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Episode 32 - Dr. Satan (Ace Takeover)
12 Plays1 month ago
This is a magical and chaotic time of year in the cottage, so Ace pitches in with the dark tale of Dr. Satan while Nym and Nylene listen in horror.
Enter the Nightmare for sources, show notes, transcripts and more!
Music by Nine Inch Nails
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage'
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:47
Speaker
disturbing andm mature Content to follow. Enter the nightmare, if you dare.
00:00:56
Speaker
Oh, so you guys... It's almost like, you know, the guy who does our blurbs doesn't listen to the episode. Okay, first of all, that's called a cold open. There's a word for it.
00:01:08
Speaker
you know we in yeah Okay, but we don't want to break the the wall. Whichever number of that wall is, we don't want to break that one. and So that would be a fourth one. See, I know all the words. I think that this is a good time to mention if you haven't already
Guest Introduction: Asce
00:01:23
Speaker
noticed.
00:01:23
Speaker
We have a guest in the cottage today. Whomst. Me? Memst. So this is the time of year where Nyleen and i have so much shit going on So much shit going on. So much shit going on. And like everything just explodes.
00:01:41
Speaker
So much. And asce has been... Lovely enough to offer to come in and tell a story for us this week. Just what every female-led podcast needs.
00:01:51
Speaker
A man to come in and steal an entire episode. but But honestly, thank you so much. I'm... God, we... Yes, we've just been so
Reflections on Halloween Party
00:02:01
Speaker
busy. Yeah, we're recording this just after Halloween.
00:02:04
Speaker
And... Happy belated Halloween. Happy birthday anniversary. Birthday anniversary. Thank you. It's a birthday anniversary. Do we have a song for you? yeah ah Didn't she just sing it? Well, I mean, I'm talking like official, like have we workshopped a full production?
00:02:21
Speaker
No, I think we just like actually settled that birthday anniversary is like politically correct way to talk about this also we're situation. We're being. Yes. like Nim mentioned her Halloween party, which was amazing. Oh, it was such a good night.
00:02:38
Speaker
Like, honestly, I was so worried about the rain and I know you were too. The forecast showed no rain, no rain at all. Up until like the Wednesday before Halloween, which, or, or the, sorry, but the Wednesday before ah party day, which is the weekend before.
00:02:53
Speaker
And then On that Wednesday, it was like 100% chance both Friday and Saturday, which Friday is prep day, and Saturday is party day. woo So those were going to be completely rained out.
00:03:05
Speaker
And so we adjusted and planned for that, and then it didn't fucking rain. yeah i mean, it did. It did like drenched and poured and torrentially soaked my backyard. I was about to say like- shoes were not muddy though. I know. It soaked in it. i mean, I don't fucking know. The back of my JNCOs did turn brown.
00:03:21
Speaker
okay they're jenco yeah they're jenco all right yeah they're they're worn in now it makes sense but on the day before i was fighting god smoke damper skin like it was me standing in front of my smoker like you can't have it yes it started hailing at one point and like we were like ah because we had kind of moved it so that because sometimes with the smoker it like you know how like if you If you work in food, you know that usually where there's smoke, there's grease and fills up fast.
Sibling Rivalry and Halloween Moments
00:03:57
Speaker
And so if you do it- exactly how that saying goes.
00:03:59
Speaker
Where there's smoke, there's grease. I will end you after this podcast. I might end you both during this podcast. That's true. ah Listen, we argue a lot, but it's all out of love.
00:04:13
Speaker
There's so much love here. they'd they'd know If they listen to the Gary Hilton up that episode, they know. I don't think there was any love in that episode. That literally was us talking about the opposite of love. There was love between you and me, I'd say. But I mean, all the other stuff, that's hard. Anyways.
00:04:28
Speaker
Opposite. How did we get here? We were talking about... The Halloween party. Oh, yeah. And then it started hailing. And then, yes. Halloween party was great. We've been dealing with a lot of stuff here. I'm clapping for some reason.
00:04:39
Speaker
And, you know, of course, Halloween. Yes, yes. Which I have a four-year-old now. So that was... It was a lot of fun. It was so fun. i do want to say that my favorite moment of Halloween proper was you guys had come over.
00:04:54
Speaker
I had already given up. I'd had three trick-or-treaters. I had my left neighbors, my right neighbors, and this one kid and his dad that come every single year to tell me how much they love our house. I know they, they alone fuel me for the whole year.
Neighborhood Dynamics and Candy Sharing
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm doing it for you. i really am. Buzz Lightyear from 2013. I sign is what I need. But then I didn't... Well, and I even did the whole Nextdoor treat map thing and everything. like i I didn't even know that existed.
00:05:22
Speaker
I advertised this shit. I forgot. I deleted Nextdoor because... Yeah, I don't blame you. It's toxic as fuck. But anyways. It's kind of fun, though. It's kind of fun. Yeah. It's like Reddit for your neighborhood. Exactly. it Basically, like, if you need tea, like, if you want to see Sharon from down the street, like, the other day I saw Randy and he was not edging his yard in the HOA compliant feature. And then you see Randy in the comments and Randy's like,
00:05:48
Speaker
I was as in my lawn. You'd know that if you were not back smoking weed. like Gosh. it's Anyways. All right. um Download next door. It's good. So you were talking about.
00:06:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And so you guys ended up like after I had like an hour of nothing after those three early on. And I was getting really sad. And y'all were like, can we still come by with Bash? I'm like, fuck yes, please.
00:06:13
Speaker
And only did y'all come by for trick-or-treating, you hung out for a bit. And i got one last trick-or-treater while y'all were there. And my favorite moment of the whole day was going with Bash for him to hand out the trick-or-treat. Oh, he was so excited about that. I'm so glad. Because we can't do that at our house because they can't ring the doorbell because both of the dogs will lose it.
00:06:36
Speaker
You know what was really interesting though? When we were gearing up to take Bash trick-or-treating, he flipped out when he realized that we were putting out candy for other children.
00:06:50
Speaker
Nyleen is in the kitchen and and she we have this big giant cloth pumpkin basket and it's great. I love it. It's our trick-or-treat come-take-it basket. And Bash is like, oh, mommy, what are you doing? And she's like, oh, I'm getting the candy ready for the other trick-or-treaters. And she's pouring candy in And Bash she goes,
00:07:06
Speaker
what? And I'm like, well, what's wrong? And he just starts bawling. He's like, don't want to give candy to other kids. And was like, but don't you want to share?
00:07:18
Speaker
Like, you're so excited to go trick or treating. Don't you want other kids? And he goes, no, don't. yeah goes so i don't want to give candy so we we were trying to have a conversation like okay this you know it's only his child in the world 100 the onlyest child that has ever been it's so so bad yeah like well at least he got a chance to do that at my house where he could ah hand it out that's that's what made us happy like when when he was at your house and he was so excited to give that was that was nice to see because at our house we were trying to have ah conversation with him
00:07:51
Speaker
Like, hey, this is it's it's reciprocal. You know, we're going to everybody else's house. We're we're showing in our costume. We're asking for candy and they give us candy. It's only nice that we do the same thing. And he was like, not interested.
00:08:04
Speaker
and Now we did actually completely skip over before that. I always, for some reason, i think it's because it's after the Halloween party, you usually go on your vacation.
00:08:16
Speaker
and so I'm like, Oh yeah. After Halloween. So tell us, I mean, you
Travel Plans and Cat-Sitting Adventures
00:08:20
Speaker
went on. oh no, we're going to not talk about that this time because I, my whole next episode is going to be about it.
00:08:27
Speaker
Okay. But I mean, you went on a trip. I went on a trip. that's another reason why we're doing this. Yes, that is true. I've been out of town yeah and, That made scheduling stupid. We circled back to the cold open.
00:08:38
Speaker
I get it now. Okay. I understand what we're doing. because of this, I got to spend some time with Grimothy. is This is true. Yes. You got to ah take care of my kitty. My mom usually stays with us when we go on our anniversary trip.
00:08:54
Speaker
but Not with them on their anniversary Right. No. She stays at the house and takes care of the kitty cat. the The grand cat, as she calls him. oh yeah my parents call dojo the grand puppy not the other two no they're adopted he's the only one who preceded the actual grandchild that's true but yeah so i got to spend some time with grim um and that was interesting because grim is very different from my cat he's also an only child he's so aloof like
00:09:26
Speaker
His face always looks like he couldn't care less or he's very offended that you're... That's just face. I think, you know what? ah When it goes along with his little tail flicks, it's not just his face.
00:09:39
Speaker
I mean... See, I get a look of mild... It's almost like a mix of disinterest and interest. Like, he's looking at you kind of like, I'm waiting to see... you He doesn't do that. How this turns out.
00:09:51
Speaker
ah Yes. Peasant performed for me. Yes. Yes. Are you the dancing monkey? Yes. I mean, he lets me pick him up and stuff. So that's great. I know he doesn't like completely hate me, but I was just trying so hard to get him to play.
00:10:06
Speaker
And he decided that he wanted to watch me run around the house and throw his toys around. and So there is a bit of a trick to it. And I feel bad that I didn't prepare you for this. But you have to like entice him with the toy and then slowly hide the toy. And then when he doesn't see the toy, then he's interested in the toy.
00:10:27
Speaker
but it's But he has to feign disinterest because it's part of the game. Yes. No, no. I did try to do that. And he would come into like whatever room I was in with it. But the biggest problem was I guess I hid too well at one point. Yeah. And I was in the hallway and it was dark. I turned off the light because he was finding me way too be easy because he's a cat. Right. Right.
00:10:47
Speaker
um But he started stalking me and I popped out from around the corner and he got very poofy. Oh, my favorite. And he looked very offended, like very offended. Like how how dare dare. And he was between me.
00:11:02
Speaker
He was like in the hallway, like in the entry. So I couldn't like, I was stuck in the hallway and I was like, It's my favorite. i I like to play with his tail after he gets like that because it's all puffy. Yes, same with Suji. His tail gets so puffy. That's my favorite.
