around that same time, he accosted a fellow student during recess and forced him to stand against a door while Marcel threw knives around him.

• 7:06Tristin Engels?

  This is pretty significant and very serious behavior, and it would warrant an evaluation for conduct disorder, which is a precursor for antisocial personality disorder.

• 7:16Vanessa Richardson?

  His turbulent behavior didn't end when Marcel hit his teenage years either. In fact, a tragedy at home only made it worse. In 1912, when Marcel was 15, the family went through the unthinkable when Marcel's mother died of cancer. She was only 36 years old, which made it even harder. And Marcel did not take the news well. Quite the opposite, in fact. His behavior got worse than it already was, to the point where Marcel was expelled from school for poor behavior, violent outbursts, and petty theft.

• 7:51Tristin Engels?

  Yeah, this could be a response to grief, Vanessa. But truly, I think it's also related to the impulse control disorders we're already seeing that are developing. And it's maybe those disorders are just magnified by the environmental trigger of this loss.

• 8:07Vanessa Richardson?

  That experience should have been a wake-up call for him. But it wasn't. Two years later, in 1914, the police caught then-17-year-old Marcel stealing money from mailboxes. Considering his age, the judge gave him a bit of leniency. He had him undergo psychiatric evaluation rather than face jail time. Over the next few months, Marcel met with several doctors. The general consensus was that he suffered from some kind of unspecified hereditary mental illness.

• 8:39Tristin Engels?

  Okay, so stealing itself can also be an indication of another impulse controlled disorder like I was talking about before. And this is known as kleptomania. That falls under the same category of disorders as intermittent explosive disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, as well as conduct disorder. And he's very clearly exhibiting symptoms of many of those disorders as it is.

• 9:03Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Marcel's father refused to believe that it was hereditary. He insisted there weren't any mental health issues in his family or his late wife's. He believed Marcel had the power to change and just chose not to.

• 9:18Tristin Engels?

  Well, let's break down what we've been seeing. Obviously, I've never evaluated Marcel. But if I was to evaluate him, I would be ruling out, like I've mentioned before, oppositional defiant disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, as it seems like he may have met criteria for this and it is typically diagnosed before the age of eight. Now, we are seeing signs that he may meet criteria for conduct disorder, which is a condition that is diagnosed typically by the age of 15, usually not any later. And it is characterized by animal cruelty, bullying, destruction of property, theft, use of weapons, all of which he began engaging in quite early.

• 10:00Tristin Engels?

  So it appears that he had a child onset of this condition rather than an adolescent onset. And when someone turns 18 and they continue with these patterns of behavior, in order to get a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder or history of conduct disorder, or at least evidence of it, if it wasn't diagnosed, is required. So we're seeing a very typical evolution of conditions that lead to antisocial personality disorder and, in his case, psychopathy. Not everyone, though, who meets criteria for antisocial personality disorder has qualifying traits of psychopathy. But his evolution is certainly pointing in that direction.

• 10:42Vanessa Richardson?

  This is so interesting. Some of these things sound familiar. Is there anything specific to Marcel's story so far that's mirrored in other cases we've explored? Does his behavior seem solely due to upbringing, or does it seem like there are deeper issues at play here?

• 10:56Tristin Engels?

  Those are really good questions, Vanessa. Yeah, they mirror a lot of the stories we covered. There's early childhood trauma or neglect that went untreated or unnoticed, which is a very common occurrence among serial killers or future violent offenders. And like I mentioned, his pattern of behavior and onset of these impulse control disorders are textbook in the development of antisocial personality disorder. Research suggests that there are both genetic as well as environmental components, like I mentioned, trauma, parental neglect, that contribute to the development of antisocial personality disorder. With severe forms that rise to the level of psychopathy, research has identified structural brain abnormalities,

• 11:41Tristin Engels?

  such as reduced connections between the prefrontal cortex, where empathy, guilt, and judgment are, and the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that processes fear or anxiety. And there's also other marked differences in like gray or white matter in the brain in comparison to a "normal" brain. In this case, with Marcel, I think it's more likely than not a combination of both genetic and environmental factors, but I think genetic is more so the case, given the patterns we are seeing and how early the onset of these conditions showed themselves.

• 12:20Vanessa Richardson?

  So instead of continuing treatment, Marcel went back to school. It seemed he'd gained something from the experience, though, because he finally found a subject he was passionate about: medicine. But as the saying goes, a leopard can't change its spots, and Marcel lived up to it. Later in 1914, when he was still 17, Marcel was expelled again from two different schools. He eventually finished his education at a special academy in Paris a year later, in July 1915, when he was 18. After graduating, Marcel told his father he wanted to become a doctor. But instead of giving Marcel the respect and attention he craved, his father shrugged

• 13:05Vanessa Richardson?

  him off. He didn't think Marcel had the discipline to do it.

• 13:08Tristin Engels?

  This makes me wonder if his father has a pattern of being emotionally unavailable or nurturing to Marcel, or if this is simply a reaction after years of conduct-related issues that he'd seen in his son. But if he was always emotionally neglectful, then this would certainly speak to the environmental factors that could have contributed to Marcel's development and his lack of empathy. But it could also indicate that his father lacked empathy himself. And I would be looking into his father's history to see if there is a hereditary connection there, even though he vehemently denies any family history of this.

• 13:45Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Marcel was about to get the opportunity to prove his dad wrong. But due to world events, that opportunity wouldn't be at medical school. By this time, World War I was in full swing. With the country in need of able-bodied young men, Marcel enlisted in the French Army in January 1916. Some sources say he was drafted into the infantry, others say Marcel voluntarily joined with the goal of becoming a medic. Either way, his time on the frontlines was short-lived. On May 20, 1917, a little over a year after enlisting, 20-year-old Marcel injured his foot in a grenade explosion during battle.

• 14:28Vanessa Richardson?

  He was taken to a hospital, but his struggles with mental illness resurfaced. Suddenly, he found himself in what's been described as a "rest home," a place for soldiers to recover from the physical and mental trauma of war. It's not clear exactly what was wrong, but for the next few years, Marcel's military career went through a consistent cycle. He'd be sent back to his regiment only to suffer a mental setback. Then, once he was deemed ready for action again, he'd suffer some kind of mental episode and go back to the hospital.

