All language subtitles for Worlds.Most.Evil.Killers.S01E07.English

-In the autumn of 1984,
in Paris, France,

two men embarked
on a brutal crime spree.

In just six weeks, they attacked
nine elderly women

in their homes,

intent on taking their money
and their lives.

-It was a spree,
without any doubt,

and a spree
of the most murderous kind.

-21-year-old Thierry Paulin

and his partner,
Jean-Thierry Mathurin,

tortured their victims,
even killing one of the women

by making her drink
drain cleaner.

-I must admit that when I
studied the case files,

the photos and pictures
were awful.

It was difficult,
very difficult.

-But after the couple split,

it was Paulin who went on
to become even more prolific,

eventually confessing
to killing 21 women,

when he was arrested
in December 1987.

-He really was the worst
criminal I have ever seen

in the course
of my long career, the worst.

-Thierry Paulin had
undeniably become

one of the world's
most evil killers.

♪

♪

♪

It was a series
of senseless killings

that left the whole
of France stunned.

When 24-year-old Thierry Paulin
was apprehended

on the 1st of December, 1987,

he admitted to the murder of at
least 21 helpless elderly women.

In a series of killing sprees
across 3 years,

Paulin, a thief,

left behind no witnesses
at his crime scenes,

as he brutally strangled
his victims to death.

Detective Jean-Claude Mules
and Claude Perronny

had the task of bringing Paulin
to justice.

-[ Speaking French ]

-We were under immense pressure.

The only thing we were afraid
of was being on call.

In other words,
would a phone call wake us up

that night, headquarters
calling us about a case,

telling us about the killing
of an old lady?

We dreaded finding more victims
every time.

-[ Speaks French ]

-Paulin was not a serial killer.

He was a spree killer.

A serial killer is
a pathological killer,

who kills to experience
a physical, amoral pleasure.

In other words, he enjoys the
terror he inspires in others.

The spree killer is different.

Paulin was a born criminal.

He was complete riffraff.

Attacking a grandmother is
a triumph without peril,

which brings no glory.

-In a twist of faith,
Paulin himself would be dead

before the trial
of his accomplice,

Jean-Thierry Mathurin,
in December 1991.

Phillipe Bilger was prosecuting.

-[ Speaks French ]

-Paulin escaped the trial.

Unfortunately, it was AIDS
that killed him and,

of course, we can lament
the fact that the mastermind,

the instigator,
was never brought to justice.

This much is clear.

Forgive me for being crude,

but the criminal justice system
took what was left.

In other words, Mathurin.

-Mathurin was on trial
for the murder of eight women

in just over one month
during the autumn of 1984.

The details of the slayings
were shocking,

even to Mathurin's defense
lawyer, Michèle Arnold.

-[ Speaks French ]

-The photos and pictures
were awful.

It was difficult,
very difficult.

I must admit that when I studied
the case files,

I made sure that
I didn't have lunch.

I didn't have dinner.
I couldn't.

I couldn't.

-The killings always followed
the same horrific ritual.

-Thierry Paulin pushed them

into the flat,
holding their mouths.

Jean-Thierry Mathurin
closed the door.

And from that moment on,

Thierry Paulin hit them
to get them

to tell them
where the money was.

Jean-Thierry Mathurin
went to look

for electrical cables
to tie them up,

so Thierry Paulin
could tie them up.

He went to search the flat.

If the victim revealed
where the money was,

Jean-Thierry Mathurin
went to check if it was there.

And in the meantime,

Thierry Paulin became incensed
and ended up strangling them.

-This killer's story
begins over 50 years ago.

Thierry Paulin was born
in the former French colony

of Martinique, in the Caribbean,
on the 28th of November, 1963.

His teenaged parents split up
within days of his birth.

-His father abandoned he
and his mother

pretty shortly after his birth
and went to France.

Thierry remained in Martinique

and was effectively brought up
by his paternal grandmother,

who owned a restaurant
and apparently neglected him.

