Thierry Paulin & Jean-Thierry Mathurin | The Monsters of the Montmartre - Part 2
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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 207. I am your humble host, Thomas Roseland Weyborg Thun. And tonight, we continue our voyage on the River of Blood, courtesy of Killers Paulin and Mathurin. We bring our tale to a close at the end, so I hope you enjoy our time together this chilly autumn evening.

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Our tale continues on the 31st of January 1986, when 76-year-old Virginie Labrette was found dead in her apartment on the 12th arrondissement. The police organized a large-scale operation in the anthill of the Parisian underworld, as well as performing raids in the bars of Pigalle. Despite their efforts, the killers remained on the loose.

During this entire period, when he was not out partying, Thierry Paulin worked in a multi-service agency called Frulati. Having become known as a guy with connections, Paulin was responsible for finding contracts for the agency's freelance photographers, models and illustrators.

Quite quickly, he became the handyman that his boss did not hesitate to send to people he wanted intimidated. But the agency, created by an inexperienced business school student, went bankrupt in May 1986, after a party that created enormous debts. Thierry Poulin was once again cast adrift, with no job and no prospects to speak of.

On the 14th of June 1986, again in the 14th arrondissement, an eighth murder after Paula's return from the Riviera put the nerves of the police to the test. Ludmilla Lieberman, an American widow, was surprised and killed by her attacker as she returned home.

This brought the number of crimes committed following the same scenario since the winter of 1984 to a staggering sixteen. Two months then passed without any new murders being committed. The criminal squad bossed by then no longer naive enough to hope that the killer or killers were behind bars already or dead.

Indeed, in August 1986, unhappy because a bag of cocaine did not contain the announced dose, Ponlin went to Alfordville to see the trafficker who had supplied it to him. He threatened him with a shotgun and beat him to an inch of his life with a baseball bat. The dealer was so badly mistreated that he ended up filing a complaint with the police.

Olaj was arrested and sentenced to 16 months in prison for violent theft and drug offenses. Before being incarcerated in Fresn, he was registered and his fingerprints were taken.

Considering that the fingerprints taken from various crime scenes, it is odd that Paulin was not stopped then and there. But there are circumstances that explain why the police did not make the link between Thierry Paulin, arrested as a small-time suburban robber, and the Parisian murderer of the old ladies.

As the computer resources available to the police were still very limited at that time, the comparison of the prints was done file by file. Excessively long and meticulous work was accomplished on 150,000 files, but this work focused exclusively on suspects on file in Paris. The overlap was therefore not obvious.

For more than a year, no other murders bearing the killer's signature were committed. However, Paulin did not have to serve his entire sentence. He left Fresnes prison after 12 months. Towards the end of summer of 1987, newly released, Thierry Paulin reconnected with his old acquaintances and resumed his night owl life.

Still determined to organize parties, he began to update his address book. He began frequenting the nightclubs and gay bars of the Le Halle district again, appearing here and there more exuberant than ever. Paulin often frequented Le Palas, a famous nightclub located at Rue du Faubourg in Montmartre in Paris.

always charming and polite paulin spent lavishly during these evenings he paid cash and left very large tips sometimes he would come every evening for a week then disappear for a month only to reappear several evenings in a row always anxious to attract sympathy and adoration

and pursuing his ambitious dreams. He trumpeted to anyone who would listen to him that he was setting up a modeling agency. Thierry Paulin hadn't killed for a while, but still squandered large sums of money in front of everyone. Moreover, he had never stolen from his victims the sums necessary for such a lifestyle. As with many psychopaths, Paulin was a criminal through and through.

If money was tight, he had several options. He dealt drugs, used stolen credit cards, killed old ladies and took their money. The possibilities were almost endless for a man without a conscience. The key to Paulin's financial success lay in the confidence he demonstrated. The little thug from Toulouse had become a trendy outlaw who had bleached his hair and wore an earring.

Several months passed, and suddenly the nightmare began anew in the City of Light. On the 25th of November, 1987, Rachel Cohen, 79 years old, was murdered at her home on the 10th arrondissement, and the same day, about 100 meters away, Miss Finnalte-Herry, 87 years old, was left for dead by her attacker, suffocated under a mattress.