• 15:01Tristin Engels?

  This could be part of the manipulation that we see in antisocial personality disorder, since it's motivated by secondary gain. But it could, you know, very well be a genuine fear response from experiencing trauma related to combat exposure in the past, or even a bit of both.

• 15:17Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Marcel's circumstances may not have been due to bad luck. For instance, in June 1918, he was removed from the front lines after receiving a gunshot to the foot, a wound that may have been self-inflicted. The war ended six months later, and in July 1919, Marcel was discharged from the French Army with a disability pension. Though by this point, his mental health condition was so bad, doctors recommended he be admitted full-time to a psychiatric hospital.

• 15:48Tristin Engels?

  It sounds like it's been suggested or there's speculation that Marcel's behavior in the military was purely manipulative. I've personally worked with combat veterans. When I was working with soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan, I had seen individuals go to great lengths to avoid going back to combat out of pure fear because of the experiences they had. The fear was secondary to combat-related trauma. So when we hear about Marcel, on the surface, it certainly appears that he might be having a trauma response whenever he's informed that he'll be sent back to his regiment. However, given what we know about Marcel's past behaviors and the course of his disorders,

• 16:32Tristin Engels?

  I'm inclined to believe that his behavior was more likely than not purely manipulation. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder are motivated by their own self-interest. They lack empathy. They have a disregard for other people, rules, and norms. They can and often do malinger, which is Feigning or exaggerating psychiatric symptoms for secondary gain. That is something we very commonly see. So someone with his condition needs to be in control. And when you're in the military, the government is in control of you. So it makes sense to me that someone like Marcel would do what was needed to regain that control to serve his own self-interest.

• 17:14Tristin Engels?

  I think it's also more likely than not that while he was in the hospital, he was learning exactly how the process of discharging works. He likely saw others who did get discharged with benefits, and those individuals likely had physical injuries that truly did disqualify them from remaining active in the eyes of the military. So I think it's very likely that he took a very drastic measure to ensure he was not injured too severely, certainly not life-threatening, but just enough to get discharged with a disability pension. Now, why would they recommend that Marcel be admitted full-time to a psychiatric hospital? We don't know exactly what mental health symptoms he was exhibiting in the military for me to truly answer that.

• 17:59Tristin Engels?

  And without that information, the only thing that I can identify is they felt he was a danger to himself because they did believe that the gunshot was self-inflicted. And without knowing his history, at least on their end, they have to ensure that he is safe from himself. And recommending that was the ethical thing to do.

• 18:19Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, despite all of his struggles, Marcel's time in the military gave him the chance to achieve the success he dreamed of. After the war ended, France was in desperate need of doctors. So the government created an accelerated program for veterans to become practicing physicians. Marcel took advantage of this opportunity. Shortly after graduating the program in December 1921, the 25-year-old returned to his family with good news. He was now a licensed doctor, and he was ready to prove that he deserved his credentials. He opened up a general practice in a small town outside of his native Auxerre, and it didn't take long for him to establish himself. Shockingly.

• 19:02Vanessa Richardson?

  Marcel was very well admired. He took the time to really connect with his patients, asking them about their lives. Reportedly, he almost never turned anyone away, accepting whatever they could spare for payment. And it wasn't just his bedside manner that people liked. It seemed like Marcel could diagnose them with barely any information, almost like he had a sixth sense for knowing what ailed them. In reality, Marcel wasn't as benevolent as he seemed. And his deception would have deadly consequences.

• 19:42Vanessa Richardson?

  Around late 1922, 26-year-old Marcel Petiot set up his own medical practice outside his hometown of Auxerre, France. He quickly gained a reputation for being a kind, considerate doctor. But there was more to Marcel than met the eye, and not in a good way. For starters, he enrolled almost all his patients in a state-run medical assistance program, which might sound benevolent but benefited Marcel because the government reimbursed him for any patients who couldn't afford his services. While it was a legitimate program, Marcel took advantage of a loophole. Even when patients did pay him, he apparently still charged the government, so he got paid

• 20:26Vanessa Richardson?

  twice for his services. On top of that, his affable, social demeanor was almost certainly a front as well. He spent more time asking his patients about their lives than about their medical problems, but they liked talking to him so much, they didn't think to question Marcel when he simply prescribed them with pain-relieving narcotics and sent them on their way, even if the drugs didn't help treat their condition.

• 20:51Tristin Engels?

  So is patients liking him that much where they're not questioning him seems to me like Marcel's exhibiting superficial charm, which is a trait of psychopathy.

• 21:02Vanessa Richardson?

  And that wasn't the only sign something was wrong. Apparently, it was an open secret that he was a bit of a kleptomaniac. During house calls, Marcel would frequently steal small things from his patients' homes.

• 21:15Tristin Engels?

  Yeah, there's those impulse control disorders again. And impulse control deficits are common with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. As I've already outlined, you know, with the starting of oppositional defiant, kleptomania, it all is in the same sort of category.

• 21:31Vanessa Richardson?

  Everyone loved Marcel so much, they treated his compulsive stealing as more of an oddity than a serious problem. But his next scandal was too big to ignore. In 1926, 29-year-old Marcel met a beautiful housekeeper named Louise Delauveau. 26-year-old Louise worked for one of Marcel's elderly patients. She and Marcel hit it off, and it wasn't long before Louise moved in with him. But because Marcel held a respectable position in town, it wouldn't be proper for him to live with a romantic partner without being married. So Marcel and Louise told everyone she was just his "live-in maid."

• 22:13Vanessa Richardson?

  However, most people in town saw through that and assumed they were lovers. Those rumors gained steam a few months later when Louise started putting on weight. People assumed she was pregnant. Marcel may not have been happy about this development. Simply living with a woman without being married was scandalous enough. Having a child out of wedlock was another matter altogether. And it seems like he may have decided to do something about it. Some sources say he wanted to perform an abortion on Louise. Whether he did it or not, Louise suddenly disappeared in May of 1926, just a few months after moving in with Marcel.