He made an attempt to go back
to live with his mother,

who, by this point,
had remarried

and had another family,

but he didn't fit in
incredibly well with that.

In fact, he was
a troubled young man.

-This is a young man who's being
passed from pillar to post.

He doesn't have a lot
of stability.

He doesn't have
a lot of routine,

and life is quite chaotic.

He's somebody who finds that he
never settles in anywhere,

and he never really
has a sense of belonging.

-After moving to France,
Paulin joined the Army,

but he was reportedly picked on
for being of mixed race

and a homosexual.

In 1984, the 21-year-old
moved to Paris.

-When he left the Army,
he went to live with his mother,

and he got a job
at an entertainment venue

that had a reputation
for transvestite performers,

and he joined in with this.

I think this was the first time
in his life

when he really felt
a sense of belonging.

And Thierry was homosexual,
and he developed a relationship

with a man he met at this place.

-Paulin's new lover

was 19-year-old
Jean-Thierry Mathurin.

The like-minded couple
had aspirations

of performing on the stage,

and they also shared a passion
for dressing in drag.

-I think if we look
at his relationship,

being homosexual in France
at this time still carried

quite a significant degree
of social stigma.

So even though he's found
his place in the world,

other people
are still judging him,

and I think that's something

that is always
going to trouble him.

-The couple began living
together

in a hotel called The Laval.

The flamboyant pair had become
addicted to drugs

and weren't living
within their means.

-[ Speaks French ]

-It was the world of nightlife.

They were invited to all
the big Parisian parties.

They were transvestites,
people who loved to dress up,

so they put on a real show.

-I think they really
loved each other.

I think there
was real love there,

but as part of that,
Paulin dominated his partner,

which explains
a lot the influence

that Mathurin was under.

He existed through Paulin.

-Obviously, I didn't see them
in their everyday lives.

I didn't see them
living together.

I didn't see them laughing.

I didn't see them in their most
intimate moments,

but I think it's clear that
Paulin dominated Mathurin

and gave him
the drugs he needed.

As so often in life, and that's
also true for criminals,

there was a strong one
and a weak one in this couple,

and the weak one was dragged
into a life of crime

by Paulin
during these atrocities in 1984.

That much is clear.

-To pay for their
lavish lifestyle, Paulin,

with Mathurin in tow,
turned to crime.

-Each case, the motive
was straight-forward -- money.

Mathurin and Paulin wanted
to have a good time.

They wanted to go out.

They wanted to party.

They wanted to go
to night clubs.

They wanted to indulge
their appetite for drugs.

They wanted to wear
different clothes.

They wanted to be acknowledged
as homosexual,

and they were intent on having
as good a time as possible.

It was a spree,
without any doubt,

and a spree
of the most murderous kind.

♪

-We had two criminals,
under the influence of drugs,

who were completely remorseless
and were looking for money,

who laid waste to
the scenes of their crimes,

carrying out the worst
kind of atrocities

on these unfortunate
old ladies.

-The old women were coming back

from either the post office
or the market.

They came back with
food and bread, et cetera,

and which was found
scattered on the floor,

in the doorway.

-It was child's play
to push open the door

and enter behind them,

and then to subject them
to mental and physical torture.

-The attacks were shocking
in their brutality.

The killers ripped off
their victims' clothes,

burnt their feet and even
smashed a wine bottle

over one lady's head.

Another was suffocated
with a mattress

and, in the most extreme case,
84-year-old

Alice Benaim was forced
to drink cleaning fluid.

-Something like drain cleaner,

the main effect it has
on the human body

is that it is corrosive.

So it will cause chemical burns
to the mouth, tongue,

the lips and then,
if it's swallowed,

it will cause chemical burns in
the esophagus, in the stomach.

It can potentially
cause perforations,

and if the fumes
get into the lungs,

they can set up
a chemical reaction there,

causing fluid on the lung
and all sorts

of potentially
lethal consequences.