00:11:16
Speaker
I love when he does scaredy cat. right. So anyways, here we are Reason he's here is because, you know, besides the fact that we do enjoy his existence every once in a while.
Fall Festival Visit and Kid's Reactions
00:11:27
Speaker
Don't tell him in front of his face.
00:11:29
Speaker
We went to a fall festival with Bash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was actually super cool because it's this place that's sometimes a renaissance festival. They do it for different things throughout the year. was Fall Festival.
00:11:40
Speaker
He was into it. Yeah. Yeah. He wasn't into the stuff that I thought he was going to be into, but the stuff that he was into, he was like, this rocks. He really wanted to go in that haunted house and I felt bad, but I was, i was thinking about asking some of the people on the way out, but.
00:11:55
Speaker
I was, I wanted to, like, if not, if nobody else wanted to go with him, I was willing to take him into the 3D one. I would. Oh, in the 3D maze? yeah I really wanted to go in the 3D maze. Yeah, but we got to the point where we were there right before dark.
00:12:12
Speaker
Also, like i i did the and did the like dad thing where i was like, the pricing on this seems strange. The fee plus entry. but it yeah like i i did ah I did a whole thing where i was like, but that's pushed me away. and The problem is that Operating expenses are so freaking high for everything right now.
00:12:31
Speaker
And if you want to still pay your people anything at all, and you know, you you have to make the money happen somewhere. And for those kinds of things, you have to have actors inside. And like, it's, it's a thing. So admittedly, I'm a hundred percent part of the problem.
00:12:48
Speaker
Like I, like I'm aware, like I see him like, Oh, don't want to pay that much. well And then that's fine. So don't somebody else will. And that's fine. That's what everybody. I hope they got paid a lot of money. Just not for, Right.
00:12:59
Speaker
Too rich for my blood. I would have done it, though. I would have gone with Bash and it would have been great. Yeah. But hey, we've set him up. We know that he likes the spooky, weird stuff. So maybe we will. I'm excited i want to see if I can find like a kid's haunted house or something like that. Oh, that could be Yeah.
00:13:13
Speaker
There's so many. I could probably do that. There's so many things. Oh, no. There's so many things. I'll show guys options. Ace scared the shit out of him yesterday. It was so mean. I was playing with him. i was playing. We were having a good time.
00:13:26
Speaker
So he was, it was right before shower time. So he was completely naked. um And I had him put his clothes in the in the laundry room. And then I started like popping out of places and scaring him. And he thought it was funny.
00:13:37
Speaker
And um you know, we're trying to teach him like, Hey, don't say on the door, whatever. He's fine. He's laughing it out. But he started like running out the room and I would like pop out with like this little bouncy ball I have. And I would just,
00:13:51
Speaker
bounce it off his head because it was like one of those inflatable balls that doesn't hurt. Like it's really, it's like foamy. Anyways, he thought it was really funny. And so he kept coming out and out and out, right? Well, Ace decided...
00:14:03
Speaker
you to go try me all the way out the corner, even further than where I was. I didn't even know he was there. And so I had just jumped scared was like all right, let's go get daddy. Let's go shower.
00:14:14
Speaker
And he goes running down the hallway and his dad comes out from behind this corner. And he does that, that screeching sound. The, uh, what is that screeching sound? yeah It sounds like the horde from left for dead.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's a mix between like, it's like a bear and a wendigo. It's like a screech and growl. It's the job for a cowboy pig squeal. No, it is not. because yeah yeah Yes, so he screeched at him and jumped out.
00:14:46
Speaker
And this child... I don't know if he jumped or screamed first or screamed the second time or the third and then fell on the floor while jumping at the same time. a lot of complicated feelings. There was so much. He was like, you know, like when you corner our frog and they start jumping all over. It was like that.
00:15:08
Speaker
And he just, it was so sad. And he started bawling immediately. i had him pressed against me. I'm holding him because he scared me too. and so I am, and we are both, look my kid is looking at me horrified, crying. This is a father's right. Looking at Ace like, what the fuck did you just do? And I was like, what is wrong with you? And he is laughing. Like this. Uncontrollably.
00:15:38
Speaker
because that's and my kid is crying still screaming and i'm like he was just playing he just wasn't ready for it he wasn't ready he was fine shortly after but it was just too scary like i apologize that i gave him a big hug and i'm like hey sorry i i i was like i thought we were all playing i kind of thought i would i i thought i was on your the same wavelength. And you know, like if I'm, if I'm being like completely honest with myself, I know I escalated a little bit, but like, I kind of, I kind of thought it would still be one of those things where he goes, Ooh, Oh, you got me, man.
00:16:12
Speaker
Sorry. Uh, but, uh, it was not, I i had, it was a long hug and I had to be like, right before bedtime. And then you wonder why he left you on the floor. That's why that's that was your punishment.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah. You let, you let me sleep on the floor of his room. So you can skip it. So, um, that was the That was our week, and that was why you guys were so busy. Some of the many reasons why, yes. Many. Yeah, the others other stuff, but, like, you know, that's not intro. You know, that's life. That's life.
00:16:41
Speaker
That's just life. We're here to live it. I'm just kidding. I mean, technically. Anyway. Just like.
00:16:53
Speaker
What are you going to talk to us about today?
Main Topic Introduction: History and Macabre
00:16:56
Speaker
Since I was... basically tackling a topic and like I'm bogarting an entire episode. I wanted to make sure that I chose something that would capture a little bit of both you guys topic wise.
00:17:08
Speaker
Cause Nim, uh, you definitely tend to gravitate towards macabre topics with a decidedly history based bent. That's just the queen of dog. That's right. Yeah. But yeah, you, so you, when you covered Belgana, it's historical, but it's also true crime. So it's like, that's the, that's the good stuff. Yeah. If I true crime, it is generally,
00:17:28
Speaker
In a word, edutainment. You really hit the edutainment pretty hard. Okay. Which rules, because I love edutainment. And of course, Nyleen, my sweet, beloved paramour.
00:17:38
Speaker
Ew. but I know, right? ah You are a sucker for the gruesome mysteries and pretty much the unapologetic villains. You love covering them.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yes. A true crime purist, one might say. But yeah. Rest assured, today's topic, we'll be checking both of those boxes, as well as a bonus third box for my favorite thing.
00:18:02
Speaker
ah the flim flam man. So like absolute chaos for no reason? Oh, 100%. Yes. you about to go goblin mode on us? and What would be your definition of a flim flam man? We did this for so long. Okay, but for our audience. A swindler, a con man, ah a guy who basically every single word that comes out of his mouth is some kind of untruth or con.
00:18:29
Speaker
Oh, a grifter. ah I want to say a master class in that grifter ah personality. like Got it.
Profile: Marcel-Andre Henry-Félix Pétiot
00:18:37
Speaker
His name is Marcel-Andre Henry-Félix Pétiot.
00:18:43
Speaker
I guess he's French. Also known as Dr. Satan. Dr. Satan! Satan! What? I have never heard of Dr. Satan. Dude! you When you say Dr. Satan, I obviously immediately think of House of Thousand Corpses.
00:18:59
Speaker
Right. Which makes me immediately think of Chris Hardwick, like fat Chris Hardwick on those days. And his jumping out of the place after after doing the little tour.
00:19:09
Speaker
Dr. Satan! Yeah! Yeah, just being really obnoxious about it. think of Dr. Girlfriend from Adventure Bros. Dr. Girlfriend. Yes, Dr. Girlfriend. but anyways dr satan dr satan he would would earn that moniker at the end basically okay it all kind of came to life assuming this was a what was that nazi doctor it's a very similar situation just torture people you know what just you know there's debate but enough with the preamble uh let's talk about the man who would go on to earn the title of dr satan
00:19:44
Speaker
Dr. Satan. Dr. Satan. Dr. Satan. Dr. Satan. ah Born on January 17th of 1897 in the Auxerre region of north central France, Marcel-André-Henri-Félix Bétiot appeared to be marked as an agent of chaos from his earliest days. oh oh and by the way, real quick.
00:20:11
Speaker
Apologies to any French listeners out there for my pronunciation over this episode. I'm doing what I can, but you know how it is. Described as a lonely and unstable child, Marcel would find himself frequently expelled from schools for a variety of reasons, ranging from, quote, over-excitation and lewd behaviors to firing a stolen gun into the ceiling just to entertain himself during a dull lesson.
00:20:34
Speaker
Oh my gosh. i was going to say like maybe he had like autism, but that's, that's a, that's a little, that's a little further. Like maybe, maybe more of like a, Like ah ah that sounds like a whole childhood episode situation.
00:20:46
Speaker
yeah he had he had a lot. um His childhood, there was a lot going on in his childhood. ah There's a lot of interesting details. But ah despite his erratic and often dangerous conduct, his teachers would recount that he was brilliant, gifted and charming. So he was an asshole, but he was smart as most are.
00:21:05
Speaker
ah Yeah, basically. Yeah. Okay. These odd behaviors extended to his life outside of school as well, where he was noted to have frequently abused animals, habitually wet himself, and just all around made everyone's life more difficult than it really needed to be.
00:21:22
Speaker
When you say abused animals, like, did he just, like like like, he did the whole, like, cat murderer thing? yeah Sort of. um so his thing was he would impale birds on knitting needles and insects. He would stick pins in birds eyes.
00:21:40
Speaker
um And there were a couple accounts that he would lock animals in shoe boxes and just so that he could watch them starve to death. Okay. So true sociopathic behavior.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And exactly. And actually these behaviors of course would place them firmly within the realm of the McDonald triad theory. Are you familiar? No. Okay.
00:22:02
Speaker
So basically the theory is something that was posited a while ago where these three traits, animal abuse, cruelty to animals, Bedwetting and fire starting, actually. So arson would be an indicator of future violent tendencies or psychopathic tendencies. Yikes.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. I have i have a ah boyfriend that hits like three of those. ah He should be on watch list. An ex-boyfriend. Sorry. You're you're ah not a current boyfriend. Yeah.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't catch that.