• 22:55Vanessa Richardson?

  The police thought it might be foul play, and Marcel was the prime suspect. One witness came forward to say that he'd seen Marcel loading a large trunk into the back of his car. Shortly after, one just like it was found floating in the river outside of town, and it contained the decapitated body of a young woman.

• 23:18Tristin Engels?

  We talked about the course of his mental health until this point. And I've started to highlight traits of psychopathy, including superficial charm. And now we're seeing narcissism and chameleon traits, which are common in psychopathy. And in reflecting, it appears to me that Marcel has actually been exhibiting signs of narcissism from a young age. He appeared to fixate on status. And back then, being a doctor often provided immediate status, as it is such an esteemed profession. With that status, he's also able to maintain that inflated sense of self, that grandiosity.

• 23:58Tristin Engels?

  And he uses that superficial charm to engage his patients, who are his narcissistic supply, at least from what we know so far. Psychopaths are often narcissistic, and they are great chameleons, because they mirror others to blend in with society. His career is allowing him to do just that, while also engaging in deviant behavior, as evidenced by how he treats or mistreats his patients without them being the wiser. It gives him a sense of power and control. But when he begins living with a woman out of wedlock, that status is threatened. That mask of sanity is threatened. He manufactures a lie that may have worked for some time, you know, with her being a live-in maid.

• 24:43Tristin Engels?

  But when the community begins to suspect that she's pregnant, he may have felt that that was too big of a threat to his status and to his control over that. So to him, it seems like preserving his status was more important, and he likely felt he could rationalize her disappearance more than he could allowing her to move forward with her pregnancy.

• 25:05Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, before this, we haven't really seen him, I guess, evidence of him murdering anyone. Would a murder like this track with Marcel's psychology so far?

• 25:14Tristin Engels?

  Yes, this definitely tracks with his psychology so far. But what is most interesting is the fact that he chose to decapitate her. So if this was simply a botched abortion, then why go forward with decapitating her? That's very sadistic.

• 25:30Tristin Engels?

  It's not anything new for him behaviorally. If we look back, he was engaging in cruelty to animals early on with portering birds and impaling insects. Not to mention, his career as a physician gives him access to tools and places that allow him to engage in these sadistic behaviors. That decapitation of her is a very sadistic behavior.

• 25:57Vanessa Richardson?

  Unfortunately, the authorities weren't able to identify the Jane Doe. So Louise's case officially remained a disappearance. And seemingly devastated by his girlfriend's so-called abandonment, 29-year-old Marcel put on the appearance of a scorned lover. He cried when he was out on the street and was distant and distracted.

• 26:20Tristin Engels?

  Once again, these are those superficial and performative traits and those chameleon-type traits that we see in psychopathy. He's trying to maintain that mask of sanity. He's pretending to be, quote, "normal" and engaging in behaviors that are expected of him, but that he truly, genuinely does not feel. He does not feel remorse. He does not feel longing. He does not feel grief.

• 26:44Vanessa Richardson?

  It wasn't long before he found a way to break through his supposed grief. One day, while he was out to lunch, Marcel told a friend he was going to run for mayor. It certainly seemed like an odd choice, especially considering that many people in town thought Marcel killed his girlfriend. He didn't let that deter him, though. Instead, Marcel leaned into it. During one speech in his campaign, Marcel began by saying, "I confess that I am guilty of a serious crime." Then, after a dramatic pause, he said, "I stand accused of loving the people too much." It's not clear how the crowd reacted to that speech, but shockingly, the strategy seemed to work.

• 27:28Vanessa Richardson?

  On July 25, 1926, just a couple months after Louise Delivo's disappearance, Marcel won the election in a landslide.

• 27:39Tristin Engels?

  Okay, so his decision to seemingly lean into these rumors a bit was his way of regaining control over the narrative. He's been successful in charming the people around him and specifically those in his practice, and he likely believed he could charm the entire community into disbelieving these rumors if he had a platform that could reach them all at once. And mayor was certainly one way of doing that. This public display might not seem like typical behavior of a serial killer, but it actually is typical of narcissists and psychopaths. These personality styles are drawn to positions of authority. In fact, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were both active in politics.

• 28:23Tristin Engels?

  It allows them power. It allows them to be a chameleon, which is one of the traits of psychopathy, and it's, again, another form of a mask of sanity for them.

• 28:34Vanessa Richardson?

  After he took office, Marcel suddenly wasn't so sad about Louise anymore. With her disappearance firmly in the rearview, he decided that any good mayor needed a good wife by his side. So Marcel quickly courted 23-year-old Georgette LeBlay, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. They were wed in June 1927. Ten months later, the couple's only son Gerhart was born. Though his personal life seemed to be happy and stable, Marcel's tenure as mayor was anything but. Sure, he accomplished feats like upgrading the elementary schools, building a new sewer system, and getting state funds for projects, but his personal life, particularly his kleptomania, was getting out of

• 29:19Vanessa Richardson?

  hand. Whether it was money from a clerk's desk, a marching band's bass drum, or even a stone cross at the entrance to a cemetery, Marcel just couldn't help himself. Most of the time, people wrote it off as eccentricity. But in December 1928, Marcel went a step too far.

• 29:40Vanessa Richardson?

  It all revolved around some motor oil that Marcel had ordered. Apparently, after picking it up from the train station, Marcel claimed he never got the order. Then he tried to get reimbursed for his supposedly missing items. When he was just stealing small things from around the village, nobody really minded. But now, even though it wasn't a large theft, he'd crossed the line into attempted fraud, and the regional government couldn't let that go unpunished. As a result, Marcel was sentenced to three months in prison. But just like he'd done in his military days, Marcel got out of trouble by claiming he was in an agitated mental state.

• 30:20Vanessa Richardson?

  In the end, his only punishment was being suspended from his office for a month. The 33-year-old returned to his duties in March 1930. It wasn't long before he was embroiled in another scandal, though, and once again, it turned deadly.

• 30:43Vanessa Richardson?

