January 17, 1897 - Marcel Petiot

Petiot exploited the desperation of Jews and others seeking escape from Nazi-occupied Paris, posing as an underground operative who could smuggle them to safety — then killing them and disposing of their bodies in his townhouse on the rue Le Sueur. His victims paid him substantial sums for passage they would never take, and the scale of the operation only came to light when neighbors reported the smell of burning flesh. The gap between his public role as a physician and local politician and the reality uncovered in his basement made him one of the more studied cases of wartime predation under cover of resistance.

From Wikipedia

Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot (17 January 1897 – 25 May 1946) 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 stole their valuables and disposed of their bodies, frequently by burning them.

Despite showing early signs of mental illness and criminal behaviour, Petiot served in the First World War, graduated from an accelerated medical program, and began a dubious medical career that included performing abortions and supplying narcotics. His political career was marked by scandal, theft, and corruption.

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