Joseph Vacher

Drawing: Joseph Vacher is woken up and picked up for his execution . (Title page Le Petit Journal , January 15, 1899)

Joseph Vacher (born November 16, 1869 in Beaufort near Beaurepaire , † December 31, 1898 in Bourg-en-Bresse ), alias the French Ripper was a French psychopath and serial killer who murdered at least eleven, possibly fifteen people. Without evidence, he was charged with five other murders.

biography

Joseph Vacher was born as the youngest of fifteen siblings and step-siblings in a poor farming family in the Isère department . His twin brother suffocated in his cradle when he was one month old. In 1888 a young servant accused the 19-year-old of attempted rape . Drafted into the army in 1890, Vacher was released in 1893 for behavioral disorders and a first suicide attempt . In the same year he shot a woman who had rejected his marriage proposal. He then tried to shoot himself. This second suicide attempt left the right side of his face paralyzed, damaged one eye, and possibly caused some mental instability. He was then sent to an insane asylum . After his release in April 1894, he roamed the south of France as a tramp and made a living from theft and begging. During that three and a half year period he committed his murders.

The crime

The victims were mostly young farm workers of both sexes. He confessed to the murder of seven women and four young men. Vacher abused his victims ante and post mortem and mutilated them. He claims to have drunk the blood of his victims.

The exposure of the deeds and the condemnation

On August 4, 1897, Joseph Vacher attacked a woman in a field. She was able to call her husband and son for help, who handed him over to the police. He was then sentenced to a three-month sentence for causing public nuisance. The police noticed a certain resemblance of Vacher to a vagabond seen near the crime scene, and it was also possible to prove that he was in the area of ​​the crime scene during some of the crimes, but the police had no further information. After some time in custody, Vacher confessed to the murders in a letter for no apparent reason.

Vacher alleged during the trial that he was infected by killing a rabid dog and that he committed the murders in "a related frenzy". Vacher has been subjected to psychiatric investigation for this claim , most notably by the noted psychiatry professor Alexandre Lacassagne . Lacassagne concluded that Vacher was sane and able to negotiate. This was controversial.

He was found guilty and then sentenced to death .

On December 31, 1898, at the age of 29, Joseph Vacher was guillotined in Bourg-en-Bresse . This was the last of executioner Louis Deibler carried out executions .

Literature and film

• Rémi Cuisinier: L'assassin des bergères , 2001, Collection Lyonnais et Forez
• Pierre Bouvery: Aspects anthropologiques et sociopathiques de dix assassins guillotinés au 19ème siècle dans la région lyonnaise , 1963, Paris, Masson Editeur
• Koq: La peau de Vacher , Edilivre, Paris, 2013.
• Alexandre Lacassagne: Vacher, l'éventreur et les crimes sadiques , 1899, Paris, Masson Editeur. In the book, Lacassagne not only presents an extensive study of the Joseph Vacher case, but also compares this case with other well-known serial killers, particularly Gilles de Rais and Jack the Ripper . This book was the first to publish photos of the Jack the Rippers victims.
• Douglas Starr: The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-59458-7 [eBook]

Bertrand Tavernier took up the case in 1976 in the film The Judge and the Murderer , with Philippe Noiret and Michel Galabru in the title roles. The film deals primarily with the methods of interrogation that are peculiar to examining magistrate Fourquet.

Web links

• Vacher on crimeZZZ.net (English)
• Vacher on Geocities.com ( Memento of February 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (English)