Thierry Paulin & Jean-Thierry Mathurin | The Monsters of the Montmartre - Part 1
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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did and how. Episode 206. I am your humble host, Thomas Roseland Weyberg Thun. And tonight we are back in Europe. This time the great nation of France.

At the tail end of the golden age of serial murder, two homosexual men slaughtered at least 21 elderly ladies. Why their names are not more familiar to the world is an enigma of its own. I am of course talking about Thierry Paulin and Jean-Thierry Mathurin, the monsters of the Montmartre. Enjoy.

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Our tale begins on the breathtakingly beautiful French island of Martinique, in the Caribbean. Thierry Paulin's mother, Rose-Hélène Larcher, was only 17 when she gave birth to him. His father, Gabi Paulin, only stayed with his new family for two days after the birth of his son before leaving.

The very young mother, nicknamed Monette by her friends, quickly found herself unable to provide for the baby's needs on her own. She entrusted the young Thierry to his mother-in-law. The child was only eighteen months old when his grandmother took him in at Hans-Alan, where she ran a restaurant named Maman Jojo by the sea.

Lance Allan was a pretty Martiniquan beach, little frequented by tourists, but where the island's wealthy residents met. Thierry Ponlin's grandmother, kept busy by her restaurant, did not devote much time to the child. However, she cared for the boy as well as she could until he was ten years old. The boy's early childhood was therefore a lonely one.

He felt like no one really cared about him, and no one was giving him advice. He lacked both love and authority. In 1973, Monette, after she had formed a family with a new husband, finally took her son back to her. Thierry Paulin then undoubtedly experienced a short period of happiness. He played on the beach with his half-sisters and liked to care for the flowers in the garden.

However, his schooling was not without problems. He was difficult and violent. One day, when he was not yet twelve, he threatened one of his teachers with a kitchen knife, because he felt the teacher punished him too often. But he also knew how to use his intelligence.

He intercepted the letters sent by the school to inform his mother of the incident and typed a response letter himself on the typewriter, which he authenticated by imitating the signature from his mother. In the family, relations deteriorated. Thierry's stepfather tended more and more to consider the boy as a burden. Monette, who had tracked down Gabi Paulin in France, in Toulouse, decided to get back in touch with him.

Rather than paying child support for the boy, Thierry Paulin's father offered to take him in to learn his trade, plumbing and masonry. The young boy therefore left his mother in the Caribbean for continental France. When he arrived in Toulouse, he found it difficult to integrate into his new family. Gabi, whom he had never seen before, was married and had two children.

Until the age of sixteen, Thierry Ponlin went to high school and barely passed his brevet de tout de premier cycle, which at the time was the high school exams. He then undertook to simultaneously prepare a certificate of apprenticeship in hairdressing, another in mechanics, and auto mechanics at the training center for apprentices in Bordelange.

But a teenager, as often is the case at this age, was more concerned with his moped rides with his friends than with his studies. Him and his friends hung out in cafes or nightclubs, and frequently got tangled up in street fighting and brawls. Thierry Paulin was the only black man in the gang, but he was fully accepted as one of the boys. Increasingly abandoning his studies, he did not pass his exams.

For a while, he made a living selling paintings door to door. Gabi offered to work with him, but Thierry Paulin refused. The father and son relationship became more and more strained. Idle, Thierry resolved to sign up for the armed forces and began his military service in September 1980 in Toulouse,

He first spent a few months at the Prégnon Barracks with the 14th RPCS, a parachute regiment. There, he was assigned to the hair salon. Despite his desire for adventure, the military, not well known for their tolerance towards homosexuality, did not allow him to join a combat company.

Not only the military officers, but his fellow soldiers as well, treated him very poorly due to his open homosexuality. On the 14th of November 1982, while he was on leave, he robbed a grocery store of which he was a regular customer, in Toulouse. He went in and struck up an innocuous conversation with the 75-year-old grocer,

He came out and, ten minutes later, burst into the shop again, his face hidden by a scarf. Threatening the old lady with a butcher's knife, he grabbed the contents of the cash box, which amounted to 1,400 francs, around $894 in today's money. He was barely 19 years old.