00:22:38
Speaker
i should I probably should have had i probably shouldve had more questions. that oh Wait. Boyfriend? Wait a minute. um so it yeah Now, just something to note. The triad does have kind of tenuous support by empirical evidence as a valid indicator of future violence.
00:22:57
Speaker
ah I was looking into it and some recent studies kind of show that it's actually more likely an indicator of dysfunctional home environments rather than um actually someone who was born to kill.
00:23:08
Speaker
So it's nature versus as nurture. Exactly. It's poor emotional regulation and coping skills. It's, it's, it's a child who maybe isn't being taken care of, abused, getting attention, but that's the current studies. Oh, sorry, Doji. I didn't mean to squeeze you. Sorry, nightmare pup.
00:23:23
Speaker
ah When the mischief of his childhood gave way to full-on criminality around his 17th birthday, Marcel would be evaluated in a court-ordered psychiatric screening after burglarizing a postbox, and subsequently would be pronounced as, quote, an abnormal youth suffering from personal and hereditary problems, which limit to a large degree his responsibility for his acts.
00:23:46
Speaker
Oh. Yeah. I feel like he's still responsible for his actions, regardless of if he can help it or not. He's still responsible for himself. True. and it And it's, there's, there's the saying, it's very popular, but your mental health, it is not your fault, but it's your responsibility.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah. But back in the day, mental health and psychiatry, it's still kind of an art more than it is a science. We're still kind of honing the science aspect of it. So they don't really know that. So when they see someone who has kind of these real big problems, yeah they do kind of write them a blank check saying like, oh, he can't, he can't help himself. He's crazy. Oh my God. Now, it's interesting because that does count as a conviction, but it doesn't count as necessarily a crime.
00:24:31
Speaker
They basically hold him innocent, even though they're saying he's criminally insane. He doesn't actually get something that says he's a criminal. So they never actually like put him in like jail. Did they at least put him in an asylum? Yeah, no, he would, he would actually, he he would go into mental health facilities and stuff like that. And he would make some brief stays here and there. um Oftentimes he would check himself out, which is kind of. there What year was this?
00:24:56
Speaker
Ah, we're we're talking late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds That he's like in these mental places or whatever. These these mental health facilities or yeah asylums. they all Let's be real. yeah Let's be real.
00:25:09
Speaker
Let's think we're we're probably around 19, between 1911 and 1913 right now. So yeah, basically they're they're not giving him any convictions. And he would actually have those diagnoses reaffirmed a second in a second similar incident shortly thereafter. Mm-hmm.
00:25:26
Speaker
Now, as as I've kind of alluded to, um there's lots of fascinating context and details in his childhood that we simply just don't have the time to cover here. ah But I definitely recommend you check out some of the sources I'll be bringing up at the end because Petiot's childhood really is ah case study for the nature versus nurture argument.
00:25:44
Speaker
It's super interesting stuff. But anyways, after managing to graduate from a special academy in Paris in July of 1915, Petiot would go on to enlist in the French army as a combat medic.
00:25:57
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah. And he would actually serve alongside the French infantry. And this is a pretty big conflict because the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand had kicked off World War one the year prior in 1914. So things things are getting kind of hairy. So he's literally been deemed mentally uneducated.
00:26:18
Speaker
unfit and he's a medic for the French army. ah Yeah. But again, it's one of those things where this conflict is a of a massive scale, but it's almost hard to wrap your mind around and they needed bodies badly. so yeah, he had a kind of a sketchy past, but another thing about him was he was brilliant.
00:26:39
Speaker
He was gifted. So if he had the mind for being a medic, you know They kind of give him that job on the side, but they stick him with the imagery. They put a gun in his hand. know you know But he's he's a medic. He's learning how to set bones, get bullets out, stuff like that. yeah But for the most part, he's he's fighting. Okay. so So he's on the front lines, basically.
00:27:01
Speaker
Precisely. And he yeah yeah, he would absolutely would. He would serve on the front lines of the quote unquote Great War. And during the second battle of the Ain, would be wounded and exposed to fast gene gas in a German chemical attack. Oh.
00:27:14
Speaker
Did that have lasting effects on him? I don't know about necessarily. Well, like maybe lasting mental effects. Yeah. um Because Faschine does, it causes severe respiratory effects like pulmonary edema, pulmonary emphysema.
00:27:28
Speaker
um It can just straight fucking kill you. ah But as far as Petio goes, it definitely wasn't good. Yeah. So he was exposed and what happened? ah Well, ah though the physical wounds would heal from ah that portion, he would appear to suffer suffer a pretty severe mental breakdown and then would immediately be committed to a number of army rest homes.
00:27:50
Speaker
um So these are kind of like psychiatric care units along the front lines where they're taking care of these soldiers who are shell-shocked, have PTSD, stuff like that. um While in these homes, though, Marcel's criminal tendencies would rise back to the surface and he would eventually be arrested when he was found to have stolen a number of army supplies and personal effects now from his fellow soldiers. So he's a klepto? 100%, yeah, because he's stealing stuff like postcards, letters like letters letters from their sweethearts. like Maybe he just wanted someone to be sentimental with.
00:28:20
Speaker
Maybe, but he's also just stealing blankets, dude, like lighters, like pens, things that aren't nailed down. Marcel just picks up and um runs, runs away with it. For these crimes, he would be tried and deemed criminally insane.
00:28:34
Speaker
It's the, it's the same thing as it was last time where they go, yes, you're crazy. um And yes, these were crimes, but you're not responsible for the crimes because you're crazy. Okay. Well, they need to put him somewhere crazy.
00:28:46
Speaker
I was crazy once. But yeah, so ah after being transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Fleury-les-Aubre, which is a suburb of Orléans, he was once again diagnosed with a slew of mental conditions.
00:29:02
Speaker
ah Mental disequilibrium, neurasthenia, depression, melancholia, obsession, and phobias. ah Pretty much everything in the kitchen sink. Just not kleptomania, weirdly enough, which I'm pretty sure. That's because he stole the doctor's pen before he could do it. Yeah, he goes, nope.
00:29:17
Speaker
yeah You can't write that. No, no. Don't write that. I don't need anybody to know about my nasty little habit. No one can find my treasures. What is he, a dragon? he likes to hoard things. Who knows?
00:29:30
Speaker
Petiot was returned to active duty and sent back to the front lines in June of 1918, where it said that his job was switched to machine gunner. oh And he was put on the front lines to mow down German forces.
00:29:43
Speaker
I mean, fair enough. Well, if you're criminally insane, where do they want you? Not helping your guys. Yeah. Like, it kind of makes sense. ah But, you know, perhaps boring of the military lifestyle, perhaps just kind of having a little goof-em-up, would injure his foot with a grenade, according to some reports. Like, just you drop a grenade? Again, it's not...
00:30:06
Speaker
It's not very clear. Like basically some people were like he did it to himself. Some people said he was he was injured in a grenade attack. Yeah. was say like feel like a grenade is not a targeted one.
00:30:18
Speaker
Like you'd have to be pretty sure where you're thing. Very specifically just his foot. So maybe he was right on the Oscars. And just his foot. Nobody else around him.
00:30:30
Speaker
So only his foot. Some say that he shot himself but it was also reported to be a grenade. But either way, um he would subsequently be discharged from the military as 40% mentally disabled, which would score him a neat little military disability pension that would persist until his eventual death.
00:30:50
Speaker
So, Marcel, he's out after the war. What's a what's a guy to do? I'll tell you what he's to do. He enrolled in an accelerated education program specifically designed for veterans.
00:31:03
Speaker
um It appears that the two separate convictions for criminal insanity did not preclude him from this program. Oh, my gosh. The government program allowed veterans to receive their medical degrees for completing eight months of school and a two-year internship.
00:31:18
Speaker
it Cannot be overstated. i see your looks right now, right? Like I understand. It cannot be overstated how devastating World War I was for Europe. Yeah. Many of the physicians had been killed during the war, either during attacks or in the line of duty. Yeah. And this program was created to help replenish the number of French doctors that could treat the French people as quickly as possible. Because... Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:41
Speaker
they're They're in full-blown... didn't even think about that. But yeah, you're right. They drafted doctors. They're in panic. They're just trying to get... They're like, we need doctors. And who do we trust? The people that fought for us. Do want to do it? and Sure. How do we reward these men that we have shell-shocked to their core and turned into ghosts of their themselves? Yeah. What do we do with these people we've given PTSD to?
00:32:02
Speaker
There you go. Let's have them... treat the health of the society but here's the thing for the most part it was great it was a great program because it did it gave these people who had not known anything but like this conflict this horrible conflict it gave them an out and it gave them ah future they actually did get to become doctors who could help people then also dr satan but it also uh
00:32:27
Speaker
It also got Marcel Petiot. So despite completing medical school through this program, it's somewhat debated by biographers as to whether or not Marcel actually became a physician who was licensed to practice medicine.
00:32:40
Speaker
Some records indicate that Marcel officially received his medical degree in December of 1921, while others show that Petiot simply relocated and began practicing without finalizing his certification as a practitioner. Okay. Perhaps in support of that, Marcel would list in his resume that he was in in town,
00:32:57
Speaker
untown or intern at Everoo Mental Hospital following his time in mental ah medical school. Oh, okay. so that's where he did his internship. A slightly misleading declaration since technically he was actually in the at the facility according to records, which means prisoner or detainee. Oh my gosh. Do you know what the difference in those two words is and in French is? Is it an e or is it the accent over the It's the accent over the e Yeah.
00:33:25
Speaker
So he didn't lie. he smudged the, he either smudged the accent off or he he goes, oh, I just forgot to add it. Oh my gosh. But he said, yep, I was there for two years.
00:33:37
Speaker
And... I mean, he is literally insane. So for him to do something unhinged like that wouldn't be off brand. And here's the thing, though. he He had at this point in time, he had been in and out of medical facilities yeah a whole lot.
00:33:51
Speaker
He had ah bird's eye view of how doctors talked, how treatment works. And he was sharp. He was real quick. And even his scores when he did do the schooling, they were good.
