The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot Read Online Free PDF

later. Van Bever was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison and drew the same fine as his mistress. Petiot was found guilty and given a suspended one-year sentence and a F10,000 fine, which his lawyer, René Floriot, subsequently succeeded in reducing. The search for Van Bever continued over the next year, headed by Police Inspector Roger Gignoux.
    The old Petiot file Commissaire Massu consulted contained another, remarkably similar case. On March 5, 1942, another young woman, Raymonde Baudet, was arrested for infraction of the drug laws. She had taken a prescription for the mild tranquilizer Sonéryl and, with the help of her lover, had removed the word “Sonéryl” with ink eradicator and substituted “14 ampoules of heroin.” The pharmacist to whom she presented it immediately noticed the clumsy forgery and telephoned the police. The original prescription had been written by Dr. Marcel Petiot, who had previously given Raymonde Baudet four prescriptions for heroin as part of a drug cure.
    It is not clear what Petiot thought the danger to himself might be from the Baudet forgery. Perhaps he was worried about the earlier four prescriptions, particularly since the Gaul–Van Bever case had begun only two weeks earlier. Whatever the reason, his next actions were drastic and suspicious. Raymonde Baudet’s mother, née Marthe Fortin, married three times: to a man named Lavie, by whom she had a son; to Raymonde’s father, Monsieur Baudet; and presently to David Khaït. Raymonde had used the name Khaït with Petiot—possibly concealing the fact that she was getting drugs elsewhere under another name—and it was “Khaït” alone that appeared on the prescriptions. Petiot apparently reasoned that if the mother were an addict as well and he claimed that half the prescriptions had been intended for her, the case against him would be seriously weakened. But to make the police believe this, he would need the mother’s help.
    Several days after Raymonde’s arrest, a little past noon, a man went to the Khaït home and introduced himself as Dr. Petiot. Marthe Khaït initially resisted the propositions he made, but with tortuous logic he explained, cajoled, and finally persuaded her that if she lied to the police she would weaken some of the accusations against her daughter. Brazenly speaking in her eldest son’s presence, Petiot told her that since the police might wish to verify Madame Khaït’s fictitious narcotics use by a physical examination, he would need to give her a dozen dry injections in the thigh to leave convincing puncture marks. The son, Fernand Lavie, an employee at the Préfecture de Police, objected to this deceit, but his mother brushed him off, saying that she had done many things for his sister in the past and could certainly do one more small thing to help her. Petiot and Madame Khaït went into the next room, and after a few minutes he emerged and left.
    Several days later, Madame Khaït changed her mind. She told her son that she would no longer follow Petiot’s counsel and went to consult Dr. Pierre Trocmé, a trusted family friend as well as her physician. Trocmé at first could not believe a real medical man would have made such outrageous suggestions, but when he found Petiot’s name quite properly listed in his medical directory, he advised his patient to tell the police everything. Later in the investigation he hid behind professional secrecy, and though he admitted having examined Madame Khaït, he would not tell police whether he had found puncture marks.
    At 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, March 25, 1942—three days after Van Bever’s disappearance—Madame Khaït put on her hat and told her husband she was going to see Raymonde’s lawyer to pay part of his fee. The altruistic Dr. Petiot had offered to contribute F1,500 to the girl’s defense and had also recommended the lawyer, Maître