The World's Most Evil Psychopaths: Horrifying True-Life Cases by John Marlowe Page B
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Authors: John Marlowe
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shepherd boy. When called upon to produce identification, Vacher handed over his discharge papers. The gendarme remarked that he had once served in the very same regiment. When he asked whether Vacher had seen any suspicious characters, the murderer replied that he had seen a man running across the fields about a mile away. The gendarme then set off in pursuit.
The killing came to an end in early August 1897 when Vacher happened upon a woman outside Lyon who was gathering wood. He attacked, but was immediately set upon by his intended victim’s husband and sons. Vacher was arrested.
Although the authorities were convinced that Vacher was L’Éventreur du Sud-Est, they had neither witnesses nor evidence. Their big break came from Vacher himself, who one day, without explanation, chose to confess all his crimes.
He was, he argued, not responsible for his actions, owing to the dog that had given him rabies as a child. Vacher was convinced that his blood had been poisoned. It was because of this condition, Vacher claimed, that he felt an urge to drink blood from the necks of his victims. Hatred had also played a role in his murders – hatred brought on by those who found his deformed face unsightly.
Vacher was tried with what appears to have been undue haste. He was examined by a team of doctors who determined that the memory of the accused was clear. The fact that he had fled the scene of each murder was, they claimed, an indication that he was fully cognizant of the difference between right and wrong. Among those who examined Vacher was Alexandre Lacassagne, a professor of forensic medicine at the Université de Lyon. He later wrote a book, Vacher l’éventreur et les crimes sadiques, in which he drew comparisons between the serial killer and figures like Gilles de Rais and Jack the Ripper.
On 28 October 1898, after a trial which lasted two days, Vacher was sentenced to death. Two months later, on New Year’s Eve, he was guillotined at Bourg-en-Bresse, not far from where he had performed his military service.
DOCTOR H. H. HOLMES
It is not correct, as is often claimed, that H. H. Holmes was America’s first serial killer; both the Bloody Benders (a Kansas family of serial killers) and the Servant Girl Annihilator preceded him. He did, however, kill more people than the Servant Girl Annihilator and all the members of the Bender family put together. The claim that Holmes was the most prolific American serial killer of all time remains an issue of some debate.
The man who history remembers as H. H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett on 16 May 1860 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Nearly a century and a half later, the town numbers barely more than 3,000 inhabitants. It is perhaps most famous as having served as a model for Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place, the setting for the 1956 novel of the same name.
Holmes grew up in an impoverished family with an abusive alcoholic father at its head. School provided only a partial escape. While an intelligent and handsome boy, he was also a frequent victim of bullying. He once claimed that, as a child, he had been forced by his classmates to touch a human skeleton. It was an event that appeared to haunt him for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he sought to become a medical doctor and developed a fascination with anatomy. As an adolescent, this interest found expression in his killing and dismembering of stray animals.
At 16, he graduated from school and managed to get teaching positions – first in Gilmanton and later in nearby Alton, New Hampshire. It was there that he met Clara Lovering. The ardour between them was such that the two eloped. However, in marriage that same passion quickly dissipated and he soon abandoned his wife.
Still intent on a career in medicine, he attended the University of Vermont. It was, however, too small for his liking. In September 1882, he enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which held what was considered to be one of the
The killing came to an end in early August 1897 when Vacher happened upon a woman outside Lyon who was gathering wood. He attacked, but was immediately set upon by his intended victim’s husband and sons. Vacher was arrested.
Although the authorities were convinced that Vacher was L’Éventreur du Sud-Est, they had neither witnesses nor evidence. Their big break came from Vacher himself, who one day, without explanation, chose to confess all his crimes.
He was, he argued, not responsible for his actions, owing to the dog that had given him rabies as a child. Vacher was convinced that his blood had been poisoned. It was because of this condition, Vacher claimed, that he felt an urge to drink blood from the necks of his victims. Hatred had also played a role in his murders – hatred brought on by those who found his deformed face unsightly.
Vacher was tried with what appears to have been undue haste. He was examined by a team of doctors who determined that the memory of the accused was clear. The fact that he had fled the scene of each murder was, they claimed, an indication that he was fully cognizant of the difference between right and wrong. Among those who examined Vacher was Alexandre Lacassagne, a professor of forensic medicine at the Université de Lyon. He later wrote a book, Vacher l’éventreur et les crimes sadiques, in which he drew comparisons between the serial killer and figures like Gilles de Rais and Jack the Ripper.
On 28 October 1898, after a trial which lasted two days, Vacher was sentenced to death. Two months later, on New Year’s Eve, he was guillotined at Bourg-en-Bresse, not far from where he had performed his military service.
DOCTOR H. H. HOLMES
It is not correct, as is often claimed, that H. H. Holmes was America’s first serial killer; both the Bloody Benders (a Kansas family of serial killers) and the Servant Girl Annihilator preceded him. He did, however, kill more people than the Servant Girl Annihilator and all the members of the Bender family put together. The claim that Holmes was the most prolific American serial killer of all time remains an issue of some debate.
The man who history remembers as H. H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett on 16 May 1860 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Nearly a century and a half later, the town numbers barely more than 3,000 inhabitants. It is perhaps most famous as having served as a model for Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place, the setting for the 1956 novel of the same name.
Holmes grew up in an impoverished family with an abusive alcoholic father at its head. School provided only a partial escape. While an intelligent and handsome boy, he was also a frequent victim of bullying. He once claimed that, as a child, he had been forced by his classmates to touch a human skeleton. It was an event that appeared to haunt him for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he sought to become a medical doctor and developed a fascination with anatomy. As an adolescent, this interest found expression in his killing and dismembering of stray animals.
At 16, he graduated from school and managed to get teaching positions – first in Gilmanton and later in nearby Alton, New Hampshire. It was there that he met Clara Lovering. The ardour between them was such that the two eloped. However, in marriage that same passion quickly dissipated and he soon abandoned his wife.
Still intent on a career in medicine, he attended the University of Vermont. It was, however, too small for his liking. In September 1882, he enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which held what was considered to be one of the
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