00:34:04
Speaker
Like his actual physical skills weren't, you know, they like his ability, like his actual like surgery stuff. Yeah. That's the hard stuff to learn. Yeah. That takes time and practice. But his test scores and like his thesis and stuff like that.
00:34:18
Speaker
Way, way, way yeah above the rest of his class. They were like, whoa, this guy is actually a genius. yeah He's smart. So could be either. He would relocate to the rural township of Villeneuve-Soyon and established his own medical practice.
00:34:32
Speaker
Part of how he did this was he slandered other doctors in the local papers and listened to False credentials. In the papers. Yeah. Basically he moved to town and I think there were two other doctors in the town who already lived there and basically said his, it was something like smart patients choose me because I'm not an old fuddy duddy and I'm keeping up with the times and they suck and they're old and I'm not, and I'm young and great.
00:34:53
Speaker
This reminds me of in Schitt's Creek where the rival veterinarian would post shirtless pictures. Yeah. Right. A hundred percent. Like it it is, it is literally that, but yeah, he slandered the other doctors in the office ads, but here's the thing.
00:35:08
Speaker
Apparently as a doctor, He was awesome. Like, amazing. He would treat the poor for free. He would stay open late into the night and open on Sundays to complete treatments or surgeries. i wonder why.
00:35:20
Speaker
And was apparently very, very easy to talk to. Like, people would say they'd spend all their day talking to him, and they'd be like, oh, He's really personal. easy Very personal. Easier ensnare victims with, my dear. 100%. But also, it gave these people a lot of comfort.
00:35:34
Speaker
And, like, they they really valued him as a doctor. They were like, he's the best doctor in this town. He's not lying. He is good. He's a little eccentric. But, like, we love him. He's great. So what you're saying is that for all of the lives he's saved and treated.
00:35:51
Speaker
Like, he... I'm... Whoa. um whoa i just i just i saw i just realized he yeah I just realized the insinuation. No. ah No. You and discovered my trap. It does not make anything that he did or does later fine.
00:36:10
Speaker
But it should be noted that he did he also did stuff like abortions were illegal. He would do abortions for people. That's a button topic. that's that's that's ah That's a plus in his in his category to certain people. like They're like, he helped.
00:36:27
Speaker
Yeah, so he helped a ah some people. Yeah. ah Most of his patients thought very, very extremely highly of him. And then he lost it all. It was also said that he did engage in very, very dubious practices such at this time, such as supplying or selling illegal narcotics.
00:36:42
Speaker
stealing from his patients and the town treasury by signing said patients up for social care coverages, thereby receiving double payment, both from the patient and the government. Oh my gosh. He apparently even stole. That's why he was so nice to them.
00:36:56
Speaker
Well, it's like, that's, that's the thing. Some got the Robin hood treatment. Some of them, he just robbed them blind. And it, and it, and it, you just got one of him one day. If he liked you or not. Basically he would just kind of on a whim be like, yeah,
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, fuck this guy. like hes like Sounds like someone I know. so weird. Quit looking at me. but He even stood like he stole a bass drum.
00:37:24
Speaker
ah For you to understand like what... Just his grabby little hands. In what context? I don't, I'll be honest, I don't have the context. I just, he got it. He basically, he saw that a bass drum was available. Like it was on the, on the side of the street and he was just walking by and he was like, that's mine.
00:37:40
Speaker
And he just grabbed it, took it. why and Like they were setting up for like a band concert or something. and he was like, yoink. Like he just grabs stuff. Supposedly Petio around this time prescribed a child with a near fatal dose of medication and a local pharmacist brought the issue up to him.
00:37:58
Speaker
like hey man this is not the right dose and marcel got irritated and rep replied what difference does it make to you anyways isn't it better to do away with this child who isn't doing anything with its life aside from pestering its mom so like my god again he just every once in a while like if someone came he really was just like fuck that kid If somebody came at Marcel, he came back way harder.
00:38:25
Speaker
Like he was always like, okay, first of all, here's the reason why you're evil. Like he, he does that whole thing. So he's good at gaslighting people. Good at gaslighting people, but a good doctor and has a great reputation.
00:38:37
Speaker
There's, I won't forget the name this time. It's Bundy. He has that same Bundy charm where people were like, I thought Bundy was the the bee's knees. I love that guy. i still don't believe all the stuff about him.
00:38:48
Speaker
Petiot had that same je ne sais quoi. You know what I mean? Like he had that same something something. But, you know, he's a successful doctor. And in 1926, Marcel meets his first love.
00:38:59
Speaker
Aww. How old was he? He's 29 years old this time. Enter 26-year-old Louis-Louisette de Lévoe. Some say she was an elderly patient's daughter, while other accounts indicate that she was a maid he met while he was out a dinner party one night.
00:39:13
Speaker
But it was love at first sight. oh For both of them? Uh-huh. Yeah. And apparently this was a really controversial relationship due the differences in their status. Doctors couldn't have relationship with women who were quote-unquote domestic. right it's just not done for a doctor to like date or marry that low below a station like he shouldn't even be keeping her as like a mistress basically there's rules about who you can have as a mistress like is there people that are acceptable basically yeah basically yeah basically it's one of those things where it go it's a character piece for him where they look at him and they go like oh my god he's going that below
00:39:50
Speaker
Well, he can't be that good of a doctor, can he? Like it's, it's, it has that kind of effect on them. I don't have a picture of Louisette, unfortunately, but apparently they, everybody said that she was very, very beautiful. Like they said that she was really pretty. And they said that they were a cute couple.
00:40:06
Speaker
She moved in with Marcel very quickly and they kind of covered the relationship by telling people that she was his live-in maid and things appear to be going wonderfully. and in may of that same year louisette even confides in her friends that she's pregnant oh and they're they're expecting their first kid i don't feel like that's gonna go very well the very next day louisette disappears petio complained after she finds out she's pregnant after she confides in her friends that she's pregnant oh no Petiot complains to his patients and friends alike that his young lover has walked out on him.
00:40:40
Speaker
Some neighbors mentioned that they saw Petiot load a large trunk into his car and assumed he may be leaving town to get away from the heartbreak. To get away from the heartbreak? Coincidentally, a large trunk would be found caught in the bushes near the Yon River.
00:40:54
Speaker
Do you automatically assume somebody who is carrying a large container? Yes. Yes. And that's what I was about to say. Like, why, why weren't they suspect? Like, I feel like people back then were not suspicious enough. I agree with that.
00:41:06
Speaker
But no, like there, there is, there's something to be said. They're not suspicious enough at that time. They need to be more suspicious. Life is short. Life is hard. He's a doctor, very well respected. So, you know, like it's one of those things where she was low class.
00:41:22
Speaker
He was high class. his word naturally held more weight at that time. Hold on timeout. So like, you're telling me that when you're driving or like you're a passenger in a car and you're not like seeing like big bags of stuff on the side of the road, you're not like, Oh, there's definitely a body. Oh no, not um me personally. yeah I always assume that there is a form of corpse.
00:41:44
Speaker
Right. What about you, Nim? ah It definitely crosses my mind if I see it on the side the but if I see somebody loading, something into a vehicle. After their wife just disappeared. Really muscling up. Like, that's a heavy chunk, huh? If someone cleaning their car at a car wash at two o'clock in the morning, I assume they just murdered someone. Oh, that's a crime scene.
00:42:09
Speaker
That's what I mean. There's just some things when paired together. You walk over there with Lumen, I'll have yourself in the other way. I mean, I suppose if I knew... i don't know. Actually, you're right.
00:42:23
Speaker
If I knew enough about the situation, I might be a little stinky. It's a little stinky, but like again, like people like, he's the doctor. He's the good guy. like He helps everybody. He's a little weird, but okay.
00:42:34
Speaker
okay you know no Yeah, but his wife goes missing and he's carrying a heavy-ass trunk into something and disappearing. They mention that they might have seen him do that. They're like, don't know. It kind of looked like him doing that, but I don't know. don't know.
00:42:49
Speaker
Unhelpful. Right. um Coincidentally, A large trunk would be found caught in the bushes near the Yon River. A foul odor was noted by the townspeople and upon opening a trunk, they found the headless and disemboweled body of a young lion.
00:43:05
Speaker
Disemboweled as well. So, womb gun. Yeah. ah There were some who fairly quickly came forward to say that the headless body was that of Louis Set. However, without the head, the body could not be positively identified.
00:43:16
Speaker
Her disappearance was investigated by police, but she was ultimately deemed a runaway. Marcel, being a respected if not somewhat eccentric physician, would not suffer much if any damage to his reputation.
00:43:31
Speaker
Must be nice to be a man. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, 1926 was a really, really busy year for him, so he had lot going on. Because he'd actually go on to campaign for the position of mayor only a few short weeks after the discovery of the corpse in the Yon River.
00:43:50
Speaker
Sympathy. and At one of his appearances in front of the town, he said, quote, I must confess that I am guilty of a very serious crime. I stand accused of loving the people too much. Oh my fucking God.
00:44:04
Speaker
standing ovation. like Everybody gasped like, oh and then everybody was like, yes, dude. um He basically campaigned on getting the town rebuilt because that was a big point after World War I was getting things rebuilt. Yeah, reconstruction ah hundred percent and that, yeah. 100%. And they loved him for it.
00:44:22
Speaker
um During a notable political debate against his opponent, the power would be cut before his opponent's speech, causing a blackout to the entire village. The chaos didn't end there. That's the cast and there as several fires sprang up around the village as well at that same time okay so he has to be working with other people though it can't just be him doing all these things by himself he discovered that he'd hired someone to disrupt the debate and like basically he said go nuts and the guy went nuts and it fucking worked so was he the first like mob boss no definitely not the first
00:45:01
Speaker
yet New York exists. No, but he's the first Dr. Mob Boss. I'm Dr. Mob Boss. And please, that's Dr. Mayor the Mob Boss because he won by 80%. Oh my gosh.
