Marcel Petiot, the "Doctor of Death"

During the German occupation of Paris, physician Marcel Petiot posed as the operator of a clandestine escape network, offering to smuggle people, many of them Jewish residents and others being pursued by the Gestapo, out of France for a fee. Instead, he killed them at his townhouse, having told them they needed a vaccination before the journey.

Discovery

Petiot's crimes came to light in 1944 when neighbors reported smoke and a foul odor coming from his property, leading firefighters and police to discover human remains.

Trial

Petiot claimed at trial that he was a member of the French Resistance who had executed collaborators and enemy agents. Jurors did not believe him. He was convicted of 26 murders in 1946, though the true number of victims, estimated by some accounts at well over 60, was never established.

Execution

Petiot was executed by guillotine in Paris in May 1946.