Introduction
Victims
Suspects
Witnesses
Ripper Letters
Police Officials
Official Documents
Press Reports
Victorian London
Message Boards
Ripper Media
Authors
Dissertations
Timelines
Games & Diversions
Photo Archive
Ripper Wiki
Casebook Examiner
Ripper Podcast
About the Casebook


Most Recent Posts:
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by Wickerman 10 minutes ago.
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by Damaso Marte 16 minutes ago.
General Discussion: JtR breakthrough Russell Edwards finally unmasks killer after 136 years (again!) - by Lewis C 1 hour ago.
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by Sunny Delight 3 hours ago.
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by Herlock Sholmes 5 hours ago.
General Discussion: JtR breakthrough Russell Edwards finally unmasks killer after 136 years (again!) - by Damaso Marte 6 hours ago.
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by Sunny Delight 6 hours ago.
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - by The Rookie Detective 8 hours ago.

Most Popular Threads:
Scene of the Crimes: Broad Shoulders, Elizabeth's Killer ? - (26 posts)
General Suspect Discussion: "Puckeridge" - (10 posts)
General Discussion: JtR breakthrough Russell Edwards finally unmasks killer after 136 years (again!) - (6 posts)
Pub Talk: Study Shows Reducing 20 Ounce Pint of Beer Would Have Great Health Impacts in UK - (1 post)
Pub Talk: Irritations - (1 post)
General Suspect Discussion: Sir Robert Anderson's sixth victim - (1 post)


Marion Daily Star
Ohio, USA
20 November 1897

VACHER'S HORRIBLE MANIA
Monumental Crimes of the Frenchman Who Killed For the Sake of Killing
NOT JACK THE RIPPER

There is nothing in modern history with which to compare the sanguinary career of the French slaughterer Vacher, the story of whose crimes has recently been told by cable. The Jack the Ripper murders in London ten years ago are completely eclipsed by it, and the revelation is still incomplete. More than a score of assassinations have been brought home to this bloodthirsty wretch, and scarcely a day passes that another is not added to the list. It is doubtful if the murderer himself knows the number of his victims. He nonchalantly tells the story of some fresh tragedy to the examining magistrate from time to time as the details recur to his diseased mind. Investigation in each case so far has produced full corroboration of the murderer's narrative.

The story of this man, who killed merely for the sake of killing, should be made known throughout Christendom, for it constitutes the most startling warning of modern times against the criminal folly of turning loose upon society an individual subject to fits of homicidal mania. Vacher, who is only about 26 years old, was at one time confined to an insane asylum as a "dangerous monomaniac" but was discharged as fully cured. Dr. Gilbert, the well known expert in mental diseases, says that the physicians at the asylum released Vacher, although they knew he was not fit to be at large, because they were afraid of an outcry in the press against the arbitrary confinement of a citizen under the pretext that he was insane.

That was three years ago. Since that time Vacher has wandered through the country districts of France, leaving everywhere a trail of blood, but undetected, even unsuspected, until by mere chance he was caught almost red handed near Lyons about three weeks ago. Most of his victims were shepherd boys and girls whom he found tending their flocks in lonely fields or on hillsides, but sometimes he killed men and women.


Related pages:
  Joseph Vacher
       Press Reports: Fort Wayne News - 27 January 1898 
       Press Reports: Iowa State Press - 30 January 1899 
       Press Reports: Iowa State Press - 7 June 1899 
       Press Reports: Naugatuck Daily News - 28 January 1898 
       Press Reports: New York Times - 6 November 1898 
       Press Reports: Williamsport Sunday Grit - 1 January 1899