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1:04

Welcome to the serial killer

1:07

podcast, the podcast

1:09

dedicated to serial killers, who

1:11

they were, what they did and how

1:14

episode 207.

1:17

I am your humble host Thomas

1:19

Rosland Weiborg Thun and

1:22

tonight we continue our voyage

1:25

on the river of blood courtesy of

1:27

killers Paula and Mathura.

1:31

We bring our tale to a close at the end.

1:33

So I hope you enjoy our time together

1:36

this chilly autumn evening. This

1:41

episode, like all other sagas told

1:43

by me, would not be possible without

1:45

my loyal Patreons.

1:47

They are Lisbeth, Cassandra,

1:50

Russell, Lisa, Cody, Kathy,

1:53

James, Corbyn, Kylie, Niao,

1:55

Sabina, Val, Madeline, Craig,

1:58

Emily, Missy, Jonathan, and I.

3:54

as

4:00

well as performing raids

4:02

in the bars of Pigal.

4:04

Despite their efforts,

4:06

the killers remained on the loose.

4:10

During this entire period, when he

4:13

was not out partying,

4:15

Thierry Polin worked

4:17

in a multi-service agency called

4:20

Frulati.

4:22

Having become known as a guy with connections,

4:25

Polin was responsible for finding

4:27

contracts for the agency's freelance

4:30

photographers, models and illustrators.

4:33

Quite quickly, he became the handyman

4:36

that his boss did not hesitate to send

4:38

to people he wanted intimidated.

4:43

But the agency, created by an inexperienced

4:46

business school student, went bankrupt

4:48

in May 1986, after

4:51

a party that created enormous

4:53

debts.

4:54

Thierry Polin was once again

4:57

cast adrift, with no job

4:59

and no prospects to speak

5:01

of.

5:03

On the 14th of June 1986, again

5:07

in the 14th Argon des Amos,

5:10

an eighth murder, after

5:12

Polin's return from the Riviera,

5:15

put the nerves of the police to the test.

5:18

Ludmilla Lieberman, an

5:20

American widow, was surprised

5:22

and killed by her attacker

5:24

as she returned home.

5:27

This brought a number of crimes committed

5:30

following the same scenario since the

5:32

winter of 1984

5:33

to a staggering 16.

5:39

Two months then passed without

5:41

any new murders being committed.

5:44

The criminal squad boss by then

5:46

no longer naive enough to hope

5:48

that the killer or killers were

5:51

behind bars already or dead. Indeed,

5:53

in August 1986,

5:54

unhappy

5:58

because a bag of cocaine did not contain

6:01

the announced dose, Pola

6:04

went to Alfordville to see

6:06

the trafficker who had supplied it to him.

6:09

He threatened him with a shotgun

6:11

and beat him to an inch of his life

6:14

with a baseball bat.

6:16

The dealer was so badly mistreated

6:18

that he ended up filing a complaint with

6:21

the police.

6:24

Pola was arrested and sentenced to 16

6:26

months in prison for violent

6:29

theft and drug offenses. Before

6:31

being incarcerated in Fresn, he

6:34

was registered and his fingerprints

6:37

were taken. Considering

6:41

that the fingerprints taken

6:44

from various crime scenes,

6:47

it is odd that Pola

6:49

was not stopped then and there. But

6:52

there are circumstances that

6:54

explain why the police did not make

6:56

the link between Thierry Polin

6:59

arrested as a small-time suburban robber

7:02

and the Parisian murderer of the old

7:04

ladies. As the computer

7:06

resources available to the police were still

7:08

very limited at that time, the

7:11

comparison of the prints was

7:13

done file by file. Excessively

7:17

long and meticulous work was

7:19

accomplished on 150,000 files, but this work focused

7:25

exclusively on suspects on file

7:27

in Paris. The overlap

7:30

was therefore not obvious.

7:34

For more than a year,

7:35

no other murders bearing the killer's

7:38

signature were committed.

7:40

However, Pola did not have

7:42

to serve his entire sentence. He

7:44

left Fresn a prison after 12 months. Towards

7:49

the end of summer of 1987, newly

7:52

released, Thierry Pola

7:55

reconnected with his old acquaintances

7:57

and resumed his night out.