  In March 1930, 33-year-old Marcel Petye finished his one-month suspension and resumed his duties as mayor of his small village in France. Despite Marcel's many accomplishments, his growing kleptomania meant he was always involved in some kind of scandal. And around the same time his suspension ended, Marcel was linked to a crime that blew his previous issues out of the water, including the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend, Louise Delaveaux. At 8:00 PM on March 11, 1930, the home of the local dairy owner, Armand Dubov, caught fire. Armand was at a café when it happened, but his wife Henriette was home.

• 31:27Vanessa Richardson?

  Armand arrived in time to drag his wife out of the burning building, but it was too late. Henriette was dead, but not from the fire. Someone had smashed her head in with a blunt object. It seemed like someone had broken into the Dubov's home to burglarize it, killed Henriette, and then set the house aflame to cover their tracks. Unfortunately... Due to the extreme burns on Henriette's body and the amount of damage on the home, there wasn't enough evidence to figure out who did it. However, the timing of the crime suggested that whoever did it was familiar with the couple. And according to witnesses, Marcel Petyo was very familiar with the Dubovs.

• 32:09Vanessa Richardson?

  In fact, there were rumors that Marcel and Henriette were having an affair. And a local café owner, Leon Fisco, told people he saw Marcel by their house on the night of the murder.

• 32:23Tristin Engels?

  It's not the Henriette that was his aunt. Because they both have the same name and I just wanted to clarify that. But also, I wonder if this is just a coincidence that they had the same name? Or if there's something a little bit more deeper than that? But it's curious for sure.

• 32:39Vanessa Richardson?

  But it doesn't seem like Leon went to the authorities with this information. Or maybe he just never got the chance. A few weeks after Henriette Dubov was killed, Leon suddenly died after Marcel gave him a mysterious injection at a doctor's appointment. Officially, his cause of death was an aneurysm. However, the doctor who determined that was Marcel, and nobody questioned it. Which meant that if Marcel was behind all the suspicious deaths in the village, his body count was up to three.

• 33:16Tristin Engels?

  We're working on the assumption that he did in fact kill Luis, Henriette, and Leon. Then this does appear atypical for a serial killer, only because until this point, his methods are vastly different in all of these cases. It's not unusual for serial killers to graduate or become more sophisticated in their methods. For example, starting from, let's say, bludgeoning and then progressing to using a firearm, because it reduces the risk of getting caught or overpowered. But Marcel's methods are just vastly different. Luis was decapitated, allegedly, or we suspect it was her body, we don't know. But if she was, she was decapitated and her body was disposed in water.

• 34:00Tristin Engels?

  Henriette was bludgeoned and then set on fire to dispose the evidence. Lastly, Leon was given a mysterious injection and the evidence was covered up by Marcel himself, overseeing his cause of death and using his status as a physician. So it's not to be questioned further. So although the methods are vastly different, there is some similarity with his motives at the very least, because both Luis and Henriette were suspected romantic partners. And Leon may have just been collateral damage or was killed out of jealousy or spite, but all of the evidence was carefully covered up in each case, allowing him to remain unsuspected by law enforcement thus far.

• 34:42Tristin Engels?

  All that said, Marcel is somewhat atypical when it comes to the traditional definition of a serial killer, because what's the gratification he's getting from this? Is it psychological? It definitely doesn't appear sexual. The difference between someone who's murdered multiple times and a serial killer is the motive and the gratification. And right now, he's just kind of seemingly all over the place.

• 35:05Vanessa Richardson?

  Whether Marcel was involved in these deaths or not, he continued to abuse his authority at every opportunity. Over the next couple of years, he received multiple complaints of financial impropriety and was even suspended from office again on August 26, 1931. But this time, instead of fighting it, he decided to resign. However, that didn't mean 34-year-old Marcel was done with politics or all the benefits that came with it.

• 35:33Tristin Engels?

  Emphasis on that last part. That's truly what attracts him to politics.

• 35:38Vanessa Richardson?

  In the fall of 1931, Marcel was elected as one of 34 counselors serving his greater region, a position similar to a US congressman. By all accounts, he served with distinction, pursuing the same kinds of public projects he did as mayor. However, he couldn't resist an opportunity to cheat the system. In August 1932, Marcel was hit with criminal charges for jerry-rigging a wiring system that stole power to light his home. It took a while for the process to play out. In the end, he received a minor fine, but he could no longer serve as a counselor. But by then, Marcel had finally given up on his political career.

• 36:20Vanessa Richardson?

  As enjoyable as it was to be a big fish in his small pond, he was ready for more opportunities. In January of 1933, Marcel moved to Paris with his wife Georgette and their son Gerhardt for a fresh start, beginning with a brand-new medical practice. Using that charm you've talked about, Dr. Engels, and his unusual ability to connect with people, Marcel once again gained a reputation as a compassionate doctor, one who was endlessly devoted to his patients. But just like before, he used that image to hide his dark side. Reportedly, he was happy to prescribe drugs to anyone who asked, including people with

• 37:02Vanessa Richardson?

  substance abuse problems, and his kleptomania continued to spiral out of control. In April 1936, he was caught trying to steal a book and was arrested after he assaulted a police officer. However, like in many previous instances, Marcel once again played up his mental illness, and he escaped without further punishment.

• 37:26Tristin Engels?

  This just further confirms that his behavior in the military was manipulation. And going forward, any agitation that he is showing is intentional and conditional. He has learned how to avoid consequences, and he likes the fact that he can outsmart people. I've worked with a lot of individuals with antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy in incarcerated settings, some of whom were confirmed serial killers. These are settings in which they have very little control. So they use manipulation, their entitlement and arrogance to regain a sense of control over those circumstances, and Marcel is no different in this aspect.

• 38:07Vanessa Richardson?

  What benefits does Marcel see for acting and behaving this way?

• 38:11Tristin Engels?

  Good question. Benefits that he can gain here include sympathy, sentencing leniency, special privileges, and even better environments. For example, going to a psychiatric hospital is going to be a much more comfortable of an environment than prison. And when I used to work in prison settings, a lot of incarcerated individuals would mullinger or feign psychiatric illness or even suicidal thoughts so that they could go to a crisis bed or an inpatient hospital because they may have wanted to be housed alone, or they get cleaner environments, they get more attention, they get better food, they feel safe overall. A lot of time, they did that for safety reasons.

