The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 28, 1897, Page 14

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1897. “Le Tueur de Bergers!" butcher of shepherds!” ms the Par feuilletoniste: n will be d ved in the annals the ight! ived. His nous offenses sur- rorali those ous predec nce produc nds o ose ever | the bolical career inspired Blue Beard in literature. a courtier of the throne con- solitary life imprisonmen:, rated in the overthrow ot the afterward wri during the tion two volumes in gloritication of propansities and the motive ed him tc Dumollerd who litera eive servanis and nur: t other provocation than this before the guillotine reat had mned was lik to wnd the many lesser criminals France has produced, Whitechape! added another ty is still a myth. conceded by the French au- that both as to the number of | not borne out by the facts. may be formulated whereby society may be in some measure protected against the spread of such destric:ive degeneracy. Iti: la:d down that the first generation of confirmed which proceeds from the periodi wralytic, the second suffers rachit t=—or the white blight, and the rd is inflicted with mania, constant or intermitient, and not infrequently of a priapic homicidal phase. inet The theory is perfecily confirmed in the case of Vacher. delirium tremens and his father has the As will appear from a study of Vacher he is an extraordinary pervert in that his own claims to maniacal obsessions are Scarcely can ne be described as mad, homicidal or In- | sene, in the accepted meaninz of the terms as applied to persons who should be er Of assassination the | ASSASSINATION OF LOUISE [From record of Joseph Vecher takes pre-emi- of ten years this prowling pest. He made away with pro assassi ive althoungh it s of trailing ed. on has France bject of the on for this does Not since the apprehen priapian ververt Dumoll been so deeply agita nature of er not lie so much in public sympathy for the bere 5 for tue unfortunates, orin 0. f € mons it docs in the impose on al lawmak and the indictment of the judicia that has incidentally resulted. It a review of the character and career ot Vacher startling defects of government become so apparent that no one attempts to condone or de- fend them. First of a s0 as is ag trail over I constabulary system of t state of dry rot. The gendarmerie, country police patrol, under the relaxing rule of the republic, Las become a mere the exposures io known of bis ance, that the he nation is in a the shadow. \Wnatis left ot it is represented by ignorance, laziness and inefficlency. The cry is now raised for its reiorm and rehabilitation. It follows that when criminal chasers are stupid and lox prosecuting officers and the inferior judiciary will be luttis better. Thus it comes that many guiitless persons’ have been made to suffer disgrace and im- prisonment for the crimes whose perpe- trator is at last revealed. Upon the de- termination of this deplorabie misdirec- tion of justice fnrther. investigation has been made, in other cases coming within the jurisdiction of the lower tribuaals, with results that have caused a general oulery against the growing tendency of the magistracy to commit abuses and blunders, “Judicial errors” has become a standing caption for the most savage criticism. Nor does this close the score. Vacher was once placed in an insane asylum as a homicidal lunatic. Within a year he was discharged to prey on the country. In no other civilized nation could such a thing occur, yet in France the law requires that when a aeranged person is aecided to have recovered, when a patient no longer exhibits mania or dementia, licerty must be accorded. This in despite of the well-known fact that a bomicide is in- curable. Now, the repeal of this provision respecting the administration of the asy- lums is universally demauaed, and a law will be passed, without doubt, which will require the detention in darance tili death of all persons committed for homicidal in- sanity. Another interesting development of the public discussion of the Vacher crimes is an inclination to encourage the cerebral specialists in the demonstration of & re- markable thesis announced by them some time ago, but disregarded utterly so far asany practical effect is concerned. This is in brief the affirmation of the doctrine that drunkenness in a parent is followed in the third generation by mental de- rangement, mania and madness, in a de- gree relative to the severity of the liquor Labit in the progenitor. It is oroposed to -constitute an expert commission that will not only analyze the psychological and physiological phe. nomena of the Vacher case, but make an extended s:udy of the subject in the asy- lums and prises, to the end that a plan caged for life, because he is never uncon- scious of his acts. He followed a system, or