Two days later, still in the 10th arrondissement, 73-year-old Genevieve Germon was strangled to death at 22 Rue Caen. Paulin used the weekend following the murders to celebrate his 24th birthday. On Saturday, the 28th, in the evening, he sumptuously entertained his friends at the Toctour

an establishment in the lehal district where he had worked as a waiter in nineteen eighty five the three rooms of the restaurant were reserved for around fifty guests to whom he had addressed elegant invitation cards the young man had neglected no detail and spent the evening trying to impress his guests

He had invited his lawyer, Maître Page, as well as all the nocturnal fauna that he now regularly encountered. The bill had been paid in advance, and in cash. The refined menu was washed down with champagne. Paulin was, as usual, very elegant, in a black suit, white shirt, and tie.

The next evening, Polin again invited around twenty people to another restaurant, this time in Pigalle, at a place called the Minou Tango. On Monday again, he exhibited himself in a long grey coat at the New Copa, a large African club frequented by black diplomats stationed in Paris. He did not yet know that this night was the last he would spend in freedom.

Indeed, the strange resemblance of the latest crimes to the previous murders had not escaped the police. Without waiting to compare possible fingerprints, they reacted by mobilizing all the neighborhood police stations. The criminal brigade had a major advantage. Madame Finalterie had survived. Once recovered, she provided an excellent description of her attacker.

A tall boy, six feet tall, mixed race, with bleached hair and wearing an earring. This type of physique was not very common nearly 40 years ago in Paris. The sketch drawn up based on this information was immediately distributed to all police stations in Paris.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. And so it was that on Tuesday, the 1st of December 1987, about 10 meters from the Port Saint-Denis police station, in the 10th arrondissement,

Commissioner Jacob was chatting with some local shopkeepers in the street, the sketch of the killer in his pocket. He was in the middle of a conversation when his eyes met those of a passerby, a mixed-race young man with a sporty appearance and bleached hair. Trusting his instincts as much as his experience, he went to ask the young man for his identity papers. It was Thierry Paulin.

He undoubtedly hoped to get away with it again, but the photo of the identity card that he presented did not correspond to his current appearance and aroused the suspicions of the commissioner. Taken to the premises of the Porte Saint-Denis police station for a routine check, Thierry Paulin did not put up any resistance.

Convinced that he was suspected of taking drugs, he showed his arms, on which there were in fact no marks of injections, and demanded to speak to a lawyer. For his part, Commissioner Jacob discovered that his suspect had already been arrested for drug offences. He then telephoned the head of the Banditry Repression Brigade and the head of the Criminal Brigade responsible for the quote-unquote Killer of All Ladies file.

The BRB police officers took Paulin to the judicial identification offices to check his fingerprints and compare them with those of the old lady's murderer. Quickly, Paulin's responsibility for at least part of the murders was no longer in doubt for the police. Then began the 48 hours of police custody at the criminal brigade at the Quai des Enfereurs Vaux.

For forty-three hours, Paulin was questioned relentlessly. He quickly confessed to more than twenty murders to the ten police officers from the BRB and the criminal brigade whom he had to face. Thierry Paulin recounted the first crimes and all those that followed, sometimes confusing the dates and names of the victims. During his confession, he showed no sign of remorse, and the whole affair did not seem to bother him much at all.

he was apparently incapable of measuring the terrible gravity of the crimes with which he was accused as if he considered that a human life weighed neither more nor less than that of an insect he did not hesitate to explain in detail to the police how he operated

sporting old ladies in the markets or in the street, following them to their homes, occasionally trying to strike up a conversation to ease their suspicion. The commissioner responsible for the investigation at the criminal brigade was deeply shocked by the fact that the killer had forced Alice Benheim to swallow caustic soda.

To motivate himself to carry out his investigation to the best of his abilities, no matter how long it took, he had kept the container of caustic soda in his office, close to him. When he questioned Thierry Paulin after his arrest about this horrific murder, the young man initially denied everything outright. The commissioner persisted, but Paulin did not want to admit anything.

He then took out the container of caustic soda from under his desk and placed it violently under Paula's nose, shouting, and here I quote, "'And that? You don't remember that either?' end quote. Distraught, Paula instinctively responded, and again I quote, "'I know, that's not me. It's Jean Thierry,' end quote."