• 38:57Vanessa Richardson?

  After a short stint in a mental hospital, the next few years passed without any noticeable incident for Marcel, although he did get caught evading taxes in 1938. But the following year, everything changed for the 41-year-old doctor and everyone else in the world. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War II. It didn't take long for the German forces to enter France and overwhelm their defenses. In June 1940, the French surrendered, and the northern part of the country, including Paris, where Marcel now lived, fell under Nazi control.

• 39:38Vanessa Richardson?

  Many French citizens fled the country, fearing for their safety, but Marcel stayed behind because where others saw terror, he saw opportunity. In the aftermath of the German invasion, real estate prices had plummeted. In August 1941, Marcel took advantage and bought a stately townhouse in one of Paris's most fashionable neighborhoods at 21 Rue La Suaire. The property needed extensive renovations, but Marcel easily paid for those too. And his requests were quite specific. Marcel converted one of the townhouse's outer buildings into a medical room. He had the builders cover-

• 40:21Vanessa Richardson?

  One of the walls with thick padding, add large metal rings to another, and place a glass peephole into a third. He said he was gonna open an insane asylum, and this room would be used for electroshock therapy. The padding was to muffle sound, the peephole was so he could observe them, and the rings were for hanging medical equipment. However, it doesn't seem like Marcel was being honest with his intentions. Around the same time he bought the townhouse, he met a barber named Raoul Fourier. One day Raoul offhandedly told Marcel about a group of cyclists who were caught trying to escape the occupied zone. It wasn't meant to be a serious conversation,

• 41:04Vanessa Richardson?

  but Marcel told Raoul something shocking. If Raoul knew anyone looking to flee the country, Marcel could help them get to South America. And he was only asking for 25,000 French francs, worth about 11,000 US dollars today, which was half of what other escape networks were charging. Raoul asked around and connected Marcel with two couples trying to leave the country. One morning in September 1942, Marcel met them at Raoul's barber shop. Marcel led them away, and Raoul never saw them again. Although a few weeks later, Marcel apparently gave him a letter they'd supposedly sent from Argentina, saying they'd made it to safety.

• 41:49Vanessa Richardson?

  That was good enough for Raoul. He, Marcel, and some others found dozens of new clients over the next few months. They ranged from Jews looking to escape the Holocaust, to resistance fighters, to criminals with a price on their heads. Bringing whatever valuables they had with them, these refugees met with Marcel, who led them into his townhouse. After that, they were never seen again. Though, sometimes Marcel would show his collaborators tokens of their clients' gratitude, like someone's gold watch. His friends thought it was odd, but didn't question it. Considering what Marcel was doing for them, it was natural for them to be grateful.

• 42:31Vanessa Richardson?

  But Marcel wasn't helping them at all. Once again, he was taking advantage of the trust people placed in him to further his own interests. But this time, he'd taken it to a terrifying, extreme level. To get what he wanted, Marcel was willing to commit mass murder.

• 42:58Vanessa Richardson?

  In September 1942, 45-year-old Marcel Petiot began operating what he claimed was an escape network to help people flee Nazi-occupied France. In truth, he only wanted to steal from them, even if it meant killing them. Marcel told his victims that before they could leave, he needed to protect them from diseases they might face abroad. He took them to the medical clinic in his townhouse and gave them injections, but instead of a vaccine, he gave them cyanide. Once they were dead, Marcel took everything they had.

• 43:37Tristin Engels?

  This is a very drastic evolution here for Marcel. People with antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy are opportunistic, as most predators actually are. There's a reason why they choose vulnerable populations to prey upon. They are more susceptible, accessible, and they're easier targets, much like how he is viewing the start of World War II as an advantage for his own deviant benefits.

• 44:05Vanessa Richardson?

  It seems like his main motivation here was greed. Is that something you typically see in serial killers?

• 44:11Tristin Engels?

  No, greed is typically not the motivation for most serial killers, though of course there are exceptions, like Amelia Dyer and her baby farms, or Ray and Fay Copeland's cattle fraud business, both of which we've covered in past episodes and were really financial motivations. But with Marcel, I don't think that he's motivated solely by greed. I really don't think that's the case here. I know it was implied that he only wanted to steal from his victims, but I disagree that that was his motivation. Only motivation. If he only wanted to steal from them, he could have done that without killing them. He could have conned them instead, like promising to help them escape for payment.

• 44:51Tristin Engels?

  And then once payment secured and the con is exposed, threatening to expose them if they said anything. He could have just done that if greed was the motivation and the only motivation. Marcel has a history of kleptomania and that's related to impulse control deficits, which is very common in psychopathy. And I think the driving factor for that. But more importantly, he's keeping items from his victims and he's using them as red herrings, like or tokens of the client's gratitude so that the people referring them believe that they actually made it to their destination safely. And it's like a form of showing them that he's trustworthy, that he does follow through. But not to mention, we also have to consider if these items he's keeping from them are trophies for himself.

• 45:37Vanessa Richardson?

  Although Marcel was secretive about what he did with his victims, he wasn't exactly subtle about the services he was pretending to offer. So it wasn't long before he caught the Germans' attention. They thought he was actually helping smuggle people out of the country. And on May 21st, 1943, they arrested 46-year-old Marcel and his conspirators. For the next eight months, Marcel was brutally tortured. His teeth were filed down, he was beaten regularly, and his captors used a medieval iron mask to compress his skull. But Marcel didn't have any actual information to give them, and he wasn't about to confess to mass murder either.

• 46:19Vanessa Richardson?

  So in January 1944, the Germans released Marcel with the intention of monitoring his activities. Marcel knew his every move was being watched, which meant he had to end his murderous scheme. However, that didn't mean he was free and clear. His townhouse, which the Germans hadn't searched for some reason, was full of remains he hadn't gotten rid of before his arrest. Before he was taken in, Marcel would bury his victims or dump them in a river. But now he couldn't risk getting rid of them in the open. To avoid detection, Marcel had to get rid of them inside the townhouse.