8:00

life. Still

8:02

determined to organize parties,

8:05

he began to update his address book. He

8:08

began frequenting the nightclubs and

8:10

gay bars of the L'Haul district

8:12

again, appearing here and there,

8:15

more exuberant than ever. Polain

8:18

often frequented Les Palace, a

8:21

famous nightclub located at the Houdou

8:23

for Bogue,

8:24

in Montmartre, in Paris.

8:27

Always charming and polite, Polain

8:30

spent lavishly during these evenings.

8:33

He paid cash and left

8:35

very large tips. Sometimes

8:38

he would come every evening for a week, then

8:41

disappear for a month only

8:43

to reappear several evenings in a row.

8:47

Always anxious to attract sympathy and

8:50

adoration and pursuing

8:52

his ambitious dreams, he trumpeted

8:55

to anyone who would listen to him that

8:57

he was setting up a modeling agency.

9:01

Thierry Polain hadn't killed

9:03

for a while, but still squandered

9:06

large sums of money in front

9:08

of everyone.

9:09

Moreover,

9:10

he had never stolen from his victims

9:13

the sums necessary for such a lifestyle.

9:16

As with many psychopaths, Polain

9:18

was a criminal through and through.

9:21

If money was tight, he had several

9:23

options.

9:24

He dealt drugs,

9:26

used stolen credit cards, killed

9:28

old ladies and took their money. The possibilities

9:31

were almost endless for a man

9:34

without a conscience. The

9:37

key to Polain's financial success

9:40

lay in the confidence he demonstrated.

9:42

The little thug from Toulouse

9:45

had become a trendy outlaw who

9:47

had bleached his hair and wore an

9:49

earring. Several

9:53

months passed and suddenly the nightmare

9:55

began anew in the City of Light.

9:59

In November 1987, Rachel

10:02

Cohen, 79 years old,

10:04

was murdered at her home on the 10th Agrondissement

10:08

and the same day, about 100 meters

10:10

away, Miss Finaltieri, 87

10:13

years old, was

10:15

left for dead by her attacker, suffocated

10:17

under a mattress. Two

10:20

days later, still in the 10th

10:22

Agrondissement, 73 years

10:25

old Genevieve Germain

10:27

was strangled to death at 22 Ull Pale. Pollan

10:33

used the weekend following the murders

10:36

to celebrate his 24th birthday. On

10:40

Saturday, the 28th in

10:42

the evening, he sumptuously entertained

10:44

his friends at the Toc-Tour,

10:48

an establishment in the L'Haul

10:50

district where he had worked as a waiter

10:52

in 1985. The

10:55

three rooms of the restaurants were

10:57

reserved for around 50 guests,

11:00

to whom he had addressed elegant

11:02

invitation cards.

11:04

The young man had neglected no detail

11:07

and spent the evening trying to impress

11:09

his guests. He had invited

11:11

his lawyer, Mett Rapage, as

11:14

well as all the nocturnal fauna

11:16

that he now regularly encountered. The

11:19

bill had been paid in advance and

11:22

in cash. The refined

11:24

menu was washed down with champagne.

11:27

Pollan was, as usual, very

11:30

elegant, in a black suit, white

11:32

shirt and tie.

11:35

The next evening, Pollan again invited

11:38

around 20 people to another

11:40

restaurant, this time in Pigal,

11:43

at a place called the Minutango.

11:46

On Monday again, he exhibited

11:48

himself in a long grey coat

11:51

at the New Copa, a large African

11:54

club frequented by black diplomats

11:56

stationed in Paris. He

11:58

did not yet know...

11:59

that this night was the last

12:02

he would spend

12:03

in freedom.

12:06

Indeed, the strange resemblance

12:08

of the latest crimes to the previous murders

12:11

had not escaped the police.

12:14

Without waiting to compare possible fingerprints,

12:17

they reacted by mobilizing all

12:19

the neighborhood police stations.

12:21

The criminal brigade had a major advantage.