rather move ong the lines of a de- gn rendercd easy of execution by nai- circumstances and the incapacity ural and obtuseness of the country police and prosecutors. He sought his victims in ob-cure piaces, deliberately gratified his diseased imagination and left peculiar MARCEL. the engraving of De Meaulle.] , | | { | marks, such as were characteristic of the work of the London “Ripper,”’ taking eat care the while not to be soilea or saimed. He never attacked physical equals. Every incident of every crime and the pre locallties in which they were committed, time, place, circum- nce, all is distinctly rememtered by Noris his tenacity of memory ani clearness of mind less remarkable than his pronounced adroiiness and audacity After each tragedy he Lustenea to the first pocl or siream of water he could find, washed the bioo: from his »n and destroyed any ment that might have reccived a telltale splash. r this emergency he went brepared constantly. The sack he carried a'ways contained a change of clothing. W Whether such a degenerate, not to be ied with the insane for whom iums are supposed to be provided, should | be imprisoned theremalnder ot his life or | executed isn question upon which the opinion of France is divided. Vacher hims-If is plainly playing with the hope that he may escape the death penalty and spend the rest of his life on asylum fare. The parerts and ralatives of his victims cry for his head in revenge, and the stick: lers for preci-e J ce demand that if he is to go to tt~ uiliotin2 it wili Le to pay the penalty of his first crime, as they bold every subsequent one to have been the proof of a mental collupse, of which so- ciety cannot take judicial cognizance. This supersensitive consideration is pecu- liar to French jurisprudence and would bold the grandiather to have been the really guilty person. The average deteciive is no match for Vacber, Dumollard, the mysterious “Ripper” and pervert criminals of this kind, and with Vacher, as with Dumol- Jard, his discoverv was accidental. The two French criminals bear a striking re- sembiance to each other, physically. Although of the same class of men- tal degenerates, Vacher in cunning, daring, luciaity of mind and multipli of escapes is the more remarkable. The most typical features of similarity between them consist of a gross form of lips, thick nostrils and the astonishing dog- like kindness of brown eyes that disarmed the distrust of their victims. Both were of a catlike muscularity. A slit in the lower lip of Vacher recalls the harelip of Dumoliara. Strange to say, in confir- mation of the thesis of the medical academy, the latter was also the third generation descendant of an inebriate grandparent. Vacher is of medium size, dark com- plexioned and pailid. He wears a full jet black beard. When captured, after an assault on a young woman, in which he was surprised by ner husband, he was dressed in a complete velveteen suit, and for headdress wore a picturesque cap of white rabbit-skin. On his back were slung an accordion and a canvas sack. Arourd the latter was wound a long rope. In his hand was an umbreiia without a bandle and a dirty club. The sack con- tsined leggings, a pair of hali-rotted shoes, a rusty porridge pot, a piece of soap, a pair of stained scissors and a smaller game pouch, in wnich w re potatoes, onions, a sealed box of bread, a bottle of oil and a brown cotton fabric coat, out ot which ielltale spots of color had been washed. In his pockets were an ugly sheathed knife and a rozor. AL the ouiset he stoutly maintained that he was a traveling farmhand seeking em- ployment and meant no harm to the young woman. But the day of reckoning had come. As the inquiry proceeded it became evi- dent that by the merest chance tne law was dealing with the most revolting crim H's grandfatker died in | inal of the century, every accusation and deposition of witnesses confirming the belief that there had been run toearth in France a new kind of as:assin whose bestiaiity was unexampled in the history of medical as well as criminal jurispru- dence. Confronted with the proof, he | began to confess, and in pleaded con:cious madness rather, boasted of it, and then attributed his in- spiration to butcher and defile to the Al- mighty. An analyst at this jancture d | scribed him as having a ‘“sympathe | physiognomy, with a striking expression { of inteiligence and docility in his eyes.’” Once Vacler admitted Lis guilt, be gave himself up to the enjoyment of his hide- ous notoriety, visplaying the egctism and pride of dep avity common (o the nonde- script c'ass of criminals of which he is or, | | the most shocking example. He took an extreme delight in marking the effect on | the magistrate and his attendants pro- | ducel by the minute recital of his revolt- | ing deeds. The dexterous, crafty and elusive bandit