• 47:00Vanessa Richardson?

  He decided to use a chemical called Quicklime to accelerate the decomposition process, then use the two stoves in his basement to burn what was left of his victims. For two months, Marcel spent his nights traveling the two miles between his family's actual home and his townhouse, where he meticulously dissolved and burned the remains of his victims. The plan seemed to be going well, until the night of March 6, 1944, when he left one of the stoves burning. That evening, his neighbors noticed foul smelling black smoke coming from the townhouse's chimney.

• 47:43Vanessa Richardson?

  It was especially strange to them since no one had seen anybody going in or out of the property in a while. After several days of this foul smoke hanging over the neighborhood, the police were finally called. On the evening of March 11, two officers arrived at the townhouse. Nobody was there, so the officers called Marcel at his house across town. Marcel promised them he'd be there in 15 minutes. He told them not to go in without him. At first, the officers honored his request, but when a half hour went by and Marcel still wasn't there, they called the fire department. The firefighters broke in through a window and followed the smell all the way down to

• 48:27Vanessa Richardson?

  the basement, where they discovered a coal burning stove hard at work with a human hand dangling out the open door. The scene was too horrific to comprehend. Human remains were scattered all around the basement, including skulls, rib cages, torso, extremities, and a collection of small bones. The officers on scene knew they needed backup and ran to a nearby café to call for help. When they returned to the scene a few minutes later, a man in a gray coat rode up to the property on his bicycle. The man in gray said he was Marcel Petiot's brother,

• 49:10Vanessa Richardson?

  and the officers led him down to the basement. Despite the horror all around him, the man took in the scene calmly. Then he turned to the officers and remarked that he could be in a lot of trouble. The man in gray begged the officers not to say anything to their superiors. He told them he was the head of a French resistance group. The remains belonged to Germans and other traitors to the country. He told the officers that he assumed their superiors had been notified of the situation. The man said time was of the essence. He claimed there were hundreds of documents at his house that had to be destroyed before the enemy could find them. The officers took him at his word.

• 49:53Vanessa Richardson?

  They were sympathetic to the resistance's cause and told the man in gray to flee. And so the man in gray, or rather Marcel, took off into the night.

• 50:06Tristin Engels?

  So essentially, these officers just aided and abetted murder and seemingly justified it because of the current state of the world and their own personal biases. I mean, given the current political climate and the horrors of the Nazi regime and as law enforcement officers, who likely were also veterans themselves, it isn't surprising that they would resonate with Marcel's very manipulative and cunning tactic in order to escape. But aiding and abetting does happen all the time, but usually on smaller scales. Friends protect friends. Family protects family. It's even prevalent in the incarcerated population with a code that you don't snitch. These officers likely felt some sort of kinship to the lies

• 50:50Tristin Engels?

  Marcel was convincingly telling them and connected on having a very common enemy or cause. And that's what basically impaired their judgment.

• 51:00Vanessa Richardson?

  Thanks to the officer's intervention, Marcel got away before anyone was the wiser. And shortly after he fled, a commanding officer arrived at the townhouse with Marcel nowhere to be found. The commander walked through the building, noticing how almost every room was covered in a thick layer of dust. Clearly, no one had actually lived here for a long time. The only clean place on the property was a small doctor's consultation room situated between a staircase, a storeroom, and the stable. Nearby, the commander found a garage where a pile of quicklime was littered with bones and other human remains.

• 51:41Vanessa Richardson?

  He went on to find a sack filled with body parts, a shovel, and a bloodstained hatchet. He wasn't sure if this had anything to do with the Resistance or not, but it definitely warranted further investigation. He decided the lead detective would be 33-year-old Georges Massou, a highly decorated investigator with 3,257 arrests to his name. If anyone could solve this case, it was him. By 10:30 PM on the night of the 11th, Georges was on the scene. It was clear that a dangerous criminal was on the loose, and apparently, the German authorities agreed. They learned about the horrors in the townhouse, and at 1:30 AM, they sent a telegram to Georges.

• 52:26Vanessa Richardson?

  He was to find and arrest Marcel Petiot at once. Their urgency made him suspicious. Normally, the Germans left domestic cases like this up to the French police. If they were this interested in the case, it meant Marcel Petiot was of special interest to them. Georges hadn't heard the story Marcel told about being a Resistance fighter, but based on the Germans' reaction to the case, he came to a similar conclusion. If Marcel Petiot really was fighting to liberate France, Georges wasn't going to rush after him at full speed, so he decided to call it a night and start again in the morning. If George had acted with more urgency, he might have caught Marcel right away.

• 53:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Because when the police went to the Petiot residence the next morning, it turned out they'd just missed him by half an hour. But before jumping into a full-on manhunt, they decided to learn a bit more about the mysterious doctor. They started by looking through their files to see if Marcel had a criminal record. And they discovered that two years earlier, in 1942, he'd been charged with over-prescribing narcotics. Two people had been scheduled to testify against him, but before they could, they disappeared. At the time, their disappearance had been chalked up to coincidence, and nobody looked into Marcel any further.

• 53:51Vanessa Richardson?

  But now, George wondered if they'd actually been murdered. Which meant Marcel Petiot probably wasn't a resistance fighter at all. He was viciously killing innocent people. And George had let him slip right through his fingers.

• 54:18Vanessa Richardson?

  On March 13th, 1944, two days after the horrifying scene in 47-year-old Marcel Petiot's townhouse was discovered, the search for him began in earnest. With Marcel's primary residence in Paris abandoned, Detective Georges Massu sent some officers to Marcel's hometown of Auxerre, where his younger brother Maurice lived. Marcel was nowhere to be found, but Maurice was working in the radio shop he owned. He told the investigators that he hadn't seen or heard from his brother since February, but he'd learned about the remains in the townhouse and was absolutely shocked. Maurice never thought his brother could be capable of something like that.

• 55:02Vanessa Richardson?