-One victim was Alice Benaim.

To tell them
where her money was,

Paulin and Mathurin forced her
to drink a product

used for unblocking sinks.

You can only imagine
the suffering,

to make her reveal where
she had hidden her savings.

One of them used to hide
her savings inside her corset.

She had pockets full of money.

The way they made them talk
was by twisting their fingers.

It was to make them suffer.

-During this 2-month spree,

the horrific murders sent shock
waves across the country,

especially in the Montmartre
district of Paris,

where the majority
of the crimes had taken place.

-I believe that what really
struck public opinions

was that the killer
was targeting old, vulnerable,

defenseless people.

I believe that's what had the
biggest impact on the public.

There was no comparison
between one murder and the next.

It was the fact that these were
defenseless people

who were being killed.

-People were stunned, asking,
"Why don't they arrest them?"

-The public wanted justice,

but detectives were struggling
to find any suspects.

-And the longer it went on,
the fewer facts we had

because everything had
been tried to find them.

All of the investigations
had been done,

from our perspective,
but the luck factor was missing.

-You have to see that

with the atrocity and
repetitiveness of their crimes,

as well as the fact
that there were

no Central Police files
at the time,

that there was a general feeling
that they wouldn't be arrested,

and that created a real panic
amongst the public.

-Well, there was some
speculation in the press that,

at the time that these
offenses were happening,

that the neighborhood
of Montmartre

had developed this mass
hysteria, this mass psychosis.

And psychologists find
that this does tend to happen

when you have an area
where there's a phenomenon

like a series of
unsolved violent crimes.

It makes people fearful.

It makes them change
their behavior.

It makes them often act
in rather irrational ways

because their sense
of stability

and their sense of belonging
in that community

has been completely upset
by what's gone on.

-Even more pressure was put

on the department
specifically responsible

for questioning
and arresting criminals.

The sense of fear among
the population persisted,

compounded by
the professional disarray

in still having failed
to question them

and not having been able
to do anything

to ease the concerns
of the public.

-No one had seen the perpetrator
or the perpetrators,

a stranger in the block behaving
abnormally or suspiciously.

We had nothing.

-Matching fingerprints
were found

at several of the murder scenes,

but, with no central database,

these were no help
to the police.

-We had no database.
That was created afterwards.

It's always easy, in hindsight,

to criticize the errors
made by the police.

But with the daily atrocities,

they were in charge
of finding a solution.

It was very difficult.

At the time, we didn't have
the same resources as today.

-It's a shame we weren't
more efficient at the time,

we didn't have
a forensic database,

because Paulin was
already known to the police.

-Paulin had first come to
the attention of French police

after being convicted
of a robbery in Toulouse,

in June 1983,
when he was just 19 years old.

-He holds a grocery store,

an old woman who's running
a grocery store, with a knife.

Not the brightest thing to do,

given the fact
that she knew who he was

and that she lived
to tell the tale.

And he was, indeed, arrested

and, indeed, sentenced to
2 years in jail for the attack.

For some reason, and it's not
entirely clear to me

exactly what that was...

Perhaps it was to do
with his age,

perhaps to do with the old woman
saying, "Oh, be lenient"...

his 2-year sentence
was suspended.

-His fingerprints had already
been taken,

but there was
no central database,

and they remained
in a paper file in Toulouse.

So there, they were forgotten,
as if they didn't even exist.

Anyway, they never served
for anything

because if we had been able
to compare the prints

to those in Toulouse
after the first murder,

we would have known
that the prints

belonged to Thierry Paulin,

and the other murders
would never have happened.

-By November 1984,
Paulin and his accomplice,

Jean-Thierry Mathurin,
had killed eight women in Paris,

in just over a month.

But then, almost as suddenly
as they had begun,

the killings stopped.

No one could explain why.

-So we had to ask
ourselves some questions.