of the highways must now issue an ad- dress to France proclaiming himself to be the sublimation of the beast in man. When the arusts appeared to make sketches «f him he expressed the keenest | delight, and exclaimed: “Take espec al pains now to make me look handsome.” Itis nearly two months since the ex- | | amination of “'the buicher of shepherds” | | began, and a greater period must elapse | | before Mr. Fourquet, the magistrate hav- | ing the matier in char.e, can pass the record to the upper court. Vacher, upon hearing of the public fury his admissions | of guilt provoked among the many communes he had plunged 1nto mystifica- on, mourning and griel, put a seal on his abhorrent secrets, and deciared he would say no more until he saw “how his affuic was coming out,” meaning thereby that he would remain silent until the question was decided as to whether he would be disposed ot by eriminal or luratico inquirendo proceedings. Meanwhile it is ascertained that his crimes bave been of periodical recurrence and oi unknown frequency for at ieast ten years, beginning with his eighteenth year. Great gaps, unaccounted for by bimself and difficult to trace, occur in his | serpentine movemen's througn the de- partments, and as he is arduou:ly fol- lowed through these, with the aid of pliotographs and descriptions, mauy new crimes, in which the victims werz boys and girls, almost forgotten, as coming under the nead of “mysteriously disap- peared” or “assassinaied by an unknown,”” are timed as coincident with his appear- | ance as a vagavond. Itis inevitable that he will be charged with offenses that he never committed, but whenever the body of the dead has been found the work of Vacher can bs ideniifieca by the eccen- tricity of the mutilations. The number of such cases now exceeds thirty, and in every instance the presence of Vacher in the neighborhood of the assassination when it occurred is proved. The long immunity of Vacher, the ease with which he evaded detection, is in- credible, uniess one can comjyrehend the torpor of trustfulness and the duliness of | houesty in the communal life in which his butckeries were committed. That one of their own kind, a wandering farmhand or shepherd, who vossessed an honorable passport trom ‘the reziment in which he had served, could be guiity of such atro- cities would be incomprebensible to those country lolk. Rathermust it besome devil in the form of man, out of the subter- ranean mysieries of Paris. So while they sought the monster in other guise and personality they listened to the provincial melodies he played on his accordeon, gave bim centimes to help him along in his career of carnage, and when required entertained him of nights. Communication between the outlying departments and the isolated hamlets in which Vacher carried on his system of destruction is old fashioned, and imp - tant occurrences in one are not reported in theother; and if so only in the meagerest and most imperfect or exaggerated form. It seems that Vacher was moreover an object of pity rather than distrust to the people of the little towrs and highways, on account of a facial deformity, the true cause of which he was careful not to di- vulge. His countenance, not unpleasing the same voice | public. | tion. One side o. while the other g¢ he speaks. The cyelids on are partly closed and rivid. | Thecau-eof the musc | the presence in his head of two herself to marry him. Le tried to kill her. On wheredie remained only ten months, It was after her left ert institution t he gav the army he had an incli JOSEPH VACHER, [From Le Monde Iliustre.] of msnia had appeared in his morose and | thereupon attempted to kiil her. He aescribes this | murderous disposition. eariier state of mind in his address 0 the e he entered upon the mad gedies in the trail fy and puzzle ail without re- llage to village, [ ), the revolting tr: of which were to elect tram France—without mone: sources—ue went from from farm to work for a httle clothing and food, and rateiy laboring more than a few days in any one place. It was in these perecrina- | tions that be sougiit in the mountain by- ways, sheepco’es and communal fields tie youthiul keepers of the flceks and herds whose happy pastoral existence he ended with his knife. During the years of his murderous wan- derings he was never suspected of his M. FOURQUET, Examining Magistrate. [From L Illustration.] butcheries, and the only punishment he suffered way thirty day: confinement at Bauge as an irreclaimable tramp. Return- ing later to this neighborhood, he calcu- lated on escaping the notice of the mag- istrate by circling around the environs of Tournon. Here the dilatory Nemesis of his fate laid in wait for him. In the woods ke was prowling through wasa young cas- seuse, or wood breukar, gathering twigs and branches, Her husband, engaged in