GRUESOME DETAILS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 64, 16 March 1944, Page 5

GRUESOME DETAILS

Axis Radios Devote Much Time To Paris Murders FREE FRENCH SUSPICIONS Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 15. Axis radios continue to give gruesome details about the Paris murders. Vichy radio states that Dr. Petiot watched the agonies of his victims in a murder chamber through a periscope built into the wall. Petiot has fits of madness. He had a collection of newspaper cuttings and books deal nig with mental cases, adds the radios.

The amount of time the Germans are devoting to this murder story has increased the suspicions of Fighting French leaders in London that the Germans are hunting for Petiot, not because he is a "Blueboard," but because he may be a French underground leader.

A message received yesterday quoted Paris radio as stating that the greatest manhunt in French criminal history was going on as the police search for Dr. Petiot and his wife and 17-year-old son who disappeared after the police began inquiries into the Rue le Seur murders. The remains of 28 bodies had been found and the discovery of two pairs of women's shoes indicated that at least two more victims were hidden in the mystery house, stated the radio. Regarding the suspicions that Petiot was a leader of the resistance movement, it was pointed out in London that should this prove so, the Germans know that appeals to the French people to seek him out would be ignored, but if they persuaded the French to believe that Petiot was a monster of the I/»ndru type the whole country would be tricked into the chase, which would make his escape extremely difficult. Vichy radio announced later that the police had found and interrogated Madame Petiot.