We could assume that
the perpetrators

had left the Paris area,

or even that they might have
been imprisoned, hospitalized

or may even have died.

We did some research.

Statements were sent
to various prisons,

explaining the modus operandi.

We sent the fingerprints we had
found at the crime scenes,

to find out whether
identical prints

had been taken
at the prisons,

but the results
turned out to be useless.

We got nothing
but negative feedback.

-In fact, Paulin and Mathurin
had moved away from Paris

and gone to live in Toulouse
with Paulin's father.

But while they were there,

the couple's relationship
became fractious.

-That did not turn out
to be a success.

Paulin and his father argued.

Paulin's father fell out
with Mathurin,

who he didn't care for.

Paulin and Mathurin
fell out

and, indeed,
the relationship collapsed.

Mathurin returned to Paris.

Paulin decided to stay
with his father for a time,

but that didn't last, either.

-Paulin was alone in life,
so was Mathurin.

But Mathurin would
never return to crime,

while Paulin continued.

-In late 1985, 22-year-old
Paulin moved back to Paris,

and the murders
returned with him.

Between December of that year
and June 1986,

another eight elderly women
were killed

and, yet again,
money was the motive.

-I don't think we can say
that he was a serial killer

because a serial killer
is a sadistic individual

who takes pleasure
in killing,

who kills for the sake of it,
for the pleasure of killing.

That wasn't Paulin.

He killed for money.

There was a police officer
from the la brigade criminelle

who said, "He killed like he
was going to the bank.

I don't think he even realized
the horror of what he had done.

He attacked old ladies.
He killed them.

But, in fact,
he acted as

if he was going to
get money from the ATM.

But he killed them
so they couldn't tell anyone."

-Paulin had developed
a familiar M.O.

-At the time, I was a specialist
in criminal autopsies,

and I was present
at the autopsies

of some of the grandmothers
killed by Paulin.

All the grannies
were mainly strangled.

None of the attacks were what
you would call sexual,

none of them.

They mostly involved
stopping the victim breathing,

so killing them
through mechanical asphyxia.

-Strangulation
is primarily something

that causes damage to
the blood supply to the brain.

Suffocation limits the air
supply into the lungs,

so eventually it will cause
problems through lack of oxygen.

Strangulation is much more
effective than suffocation.

-Paulin was living
in a hotel and loved

to entertain the movers
and shakers of Parisian society

to boost his own
social standing.

-He knew he was limited
socially.

He had aspirations
to be something else,

to be recognized,
well-known and appreciated.

He sought another
kind of existence.

-He had an extremely human side
to him.

There were people around him,
especially ex-lovers,

who knew him as
a very sensitive person,

who could be immensely kind,
considerate,

extra careful and attentive
to others, to those he loved.

So how could such
an individual...

and it is this that
is so Machiavellian --

How could this type of character
transform himself into a killer,

who commits the act
in half a second?

-Unbeknownst to the people
around him,

Paulin was like a real-life
"Jekyll and Hyde" character,

but this double life
was about to be exposed.

In August 1986, he was arrested
on the outskirts of Paris

when a drug deal went wrong.

-He wasn't happy
with the quality

of the cocaine
he had bought,

which led to a fight
with his dealer.

He assaulted the dealer,
who called the police.

The police stepped in,
and Paulin was imprisoned.

And so his fingerprints
were taken again,

but were not compared
with those of the murderer

of the old ladies.

-They didn't know it,
but the police had missed

an incredible opportunity
to solve

one of the biggest cases
in French criminal history.

Even so, Paulin spent the next
16 months in prison.

-While he's there --

And remember, this is
the middle of the 1980s --

he begins to demonstrate
the symptoms of HIV.

By the time he is released
from prison,

he's fully aware
that he is HIV positive,

which, at that point, then,

was effectively
a death sentence.

-Well, after he was diagnosed
with AIDS,

his offending really
did escalate,

and it wasn't just that
he continued to kill people,

but he engaged in
almost kind of celebratory

spree-like behavior
afterwards.