00:45:13
Speaker
He was sworn in as mayor with 80% of the vote. Oh my gosh. And immediately began embezzling money from the town through fraudulent contracts.
00:45:24
Speaker
True. paying huge amounts of money to companies or contractors that didn't exist for work, which wasn't completed or equipment. So never delivered. h A hundred.
00:45:34
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Flim flam, man. let So far, you are the only one that knows that word. I promise you. All right. I'm bringing it back. Anyone out there listening who knows who has before this podcast heard flim flam, man come out of anyone, but their grandmother's mouth.
00:45:54
Speaker
Please let us know. Validate me. Nightmare Cottage at gmail.com. Validate me.
00:46:04
Speaker
um But yeah, they paid huge amounts of the town's money for all that stuff. While serving as mayor, he would meet the 23-year-old Georgette Leblay. She was the daughter of a wealthy landowner and butcher.
00:46:17
Speaker
They would be wed shortly thereafter in 1927, and their son Gerhard Petiot would be born in April of 1928. So they actually had a kid. They actually had a kid. They had a kid, because that's a valid marriage, right?
00:46:30
Speaker
He's a nerd. He's a real family man now, guys. Oh, and fair enough, because the first woman he fell in love with was below his status, so him having a kid with her would have been really bad. Bit of a scandal. So that she was, this one was right in the right spot, right? Also, he might just not have been ready. He might have just needed that extra year to really come around.
00:46:47
Speaker
Because in March of 1930, local firemen are called to a dairy farm in Orsac, where they found the owner's home on the property engulfed in flames. Henriette de Beauvoir the wife of the owner was found lying on the kitchen floor.
00:47:01
Speaker
Her head and face bashed in as part of a brutal murder. Oh my gosh. And now this is who? This is so far. This is just a lady out on the farm. ah Police are called. And during the investigation, they find that the property has just been burgled as well.
00:47:15
Speaker
Somebody stole all their stuff. What? Now, who do we know who likes to steal stuff when he's just around? That's like so random. Yeah. And it does just so happen that there were some salacious rumors at the time that Miss DeVoe and mayor were having an affair.
00:47:33
Speaker
oh and And in fact, one Monsieur Fiscault would mention that he thought he'd seen Marcel Pétion near the dairy at the time of the crime. So he went to the dairy farm some late night milk.
00:47:48
Speaker
Unfortunately, you know what's crazy? That when they were putting out the fire, Marcel and his wife, Georgette, They drove by and they kind of slowed down, looked at the fire, but then kept driving, to a movie.
00:48:01
Speaker
And a lot of people thought that was really shady because they're like, as the mayor and town doctor, this you should be here. Like, this should be like you were there and you should have stopped and you should have been part of this.
00:48:12
Speaker
And so they were all like, that's weird. ever Anyway. But yeah, with nobody else coming forward to point the finger, Marcel avoided being connected to the murder of Henriette in any way that actually mattered.
00:48:24
Speaker
um His tenure as mayor would continue for another year before an auditor was finally called and the details of Marcel's various financial crimes were brought to life. wow He was suspended from his position as mayor in August 1931 in New Zealand.
00:48:40
Speaker
ah The townsfolk were very divided on this. Some despised him, but others absolutely loved the cut of his jeb. Wow, this sounds so familiar.
00:48:53
Speaker
I'm doing the best I can. I'm a good man. um oh I wasn't talking about that. i was talking about another political leader. Oh, wow. Hey, I'm kind of a narcissist. I'm sorry. But yeah, others loved him. Like people were, for a long time, they were like, best mayor we ever had.
00:49:11
Speaker
ah Case in point, when Marcel resigned, a large number of the village council resigned with him in solidarity. god They were like, this is a crime. You can't get rid of him. Marcel, of course, understanding that he still had a base and recognizing that there were now a lot of vacant seats on the village council, ran for office again and was elected counselor of Yon, of Yon Department,
00:49:33
Speaker
on october 18th of the same year so re-elected not for mayor this time but you know he's in office marcel just couldn't fight that itch when the council found he'd been creatively rewiring his home to steal electricity from ah the town finally had enough they removed him from office for the last time 1932
00:49:55
Speaker
Not one to be discouraged, Marcel took this as a sign it was simply time to move on. Georgette, Gerhardt, and Petiot moved to Paris in 1933, where he would establish a successful new medical practice at 66 Rue de Calmartin.
00:50:10
Speaker
To understand where things go from here, we do need to take a small diversion into some light history. ah Light if you consider anything about World War II to be light history, of course, because here come the crowds.
00:50:26
Speaker
The same year that Marcel and the family were moving to Paris to begin their new life, a new chancellor was appointed in Germany, one Adolf Hitler. And with his appointment, the Nazi party officially began to consolidate their power in the country by dismantling or subverting democratic institutions.
00:50:43
Speaker
And if that like rings anything in your head, don't think about it too hard. I'm sure it means nothing. Don't, um don't think about, I'm sure it's nothing guys. We're fine. The process would culminate in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland on September Two days later, France and Great Britain would officially declare war on Germany, marking the official start of the Second World War.
00:51:04
Speaker
On May of 1940, the German war machine rolls into France and almost immediately the blitzkrieg overwhelms the Allied forces. On June 10th, the French government flees from Paris to Vichy just as the first tanks are rolling into the city.
00:51:18
Speaker
And many Parisians follow suit in a mad exodus, desperately attempting to escape the German forces. The city of lights shrinks from a population of over 3 million to under a million and less than four days. Wow. That's how many people are fleeing the city. yeah It's just, it becomes a ghost town.
00:51:38
Speaker
It feels like there was a movie that was about this. wasn't There might be one or two.
00:51:45
Speaker
Can't with y'all. But yeah, they just, it, it just, it's insanity. You know, who didn't leave Marcel. He, he basically was out the window and he was like, and he became dr um Dr. Mayor Chancellor Pétiot. Dr. Mayor Satan. Dr. Mayor Satan.
00:52:07
Speaker
But no, he actually he actually was kind of disappointed in the French people. He was like, why are we why are we running? We need to fight. And then he turns to his family and he goes, we're going to be just fine. I'm going to make sure that we're taken care of. Don't you worry about us.
00:52:20
Speaker
And so is that but that's just like right there. um By the end of June, swastikas hung from the Eiffel Tower. ah From 1933, so that's, again, that's when Hitler comes to power. It plays over. We're done with him.
00:52:33
Speaker
ah Through 1940, Marcel was mostly on his best behavior. In order to reestablish his business as a medical professional, Marcel would leave leaflets with pharmacists, nightclubs, brothels, and bars advertising his services.
00:52:46
Speaker
He claimed that he had the cure for cancer and gonorrhea and that he could even make childbirth painless. but No. Big if true. So says the man. So says the man. It won't hurt a bit. But again, this is another one of those ones where he was actually giving valuable medical treatment. Like he was, again, he was doing the illegal abortions, but he was also helping addicts wean off of narcotics. yeah It was technically experimental at the time. People were only talking about it, but he was like, I'm going to wean you off by giving you smaller and smaller and smaller until we get you off this drug. Yeah. And people were like, great.
00:53:16
Speaker
But he was also prescribing other people addictive narcotics to make sure that they had to come back to him for them. So again, he does this weird thing where some people, some people get nice Marcel and other people, he just fucks their entire life over.
00:53:30
Speaker
But when the Nazis rolled into town, Petiot smelled opportunity. By continuing to do things like offer illegal abortions, selling addictive narcotics, Petiot manages to actually increase his wealth despite everybody else in France struggling to just afford the basics.
00:53:45
Speaker
Marcel utilizes these ill-gotten gains to buy a second, much, much bigger home at 21 Rue Lesseux. And it's at this house where Dr. Satan is born. Oh my gosh.
00:53:56
Speaker
In late 1941, he's seeing his barber? That's a Why are you asking us? That wasn't a question. I'm Ron Burgundy.
00:54:09
Speaker
God damn it. In 1941, he's seeing his barber, Raoul Fourier, a man with known connections to the criminal elements in Paris. Petiot tells Raoul that he's actually a member of the French resistance efforts and is the head of a resistance cell called Fly Talks with access to an entire escape network.
00:54:28
Speaker
Fly Talks? Fly Talks. He goes on to mention offhandedly to Raoul that his undercover name was Dr. Eugene. And if he knew anybody who was trying to get out of France and escape the Nazis, especially any Jewish people, because he knew it was bad for him, that Fly Talks could help them.
00:54:46
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Interesting thing about the name. Fly Talks was the name of a popular insecticide in France often used in barber studios. And Eugene was a brand of hair product, both of which would be sitting on the shelf right in front of him at the barbershop.
00:55:03
Speaker
He improv'd this. and he just And he remembered this and he stuck with it. But he improvised it on the spot, pitched it to this guy because he knew he was kind of a criminal scumbag. And he's like, get the word out.
00:55:17
Speaker
I can help you. Well, Frey takes the bait. Marcel, ever the con man, offers him a deal. For a minimum of 25,000 francs, Petiot would establish false papers, provide vaccines, and then deliver escapees to a safe house where they would be taken by the escape network to safety in another country.
00:55:37
Speaker
ironically, Argentina. Oh my gosh. He mentions that they should definitely bring all their most valuable possessions to bring with them, of course, because they need them to go with them to Argentina.
00:55:49
Speaker
They need it. And for Raul, he offers a percentage of fly toxics fee if he can help get the word out and help point out potential escapees to Piteo. So Piteo can reach out to them and help them directly.
00:56:00
Speaker
Mm-hmm. By the way, 25,000 francs, that's around $150,000 USD at that time. Oh my And is approximate in today's money to $2,600,000. I mean, but think of it this way. I mean, these people were fleeing for their lives. They were like, we will give our family fortune just to and escape. Right. He's keeping it very exclusive and he's making sure that he's only doing it for big fish.
00:56:27
Speaker
Yeah. So he's only taking risks for big fish. Yeah. Well, Frey agrees, and with you and within weeks, Fly Talks has their first exiles ready for delivery to safety.
