Marcel Petiot, French physician and serial killer (died 1946)

Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot was a French medical doctor and serial killer. He was convicted of multiple murders of Jews after the discovery of the remains of 23 people in the basement of his home in Paris during World War II. He is suspected of the murder of about 60 to 200 mostly Jewish victims during his lifetime, although the true number remains unknown. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Petiot set up a fake escape network under the name “Dr. Eugène.” He claimed he could help Jews and others wanted by the Gestapo flee to South America via Portugal, for a large fee. He lured his victims to his home at 21 Rue Le Sueur in Paris, promising them safety. Instead, he murdered them—often by injecting them with poison under the pretense of giving them vaccinations—and then disposed of their bodies, frequently by burning them.