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The Grim Reaper of Paris
The little-known serial killer who terrorised the city of lights.
In Paris, two elderly women were attacked inside their own homes. 83-year-old Anna Barbier-Ponthus was suffocated and died as a result, her home was ransacked and a small amount of money stolen. The same day, police were called to the home of 91-year-old Germaine Petitot, who had also been attacked. The similarities between the cases were significant, but police were unable to gather much evidence from Germaine who was so deeply traumatised that she struggled to recount events.
In the following few months, eight more older women were murdered within their homes. Every time, the home was ransacked and money was taken. Occasionally, homes were set ablaze in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
Thus began the years of terror under the Grim Reaper of Paris.
In the early days, police assumed that the murders were motivated by robbery, but that all changed when one of the victim’s autopsies revealed that she had been forced to drink bleach. A later victim had her fingers twisted and snapped. Another had her feet burned. Discovering that torture formed part of the crimes, meant that police realised that they had a different kind of criminal operating in a small area of the city.