Shortly afterwards, he was arrested, thanks to the testimony of the grocer, who had obviously recognized him, and was interned for a week in prison. He was put on record and tried on the 7th of June 1983 by the Toulouse Criminal Court. He received a two-year suspended prison sentence for theft with the use of violence. He told the judge that he had stolen so he could buy the clothes he wanted.

Upon his release, he was kicked out of his army unit. He instead volunteered in the navy in Paris, but that did not work out either. However, he ended up going to the school for marine riflemen in Lorient, from where he was quickly expelled, but not without first becoming a certified seaman, which allowed him to be assigned to the naval airbase at Toussus-les-Nobles in Yvelines.

There he was assigned to mow the lawn. Meanwhile, Monette, Paulin's mother, had also come to France and settled in Nantaghe, on the outskirts of Paris. At the end of his military period, Paulin returned to his family and settled in Paris too.

Not long after settling in Paris, he became intimately familiar with Parisian homosexual circles and managed to get hired at the Paradis Latin, near the Latin Quarter. This was a cabaret for tourists, whose show then gave pride of place to transvestites. Paulin thought he was living his dream. He was finally entering an environment that accepted him.

He was an athletic young man then, always dressed in the latest fashion, a diamond in his hair and sporting a Carl Lewis haircut. He told anyone who wanted to listen that he was a vital part of the Paradis Latin show troupe. In fact, his job was mostly just clearing the tables. It was at the Paradis Latin that he met Jean-Thierry Mathurin.

a Guyanese with a higher rank than him in the hierarchy of the cabaret. The two men quickly felt a great mutual attraction. It is undoubtedly from this time that their dream of opening their own cabaret dates. While waiting for that day, Thierry Paulin performed himself from time to time in a transvestite number at the Rocambol, a nightclub in Villacresne, in the Val de Marne.

One day he even invited his mother to attend the show, but the latter, shocked to see her son disguised as a flamboyant female singer, left before the end of the show. During the brief period that Paulin lived with his mother, there was only conflict and shouting. Not working during the day, he hung around the house, bringing his friends over. The situation quickly became unbearable.

She exploded the day he threatened his mother with death because she refused to sign him a check for a cosmetic surgery operation that would have allowed him to erase a scar on his lip. Mornet notified the police. And so it was that in April 1984, Thierry Paulin found himself on the street. He lodged for a while at Randomly with friends and brief acquaintances.

a little later monnette left nantart for goussainville in the oise thierry paulin had then found temporarily a small rented room on the sixteenth arrondissement where he had an old lady for a neighbour and worked extra shifts at various restaurants and nightclubs

After a while, Paulin and Jean-Thierry Mathurin decided to live together, and settled in a hotel room which cost them 270 francs a night, the equivalent of around 83 dollars in today's money. The hotel was located at Rue Victor-Massé, in the 9th arrondissement, which adjoins the 18th.

The hotel was expensive, and the Pierrot lived a life of luxury with frequent taxi rides, restaurants, and nightclubs. Paulin and his friend became prominent figures of the gay scene. They were at all the trendy parties and blazed up in all the fashionable places. Considering none of them were actually rich, this period of excess did not last.

In the fall of 1984, Paulin, jealous, slapped Mathurin in the middle of a restaurant. He also broke glasses and chairs, overturned the tables and yelled that he wanted to kill his lover. They were immediately thrown out. What followed was a period of no money and unemployment. Not only were they forced to settle for a cheaper room, but they also had to ask their hotel for a credit.

To repay it and simply live, Paulin chose the fastest way. Scams, theft of checkbooks or credit cards, and the all-time favorite around the globe, dealing drugs. The 18th arrondissement in the north of Paris is one of the most characteristic areas in the French capital.