a similar labor close by, but concealed by anisland of wiliows, Vacher did not see as he rushed in his frenzy upon the wo- man. Her affrighted seream was quickly answered by the husband, whose appear- ance put Vacher to flight. A hue and ery brought sturdy assistance to the pursuer, an< the assassin was overbauled and cap- wred. He made no resistance, and in his own defense pretended thathe had merely tried to perpetrate an amorous joke. Vacher, in this instance, had not in- flicted any wound on his intended victim, aud nothing more serious than a few months’ detenticn might bave been the penalty for his attempt but for the shrewd surmise of the examining magistrate that he was one and the same with a mysterious miscreant whom the prosecut- ing officials of an adjowning department were secking, Joseph Vacher was born at Beaufort, Canton of Roybon, Novem ber 16, 1869, and is, therefore, 28 years old. His parents were countryfolk, in moderate circum- stances. ir sontorted in conversa- face is immobile, 1aces ccnvulsively as | the left side lar paralysis is bullets, placed there 1n 2n unsuccessful attempt to | | kill himsel?, afiter Laving been thrown | aver by a young woman who had en:aged At the same time account of this affair he was placed in the insane asylum, tie Saint Rob- a himself en- tirely to 2 life of vagabondage, aithough it seems that prior to his enlistment in nation to wander | far away from home, and the symptoms farm, begeine, offeringto | | mortally wounded, inasmuch as she had | quently commiti ent of the line at Besancon, and during the three years of his service he | seems to have conducted himself with credit, for he was a non-commi-sioned officer during the greater part of the term, and enjoyed the favor and confilence of Lis superiors in command. Since his apprehension, however, many of his former comrades in the army have testified to acte of brutality and bad con- duct they were restrained from reporting because of his freqneunt boasting that he | enjoved a secret influence which would | protect him against any accu-ation, and | enable him 1o punish his accusers. ‘While in the army ne became the fiance of the young woman at Beaune. For a reason only intimated, she declined to | marry him when he was discharged. He ished with him, for they have been re: vealed only after weeks of patient and far- reaching inquiry, and, for that matter, are net all told yer. Arrived at Belley, the prisoner was con- fronted by several witnesses who had seen the tramp suspected of having killed the | shepherd boy, Victor Porialier, two years | previous. They insisted on thne identific: tion of him, despite his denial When the magistrate informed him that he was t> be conducted at once to Lyvonsand faced by the witnesses who remembered | the mysterious wandering of Courzicu-la- Giraudiere, t forsook him and he announced that he was realy to confess his crimes. The frightful narrative shocked all France, though thke primary confession was by no mesns cumplete. Vacher closed iis list of horrors with the twelftu victim, avowing that his memory failed him if he was guilly of any other atrocities. During the intervening weeks the num- ber of the butchered innocents has in- creased until the melancholy register ex- ceeds thirty, An epitome of his first confession runs as follows: None of tnefour pisto! shots he discharged had any effect, thouzh he believed she was fallen to the ground. Lackily for the in- tended victim of his fury, she bad fainted from fright, and suffered only the perfora- tion of her clothing. It ‘would have been a good day for France and a fortunate one for many poor innocents of the pastoral regions of the sonth had Vacher completed thelast chap- terof the tragedy he attempted. He did not | appear then to possess the sangfroid and steadiness of nerve which afterward made of him such a slippery assassin, for the two su'cidal bullets he fired into his own head failed to find the fatal spot. They lodged in his cranium, however, and caused the partial paraiysis of his face described, tozether with a sinister defor- mation of the left eye. Vacher waz adj:dged insane and com- mitted to the Asylum of Dole, whence he was transferred to that of St. Robert. In 1894—and who shall say that here was | not committed the greater crime?