00:56:39
Speaker
A group of French criminals who'd managed to somehow piss off the Nazis. Joe Le Boxer, thief and pimp. His mistress, Claudia Chameau. The prostitute, Josephine Grippe. And lastly, the, quote, hardened criminal, Adrienne Le Basque.
00:56:52
Speaker
Looks like a hardened criminal. That guy looks like someone who knee. looks like he was a part of the Nazi party, honestly, is what he looks like. Well, i can see that apparently the Nazis did not like him because he was trying to get the fuck out of Dodge. like And they had the money for it.
00:57:07
Speaker
By the beginning beginning of 1942, more than eight members of this criminal gang are met by dr Yijin and are taken to his house to receive their vaccinations. Not a single one of them has ever seen lot of it. Oh my God.
00:57:21
Speaker
Unsurprising as the vaccinations they were receiving was actually a lethal dose of cyanide. Oh. Now, people know cyanide, especially being injected straight like that, apparently considered a painless, humane death.
00:57:37
Speaker
I know. And I was like, that's that's a weird thing to say. Like, he's still serial killing these people. yeah So a lot of people will bring up this thing where they're like, clearly this is only money motivated since he's trying not to make them suffer.
00:57:52
Speaker
On the other hand, there is a room in this house. It's a triangle room with a false door that goes to it and a little people that looks in and it's got hooks all over the walls. Yeah. that sounds like a pretty pretty classic torture room of some kind or gas chamber dungeon of some dungeon anything so there's a lot of like is he a serial killer who's killing for fun is he a serial killer who's killing for money love of the game what is what's up with this guy oh
00:58:25
Speaker
Dojo hears music outside and he's getting cranky. But like I said, by the beginning of 1942, they were receiving a lethal dose cyanide. It was, he was not giving vaccines, but he was basically telling them, Argentina, you have to be vaccinated for the paperwork. It's just how we get you over there.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately, Petio's trap would be made an even more attractive prospect to potential victims with means by the end of... But how? If no one's getting to the end, no one's getting to the other side, why would people continue to use him?
00:58:52
Speaker
how is he How is he getting the word out that he's actually... successfully doing this and not a part of you know the the nazi party who's making people disappear he's very convincing it's actually it's actually interesting basically there was one lady who would go on and she would go hey my husband went to you to get him out of the country did you get him out he goes yeah she goes okay well i haven't heard from him or anything and he goes I got a postcard from him.
00:59:21
Speaker
See, here's a postcard from your husband. And he had an Argentina postcard that was allegedly from her husband. and she goes, Oh, and he goes, if you want, I can get you to him. I can get you to Argentina too for free. Actually, I'll, I'll go ahead and do it for free. And she was like, would you? And he goes, yeah, absolutely. ah Of course. Like, I mean, you, I'm sure you guys still have stuff at your house you want to bring with you. So bring it over whatever you need and I'll get you over there. And she goes, great.
00:59:48
Speaker
And she also was never seen again. Oh my gosh. But that's the thing. Because she's in Argentina. She's in Argentina. They're safe. And why why would they tell you where they are? The Nazis might be looking for them. Yeah. They can't out themselves. They can't give up where they are. They're supposed to be gone.
01:00:02
Speaker
Disappeared. He really thinks that he's created this like perfect crime. Yeah. And kind of to an extent he has because at that time, exactly. People are very hard to find. Yeah. Real hard to find, especially like across the ocean.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah. Like it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, Argentina is part of South America. South America is huge. Sorry. And unfortunately, Petio's trap would be made an even more attractive prospect to potential victims with means by the events happening around them. In 1942, the Bichy government officially begins their roundup of Jewish peoples to be sent to the French concentration camp with the eventual final destination of Auschwitz. The Nazis had announced the final solution.
01:00:44
Speaker
We're about to get real sad. Just... The first known Jewish family to visit Dr. Patio under the guise of Eugene would be the Canellas. Kurt, Margaret, and their young son, René.
01:00:55
Speaker
They had fled Germany in 1933 when Hitler came to power, hoping that the City of Enlightenment would be a safe haven for them. And when the dream of Paris turned into a nightmare, their desperation to escape drove them right into the hands of a different kind of monster, Dr. Marcel Patio.
01:01:09
Speaker
The Canellas were never seen again. However, weeks later, parts of bodies were found floating in the Seine River. Wow. I'll spare you the details, but there is compelling reason to believe that the found corpses were that of the Canelas and their son.
01:01:21
Speaker
No. Yeah, it's sad. A total of nine neatly dissected bodies would be found over the coming months by French police. And while the bodies wouldn't be identified, we know that Lena Wolf, her sister-in-law, Rachel, and her husband, Maurice,
01:01:36
Speaker
Dr. Paul Braunberger, Gilbert Bash, and five more members of Bash's extended family would all seek asylum and, quote unquote, escape through the Flytox network.
01:01:47
Speaker
And all would meet the same end as the Canales before them. Oh my gosh. It was alleged that there was a book of Marcel's found, which had a list of over 60 names on it, but that wasn't corroborated and his brother vehemently denied that he ever had or showed anyone such a book.
01:02:02
Speaker
Okay. Okay. but a guy was like um i definitely saw that book in your house dude there's something there an informant for the gestapo had heard about the network and in short order the gestapo had picked up ralph aria and his partner edmund pintard and tortured them for information on the ringleader this mysterious dr eugene oh my gosh unsurprisingly these two big goons gave up marcel almost immediately providing his name address and his telephone number to but i you're being tortured by the Nazis like okay but it sounds like they were like part of this crime network that was like taking killing people like you think they would have been know that right yeah but you still you think they would have been tougher is all saying you would think that would they would have been tougher interestingly though those two guys they actually didn't think that this was like a kill thing they actually did think that they were being French patriots and helping people get out of the country
01:02:57
Speaker
And they they stood on that. They were like, no, no, no. To our understanding, we were doing this for a good reason. And we backed that up by the fact that Petio hardly ever paid us what he promised us.
01:03:09
Speaker
Like he never paid us. Marcel is picked up in short order after this and is subjected to brutal interrogation by the Gestapo. Head vices, tooth drilling, filing, regular and savage beatings, the worst.
01:03:21
Speaker
Fantastic. Yeah, right? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. you know I mean, you still haven't really said what he's done to people. It's all just presumed. Right. And there's there's a kind of there's kind of a reason for that, right?
01:03:35
Speaker
um But weirdly, rather than tell the Nazis about his criminal scheme where he was literally murdering the same people the Nazis were trying to murder, Marcel stuck to his story and was tortured for eight months.
01:03:47
Speaker
Jesus. Actual legitimate French resistance members would attest that Marcel Patial was the bravest man they had ever seen. Oh my gosh. Marcel taunted the Nazis the entire time, ridiculing and laughing at them.
01:03:59
Speaker
He was probably getting off on it. To an extent, right? he's He is a textbook boilerplate sociopath. Yeah. And you you cannot torture information. Like, that doesn't work. Yeah.
01:04:12
Speaker
Like, it is it is one of these interesting things where it's just, it's not how you do that. Like, they keep they're they unaffected. Not sociopath. Psychopath. But I think this is about as close to a win-win as we're going to get on this one. What with Marcel getting the much deserved living shit kicked out of him daily.
01:04:28
Speaker
And for Nazi Gestapo scumbags, having to weather the verbal abuse of what I can only imagine is one of the most wildly unpleasant Frenchmen to ever exist for unknown reasons.
01:04:39
Speaker
And much to the surprise of everyone, most of all, Marcel, the Gestapo would release Patois in January of 1944. Just let him go. They opened the door and they're like, free to go. And he was like,
01:04:50
Speaker
Why? They're like, free to go. Okay. I have a theory, but we can come back to that later if we remember to. Now, though Marcel is free, he's also very stressed out.
01:05:01
Speaker
After all, he still has 23 decomposing bodies littering the basement floor of his 21 rue de Sour home. I didn't realize they were in his basement. Oh, yeah. Because you kind of get to a point where dismembering all these bodies takes a long time.
01:05:16
Speaker
A really long time in What's the point? Ain't nobody got time for that. Nobody's got time for that. He'll get to it eventually. So he just left him there and he got picked up while he was kind of in the middle of getting to it.
01:05:28
Speaker
But yeah, they had been decomposing the entire eight months he was there. And he definitely doesn't want the Germans finding out about that. Again, if he just told them what he was really doing, they'd have probably given him a medal. Yeah. Like they'd have been like we love this guy.
01:05:44
Speaker
This guy rocks. Some extra supplies, some hands. Oh, do you need like an intern or something like that? He's like, um please, interne. but We would love to. We love the cut of your gym.
01:06:00
Speaker
Using that twice to today. I love it. But Marcel calls his brother Maurice. Maurice is finally coming into the picture. and asked him for a tiny favor. Can I just get 400 kilos of quicklime, please?
01:06:11
Speaker
ah Real quick. That's about 882 pounds for us non-metric folks. That's a lot of quicklime. Neighbors would begin to notice pretty shortly a foul-smelling, greasy black smoke which poured out of Marcel's home at all hours of the day.
01:06:29
Speaker
Greasy black smoke. Gross. This smoke would pour out of his home at all hours of the day. And unfortunately, shifts in the weather caused the smoke to be bottled into the street.
01:06:43
Speaker
And neighbors were rightly upset, not even knowing what they were breathing in at that moment. Because it was just, the street was just filled with this smoke. Yeah. And it just, it's horrible.
01:06:55
Speaker
But nobody was like, that house is filled with smoke. it's coming so much smoke somebody go check it out after five days and oh my god but one couple was fed up with it she was vomiting he was sick all the time it would not have taken me anywhere near that long no no and they even said like one of the neighbors who was nearby he was like he would every time he would leave his house he would go like why am i thinking about the trenches all of a sudden like he would have he would like he would think back to like his time in world war and he was like i'm thinking about the trenches again It was weird. Like he would just, the smell was in his brain. And he's just like, Oh, you're making my stomach hurt. Anyways.