12:25

Madame Finalterri had

12:28

survived. Once

12:30

recovered, she provided an excellent

12:32

description of her attacker. A

12:34

tall boy, six feet tall,

12:37

mixed race, with bleached hair,

12:39

and wearing an earring. This

12:43

type of physique was not very

12:46

common nearly forty years ago in Paris.

12:49

The sketch drawn up based on this

12:51

information was immediately distributed

12:54

to all police stations in Paris.

12:57

Whether you're driving to work, biking

13:00

to a friend's place, or on the way

13:02

to your next vacation,

13:03

Amazon Music has your true crime picks

13:06

covered. As an Amazon Prime member,

13:08

you have access to ad-free top podcasts.

13:11

To start listening, download the Amazon

13:13

Music app or visit amazon.com

13:15

slash onthegotruecrime. That's

13:18

amazon.com slash onthegotruecrime.

13:20

And listen to your favorite podcasts on the

13:22

go.

13:27

So it was that on Tuesday,

13:30

the first of December, 1987, about ten meters from the Porte

13:32

Saint-Denis police

13:36

station, in the Tenth Agondizemo,

13:39

Commissioner Jacob was chatting

13:42

with some local shopkeepers in

13:44

the street, the sketch

13:46

of the killer in his pocket. He

13:49

was in the middle of a conversation when his

13:51

eyes met those of a passer-by,

13:53

a mixed-race young

13:55

man with a sporty appearance

13:58

and bleached hair. Trusting

14:00

his instincts as much as his experience,

14:03

he went to ask the young man for his identity

14:06

papers.

14:08

It was Thierry-Hola.

14:12

He undoubtedly hoped to get away with

14:14

it again, but the photo

14:16

of the identity card that he presented

14:19

did not correspond to his current appearance

14:22

and aroused the suspicions of

14:24

the commissioner. Taken to

14:27

the premises of the Pocht-St. Denis

14:29

police station for a routine check,

14:32

Thierry-Hola did not put up

14:34

any resistance.

14:36

Convinced

14:37

that he was suspected of taking drugs,

14:39

he showed his arms, on which

14:42

there were in fact no marks of injections,

14:44

and demanded to speak to a lawyer.

14:48

For

14:48

his part, Commissioner Jacob

14:50

discovered that his suspects had already

14:53

been arrested for drug offenses. He

14:56

then telephoned the head of the Banditry

14:58

repression brigade and the head

15:00

of the criminal brigade responsible for

15:03

the quote-unquote killer of all ladies' file.

15:07

The BRB police officers took

15:09

Polan to the judicial

15:12

identification offices to check

15:14

his fingerprints and compare them with

15:17

those of the old ladies' murderer. Quickly,

15:20

Polan's responsibility for at

15:22

least part of the murders

15:24

was no longer in doubt for the police.

15:29

Then began the 48 hours

15:31

of police custody at the criminal brigade,

15:33

at the Quai des Enferez-Vos.

15:36

For 43 hours Polan

15:38

was questioned relentlessly. He

15:41

quickly confessed to more than 20 murders

15:44

to the 10 police officers from the BRB

15:47

and the criminal brigade whom he had

15:49

to face. Thierry

15:51

Polan recounted the first crimes

15:54

and all those that followed, sometimes

15:57

confusing the dates and names of the victims.

16:01

During his confession, he showed no sign

16:03

of remorse, and the whole affair

16:05

did not seem to bother him much at all. He

16:08

was apparently incapable of measuring

16:11

the terrible gravity of the

16:13

crimes with which he was accused,

16:16

as if he considered that the human life

16:19

weighed neither more nor less than

16:21

that of an insect.

16:23

He did not hesitate to explain in detail

16:26

to the police how he operated,

16:28

sporting old ladies in the markets

16:30

or in the street, following them

16:32

to their homes, occasionally

16:34

trying to strike up a conversation

16:37

to ease their suspicion. The

16:41

commissioner responsible for the investigation

16:44

at the criminal brigade

16:45

was deeply shocked by the

16:48

fact that the killer

16:49

had forced Alice Ben-Aime

16:52

to swallow caustic soda. To

16:55

motivate himself to carry out his

16:57

investigation to the best of his abilities,

17:00

no matter how long it took, he

17:02

had kept the container of caustic

17:04

soda in his office close

17:06

to him. When

17:08

he questioned Tiaghui Pola after

17:11

his arrest about this horrific murder,

17:13

the young man initially denied everything

17:16

outright. The commissioner

17:18

persisted,

17:19

but Pola did not want to admit

17:21

anything.

