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WWII’s French Serial Killer Doctor and Other Forgotten Monsters From History

Khalid Elhassan January 27, 2020 32 min

35. Taking Paris by Storm

Paris agreed quite well with Dr. Petiot. He used fake credentials to attract patients, and before long, he had established a thriving practice in the 9^th Arrondissement. It helped that his office gained a reputation as a pill mill, giving out illegal drug prescriptions to all and sundry. Nor did it hurt that the doctor was more than willing to perform illegal abortions for the right price.

However, despite his thriving and highly lucrative practice – made even more lucrative by his tax evasion – Dr. Petiot still persisted with the thefts, petty and grand, of anything that was not nailed down. In 1936, he was institutionalized for kleptomania, but was released the following year.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.