deliver the blows [that excite him], localized at the genital organs.” According to Lacassagne, thoseactions portrayed sadism, a recently coined term to describe people who took pleasure inflicting pain. The term “does not in any way imply insanity,” wrote Lacassagne, and those who engaged in such practices did not deserve society’s protection. If their predilections took them into the realm of criminal behavior, then as criminals they should be judged.
Lacassagne, like Fourquet, felt that Vacher had committed many more crimes than he had confessed to. The dossiers that came in from around the country indicated to him that Vacher had probably committed twenty-five to twenty-seven murders, rapes, and other violent felonies. Yet Vacher had confessed to only eleven, all of which occurred after his attempted shooting of Louise. Lacassagne suspected that Vacher was compiling a selective confession—a menu of crimes specifically chosen to portray an uncontrollable lunatic. Interestingly, although some of his alleged crimes involved theft—Augustine Mortureux’s earrings and shoes, Marie Moussier’s wedding band, and the vagabond Gautrais’s two hundred francs—Vacher adamantly denied having stolen. Fourquet had seen this denial as stemming from a perverse sense of honor, but Lacassagne disagreed. He saw it as a way for Vacher to deny ever having had a logical motive.
“Finally,” wrote Lacassagne, “and this is an important point—he always had enough money to not be arrested as a vagabond.” That, along with his military papers, helped him evade arrest for three years.
After four months of studying Vacher—visiting his family, evaluating his heredity, observing his behavior, analyzing crime scenes, and poring over volumes of testimony, confessions, and medical reports—the experts were ready to submit their analysis. Using the terminology of the day, they concluded that he was “not an epileptic, not an impulsive.” He was an immoral and violent person. He occasionally suffered temporary attacks of “melancholic delirium with ideas of persecution and suicide.” Yet, if at any point in his life he was alienated, he was “cured and was in a responsible state by the time he had left the Saint-Robert asylum. If he acted insane during his incarceration, it was [only] because he simulated insanity.” Vacher was, to put it simply, a criminal. “[He] should be considered as responsible, and this responsibility is in no way attenuated by any preceding psychological troubles.” In the eyes of the experts, the killer of little shepherds was legally accountable, and ready to stand trial.
Nineteen
The Trial
On Wednesday, October 26, 1898, dawn brought an overcast sky in Bourg-en-Bresse, a market town about sixty miles northeast of Lyon and capital of the department of Ain. Nevertheless, a sense of festivity filled the air. Wednesday was market day, when people from all over the district thronged the streets. But there was another reason for the carnival atmosphere: On this particular Wednesday, the trial of the most fearsome murderer of the century would begin. 1
Portraits of Vacher were displayed in the stores; street vendors hawked special newspaper editions and pamphlets heralding “The Crimes of Vacher, the Jack the Ripper of the Southeast.” Their verses titillated the public with a flavor of the upcoming testimony.
He begins the series 2
Of crimes so perverse
And strikes with such fury
,
Such fury, such fury …
Another:
Little shepherds full of sorrow
At night, take care of yourselves.
3
There are human beasts
Inhumane, inhumane
,
Cowardly or insane assassins
More terrible than wolves.
So many journalists had arrived that not a room in the entire town remained free. Authorities added equipment to the local telegraph office so the correspondents’ dispatches would not overwhelm it. Reportersarrived from all the major French newspapers and most of the regional ones, from Italian and Swiss
Lacassagne, like Fourquet, felt that Vacher had committed many more crimes than he had confessed to. The dossiers that came in from around the country indicated to him that Vacher had probably committed twenty-five to twenty-seven murders, rapes, and other violent felonies. Yet Vacher had confessed to only eleven, all of which occurred after his attempted shooting of Louise. Lacassagne suspected that Vacher was compiling a selective confession—a menu of crimes specifically chosen to portray an uncontrollable lunatic. Interestingly, although some of his alleged crimes involved theft—Augustine Mortureux’s earrings and shoes, Marie Moussier’s wedding band, and the vagabond Gautrais’s two hundred francs—Vacher adamantly denied having stolen. Fourquet had seen this denial as stemming from a perverse sense of honor, but Lacassagne disagreed. He saw it as a way for Vacher to deny ever having had a logical motive.
“Finally,” wrote Lacassagne, “and this is an important point—he always had enough money to not be arrested as a vagabond.” That, along with his military papers, helped him evade arrest for three years.
After four months of studying Vacher—visiting his family, evaluating his heredity, observing his behavior, analyzing crime scenes, and poring over volumes of testimony, confessions, and medical reports—the experts were ready to submit their analysis. Using the terminology of the day, they concluded that he was “not an epileptic, not an impulsive.” He was an immoral and violent person. He occasionally suffered temporary attacks of “melancholic delirium with ideas of persecution and suicide.” Yet, if at any point in his life he was alienated, he was “cured and was in a responsible state by the time he had left the Saint-Robert asylum. If he acted insane during his incarceration, it was [only] because he simulated insanity.” Vacher was, to put it simply, a criminal. “[He] should be considered as responsible, and this responsibility is in no way attenuated by any preceding psychological troubles.” In the eyes of the experts, the killer of little shepherds was legally accountable, and ready to stand trial.
Nineteen
The Trial
On Wednesday, October 26, 1898, dawn brought an overcast sky in Bourg-en-Bresse, a market town about sixty miles northeast of Lyon and capital of the department of Ain. Nevertheless, a sense of festivity filled the air. Wednesday was market day, when people from all over the district thronged the streets. But there was another reason for the carnival atmosphere: On this particular Wednesday, the trial of the most fearsome murderer of the century would begin. 1
Portraits of Vacher were displayed in the stores; street vendors hawked special newspaper editions and pamphlets heralding “The Crimes of Vacher, the Jack the Ripper of the Southeast.” Their verses titillated the public with a flavor of the upcoming testimony.
He begins the series 2
Of crimes so perverse
And strikes with such fury
,
Such fury, such fury …
Another:
Little shepherds full of sorrow
At night, take care of yourselves.
3
There are human beasts
Inhumane, inhumane
,
Cowardly or insane assassins
More terrible than wolves.
So many journalists had arrived that not a room in the entire town remained free. Authorities added equipment to the local telegraph office so the correspondents’ dispatches would not overwhelm it. Reportersarrived from all the major French newspapers and most of the regional ones, from Italian and Swiss
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