17:22

He then took out the container of caustic

17:25

soda from under his desk

17:27

and placed it violently under Pola's

17:29

nose,

17:30

shouting, and here I quote,

17:33

On that you don't remember that

17:35

either.

17:36

End quote.

17:38

Distraught, Pola instinctively

17:40

responded, and

17:41

again I quote,

17:43

I know that's not me, it's

17:45

Jean Tiaghui. End quote.

17:49

Very quickly, Pola gave up

17:51

Jean Tiaghui Matoukwan as

17:54

being his accomplice and gave his

17:56

address. Matoukwan

17:58

was immediately arrested and the

18:00

14th arrondissement at the home of

18:02

a transvestite he met while

18:05

working at Paradis Latin.

18:08

Mathurin admitted without much difficulty

18:10

to having participated in the murders

18:13

in the 18th arrondissement. Holain

18:15

and Mathurin were referred

18:17

a few hours later to the public

18:19

prosecutor's office.

18:22

It was Judge Philippe Jeanin

18:25

who was responsible for investigating the case.

18:27

As of Thursday the

18:30

3rd of December he indicted

18:32

Thiaghi Palat for murder

18:35

and aggravated theft. Although

18:37

the young man admitted to having perpetrated

18:39

more than 20 murders, the

18:42

magistrates began by

18:44

retaining only 18 against him and requested

18:47

additional information about three

18:50

other crimes which remained obscure.

18:53

Indeed, the killer's motives of Randai

18:57

differed in three cases where

18:59

bladed weapons had been used. The 18

19:02

murders held against Palat were those

19:05

where the victims had been suffocated or

19:07

strangled. The

19:10

investigation into this case attracted

19:12

the full attention of public

19:15

opinion. Judge Jeanin

19:17

studied the past lives of Palat

19:19

and his acolytes in the smallest

19:22

details. Confronted

19:24

with each other, the two men refused

19:27

to speak to each other. To avoid

19:30

having to pronounce Palat's name,

19:33

Mathurin only referred to his former

19:35

friend as

19:36

quote-unquote the other.

19:39

Thiaghi Palat, rather calm

19:41

and smiling,

19:42

tried to make Mathurin take

19:45

on most of the responsibility.

19:48

Palat was incarcerated at the Thiaghi

19:51

Merojie Remond Center.

19:54

He had to be isolated on the fourth floor

19:56

of the new building where prisoners

19:59

who wanted to be kept away from other inmates,

20:01

for

20:01

their own safety were locked up.

20:05

In prison, Polan only thought

20:07

about improving his image,

20:10

unaware of the seriousness of

20:12

the acts with which he was accused.

20:16

As in the past, he carefully

20:18

cultivated his clothing,

20:20

cut his hair, and

20:21

had his earring removed, but

20:24

he was able to keep two bags of clothes

20:26

containing several pairs of pants,

20:29

a suit cut like a tuxedo,

20:31

white shirts, and bowties. Concerned

20:34

about keeping them in good condition, he

20:37

even asked his mother to wash

20:39

his clothes for him. Finally

20:44

famous, Thierry Polan seemed

20:46

little concerned by the sad

20:49

reasons for this notoriety

20:51

and behaved like an actual star.

20:54

Immersed in the press, he

20:56

collected articles about himself,

20:59

going so far as to borrow money from his

21:01

mother to be able to buy everything.

21:04

No time did he think of organizing

21:06

his defense. He began

21:08

by blaming his mother for his unhappy

21:11

childhood, then turned

21:13

his hatred against his former friends, who,

21:15

he said, had betrayed him.

21:18

He denied what the press said about him, was

21:20

offended that they called him a monster,

21:22

suggested that they were attacking

21:25

him because he knew a lot of compromising

21:27

things about a lot of people.