01:07:33
Speaker
Literally everybody on the street was getting sick. Like dogs would not go down the street. But on March 11th, the French police are called to 21 Rue Laisseur and find a note on the door listing a forwarding address in Auger.
01:07:47
Speaker
The police asked a neighbor who confirms the property was owned by Marcel Petiot, who actually lived two miles away in Paris. The police call Marcel's home and he picks up. They tell him about the complaints and the concerns that his home may be on fire.
01:07:59
Speaker
And Marcel replies, have you gone in yet? And the police say, no. And Marcel goes, okay, I'll be there in 15 minutes.
01:08:10
Speaker
He's like, hold on. How much do you know? Did you go inside? Exactly. He does that. Oh, you didn't but like open. open You didn't like open the package though.
01:08:21
Speaker
Right. He did that. He did that whole bit after 30 minutes though, nobody shows. So the police climb up to the second story and break into Marcel's home. Oh, from there, all they have to do is follow their nose where they're led to the basement where they make the fateful discovery of the bodies.
01:08:38
Speaker
Oh, It's so bad at first. They think they found a secret Gestapo base and they're like, oh shit. And they were, they're looking at the corpse of like murdered resistance operatives because there are two like boilers, like furnaces.
01:08:54
Speaker
There's like arms sticking out of the furnaces, still burning. There's parts of bodies and decaying bodies and rib cages and heads all over the floor. the floor of the furnace yeah it just looks like a den like a nest for a dragon or something literally it looks like like like zombies like zombie stuff like it's it is crazy and then they have another room and that's where marcel built his quick line pit where there were more bodies like gosh so he had like a compost pit basically going full yes and well not compost know what was composting the bodies trying to
01:09:32
Speaker
And like the, and these police are like, holy fucking shit. like They're just like, whoa, man, this is a lot. um And of course, if it was a secret Gestapo base, that would complicate things somewhat for the French police because there is a collaboration out of necessity. Yeah. You know, but like do it on your own
French Police and Marcel's Deception
01:09:54
Speaker
kind of. And also the French police, not, it's one of those ones where it's like, not all of them are like, yay. Yeah.
01:10:01
Speaker
Like they're like, we want to police our citizens. We're going to do what we have to do, but we know it's going to be better if we police them than if you police them. Okay. So we will do the evil stuff.
01:10:13
Speaker
that we have to do in order. It's basically like, we're the lesser evil. We will become the lesser evil. And so there's this weird contention, but also cooperation.
01:10:23
Speaker
And that's the same reason why the Gestapo didn't tell them when they were like, Hey, we found this fucking guy. Yeah. doesn that work Cause they were like, none of your business. It was an escape network. That's our thing. As they're cordoning off the house, a stranger rides up on a green bike and it doesn't identifies himself as the brother of the homeowner.
01:10:38
Speaker
The French police take him inside and show him the basement. To this, the brother goes, oh my God, my head might be at stake. He identifies himself as a member of the French resistance and stated that he needed to go home and destroy the files he had in there as he was sure the officers had already done their duty and notified the Germans, which he understood.
01:10:56
Speaker
He understood he just needed to go home and destroy the documents. Wait, this is Marcel his brother? He says it's his brother. Right. So this is Marcel pretending to be his brother.
01:11:07
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. The officers took him at his word and they're assuming now that the bodies must be Germans and collaborators. And so they let him go. They were like,
01:11:19
Speaker
they're like, go ahead and destroy the documents because the mood for most of the French, like I just said, kind of, it yeah like it's like, fuck these fucking Nazis. Yeah. But what we're doing what we have to to survive, but also like not about this.
01:11:31
Speaker
Yeah. But like, I don't need to, but this doesn't need to be paper. Yeah. Right. But then as they were searching the house more and more and found pictures of the homeowner, they kind of realized their mistake. They're like, Oh shit, that was Marcel Pettua.
01:11:44
Speaker
And also as they're kind of going through some of the stuff, they're like, oh shit yeah these were not collaborators these were victims victims right real victims in charge of the investigation is commissar george masseau who observed the house is full of stuff like almost to a hoarder extent and people said that if it didn't smell like a carnal house it would probably smell like a library what Because of all the leather.
01:12:11
Speaker
Basically. It's so crazy because it's full of valuable art, furniture, other valuables, jewelry, books. but So like a museum almost. Almost like a museum. Yeah. And some people said that Marcel liked to go to a lot of like sales, and like almost like garage sales and stuff like that. He was a hoarder. But also. For valuable. He was a dragon. He was telling people to bring all their shit.
01:12:33
Speaker
Bring your best stuff. Yeah. And so they would. And then you go, great. Here's your shot. Oh, now look at all this cool shit I got. We'll put this one up. I'll have a space for this yet. So just on the floor. But like they were This reminds me my cup room in Skyrim.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah. me As he's investigating the house, a message from the German Gestapo arrives. It says, arrest Patio, dangerous lunatic. oh Hey, at least they're finally here. Very short, sweet to the point. They heard about this and they were like, oh, wow. yeah We didn't know about that.
01:13:04
Speaker
But Masao finds this to be likely evidence that this actually was a resistance fighter. like He's like, oh, if the Gestapo wants him, he's probably a resistance fighter. So he ignores the order.
Marcel's Escape and Manipulations
01:13:15
Speaker
He's kind of like, he's like don't we don't need to rush after this. Everyone just doing the same mistake. exactly and he he would issue an arrest warrant later in the night he goes if you see you if you see him arrest him like he's doing his due diligence but he was like after that man like none of that police check the other paris property at 66 rue de carmartin and find that has been abandoned by marcel and his wife the home's valuables are packed up so they can flee and thus begins the manhunt for marcel peteau oh gosh
01:13:46
Speaker
There actually is a lot of fascinating things that come together to paint the picture in this case, including one person who came forward after almost seeking escape with Dr. Eugene. He stated that he got skeeved out by the whole thing when the doctor told him that the vaccination also had a special medicine in it that would, quote, render him invisible to the eyes of his enemies and to the Nazis. Wow. A fucking invisibility potion. Oh my gosh. He's like, my shit's so good it makes you invisible, dude. Ugh.
01:14:14
Speaker
ah Let me get you out. That's so sad though. These people were so desperate just to like be free that they would believe something like that. he's He is very clearly, it is the most obvious, I'm going to say it again, flim flammery that has ever, ever been done. and Stop trying to make flim flammer work.
01:14:34
Speaker
It is the most obvious, like obvious con here. But they were so desperate because of the situation in World War the situation with the Nazis and the Gestapo. They didn't have a choice.
01:14:46
Speaker
It was this or certain death, but that's like basically the investigation in him. That's almost an entire episode on its own. And we've covered the important bits that ah but they already discovered.
01:14:57
Speaker
So we hit the stuff we needed to hit. ah The important part is while Marcel's brother, wife, friends, and confidants are all found in extremely short order, Marcel himself is nowhere to be found. He's disappeared without a trace. And some begin to speculate that perhaps he did have access to an escape network and had used it to get himself the heck out of Dodge.
01:15:15
Speaker
Hmm. Or he was the first Leatherface. They did find that he had cut faces off of people. Full faces, full penises. that's This is another thing that kind of goes into... Was he... a fetishist. Was he actually a serial killer, serial killer, as we know
Liberation of Paris and Marcel's Capture
01:15:34
Speaker
them here in America? Like one of these one of these guys who kind of... Love of the game. Yeah.
01:15:39
Speaker
Yeah. he He does these weird things every now and then where it's like, okay, so he is a sadist. He is a monster. But most of the time, it's like he loves that money. It's kind of hard to tell.
01:15:51
Speaker
On June 6th of 1944, so this is pretty quickly after this comes forward, D-Day operation begins. The Allied powers storm the beaches of Normandy, France, in an incredible surprise attack against the occupying Nazi forces.
01:16:04
Speaker
The liberation of Paris takes place on two fronts, inside the city with a resistance and from the outside by American, British, and Canadian forces. After the Paris is liberated, resistant forces are transformed into the French forces of the interior, or the FFI.
01:16:19
Speaker
Part militia, part police force, part vengeful hammer of justice against the French collaborators who handed their country to the Nazis on a silver platter. And Paris suddenly became a very unsafe place if you were a collaborator.
01:16:33
Speaker
Just as an example of this, ah Commissar Georges Massot, who'd been in charge of the investigation into Petiot himself, was later arrested and tried as a collaborator. And I think they executed him. Oh my gosh. um With many members, they he might've just been jailed, but he was definitely tried and they did not treat him good.
01:16:52
Speaker
ah But with many members of the French police forces who'd helped the Nazis round up the Jewish residents of France facing the exact same fate. Many collaborators, seeing the writing on the wall, chose to join the FFI i in order to hide in plain sight, claiming they had been true French patriots the entire time.
01:17:08
Speaker
Henry Valéry was a notable member of the resistance, one who a certain French doctor knew for a fact was imprisoned in a German concentration camp.
01:17:19
Speaker
And so it was that Henry Valéry reappeared magically in Paris as not just a member of the FFI, but as a full captain. So he had stolen this guy's identity, basically.
01:17:30
Speaker
Marcel literally never left. And when the city was being liberated, he actually played a huge role in the liberation of Paris. he He helped to make it happen and save the city. Like he was organizing some of these attacks on German forces.
01:17:46
Speaker
Right? So it's like he finally was like, I'm i'm doing that thing i always said I'd do. Yeah. Before Georges Mosseau himself was arrested, he saw this changing of regimes and sensibilities as an opportunity to flush out Petiot.
01:17:58
Speaker
He leaks a phony story to the French presses, exposing Marcel Petiot as a Nazi collaborator. He figured a man with an ego like Petiot wouldn't be able to let that go after all he'd learned about him in his investigation.
01:18:11
Speaker
And man, when you're right, you are right. Within days of the story being publicated, Marcel Petiot writes an eight page letter to the paper stating that he's never been a collaborator and boasting about the fact that he's been a ride or die resistance man the entire time.