  In fact, Maurice said he didn't even know Marcel owned a townhouse. When this information was relayed back to Detective Massu, he wasn't convinced. He thought Maurice was hiding something. The next morning, he had some officers stake out the train station in Auxerre, just in case Marcel showed up. Marcel never appeared, but his wife, Georgette, did.

• 55:27Vanessa Richardson?

  The officers decided to bring both her and Maurice in for questioning. Georgette swore she had no idea where Marcel was or what he'd done at the townhouse. He kept his business very private, and she didn't pry.

• 55:43Tristin Engels?

  Whenever a serial killer is identified and it's discovered that they have a wife and a family, many people are quick to assume that their family knew what was happening and were therefore complicit in some way. But the reality is, psychopaths are very good at putting on that mask of sanity that we've talked about. They're great chameleons. They blend in as best as they can, and they mirror others. And usually, that is the reason why they even have families, because it serves a purpose. They want to appear as normal as possible, so they are unsuspecting. Within the family unit, there's often domestic violence or abuse with varying degrees of

• 56:26Tristin Engels?

  severity, and often, this violence serves to maintain obedience in the home. That violence is a form of avoidance conditioning for them, meaning that if their spouse becomes too inquisitive or conscientious of what their husband or the individual's doing, they will get violent or aggressive in reacting to that. So then, the spouse is conditioned to avoid those inquisitive behaviors and maintain a more passive role in the relationship for their own safety. Not to mention, when the chameleon is so good at presenting as charming, successful, and high-functioning, it's not even a consideration for a friend or family member to suspect

• 57:09Tristin Engels?

  any strange behavior means they're a serial killer in disguise. Pro-social people who don't have psychopathic deviance aren't going to make inferences between that kind of behavior or changes in behavior in serial killing. It's just not in their schema. So, of course, that's not to say that there aren't instances where family and friends do know what is happening and turn a blind eye or remain in denial.

• 57:38Vanessa Richardson?

  Even once Georgette knew the truth about her husband, she couldn't, or wouldn't, tell the police where he was. But Marcel's brother was able to give them more information this time around. Detective Massu had learned that Maurice did know about the townhouse, and had shown up there the month before with a truck and a couple of workmen. However, it only took Massu a few more hours to learn the truth. Later that afternoon, one of the workmen who had accompanied Maurice to the townhouse contacted the authorities. He confirmed that they delivered 880 pounds of quicklime to the building. When Massu brought this information back to Maurice, he admitted to delivering the quicklime.

• 58:21Vanessa Richardson?

  But he'd been told it was for exterminating roaches and for general cleaning purposes. Massu wasn't buying it. A few days later, on March 17, 1944, Maurice Petiot was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. That same day, Massu tracked down one of Marcel's associates, a man named Rene Nezondé. Rene and Marcel went back 20 years. Rene had even been briefly arrested with Marcel back when the Germans suspected them of actually running an escape network. Rene denied knowing that Marcel was committing mass murder, but after a few days of questioning, he admitted to knowing everything.

• 59:04Vanessa Richardson?

  He claimed that while Marcel was being held by the Germans, Maurice found between 50 and 60 bodies at the townhouse and told Rene all about it. Marcel's wife, Georgette, knew about it too, which meant they all knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. Even though Marcel's associates now admitted to knowing about the bodies in the townhouse, the police were no closer to finding the killer himself. So as they hunted for new leads, they turned to another matter: identifying his victims.

• 59:41Vanessa Richardson?

  Tragically, there was no way to tell who they were by the remains alone, or even how many of them there were. Although if Marcel's friend Rene was to be believed, Marcel had murdered between 50 and 60 people, at least.

• 59:57Tristin Engels?

  I wonder if they were complicit in this because they really were buying into the resistance lie, and they felt it was morally justified. I'm just really shocked that so many people were co-conspirators to this scheme and actually did truly know what was going on. But when we do try to conceptualize the escalation in murder here, because he went from, you know, having at least three possible victims to just a whole scheme of mass murdering, we have to really think about his pathology. One thing to note about psychopaths, they are prone to boredom, and they need constant stimulation. So over time, they adapt to address this, and they become versatile in their criminality. And that is what we saw occur here with Marcel.

• 1:00:41Tristin Engels?

  They also have parasitic lifestyles in which they con others for financial gain, something we also have been seeing as a theme here with him. So recapping with Marcel, he started out with inconsistent methods of killing, first with Louise, and then with Henriette and Leon. Now he has a consistent one. He has gone to great lengths to make himself a criminal empire. He essentially retrofit his home to give him a space to carry out these depraved acts, and then planned an entire con and a whole scheme to gain access to vulnerable victims. It shows his criminal versatility. It shows how skilled he is at manipulation and cunning behavior. And that constant need for stimulation,

• 1:01:25Tristin Engels?

  the callousness, and that lack of empathy are all traits of psychopathy that are really showing right now.

• 1:01:32Vanessa Richardson?

  The sheer number of victims certainly shocked people all over Europe. And even though the truth was disturbing enough on its own, newspapers were happy to sensationalize the details even further. For instance, they said the man known as Dr. Satan forced his victims to stand waist-deep in quicklime, dissolving them alive. And yet, there were some people who didn't believe Marcel was the monster he was being made out to be, namely, some of his most loyal patients, who were reportedly helping to hide Marcel while the police searched for him. For the next several months, Marcel was able to stay out of sight. And even though the police were still looking for him, it didn't take long for him to disappear

• 1:02:17Vanessa Richardson?

  from the public consciousness. The war was still raging, and on June 6, 1944, otherwise known as D-Day, it took a major turn when the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. It presented a massive shift in the war, particularly in France. Suddenly, an influx of French citizens joined the French Resistance movement, hoping to overthrow the German occupation. Marcel Petiot was among them. And his decision to join would eventually be his undoing.

• 1:02:58Vanessa Richardson?

  After the monumental events of D-Day in June 1944, patriotic French citizens rushed to join the Resistance against the Nazi occupation. Forty-seven-year-old Marcel Petiot was one of them. In August 1944, under the name Henri Valery, Marcel joined a new Resistance group called the French Forces of the Interior, or FFI. In a twist of fate, his cover story about being part of the Resistance had actually come true. Later that month, he helped drive the German forces out of Paris.

