‘Modern Bluebeard’ May Be Leader Of Patriot French

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1944, Page 3

‘Modern Bluebeard’ May Be Leader Of Patriot French

(Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, March 14. The greatest manhunt in French criminal history is going on as the police search for Dr. Petiot, his wife and 17-year-old son, who disappeared after the police began inquiries into the Rue Le Sueur murders, says Paris radio. The remains of 28 bodies have now been found and the discovery of two pairs of women’s shoes indicates that at least two more victims are hidden in the mystery house. Neighbours say that Petiot last summer brought several lorry-loads of lime to the house. The “Daily Mail” says that Fighting French leaders in London are suspicious of German radio stories of the Rue Le Sueur murders. They fear that Petiot may be a leader of the French underground movement and they think that the Germans may be trying to catch him by trickery. This links up with a statement by French police that Petiot was a member of the French Socialist Party. The paper adds that the Fighting French ask why the Germans, at a time of grave crisis to their armies, are giving such disproportionate publicity in French language broadcasts to the deeds of a sex criminal. If it should prove that Petiot is a leader of the resistance movement, 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 Landrui type, the whole country would be tricked into a which would make his escape extremely difficult. Vichy radio announced that the police had found and interrogated Madame Petiot.