It contains iconic places, such as Montmartre, the Goutte d'Or, Clichy, Barbès, the Place de Tarte, the Butte. It is just as much a meeting place for artists who have succeeded as that of dealers, prostitutes, and petty traffickers of all kinds.

It is a colourful crossroads of civilisations and diverse backgrounds where immigrant families, successful singers and retirees with modest incomes can rub shoulders. On the 5th of October 1984, a 91-year-old lady, Germaine Petiton, was attacked in her home by two men.

In her small apartment on the Roulepick, at the bottom of the Montmartre hill, she was tied up, gagged and beaten before being stripped of her savings. The poor lady was unable to give a description of her attackers. The police recorded the facts and the deposition was added to the already voluminous file which concerned the attacks on the elderly in the 18th arrondissement. Nobody then knew

that this almost banal news item was in fact a failed murder, which marked the beginning of a long series. The same day, in the 9th arrondissement, a neighboring district, Anna Barbier Pontus had less luck than Germaine Petiton. This 83-year-old lady lived alone in her modest apartment on Rue Saulnier. At the end of the morning, she returned home after shopping.

She didn't come out again. In all likelihood, she was pushed inside her home as she opened the door, then beaten and suffocated with a pillow. Her body was discovered a short time later, gagged and bound with curtain cord. The elderly lady had been robbed of around 300 francs, which would be around 112 dollars in today's money.

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never skip therapy day with betterhelp visit betterhelp dot com slash serial killer today to get ten percent off your first month that's betterhelp h e l p dot com slash serial killer four days passed then on the ninth of october firefighters were called to the scene of a fire again in the eighteenth arrondissement

In the half-charred apartment, they discovered the body, bound hands and feet, of 89-year-old Susanna Foucault. This vulnerable lady had been murdered, suffocated by a plastic bag covering her head. They had stolen her watch, worth 300 francs, and 500 francs in cash, in total valuables amounting to around $300 in today's money.

For almost a month, the series of murders seemed to stop. But on Monday, the 5th of November, on Boulevard de Clichy, the body of Iona Secaresco, a 71-year-old retired teacher, was found. She had been beaten to death after being gagged and bound with electric wire.

The death dated back to Saturday, but was only discovered two days later, thanks to children who came to take a private lesson with the old lady. The apartment had been ransacked, the killer or killers had shown incredibly savagery, the poor woman had her nose and jaw fractured, and a scarf was half strangling her. The autopsy revealed that she had had all the ribs on her right side broken.

Ioanna, who invariably went shopping every day around 12.30 p.m., had been followed. This time, the crime had paid off. The assassins had collected 10,000 francs in treasury bonds that Ioanna Saikoresko kept at home. In today's money, this amounted to around $3,700. Two days later, on the 7th of November, still in the 18th arrondissement, a fourth victim was found.

Alice Benaim was discovered, barely two hours after her assassination, by her son, André, who came, like he did every day, to have lunch with his mother. The 84-year-old lady had been punched in the face, beaten and tortured. Her murder or murderers had shown a rare sadism. They had made her swallow caustic soda, no doubt to make her confess where her savings were hidden.

Mouth and throat burned, Alice Benaim had been tied up with electric wire and thrown on her bed, gagged with a towel. Then she had been strangled to death. According to her son, the loot did not exceed 400 or 500 francs, which would be around 150 dollars in today's money. This time, a neighbor warned the press. Within hours, photographers and journalists were on the scene.

The case, unveiled to the public, took on a new dimension. The press devoted many articles to this dark series of murders, which was at the time far from over. The next day, barely twenty meters from the street where Alice Benham lived, eighty-year-old Marie Choi died. It was the nurse who came to treat the old lady at home who found her dead, strangled.

The tortured corpse thrown under the bed was tied up, with wire this time, and gagged with a towel. The autopsy showed, among other abuses, that Marie Choy had had her skull fractured. The assassins had only been able to steal around 300 francs, i.e. around 112 dollars in today's money. The following day, the 9th of November, again, in the 18th arrondissement,

It was 75-year-old Maria Mico Diaz who died, bound hand and foot, suffocated by a cloth. Her body, bearing stab wounds, was discovered by the police on her bed. The scab wounds were a clear indication that she had been tortured in a gruesome manner before being murdered. The amount the robbers managed to get away with was again around 300 francs. It was the sixth murder since the 5th of October.