01:18:29
Speaker
From the paper used and the handwriting of the letter, they were able to tell immediately that A, Marcel was definitely still in Paris because this was his handwriting and the letter had been addressed and sent from a Parisian address.
01:18:41
Speaker
And B, he was serving the French forces of the interior in some capacity because he was using their letterhead. Oh, of course. Samples of the handwriting are sent to all upper forces of the FFI with requests to compare it against the handwriting of their officers.
01:18:55
Speaker
And the trap snaps shut.
Trial of Marcel
01:18:58
Speaker
Petillo is identified as the man claiming to be Henry Valerie, and he's tracked down and arrested just before he boarded a Paris metro, attempting to escape once again.
01:19:06
Speaker
Wow. He knew it was coming, and he was like, oop, time to go. Yeah. And they got him right in time. Wow. Literally, like, just, they're like, hey, oop, gotcha. In his possession was a loaded handgun, 31,700 French francs, and over 50 different sets of identification belonging to other people. Oh my gosh. People who had gone missing after speaking with Marcel Piteau.
01:19:34
Speaker
Marcel immediately protests his innocence, standing by the assertion that he was a resistance fighter. He in fact doesn't dispute the kills he's accused of, but in fact states that all the victims were Nazis and Nazi collaborators.
01:19:45
Speaker
He doubles down. He's like, yeah, i killed them. They were Nazis. He languishes in a prison for over a while while the French deal with the more relevant trials of high-level collaborators and Vichy government officials.
01:19:57
Speaker
But when he does finally go to trial, it's such an insane story that it pushed the Nuremberg trials off the front page. The Nuremberg trials were when they were trying all the head Nazis. But he was more important to the French people.
01:20:11
Speaker
Marcel, for his part, loved the attention. He performed at the trial, shouting in articulate outrage at prosecutors and their baseless accusations, responding with charming wit, a glib sense of humor, and an apparent genuine passion for his fellow French peoples. Wow.
01:20:28
Speaker
But charisma only goes so far when the prosecution has a literal mountain of evidence. yeah And I mean literal mountain. All the suitcases and luggage that was in Martel's house, As part of the trial, they piled it up and left it in the court, and it literally covered a wall of the courtroom. my gosh.
01:20:45
Speaker
The police confirmed that Piteo had no friends of any in any of the major resistance groups. Some of the resistance groups he spoke of had never existed, and there was no proof of any of his claimed exploits. Prosecutors eventually charged him with at least 27 murders for profit.
01:21:00
Speaker
Their estimate of his gains was as much as 200 million francs gained during all these murders. Included in the identification documents, though, that he had, the altered ration card of eight-year-old Rene Canellas. He was that young boy, the first family.
01:21:18
Speaker
um And that was the nail in the coffin for Marcel's trial. And I think that if there's nothing, if that's car if that's not karma, I don't know what is. yeah Basically, got him back.
01:21:30
Speaker
He was convicted for 23 kills based on the crimes. He could be attached to 60 and estimates go as high as 160 people he possibly killed. And it's horrible to say, but like at the end of the day, it's like, well, at least he's behind bars. Right. But then also like the justice for all those people. It's so sad.
01:21:47
Speaker
Yeah. It's crazy. And it's, and that's the thing. It, some of the focus was taken off of him because of the horror going around. around them they're like they have bigger fish to fry what is 20 people with this yeah and it's terrible but that's that was some of the mindset only the french carrot patiel was tried on the 19th of march 1946 accused of 135 criminal charges and that's he yeah he actually was convicted of 23 the 23 kills may 25th on may twenty fifth
01:22:19
Speaker
1946, Piteo was beheaded after a stay of execution a few days due to a problem with a release mechanism on the guillotine. I just can't get this goddamn guillotine to work. mean, guillotine, sorry.
01:22:30
Speaker
That's weird. Right? He was buried at Ivory Cemetery. His last act was to thank the executioner for his time and work. ah He embraced the clergy there like very softly, but he never admitted a single thing.
01:22:46
Speaker
That's not something you would do. Never, ever. he But he was like, thank you. i appreciate it. Sorry to take time out of your day. Thank you for what you're doing. see He then turned to the crowd and said, gentlemen, I ask you not to look.
01:22:59
Speaker
This will not be pretty. He walked with ease to the guillotine as though taking an evening stroll. He appeared utterly untroubled by his neck in the path of the blade. A look of calm satisfaction on his face.
01:23:11
Speaker
The blade dropped and thus ends Dr. Satan. He's dead. He's gone. The end. But yeah, I love that story. ah it's It is a horror story.
01:23:23
Speaker
But... It's just someone who's such a trickster. Literally. like he He's like a trickster god. He's like a coyote. How does he... know why It's like he has... a gift of foresight or something to know what's going to happen and how to get away with it and squirrel out of it i i almost feel like he lied so blatantly that people were just like there's no way that there's no way someone would just say that yeah like it has to be true he cares so much there's no way yeah like because he said insane shit all the time yeah yeah thanks for sharing that story with us today
Recommendations and Credits
01:24:00
Speaker
But I love the story. I actually read ah story called Death in the City of Lights by David King. Fascinating novel. um It reads like an action story. Very good. um There's also a really good documentary on it. It's called The Murder Network, a serial killer in Nazi Paris.
01:24:16
Speaker
So I have two things real quick that I have enjoyed over the holiday, the Halloween season. ah I mentioned in my psychology of fear episode, the substance.
01:24:26
Speaker
Now I've watched it and everybody should watch it. And I'm all I'm going to say, because I went in blind and I think everybody should go in blind. It's currently on HBO. I can't watch scary movies.
01:24:37
Speaker
The substance that sounds so familiar. It's because I've told you about it twice already now, but it starts to me more and it's, They mean more, really. and Yeah, and it's it's it's excellent. Maybe I will watch it.
01:24:49
Speaker
But go in blind. Don't look anything up.
01:24:53
Speaker
ah So the other one is a book called Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora from Kylie Lee Baker. It's ghost horror, but it also find follows the experience of an East Asian woman living in New York during COVID. oh Yeah, it was really dark, but it was also super fun. The characters were great. Solid storytelling. Very much fun.
01:25:17
Speaker
Just for the record, and I'm going to say it out loud so it's in our transcript even. All music on this show, I've got it noted in the show notes, is all by Nine Inch Nails. It's from the album Ghosts, one through four.
01:25:30
Speaker
And when Trent Reznor released this, he made it Creative Commons accessible, which means that if you credit the artist and are not monetized, which we are not, it is free to use to whatever length you want. You can mix it up, which we did.
01:25:49
Speaker
You can use it straight up as it is. Whatever. You can use and that's what we're doing. Period. So it's it's been removed on some platforms for stupid reasons that are not true.
01:26:03
Speaker
For stupid reasons that are dumb. That green platforms. we We won the first appeal. we Our next episode got pulled down for the same reason I'm waiting on finding that out.
01:26:13
Speaker
So, you know. And we're still working on the site. Hey, guys, I know it sounds, seems like we're like, really don't know what the fuck is happening, but I promise the world's against us.
01:26:25
Speaker
Technology's against us right now, and it's not very nice. Yeah, it's definitely thing. Folks, the world's against us. We're not going to Yes.
Listener Engagement and Hypotheticals
01:26:45
Speaker
So I do have ah palate cleanser. It is a would you rather situation. And I feel like it fits very well with your story today. So I'm going to ask you first, Nim.
01:26:57
Speaker
Okay. And then I want to hear what you have to say. So would you rather, if you had to do one or the other, right? Would you rather have to kill 10 people and get away with it?
01:27:10
Speaker
Like they, You never even come up on the suspect that can be convicted or have a highly skilled hit man hired to kill you for the next 24 hours that you have to just, you have to escape 24 hours of someone trying to kill you or you have to successfully oh not get caught 10 times killing somebody. I'm gonna have to have a hit put out on me.
01:27:36
Speaker
Yeah. I can't. I can't with the... the With the killin'? With the killin'. I can't. I can't. Ten people's a lot. I feel like it'd be... I feel like one people is a lot. Like if I... I feel like after the first one, I would just lose all sensitivity. Sure, yeah.
01:27:52
Speaker
And isn't that part of the scary part? Right? I know, but it's either like kill or be killed at this point. Maybe? Because it's like 24 hours. I feel like I could be really good at hiding for 24 hours. Really? Maybe. So it's like... Okay, so highly skilled assassin, right?
01:28:08
Speaker
You kind of know you have this coming up. There are long flights. You just take a long flight. Just get long flight. No, I don't want to be stuck on an airplane with an assassin. Not with an assassin.
01:28:19
Speaker
You don't tell them you're going. You don't think that they would find you? They're highly trained, skilled assassin. That's true, I guess. I don't know. ah that Again, it it goes into the thing where it's like... The killing thing, I'd have to be able to justify why I was killing these people. And it's like, how are you going find 10 people deserving of death when I don't even believe in the death penalty anymore?
01:28:38
Speaker
I just say go off into the middle of nothing without a phone or anything to track you with. Mojave Desert? No, I was thinking some but something with more hidey holes like ah like the forest or.
01:28:51
Speaker
So this turns into a John Wick movie, basically. This is Predator. You just want to do Predator. You just want to come... Oh, Rambo. Rambo, what? I want to survive by hiding a place that is very difficult to find and not murdering 10 people.
01:29:04
Speaker
That's fair. That's what I want to say. Yeah. i think that I think that you have to choose the the assassin one because at the end of the day, it's like, am I more important than 10 people? No. Not even.
01:29:15
Speaker
No. But I know I'm not good at hiding. So... you're making you're making a moral choice to kill be killed. You're knowing you're bad at hiding. So you you're saying i sacrifice myself to save 10 people.
01:29:30
Speaker
Thank you so much for coming in and giving us an amazing story. And a big old history lesson. And a big old history lesson. On how to somehow murder a bunch of people while pretending you are against Nazis while being a weird kind of Nazi.
01:29:48
Speaker
But while being the mayor and the counselor. And while being a doctor, but also a veteran. Sweet dreams. If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com.
01:30:05
Speaker
Sweet dreams.