So he would spend
a lot of money.

He would party for days on end.

And I think that
that realization

that his life was limited,

he was aiming to enjoy it
as much as he possibly could.

And if that meant the trauma and
the suffering of other people,

then so be it.

-But finally,
on the 25th of November, 1987,

the callous killer
made a mistake.

-During one
of his final attacks,

he was scared off by
the concierge of the building.

The woman he assaulted screamed,

and the concierge
came running in.

After which, a resident of the
building saw Paulin escaping.

-The survivor was 87-year-old
Berthe Finalteri.

She'd been strangled
and left for dead.

Detectives hoped she may be able
to provide

a description
of her assailant.

Meanwhile, Paulin
continued unabashed,

and just 2 days later,
he murdered another woman,

bringing the suspected
total of victims to 21.

He threw himself a lavish 24th
birthday party just days later.

-He invited around 30 friends,

with the money he had stolen
from his last victim,

and everyone said
that Thierry Paulin

was the perfect friend
to party with,

that he was
a fantastic party mate.

But no one knew where
the money had come from.

-As Paulin partied away,
Berthe Finalteri had recovered

and gave detectives
a description

of her
unique-looking assailant.

-He is a big guy, 1 meter 82,

athletic, 75 kilos,

mixed race, with an earring...

...a haircut like Carl Lewis,
blond hair.

A photofit was created
by the forensic department,

the very same sketch
that would be displayed

in police and gendarmerie
departments everywhere.

-On December the 1st, 1987,

4 days after claiming
his final victim,

Thierry Paulin was apprehended
on the streets of Paris.

A police officer who had seen
the photofit sketch

recognized him
and asked him to come

to the Central Police station
for an I.D. check.

-I remember seeing him coming up
the stairs

under police escort

and, of course, most of
la brigade criminelle

were waiting
for him to arrive,

to see who this guy was,

what kind of person he was,
et cetera.

Everyone had worked hard
on this case,

so everybody was very
interested in seeing him.

-Detectives interviewing
Paulin had a plan

to get him to confess.

They had a bottle of the same
cleaning fluid he used

to kill Alice Benaim
in 1984 hidden away.

-The story
about the caustic soda

is very important.

When Thierry Paulin
was arrested,

he was taken to
la brigade criminelle

and put in front
of a policeman

who would be listening
to what he had to say.

And this policeman had placed
a bottle of caustic soda

under his desk.

Paulin was opposite him,

talking about the murder
of Alice Benaim.

The officer said,
"And Alice Benaim?"

To which Paulin replied,
"Yeah, I don't remember."

"There were two of you?"

Paulin --
"Really, I don't remember."

"Really? Listen, it would be
good if you do remember.

There were two of you."

Paulin was finding it difficult
to come up

with anything to confess,

and then the policeman
stuck his hand in the desk,

pulled out the bottle
of chemicals

and said,
"And this? What is this?"

Paulin replied, "It's not mine.
That's Mathurin."

And just like that, he provided
the name of his accomplice.

-Although he admitted
to killing 21 people,

the police charged Paulin
with 18 murders.

He soon began to tell detectives
everything they wanted to know.

-I knew he was ill with AIDS,

so already conscious of
a chronicle of a death foretold.

He knew that he was
going to die.

He had nothing left to lose,

perhaps an urgent need
to open up, to free himself.

I would say even more to confess
to the harm he had done,

which meant that when he spoke
to me, he told me everything.

He got it all off his chest,

demonstrating
his extraordinary memory,

his memory of the times,

the locations and the details
of the crimes he had committed.

He relived everything
he had done in front of me.

That impressed me.

-It didn't take long for him
to provide details

of virtually
every murder he had committed.

He even told them the colors
of the curtains, for example,

details about the crime scenes
that only he could have known,

that no one else but
the victims could have known.

