Joseph Vacher and the Beginnings of Forensic Science

Joseph Vacher is remembered today as one of Frances most infamous French serial

killers, and his life consisted of a series of failures that pushed him over the edge and

eventually led to the beginnings of modern methods of crime solving. He was born in 1869

to a poor family as the youngest of fifteen other kids. He grew up in Alpine Valley in

southwest France and was educated in Catholic schools for his whole life. When he was

seventeen years old, he joined the army because he wanted to make a better life for

himself. However, he had a very bad temper which made it difficult to get a promotion.

Because of his lack of military advancement, he became extremely depressed and attempted

to slit his own throat. He did not cut his neck deep enough and survived the suicide attempt.

Instead of being kicked out of the military for possible mental instability, his superiors

actually promoted him to a corporal position. (1)

After Vacher ended his military service, he met a woman named Louise Barant and

fell in love with her. Unfortunately, the feeling was not mutual. Vacher proposed to her,

but she rejected and mocked him. In a blind fit of rage, he shot her four times and turned

the gun on himself. He shot himself twice in the head which caused him an unknown amount

of brain damage and paralyzed the right side of his face. Both Vacher and Barant survived,

but Vacher faced many consequences. His new facial deformity made him the subject of

ridicule everywhere he went. This made him even angrier and led to his first murder. After

the shooting, he was hospitalized and thrown into a mental institution. Vacher was in that

asylum for about one year and was released when his doctors deemed him completely

cured. After his release, he became a migrant day worker. He moved from place to place
along with 400,000 other homeless laborers, which made him very hard to capture once he

started killing. (1, 2)

His first murder was a millworker named Eugenie Delhomme, and it took place only a

few weeks after his release from the mental institution. Another millworker found Delhommes

body concealed behind some hedges. Her body was severely mutilated. It was later discovered

that Delhomme had been strangled and stabbed, but most of the stab wounds happened after

she was already dead. It seemed clear to the police that this murder was very impulsive and

frenzied due to the amount of post-mortem damage. The rest of his murders were much more

deliberate. All of his other victims were found mutilated, raped, and with multiple stab

wounds. Vacher also took great care in choosing his next victims. All ten of them were

teenage shepherds, and he became known as The Killer of Little Shepherds for his choice

of victims. While the real number of victims may have been higher, these ten are the only ones

that were confirmed. He was extremely hard to track down, however, and it took the police a

very long time to finally capture him. (1,2)

Vacher was captured in 1897 due to his own lack of judgment. He tried to attack a woman

while she was walking through a field but was unsuccessful in killing her. The woman fought

him off while calling for help, and her family heard her and were able to subdue Vacher. He

was held in a local cavern while the police were coming, and he even entertained the patrons

in the meantime by playing some songs on the accordion. When the police arrived, they arrested

him on charges of assault because they did not have any evidence linking him to the murders.

They did not have to wait long to get proof, however, because shortly after Vacher was

arrested, he began confessing all his crimes. He then became a media sensation, and articles

about his murders even appeared in The New York Times and other American newspapers. All
this publicity inflated Vachers ego, and he began wearing a white fur hat to make his appearance

even more distinctive. (1)

When Vacher was captured, he knew that if he did not act fast, he would be killed.

His solution to this problem was to appear as insane as possible and make it seem like he is

not responsible for his actions. His original reason for his supposed madness was that his

blood had been tainted from a type of medicine he took as a child, but he ended up changing

his story. He began saying that he was sent by God to do his work, like Joan of Arc. Even

though he claimed to be religious, he was still very dangerous and beat his prison ward nearly to

death with a chair while in custody. (1, 3)

In October of 1898, Vacher was put on trial for his crimes. As he walked into the

courtroom, he shouted, Glory to Jesus! Long live Joan of Arc! Glory to the great martyr of

our time! Glory to the great Savior! He also yelled when the evidence was being read to

appear more insane. He knew that if he was deemed insane, he would not be held accountable

for his actions and thrown in another asylum. At the time, asylums were not very secure, and

it would have been very easy for him to break out. His theatrics did not convince the jury

however, and Vacher was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. On December 31,

1898, he was taken to the guillotine. Before he was beheaded, he said that he was the real

victim and fought against the people that were restraining him. (1, 2)

The evidence that sent Vacher to the guillotine was all thanks to a forensic scientist

named Alexandre Lacassagne. Lacassagne was an expert criminologist who examined Vacher

for five months to determine if he was sane or not. He came to the conclusion that Vacher was

aware of what his crimes were when he committed them, and that Vacher knew his crimes

were wrong because of how he tried to hide his actions. Vacher was somewhat delusional, but
that had no effect on any of his actions, which is ultimately what gave him the death penalty.

Lacassagne was a pioneer of forensics and extensively studied the fields of toxicology, blood

pattern analysis, decomposition, bullet trajectory, and stab wound angles. Lacassagne also

created new crime solving techniques for cases like Vachers. He made molds of

footprints, determined the age of the victim by bone structure and teeth growth, and created

the first mug shots. Lacassagne wanted to create a standard way to solve crimes and even

created a handbook that led to modern forensics. (1, 2, 3)

 Works Cited

1- Conliffe, Ciaran. Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper. HeadStuff. Headstuff.org, 16 February

2015. Web. 8 March 2017.

2- Grey, Orrin. Joseph Vacher: the Killer of Little Shepherds. The Lineup. The Lineup, 2017.

Web. 9 March 2017.

3- Buccini, Cynthia. Tracking a 19th century Serial Killer. BU Today. Boston University, 27

January 2011. Web. 9 March 2017.