The French Ripper
Joseph Vacher was a French serial killer known as "The French Ripper" owing to comparisons to the infamous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England, in 1888
Born in 1869, Joseph was the fifteenth child of illiterate peasants. He spent much of his childhood in a strict Catholic school where he was taught to fear and obey God. In 1892 a 23 year old Vacher would join the army and become infatuated with a with a young servant girl called Louise.
Louise did not reciprocate the soldiers affection and openly mocked his proposal. Vacher did not take this well, returning with a pistol he shot the servant girl four times and attempted suicide, neither of these attempts were successful though and Vacher would be forever paralyzed on one side of his face.
Following this incident Vacher was placed into a mental institution though was deemed to be cured within a year of entering. He would start his killing spree not long after, his first victim being murdered in 1894.
During the next three years, Vacher travelled the back roads of rural France murdering 11 victims, many of them isolated Sheppard's tending to their flocks. He would unleash his rage on these unsuspecting people, often stabbing them multiple times and disemboweling them followed by necrophiliac acts.
Vacher was caught in 1897 following an attempted attack on a women who's screams were heard by her husband and son. Confessing almost immediately "The French Ripper" was executed via guilitine in December 1898. He had to be dragged to the block by guard's as he kicked and screamed.
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