Very quickly, Paulin gave up Jean Thierry Matourin as being his accomplice and gave his address. Matourin was immediately arrested in the 14th arrondissement at the home of a transvestite he met while working at Paradis Latin. Matourin admitted without much difficulty to having participated in the murders in the 18th arrondissement.

and mathurin were referred a few hours later to the public prosecutor's office it was judge philippe jonin who was responsible for investigating the case as of thursday the third of december he indicted thierry paulin for murder and aggravated theft

Although the young man admitted to having perpetrated more than twenty murders, the magistrates began by retaining only eighteen against him, and requested additional information about three other crimes which remained obscure. Indeed, the killer's modus operandi differed in three cases where bladed weapons had been used.

The 18 murders held against Paulin were those where the victims had been suffocated or strangled. The investigation into this case attracted the full attention of public opinion. Judge Janine studied the past lives of Paulin and his acolytes in the smallest details. Confronted with each other, the two men refused to speak to each other.

To avoid having to pronounce Paulin's name, Mathurin only referred to his former friend as quote-unquote the other. Thierry Paulin, rather calm and smiling, tried to make Mathurin take on most of the responsibility. Paulin was incarcerated at the Fiori Merogi remand center.

He had to be isolated on the fourth floor of the new building, where prisoners who wanted to be kept away from other inmates for their own safety were locked up. In prison, Paulin only thought about improving his image, unaware of the seriousness of the acts with which he was accused. As in the past, he carefully cultivated his clothing.

He cut his hair and had his earring removed, but he was able to keep two bags of clothes containing several pairs of pants, a suit cut like a tuxedo, white shirts and bow ties. Concerned about keeping them in good condition, he even asked his mother to wash his clothes for him.

finally famous theirry polin seemed little concerned by the sad reasons for this notoriety and behaved like an actual star immersed in the press he collected articles about himself going so far as to borrow money from his mother to be able to buy everything at no time did he think of organizing his defense

He began by blaming his mother for his unhappy childhood, then turned his hatred against his former friends who, he said, had betrayed him. He denied what the press said about him, was offended that they called him a monster, suggested that they were attacking him because he knew a lot of compromising things about a lot of people. It was in such circumstances that Polin reconnected with his mother.

On the 12th of December, Monnette and two of Paulin's half-sisters came to visit him in the Fiori-Merogi visiting room. Becoming emotional for the first time in a very long time, he promised his mother to pray and to get a Bible. During this time, Jean-Tragary Maturin was incarcerated at La Santé prison.

He was not isolated, but shared his cell with another inmate. He read literature and seemed to want to prepare for academic studies. A few months later, Thierry Paulin suffered from depression. This was, at least, the first diagnosis. In fact, it quickly became clear that Thierry Paulin was suffering from AIDS, and that the first effects of the terrible disease were beginning to be felt.

His condition worsened suddenly a year after his arrest. Shortly after, on the 10th of March 1989, Hollin was rushed to the hospital. Soon he fell into a coma. He was transferred to the Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris. Treated with antibiotics, he fought against tuberculosis and meningitis, consequences of his weakened immune system.

Thierry Paulin died on the night of Sunday to Monday, the 16th of April 1989, at the Fresno Prison Hospital, where he was finally transported. He was 26 years old. Jean-Thierry Mathurin was tried in 1991 and found guilty of nine of the murders of old ladies. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years.

However, he was granted semi-release in January 2009 at the end of his prison sentence. He has, surprisingly, considering the barbarity of his crimes, been on parole since 2012. This tale of serial murder is, as I began by saying in the last episode, quite unknown here in the English-speaking West. But the victims were real.

The sheer number and brutality of the crime warrants extra attention. To honor those who were killed by the monsters of the Montmartre, I will now read out their names. Germaine Petiton, Anna Barbier Pontus, Susanne Foucault, Iona Saicaresco, Alice Benahim, Marie Choi, Maria Miko Diaz, Jean Laurent,

Paul Victor, Estelle Donjou, André Ladam, Yvonne Corron, Margem Jourblom, Françoise Vendome, Yvonne Chaiblet, Virginie Labrette, Ludmilla Leiberman, Rachel Cohen, Mademoiselle Finaltieri, Genevieve Germont.

And with that, we come to the end of this unique French saga of serial murder. Next episode, we'll feature a fresh new serial killer expose. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. What follows is a message to my dear Norwegian listeners in Norwegian.

I remind you 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 Radioland. Follow along.

Forever!

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