• 1:03:35Tristin Engels?

  It seems as though Marcel is sort of coming out of hiding, but he actually really isn't. He's still hiding, just under a different name and within the Resistance group. But why would he do this? Psychopaths are chameleons. We've discussed this already, and this really fits that because taking on a new identity is exactly something a chameleon trait psychopath would do. Choosing to join the Resistance now under a false name might be his way of looking for an alibi in the sense that if or when he is actually caught, he can now say, hey, I was in fact part of the Resistance. I was not lying. But more importantly, if the authorities are looking for him and he believes that

• 1:04:19Tristin Engels?

  they are confident he isn't part of the Resistance, because from this point, the detectives are saying, like, we don't believe his whole take on that, then they're less likely to go looking for him there. And he might be able to start a new parasitic life with a new identity, and maybe that was his hope all along.

• 1:04:37Vanessa Richardson?

  For the moment, nobody suspected that FFI captain Henri Valery was actually Marcel Petiot, but Detective Georges Massu, who was still leading the search for him, knew that Marcel was out there somewhere. In September 1944, Georges contacted a French newspaper called Resistance. He wanted them to print the account of a man named Charles Rolland, who claimed he'd known Marcel in the past and had some extraordinary things to say about him. Rolland's story contained sordid details about Marcel's past, including his involvement with drugs and prostitution. There was no way for Georges to know whether these accusations were true, and some have

• 1:05:20Vanessa Richardson?

  theorized that he made up Rolland's story himself. Either way, he likely just wanted it published to see if Marcel would respond. The plan worked. A few days after the story came out, Marcel sent the paper a letter. In addition to disputing Rolland's claims, Marcel admitted that he was fighting for the Resistance under an assumed name.

• 1:05:43Vanessa Richardson?

  It was enough information for Masu to figure out that he was probably working for the FFI in some capacity. He sent instructions to be on the lookout for an officer matching Marcel's description. And on October 31st, 1944, another member of the FFI tracked him down at a train station. A group of officers subdued Marcel and brought him into custody. After almost seven months on the run, he'd finally been caught, thanks to his own arrogance.

• 1:06:16Tristin Engels?

  Yep, that last sentence. His own arrogance did him in. As a chameleon, that Marcel is, who has spent decades carefully crafting a charming persona and a reputable career as a doctor, and has this inflated sense of self, it makes sense. He was successful at doing that, so much so that his loyal patients were even helping to hide him. He conned officers, he conned his own family into helping him. Everyone around him, in his circle, strongly believed that he was the person he crafted himself to be. And when there are any potential cracks to that facade, especially when they seem credible,

• 1:06:57Tristin Engels?

  and certainly when they are published for all to see, it makes sense that Marcel's ego is unable to refrain from responding and making those corrections. And of course, his lack of impulse control also likely impaired his judgment when he essentially gave away his own location in what he's doing. We have seen this before, though, with prominent serial killers who write to police captains or newspapers to correct the misinformation that's been published about them. They lack the ego strength to refrain from responding. It's almost provocative to them. So this detective did a very smart thing, sort of antagonizing Marcel into responding, and he got the result we've all, I think, all listening have been rooting for.

• 1:07:40Vanessa Richardson?

  And now that Marcel had finally been caught, it was time for him to answer for his crimes. It took a while to get everything in order, but Marcel's trial finally began on March 18, 1946. By that time, the authorities had identified enough victims to charge him with 27 murders, and he was the only one in his network to face punishment for them. Ultimately, the police couldn't actually prove that anyone else knew what he was doing, and they dropped the charges against his brother Maurice because he was dying of stomach cancer. Throughout it all, Marcel steadfastly maintained that he was a resistance fighter and that anyone he'd killed was an enemy of France.

• 1:08:24Vanessa Richardson?

  However, nobody in the resistance came forward to back those claims up. When the trial ended a couple of weeks later on April 4, it only took the jury three hours to return the verdict everyone was expecting: guilty. Unsurprisingly, he was sentenced to death. On May 25, 1946, he would be executed by the same method used in France since the French Revolution: the guillotine. Upon receiving his sentence, Marcel seemed resigned to his fate, and on the day of his execution, he was eerily calm. He met with a priest, but only to satisfy his wife. He said, quote, "I am not a religious man,

• 1:09:09Vanessa Richardson?

  and my conscience is clean."

• 1:09:13Tristin Engels?

  This reaction not only exemplifies his lack of remorse, his lack of empathy for his actions, but it also really highlights his narcissism. Because according to Marcel, he's the victim here. He's not the perpetrator. He's trying to tell everybody, "I did nothing wrong. I was doing everything right for my country, and I have nothing to atone for." And it's also a serious justification on his part that his actions were morally justified to him "for the sake of his country," as he would say. And this rationalization or justification appears purely driven out of ego, and a need to maintain that persona and the mask he's been wearing for decades and maintain that image.

• 1:09:55Tristin Engels?

  And of course, that narcissism is really shining right now.

• 1:10:00Vanessa Richardson?

  Showing no emotion when he reached the guillotine, Marcel held his hands out to be bound. He waited patiently while the nape of his neck was shaved and his collar was removed. Finally, at 5:05 a.m. that day, the blade dropped, putting an end to Dr. Satan's reign of terror, once and for all. Some say that at the moment of his death, he was smiling.

• 1:10:39Vanessa Richardson?

  Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time as we discuss the mind of another serial killer.

• 1:10:45Tristin Engels?

  Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

• 1:11:09Vanessa Richardson?

  And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of Mind of a Serial Killer ad-free, along with early access and exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Monday.

• 1:11:26Vanessa Richardson?

  Mind of a Serial Killer is hosted by Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Mind of a Serial Killer team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Lori Marinelli, Stacy Warenker, Sarah Carroll, Meredith Allen, Sarah Tardif, and Carrie Murphy. Thank you for listening.

• 1:11:57Vanessa Richardson?

  If you're looking for your next podcast, check out What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.