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A review by mnboyer
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr
5.0
"The Killer of Little Shepherds" is Joseph Vacher, a French serial killer that was also sometimes called 'The French Ripper' or 'The South-east Ripper.'
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Regardless of what he was being called, he was a seriously deranged man that roamed the countryside killing innocent people. He would often attack individuals that were alone (in many cases, younger women and children that were tending to their sheep in isolated locations) and suffocate them, brutally stab/maim their bodies, and in some cases he would rape them.
This book discusses these murders in a way that I can only describe as: it makes for voracious reading! Vacher is a killer that I'm sure many true-crime readers are already aware of, and those interested in serial killers have also probably heard him associated with Jack the Ripper, but there are likely many individuals that have not heard of Vacher. If you are interested in serial killers, he's definitely worth researching.
He attempted to avoid the guillotine via insanity plea. I'll let you read this book to find out if that worked. However, for those interested in law-and-policy, and perhaps the ways murderers try to use the insanity plea, there is some great information here.
But one of the best parts of this book revolves around the 'true crime' aspect, which focuses on how scientists, detectives, and medical examiners at the time were beginning to widely use forensic analysis. Obviously, they weren't picking up DNA samples like we see on CSI but they were collecting fingerprints, examining blood spray, and were beginning to do intense autopsies to discover how victims spent their last hours.
One of the individuals discussed throughout the book is Alexandre Lacassagne, a French physician and criminologist who founded the Lacassagne school of criminology, based in Lyon and influential from 1885 to 1914. He was one of the best criminologists at the time--and this book will explain why!
A really fun read, despite the gruesome topic.
image:
Regardless of what he was being called, he was a seriously deranged man that roamed the countryside killing innocent people. He would often attack individuals that were alone (in many cases, younger women and children that were tending to their sheep in isolated locations) and suffocate them, brutally stab/maim their bodies, and in some cases he would rape them.
This book discusses these murders in a way that I can only describe as: it makes for voracious reading! Vacher is a killer that I'm sure many true-crime readers are already aware of, and those interested in serial killers have also probably heard him associated with Jack the Ripper, but there are likely many individuals that have not heard of Vacher. If you are interested in serial killers, he's definitely worth researching.
He attempted to avoid the guillotine via insanity plea. I'll let you read this book to find out if that worked. However, for those interested in law-and-policy, and perhaps the ways murderers try to use the insanity plea, there is some great information here.
But one of the best parts of this book revolves around the 'true crime' aspect, which focuses on how scientists, detectives, and medical examiners at the time were beginning to widely use forensic analysis. Obviously, they weren't picking up DNA samples like we see on CSI but they were collecting fingerprints, examining blood spray, and were beginning to do intense autopsies to discover how victims spent their last hours.
One of the individuals discussed throughout the book is Alexandre Lacassagne, a French physician and criminologist who founded the Lacassagne school of criminology, based in Lyon and influential from 1885 to 1914. He was one of the best criminologists at the time--and this book will explain why!
A really fun read, despite the gruesome topic.