He was a cold, determined man,

the kind you don't encounter
very often as a police officer.

Given the number of victims

and the manner in which
these people were killed,

he didn't particularly
show any remorse.

-It's almost an act of religious
repentance to say,

"I have killed.
I did that."

It liberates the conscious.

He had nothing more to gain,

nothing more to do
with the world.

He was already dead.

-Forensic psychiatrist
Serge Bornstein

visited Paulin in custody

to prepare a report
for the impending trial.

-He treated us like nuisances,

people who had come
to bother him in his cell.

So we had to be very patient

in trying to get a fair bit
of information from him.

Actually, he didn't show
any signs

of specific mental problems,

but rather long-term
psychopathic activity.

-Paulin's barbarism
towards the old ladies

he attacked is thought
to stem from resentment

towards his own grandmother,

who had reportedly
neglected him.

-Maybe he was taking revenge

for the faults
of his family of origin.

He probably bore the scars
of his childhood,

manifesting itself in his
hostility towards old women.

There was, most likely,
some kind of symbolism at play,

with him trying
to get revenge

or to erase the cruel elements
of his childhood.

-Here we've got an individual

who was constantly rejected
at several different levels,

rejected by his mother.

He didn't fit in
with his wider family,

rejected by his peers
at school.

And even society,
given the inherent racism

and the inherent homophobia,
it just shows the impact

that the combination
of these rejections

can have on an individual.

-Jean-Thierry Mathurin
had also been arrested

and charged
with the eight murders

he committed
alongside Paulin in 1984.

His defense lawyer,
Michèle Arnold,

has vivid memories of her one
and only encounter with Paulin,

at a meeting organized
at the Palais de Justice

by the investigating judge.

-He wanted to ask Thierry Paulin

some questions in the presence
of Jean-Thierry Mathurin

in an attempt
to find the truth.

What was the true role
of each man?

What exactly had
Jean-Thierry Mathurin done?

Had he gone further
than he had said?

Because Jean-Thierry Mathurin
said, "I only did the searching.

It was Thierry Paulin who
tortured them, who killed them."

And then I saw Thierry Paulin
for the first time,

and he actually came in
laughing, laughing uproariously,

a truly unforgettable laugh.

It was completely surreal,
inappropriate,

and I have to admit
that I was stunned.

And actually, he didn't
answer my questions.

He just laughed,
and Jean-Thierry Mathurin,

I saw him, head down,
staring at his shoes.

-Paulin pointed the finger
of suspicion

directly at his ex-lover.

-He blamed him for everything.

"It was Jean-Thierry Mathurin
who had done it all."

Him, he was in there
for nothing.

It was the complete opposite
of what the case file said.

Nothing came of it.

-There was definitely a time
limit on Paulin,

in terms of the criminal
justice process

because he committed
so many murders,

and bringing all
of those victims justice

would have taken
an incredibly long time.

You've got an awful lot
of evidence there,

and that process can be many,
many years in the making.

And here was a man
who didn't have many years.

His health deteriorated very
quickly after he was arrested,

and he was dead
within 2 years of being caught.

-On April the 17th, 1989,

Thierry Paulin died in the
hospital wing at Fresnes Prison.

He was 25 years old.

Paulin's death meant
that his accomplice,

Jean-Thierry Mathurin,

was left to face the weight of
the French justice system alone.

Philippe Bilger was prosecuting.

-It is clear that French society

had been afraid
for a long time

in the face of the atrocious
murders of the old ladies.

And as soon as the trial
came around,

of course, public curiosity
descended on the trial,

for which only Mathurin
remained.

-You have to realize that,

at the time, we had just
abolished the death penalty

and, because of that, people
were marching in the street,

calling for the murderer of
these old ladies to be executed.

-Mathurin's trial began
in December 1991.

Paulin may have been dead,

but his presence was felt
in the courtroom.

-The ghost of Paulin

was present
throughout the trial,

and they asked me
to speak, too.