Less than a week passed, and on the 12th of November, two more bodies were discovered during the same day, one in the 18th arrondissement and the other in the 17th, a nearby district. But the crimes had been perpetrated six and eight days before, respectively. The body of 82-year-old Jeanne Lorrain was found first. She too had been tied up with electric wire

The apartment had been literally devastated, but only cash had been stolen. The old lady lived on the top floor, and her body was discovered by a roofer working on the roof of the building. Four hours later, 800 meters away, the second body of the day was discovered. 77-year-old Paula Victor was found dead, her head in a plastic bag under a pillow.

The police had been alerted thanks to a young neighbor who, on going to the communal toilets, had noticed a strong smell of putrefaction. Between the 5th of October and 9th of November 1984, barely a month, there were eight murders of old ladies in the 18th and in adjoining districts. The newspapers spoke of a killer of old ladies of the 18th.

The politicians began to take serious interest, and the police forces began to canvass the neighborhood. For their part, the investigators made connections. The specialists realized that the motor's operandi was always the same. A climate of fear was gradually invading the capital, and especially the 18th arrondissement.

The population began to protest against the incompetence of the police. Many elderly people, panicked, demanded a more effective deployment of police officers.

Pierre Touraine, director of the Paris police, was instructed to take emergency measures, and the next day, the 13th of November, there was an unprecedented deployment of law enforcement in the 18th arrondissement. In total, 255 officers were dispatched to monitor this tiny perimeter, with a radius of 1,500 meters around the Montmartre hill, where the assassin or assassins were supposed to prowl.

The district was divided into fourteen sectors, and each sector was crisscrossed twenty-four hours a day by patrols of three policemen. Alongside these uniformed police officers, several dozen plainclothes criminal squad inspectors crisscrossed the area as well. But the director of the police was forced to admit that there was almost no serious clue on which to base their investigation.

A few fingerprints had been found at the crime scene, but they weren't enough to provide the identity of a possible suspect. After a few descents into underworld circles, the inspectors acquired the virtual certainty that they were not dealing with an ordinary assassin. The police speculated that the criminal was probably a drug addict or mentally ill.

The 18th arrondissement was in the throes of fear, and a visit from Claude Estier, Minister for Parliament, for the constituency, failed to calm things down. The whole problem of security in Paris was raised. On Friday, the 16th of November, a gathering of elderly people was organized at the town hall of the 18th arrondissement, at the invitation of the mayor. There, about 2,000 people, the room was full.

Despite the reassuring political speeches, the protests and complaints reflected the panic of the public. Meanwhile, at the 18th arrondissement police station, it was full red alert. Requests for information or close protection from old ladies, patrols asked to give various information and advice. The climate of tension was high. The 18th arrondissement was under siege.

Nevertheless, the police still did not manage, at the end of November 1984, to determine the identity of the murderer or murderers, and the investigators issued multiple hypotheses. No clue, no trace allowed the police to better define their field of research. Time passed, and little by little, the terror dissipated in the 18th, since no more crimes bearing the mark of the killer were committed.

The 18th arrondissement, having become a high-risk district for Thierry Paulin and his friend Jean Thierry, both had indeed decided to leave the capital for a while in favor of the city where Paulin had spent part of his adolescence, Toulouse. There, staying temporarily with Paulin's father, they tried to live normally. Paulin returned to the neighborhood of his adolescence and reconnected with his old friends.

Mathouane and he displayed themselves in the gay clubs of Toulouse and ostentatiously spent large sums of money. But the years that had passed had not helped to resolve the family quarrels. Arguments flared up again between Paulin and his father, and Paulin's now manifest homosexuality did not help matters. The couple he formed with Mathouane also experienced difficulties and gradually deteriorated.

