long, MacDonald was arrested in Melbourne and brought back to Sydney. At his 1963 trial, he was found guilty of four counts of murder and given life in prison, where he passes his days reading literary classics and listening to Chopin, Liszt, and Gilbert and Sullivan.
BLOODTHIRSTY “BI”S
While most sadistic lust-murderers prefer victims of either their own or the opposite sex, a few can be classified as bisexual. The extravagantly perverted Albert Fish, for example, derived as much twisted pleasure from raping and castrating young boys as he did from torturing and cannibalizing little girls.
Thirty years earlier, in the late 1890s, an equally depraved monster roamed the French countryside, preying on victims of both sexes. He has long been forgotten, though his crimes were even more appalling than those of his contemporary, Jack the Ripper. His name was Joseph Vacher.
In contrast to certain psychopaths whose pleasant looks belie their depraved minds—Ted Bundy, for example, or Jeffrey Dahmer—Vacher’s physical appearance was as repulsive as his soul. One side of his face was paralyzed, his right eye exuded a steady flow of pus, his lips were contorted and scarred. These deformities were the result of a self-inflicted wound sustained at twenty-four when—after shooting a woman who had spurned him—he turned the pistol on himself and fired into his own head. His appearance was sufficiently disquieting to cause people to flinch when they saw him. Vacher, in the self-pitying way of most psychopaths, would later claim that he had been driven to commit his hideous crimes because the world was so very mean to him—a dubious assertion since his sadistic tendencies had manifested themselves long before the failed suicide attempt that made his features so revolting.
Born in 1869, he took great pleasure in torturing animals as a child and showed the kind of precocious interest in sex typical of future serial killers. At school, he enjoyed introducing his little playmates to mutual masturbation. In his late adolescence, he joined a monastery but was promptly expelled for encouraging the same practice, along with sodomy, among the novice monks.
After a stint in the army—during which he terrorized his fellow soldiers with unprovoked outbursts of near-homicidal rage—the incident occurred that left him disfigured for life. Rebuffed by a young woman he proposed to, he shot her three times, then turned the gun on himself. The young woman survived, as did Vacher, who was committed to an insane asylum and treated for “persecution mania.” Incredibly, he was declared cured after less than a year and discharged in April 1894.
One month later, he embarked on one of the most hideous sprees in the annals of serial murder. Armed with knives, scissors, and a cleaver, he took up the life of a tramp and roamed the countryside, searching for victims to butcher.
The list of his atrocities is as follows:
March 20, 1894. Vacher strangles a twenty-one-year-old woman, cuts her throat, stomps on her abdomen, rips flesh from her breasts, and rapes her corpse.
November 10, 1894. He murders and mutilates a thirteen-year-old girl.
May 18, 1895. He murders and mutilates a seventeen-year-old girl.
August 24, 1895. He strangles a fifty-eight-year-old widow and rapes the corpse.
August 28, 1895. He murders a sixteen-year-old girl, rips open her abdomen, and tears out the entrails.
August 31, 1895. He strangles, castrates, and anally sodomizes the corpse of a seventeen-year-old shepherd boy.
September 29, 1895. He murders and castrates a fifteen-year-old boy.
September 10, 1896. He murders a nineteen-year-old newlywed woman, then rapes the corpse.
October 1, 1896. He murders a fourteen-year-old shepherdess, tears out her vulva, and carries it away with him.
May 27, 1897. He murders a fourteen-year-old boy, anally sodomizes the body, then throws it down a well.
June 18, 1897. He murders a thirteen-year-old shepherd boy and sodomizes the
BLOODTHIRSTY “BI”S
While most sadistic lust-murderers prefer victims of either their own or the opposite sex, a few can be classified as bisexual. The extravagantly perverted Albert Fish, for example, derived as much twisted pleasure from raping and castrating young boys as he did from torturing and cannibalizing little girls.
Thirty years earlier, in the late 1890s, an equally depraved monster roamed the French countryside, preying on victims of both sexes. He has long been forgotten, though his crimes were even more appalling than those of his contemporary, Jack the Ripper. His name was Joseph Vacher.
In contrast to certain psychopaths whose pleasant looks belie their depraved minds—Ted Bundy, for example, or Jeffrey Dahmer—Vacher’s physical appearance was as repulsive as his soul. One side of his face was paralyzed, his right eye exuded a steady flow of pus, his lips were contorted and scarred. These deformities were the result of a self-inflicted wound sustained at twenty-four when—after shooting a woman who had spurned him—he turned the pistol on himself and fired into his own head. His appearance was sufficiently disquieting to cause people to flinch when they saw him. Vacher, in the self-pitying way of most psychopaths, would later claim that he had been driven to commit his hideous crimes because the world was so very mean to him—a dubious assertion since his sadistic tendencies had manifested themselves long before the failed suicide attempt that made his features so revolting.
Born in 1869, he took great pleasure in torturing animals as a child and showed the kind of precocious interest in sex typical of future serial killers. At school, he enjoyed introducing his little playmates to mutual masturbation. In his late adolescence, he joined a monastery but was promptly expelled for encouraging the same practice, along with sodomy, among the novice monks.
After a stint in the army—during which he terrorized his fellow soldiers with unprovoked outbursts of near-homicidal rage—the incident occurred that left him disfigured for life. Rebuffed by a young woman he proposed to, he shot her three times, then turned the gun on himself. The young woman survived, as did Vacher, who was committed to an insane asylum and treated for “persecution mania.” Incredibly, he was declared cured after less than a year and discharged in April 1894.
One month later, he embarked on one of the most hideous sprees in the annals of serial murder. Armed with knives, scissors, and a cleaver, he took up the life of a tramp and roamed the countryside, searching for victims to butcher.
The list of his atrocities is as follows:
March 20, 1894. Vacher strangles a twenty-one-year-old woman, cuts her throat, stomps on her abdomen, rips flesh from her breasts, and rapes her corpse.
November 10, 1894. He murders and mutilates a thirteen-year-old girl.
May 18, 1895. He murders and mutilates a seventeen-year-old girl.
August 24, 1895. He strangles a fifty-eight-year-old widow and rapes the corpse.
August 28, 1895. He murders a sixteen-year-old girl, rips open her abdomen, and tears out the entrails.
August 31, 1895. He strangles, castrates, and anally sodomizes the corpse of a seventeen-year-old shepherd boy.
September 29, 1895. He murders and castrates a fifteen-year-old boy.
September 10, 1896. He murders a nineteen-year-old newlywed woman, then rapes the corpse.
October 1, 1896. He murders a fourteen-year-old shepherdess, tears out her vulva, and carries it away with him.
May 27, 1897. He murders a fourteen-year-old boy, anally sodomizes the body, then throws it down a well.
June 18, 1897. He murders a thirteen-year-old shepherd boy and sodomizes the
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