Case of the Elegant Beard

Dr. Marcel Andre Henri Felix Petiot is a tall, elegant man whose brown curly beard stretches from ear to ear. Seven months ago a peculiar odor coming from his Paris house attracted unwanted attention. Inside, police found the remains of 50 to 60 persons, bits of their clothing and jewelry. At first they could not find Dr. Petiot, but last fortnight they did. He was waiting for a subway in the Saint-Mande station. Dr. Petiot wore the uniform of an F.F.I captain.

Since he fled from his sinister home, Dr. Petiot had joined the resistance movement, got himself commissioned as a captain at Valmy barracks under the name of Henry Valery. Police caught him by comparing a letter written by F.F.I. Captain Valery with samples of Dr. Petiot's handwriting. Dr. Petiot said that his 50-odd victims were collaborators and Germans whom he had murdered for the sake of France. But the police said they were Frenchmen murdered for the Gestapo.

Interest in Dr. Petiot plummeted. Parisians yawned when they learned that he was merely another of Europe's hundreds of political murderers.

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