They ended up separating. Mathurin returning to Paris, Thierry Paulin continued his nightlife alone. Seduced for a long time by the entertainment world, Thierry Paulin was thinking more and more about creating his own musical numbers. He was actively involved in it.

He continued to take care of his image, and according to a method which he continued to apply in Parisian evenings, he offered champagne and cocaine generously in an attempt to gain friends, real or not. It was at this same time that Poulain tried to launch the quote-unquote Transform Star, a transvestite show agency.

It is still unknown today how Paulin was able to gather enough money and connections to start a project of such magnitude. The launch of a commercial company, even a modest one, requires many steps, guarantees of all kinds, and an initial investment. Despite his efforts, the venture failed.

Toulouse definitely did not offer success for Thierry Paulin, and the young man decided to return to Paris, still lulled by his ideas of glory.

a year had passed since the twelfth of november nineteen eighty four and the police at thirty six k de orfeu were considering multiple hypotheses the series of murders in the eighteenth a had come to a halt and nothing allowed investigators to track the murderer or murderers

With this would all change when, on the 20th of December, 1985, in the 14th arrondissement this time, the discovery of the body of 91-year-old lady Estelle Dunjoux, strangled in her home, revived the case. Less than a fortnight later, on the 4th of January, 1986,

77-year-old Andrea L'Adam, 77, suffered the same fate a few meters away. After a short five-day break, 83-year-old Yvonne Couronne was surprised and murdered at her home on Rue Saret. These three crimes were perpetrated within a radius of 400 meters around the church of Alésia in the 14th arrondissement.

Each time the same scenario repeated itself. The old lady was followed from the street to her landing, then pushed inside her apartment at the precise moment she opened the door, only to then be suffocated or strangled immediately. The sadistic component characteristic of the murders of the 18th Agondissement, the gratuitous violence shown by the killer or killers until then, seemed to have disappeared.

The reason for this is that this time Paulin acted alone, and Mathurin was by far the more violent of the pair. In his new series of murders, the murderer operated with less savagery. He no longer tortured and proceeded more quickly, immediately strangling his victims or suffocating them under quilts, mattresses, or pillows.

however the shadow of the killer of the eighteenth arrondissement hovered over this second dark series and for the elderly things were clear the perimeter of fear had simply changed neighborhoods on the twelfth of january nineteen eighty six two women were found dead in their homes

81-year-old Margem Durblum at Rue Pelay in the 11th arrondissement and 83-year-old François Wendom, a widow on the Rue de Charenton in the 12th arrondissement. Both were strangled to death. Three days later, 77-year-old Yvonne Chablais was discovered dead in the 5th arrondissement.

After more than 60 arrests, without results from quote-unquote suspicious circles, aka drug addicts, traffickers, the mentally ill and more, the investigators were on the verge of despair. However, it was towards the end of January 1986 that the police, for the first time since the beginning of the case, took a big step forward.

The painstaking work of fingerprint matching, which at the time was not yet computerized, finally paid off. Fingerprints taken from the scene of several crimes committed in 1984 were indeed identical to several other sets of fingerprints taken from the scene of the last crimes.

This is how the police were able to ensure that at least the same man, without prejudging the probable accomplices, had been present during three fatal attacks in 1984, one in 1985, and three in 1986. This discovery changed the course of the investigation. The police now had three elements, a set of fingerprints, a motive, i.e. the theft of cash,

and well-defined modus operandi. Despite the new panic that gripped the capital, the investigators regained their confidence. Discover Hydro, the best-kept secret in fitness. Hydro is the state-of-the-art at-home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivers

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And with that, we come to the end of part one in this French saga of serial murder.

Next episode will continue the saga, so as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. What follows is a message to my dear Norwegian listeners in Norwegian. I mean that my Norwegian-language podcast Seriemultipodden is available to listen to both on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other places you listen to podcasts, as they say in Radio Land. Follow along.