21:32

It was in such circumstances

21:34

that Polan reconnected with

21:36

his mother. On the 12th of December,

21:39

Monet and two of Polan's half-sisters

21:42

came to visit him in the Thierry

21:45

Merojie visiting room.

21:48

Becoming emotional for the first time

21:50

in a very long time, he

21:52

promised his mother to pray and

21:54

to get a Bible.

21:57

During this time, Jean Théri-Grieu

21:59

Matron, was incarcerated

22:01

at La Santé prison. He

22:04

was not isolated but shared his cell

22:06

with another inmate.

22:07

He read literature

22:09

and seemed to want to prepare for

22:11

academic studies.

22:14

A few months later Thierry

22:15

Polin suffered

22:17

from depression. This was

22:20

at least the first diagnosis.

22:22

In fact,

22:24

it quickly became clear that Thierry

22:26

Polin was suffering from AIDS

22:29

and that the first effects

22:31

of the terrible disease were beginning

22:34

to be felt.

22:36

His condition worsened suddenly a year

22:39

after his arrest.

22:40

Shortly after, on the 10th of

22:42

March 1989,

22:45

Polin was rushed to the hospital.

22:47

Soon he fell into a coma. He

22:50

was transferred to the Claude

22:52

Bernard Hospital in Paris. Treated

22:55

with antibiotics,

22:57

he fought against tuberculosis and

22:59

meningitis, consequences of

23:01

his weakened immune system.

23:04

Thierry Polin died on the nights

23:07

of Sunday to Monday,

23:09

the 16th of April 1989 at the Fresne

23:13

Prison Hospital where he was finally

23:15

transported.

23:17

He was 26 years old.

23:22

Jean Thierry Matherin was

23:24

tried in 1991 and found guilty of 9 of the murders

23:26

of old ladies.

23:31

He was sentenced to life in prison with

23:33

a minimum term of 18 years. However, he was

23:37

granted semi-release

23:40

in January 2009 at

23:42

the end of his prison sentence. He

23:45

has, surprisingly, considering

23:48

the barbarity of his crimes,

23:50

been on parole since 2012. This

23:55

tale of serial murder is, as

23:58

I began by saying in the last video, a very important episode

24:01

quite unknown here in the English

24:03

speaking west.

24:05

But the victims were real,

24:07

the sheer number and brutality

24:10

of the crime warrants extra

24:12

attention.

24:13

To honor those who were killed by

24:16

the monsters of the Montmartre,

24:18

I will now read out their names.

24:22

Germaine Petitian

24:24

Anna Barbier Pontus

24:27

Susanna Foucault

24:29

Iona Saikaresco

24:32

Alice Benaim Marie

24:34

Choi Maria

24:37

Mikko Diaz

24:39

Jean Laurent

24:41

Paul Victor

24:44

Estelle D'Angieux

24:46

Andrei Ladam

24:49

Yvonne Coron Majem

24:53

Jurblum Transwas

24:56

Vendome

24:58

Yvonne Shibley

25:01

Virginia Labrat Ludmilla

25:04

Laberman

25:06

Rachel Cohen

25:08

Mademoiselle Finaltieri

25:12

Genevieve Jarmot

25:17

And with that we come to the end

25:19

of this unique French saga

25:21

of serial murder.

25:23

Next episode will feature a

25:25

fresh new serial killer expose.

25:28

So as they say in the land of radio,

25:31

stay tuned.

25:34

What follows is a message to my dear

25:36

Norwegian listeners in Norwegian. Hello

25:40

everyone, my name is

26:03

Whether you're driving to work, biking to

26:05

a friend's place, or on the way to your

26:08

next vacation, Amazon Music

26:10

has your true crime fix covered. As

26:12

an Amazon Prime member, you have access to

26:14

ad-free top podcasts. To start

26:17

listening, download the Amazon Music app

26:19

or visit amazon.com slash onthegotruecrime.

26:23

That's amazon.com slash onthegotruecrime.

26:26

And listen to your favorite podcasts on the

26:28

go.