And I spoke about Mathurin,

but I brought up all of
the encounters I had had

with Paulin.

So I described this
wicked character

and his hatred for humanity,
especially old ladies.

And that really interested
the court.

He may no longer
have been there,

but his ghost hovered
over the room.

It was unbelievable.

I think that even if he had been
given the means to do so,

Paulin would never have
found redemption

because he had a hard core of
criminal perversity within him.

-While, obviously, I would have
requested the maximum

mandatory prison sentence
for Paulin,

I wanted Mathurin to receive
a slight reduction

in his mandatory sentence,

to really indicate
the difference between the two

and to do as if Paulin
was also present,

as if he was there, too,
in a certain way.

-The main perpetrator
of the murders

was no longer able
to be punished,

so the court could only deal
with the one offender

who was still alive.

But many felt that Mathurin
was far from being

just an accomplice.

-This is crucial because

calling him an accomplice
can make you believe

that he didn't have a hand
in the crimes like Paulin,

the mastermind, did.

He is the co-instigator,
of course,

but I have always thought
that Mathurin

probably wouldn't have committed
the crimes

he was found guilty of
had it not been for Paulin.

-There is a considerable
difference

between the monster,
Paulin, and Mathurin,

his submissive colleague
who only followed,

manipulated by Paulin, who was
far more intelligent than him,

who was a very subtle man,

but one who put all of
that aside in favor of evil.

He was two men in one,

with one side
well-adapted to society

and the other
a monstrous delinquent.

-On the 20th of December, 1991,
4 years after his arrest,

Jean-Thierry Mathurin
was given a life sentence

for his part in the murders.

He was released in January 2009,

having spent a total
of 21 years in prison.

-I'm absolutely convinced

you should never lose faith
in humanity,

so that's my belief.

I think even if you have
committed terrible,

atrocious acts, you can work
towards turning over a new leaf

with sincere remorse and
the desire to redeem yourself.

I think it's possible,
and that our society

has to work towards
giving such people a chance.

-Mathurin managed to erase
quite a few memories

and adapt
to a normal social life.

It was a very rare
therapeutic success

because this is someone who
has obviously committed crimes,

participated in
a series of crimes,

who has recovered
some kind of conscience,

and from that time on is leading
a completely decent life.

We are faced here with
a remarkable case of redemption.

You know, if I had been
in charge,

I would have kept Mathurin
in prison forever,

without any qualms.

This much is clear.

You see, I wouldn't have cried
if they'd told me

Mathurin would live the rest
of his life in prison.

I am convinced that
without Paulin,

Mathurin wouldn't
have done a thing.

-Although he was never convicted
because of his premature death,

Paulin is still remembered
in France

as a terrifying
and cold-blooded killer.

-He really was
the worst criminal

I have ever seen,
in the course of my long career,

the worst.

-I dare say that I think he was

in complete denial
of all human values.

He saw other people
as just animals.

He had an animalistic side
to him,

what we would call
dehumanization.

How can you kill a granny
without thinking

about what she stands for
and all that kind of thing?

He had a savage side to him,
devoid of all forms of humanity.

-I think he was
a wicked young man.

I think he was deeply troubled,

but that is no excuse
for the deaths of 19,

20, 21, 22 elderly women,

nor for the brutal manner
of many of their deaths.

-He was a vile being,
a real monster,

and it seemed like there was
some kind of divine justice

because he perished
in the worst circumstances,

and it appeared as if
the heavens, in their fury,

had wanted to show that
he had no place in humankind.

-Paulin was a greedy hedonist,

whose lust for fun
and popularity

drove him to commit
at least 18 horrific murders.

His death means we will
never know the exact amount.

With and without Jean-Thierry
Mathurin by his side,

he callously targeted
vulnerable elderly women

and took their lives
before he took their money.

Thierry Paulin was,
without doubt,

one of the world's
most evil killers.

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