—the | authorities of St. Robert decided that he | was mentally sound and turned the cun- | ning madman loose on France. ° i The unprecedented case of ‘‘le Tueur de Bergers” immediately begen, the mutilations and erotic motive pecu- liar to the numerous crimes he subse- d appearing in the case of the shepherdess, Louise Marce!, whom he destroyed four weeks after his libera- tion. The butcher of shepherds was detected by chance, or rather through the clever suspicion of M. Garcia, the cxamining | magistrate at Tournon, Ardeche, before whom he was arraigned for the alleged attempt at outrage. His intended prey was saved by the chance appearance of a gendarme. Vacher did. not seem to have very bad antecedents. He was charged with a simple condemnation for vagabondage at Bauge, Maine-et-Loire, which, considering the admitted manner of his existence, was not considered a grave offense, 3 In interrogating him, however, the magistrate was struck by the singularity of his appearance. He strongly resem- bled a prowler of the highways who was wanted by the prosecutors’ offices of Belley and Lyons. The description was looked up and com- parisons made. Allowing for a few trifiing discrepancies, the magistrate made up his mind that Vacher was the man. He asked the prisoner if he had ever trampea through Ain. Vacher stoutly maintaived that he had never visited the neighbor- hood. Just the same, the macistrate advised his colleague of Belley, M. Fourquet, and sent the suspected culprit to him for ex- amination. Shortly before arriving at Lyons, taking advantage of a moment of inattention on the part of the othcer who had him in charge, Vacher made a da‘h for the door of the compartment of the railroad car- riage in which they were traveling. The train was running at the rate of forty miles an hour. He would have certainly succeeded in precipitating himself head- long had not one of the guards tripped and fallen on him just as the door gave outward, while the other touched off the stop signal to the engineer. This at empt at suicide on the part of Veacher confirmed the worst suspicions. Had it been successful most of the hor- rib.e secrets of his career would have per- | not far from Dijon. i lozne, Louise Marcel, age 13— After having left { the farmer. During the investigation of Vacl procureur of the republic received ous letter from the mother of a i that lives i La Varenne-en-Argl Her daughter, Therese Ply, 19 years old, had been set upon in the forestof Arzonne and brutally murdered. The butchery was unmistakably the work of Vacher. At first he denied, then admitted he was gullt.y. Day by day after the orizinal confession, which terminated in the pretense of ex- hausted memory, otker crimes, all di | closing the same method and motive—in | their character as distinct as those of the Whitechapel madman—have been placed to Vacher’s unexampled record of fiend- ishness. Among others he has been led io recall by the force of proof is the mur- der of Aline Alaise, a girl oi 16 years, which he committed in 1896, near Bor- deaux. Some of the latest crimes imputed to Vacner, the bodies recovered having the unmistakable marks of his systematic mutilation, are reported as follows fromm the offices oi the prosecutorsin the segv- eral districts named: b Viilefranche—A woman of 35 assassin ated in the woods of the commune of WY w\\\\ N\l - \\“\\ QL ASSASSINATION OF PIERRE LAURENT. [From the engraving of De Meaulle.] the Saint Robert Asylum Vacher started y Joux. | to walk to Menton, as Le says, to visitone of his sisters, In vassing through the commune of La Vaquiere, in the depart- | ment of Draguignan, he met this young shepherdess with her flock. Next day the body of the poor littie thing was found in the sheep fold, lying in a pool of blood and s.ripped naked. Her neck had been cat from ear to ear. From armpit to arm- pit and from the neck across the bosom and stomach were two deep gashes in the form of a cross. The chest of the unfortunate child had been lacerated, and other fiend- ish mutilations added to the horror of the discovery. Augustine Montureux, 17 years old—The body of this young shepherdess was found May 12, 1895, at the side of the state road The motive and mu- tilations were similar. Public rumor in this case did not hesitate to accuse an.in- nocent man, who until Vacher’'s confes- sion suffered almost martyrdom. The widow Morand, 65 years old—This assassination occurred on August 25 1895, in an isolated nouse at Saint Qurs. The same hand directed the murderous knife. Victor Portalier, 16 years old—The body of this shepherd was found in an open field near Bononces with the throat cut and showing the mutilations common to all of Vacher's crimes. Pierre DMassot - Pellet, shepherd, | yeurs old—The body, bearing the same ripper wounds was discevered in a moun- tain path near Siaint Etienne-de-Bou- in the department of Ardeche, September 20, 1895 Marie Mussier, 19 years old—This young wife of a farmer of Cusset, in the depart- ment of Allier, only married a months, was tending her husband’s cattle, when the assassin attacked her in the open field ana left her body there horribly mutilated. Rozine Rodier, a farmer’s daughter, 14 years old—Twenty-two hours after having committed the previous crime, on Octo- ber 1, 1896, Vacher met this little irl, who was watching cattle for her father near Va- renne, Saint Honorat, in the Haute Loire. Her mutilated remains were found in the fied not 500 yards from the village. Pierre Laurent, a shepherd boy, 14 years old—This boy was killed in a ficld near Couzon-la-Giraudiere, in the environs of Lyons, October 19, 1896. The body of Eugenie Delhomme, 20 years old, an employe of a small silk mill at Beaurepaire, was found ina field not far distant. She was another of Vacher's vie- tims. Her father became insane from grief. Three young men, against whom suspicion was unjustly directed, suffered a long imprisonment for the crime and were not fully exonerated until Vacher made his confession. He spent the day following tbe butchery in the cafes of Beaurepaire listening with malign delight to the surmises and speculations of the people as to the identity of the assassin. On the 1st of Marck, 1896—and this was a plain clew—a traveier who had spent the previous night ‘at a farm in Beauce, and there exhibited his military passport {as Joseph Vacher, formerly sergeant of the Sixtieth Regiment of the line, met in the forest of Pescheseul a little girl of 14 yeurs named Derouet, a domestic in the household of M. Bobe, keeper of the estate of the Marquise Lentillac. When he pounced on the httle one, knife in hand, she screamed for succor, knowing that her master was near at hand in tie woods. The keeper rushed out upon the path, and the foiled assassin fled, after having inflicted only a slight wound on the child. He denied at first that he was the Vacher of the affair, but remembered that he was when accusea by Bobe and 14! : | Courville bridge in tae characteristically few | [ The head was separated from the trunk and the body dragged into a copse 400 feet away from the path. Castelsarrazin—A young man about 20 years old, also beheaded, dismembered and disemboweled. He was unknown in the commune, and was evidently a trav- eler from some remote place. Rive-de-Gier—A little boy about seven years, eniiced out into a by-path and butchered. Bourgoin—A woman 64 years old, ase sassinated close by the commune. Faverge — A young shepherd named Paccalin, murdered while out on the hills with his nerd. Fourviere—A boy five years old, butch- ered. Nimes—Sunday evening, October 25, 1896, about 5 o’clock, Marcel Michel, seven years old, was playing with severa! chil- dren of his own age wheu an unknown man approached, with a sack and an ac- cordeon slung over his shoulder, traveling in the direction of the country. He chat- ted with ths children awhile, then per- suaded the unsuspecting infant to accom- pany him a short distance along the road, promising a bit of money as a rewsrd. The child’s body was found next day at the roadside frightfully manglea and cut. Rheims—The body of Maria Ciement was found August 24, 1896, in the Aisne Canal, at the outskirts of the Faubourg of Saon. The murder was committed on the revolting manner of Vacher, the body de- nuded of clothing, mutilated, and then | thrown into the canal. The analogy be- tween this crime and that of Beaurepaire is perlect. 2 Vrecourt—A shepherdess, 14 years old, assassinated in a sheeplold. | Eciose—The boy Joseph Amieur, seven vears old, assassinated in the woods. Saint Barthelemy—Young girl, whose identity is as yet unknown. Vacher con- fessed having murcered her in 1594, shortly after he was released from the in- | sane asylum. Sennely—The widow Venne, aged 70 vears. In this case Vacher’s identity is established by a shepherd, who caught sight of him as he fled through the woods, | Cotes-du-Nord—The young wife of a notary, who was waylaid in the environs of Planec. Rossieux—A little girl 7 years old, assas. sinated on her way from school in a' neighboring village. Chissey-en-Mosvand—An aged widow named Charbot assassinated. Crouzet—The widow, Elisabeth Laborel, 51 years, assassinated. Montmort—Francine Romevay, assas- sinated. Tencin—Baptiste-Joseph Piraud, shep- herd, assassinated. One Sunday morning the granddaughter of the aged Widow Benoit-Hemain of Hayes failing to find her grandmother in the accustomed place at church, hurried to her cottage expecting 1o find her ili. As she crossed the threshold she stumbled over the dead body. It was another of Vacber's victims. The brand of the crimi. nal was there. A butcher who had re- cently settled in the commuue was ac- cused of the crime, and came very near being convicted on circumstantial eyi. dence, The 23d of last July Vacher appeared at’ the grocery-store of Madame Mallet, at Croix, and made a purchase of lard to make soup. He carried a vorridge-pot and a well-filled sack. From the store he went to the bank of the Ouerze River and with a few pieces of wood he gathered built a fire and made his meal, Thas | night the Widow Laville, keeper of a lit- | tie drinking place, was assassinated, a la mode Vacher. ¢ Elated over the sensation caused bv hi= |