| Show VALUERS MANIA T Y I he Extraordinary Career of the French Murderer jp London Letter in the New York Sun I There is nothing in modern history with J which to compare the sanguinary career 1 ca-reer of the French slaughterer Vach Jr the story of whose crimes I have od in a fragmehtary way by cable as 1 it has come out from day to day during i the grant fortnight The Jack the Ripper Rip-per murders in London ten years ago are completely eclipsed by it and the revelation is still incomplete Twenty i three > Ssassin tions have already been 1 brought home to this bloodthirsty wretch and scarcely a day passes that artother is not added to the list It J1 is doubtful if the murderer himself I knows the number of his victims lie nonchalantly tells the story of some j fresh tragedy to the examining magistrate magis-trate from time to time as the details I occur to his diseased mind Investigation Investiga-tion In each case so far has produced full corrobpration of the murderers narrative These cases include several crimes rot heretofore discovered but the victims body has in each instance been found where indicated i in a disused dis-used well or lonely thicket The story of this man who killed merely for the sake of killing should be made known throughout Christendom Christen-dom for it constitutes the most startling start-ling warning of modern times against the criminal folly of turning loose upon souiptj ai Individual subject to fits of homicidal n inia Vacher who is only about 25 years old was it wasant living liv-ing near Lyons He served his military term in a regiment of zouaves and I proved so good a soldier that he was made a noncommissioned officer It I was com > hdll of him that he was brutally severe to the recruits under him A young man a member of a I renowned French family tells how Vacher once abused him so savagely I I V while drilling him that he lost his temper L tem-per and sprang at the young martinet Luckily for the soldier his companions seized him bffore he had succeeded in strikinghis tormentor otherwise court martial anH sentence to death for assaulting as-saulting an officer might have been his faro under the stern laws military discipline in France But them wa no suspicion or ground for suspicion of Vachers sanity at that time Just after completing his service ser-vice Vichw waR ill in hospital for sev eral weeks During his confinement he attempted to blow out his brains with a revolver and he still carriesthe bullet somewhere inside his skull The shot produced recurrent fits of insanity of so violent a character that he was I confined for a time at the lunatic asylum 1 asy-lum at Dole Dr Gilbert the well known exr > ort of mental diseases says that the physicians at the asylum rfi leased Vacher although they knew he was not fit to be at large because they Were afraid of an outcry in tlfe pre s l against the arbitrary confinement of a f citizen under the pretext that he was insane That was three years ago Since that time Vacfcer has wandered through the country districts of France leaving leav-ing everywlK a trail of blood but uneven detected un-even unsuspected Ui tlb bir 1 r4 > 1Mrf > 1I 1 lt he Was > caug htalmfi J j Siasaudelear Lysplis about tlirexjI ago Jnost of his Victims were shePheid boys and girls whom he found tending their flocks in lonely fields or on hill sides i but sometimes he killed men and omen In each case he seemed seized with a frenzy after striking down his victim and cut and slashed and often dismembered the body He told the magistrate one day that he considered I himself a scourge sent by Providence Ito I-to afflict humanity But his motive I 0 k was often more rational than sordid One man he killed because his victim I shir which Vach clenlooking vorc a er coveted Sometimes he admits he I lulled because he needed food and money I The murderer was always remarkably remark-ably clover in shifting suspicion from I himself TV o years ago he killed a shepherd boy on a country road a few miles from Lyons He hacked the body almost to pieces and then strolled on Within a few minutes the mutilated muti-lated corpse was discovered and there I vas immediate search for the murderer i V j in all directions A gendarme mounted I overtook Vacher and on a bicycle soon I called upon him to produce his papers I He readily handed out his discharge I from the zouaves as a noncommissioned j noncommis-sioned officer Why that is my old regiment exclaimed i ex-claimed the gendarme I am hunting a man who has just cut a boys throat Ii Have you seen any suspicious character charac-ter as you came along j Oh yes responded the murderer I v ithout the least sign of discomposure I saw a man running across the fields to the north about a mile back And the gendarme hurried off after the imaginary culprit Occasionally by some lucky chance I a victim escaped him A boy of 13 I Darned llodier was herding cows near Ccrmont Ferrand one day in October a year ago when he saw an uglylook ing grinning fellow approach He was dressed and carried 4 a a tramp poorly J a big load on his back and a heavy stick in his hand The boy was fright c Icd by the tramps appearance and came near young Ro r s the stranger dior under pretense of minding his fins ran away The stranger Vacher f v > llo edIts ed-Its bitter cold he said when he otme near Why dont you light a lire Do you want matches I can FP you some I want none said the boy and dtnt be coining after me but keep on ill1 path But Vacher came on and the boy V pt moving off until he got to the hrow of the hill where a man and r oman were digging When the tramp w w them he stopped short They eyed him als as though there was something some-thing wrong about him The man was MI sure that Vacher nieant mischief I that he took up a pitchfork to be ready for the worst The tramp said This is a horrid country The peo IIi I I-Ii > are worse than dogs I have been I j fj sting for two days and nobody has j rTTcd me a crust He had not 20 l minutes before murdered Rosine the I 14yearold sister of young Rodier but her body wa not found until a week later At another time three or four women 5r turn escaped him A Mme March and had identified Vacher as a man vho attacked her on the road near Lyons at Easter 1895 She was returning return-ing from market where she had sold V t some oranges and a man came behind I 4 be-hind her and seized her by the throat She struggled violently managed to scratch her assailants face and succeeded suc-ceeded in screaming Several persons heard her but before they reached her i her assailant had fled Three other 1 women were attacked in the same way that afternoon but were able to escape es-cape in a similar manner Vachers most prominent victim was the Marquis d < < Villeplaine who was kliled while walking In his park in southwestern France not far from the frontier The murderer I Spanish crept up behind him felled him by a blow I on the head with a heavy stick and then cut his throat The murderer carried j car-ried off his victims coat and a PortI foiSo containing some bank notes Vacher went TO Spain soon after this i murder One of his more rccelir crImes which j 3 c might never have become known but for the murderers boastfulvolunteered description of it was the killing of a boy of 16 named Bully near Lyons in June last The boy was a notorious poacher and chicken stealer so that his disappearance was made little account I ac-count of Vacher told the magistrate i this week that he met Bully on the high road and despatched him in au I unoccupied house where they went to I pass the night He spent some hours I in cutting the body to piecesand finally i threw it into the well on the premises Parts of the remains have now been I recovered by following Vachers directions direc-tions This extraordinary criminal is sane enpugh under ordinary observation and therein of course lies the danger of society from creatures with such propensities The most disgusting feature I fea-ture of the whole frightful record is the I fact that the criminal sane or insane should be able to go about for three years in a civilized wellpopulated country taking life at will and in an almost wholesale way aiti yet be comparatively com-paratively freefrom the pursuit of the agents of the law It is the fashion of Europe especially among the uneducated J unedu-cated to regard America as a more or less lawless wilderness where human life is cheap In the face of this revelation reve-lation in a country which prides itself On the skill qf its detectives America should be safe for a time at least frotH the repetition of these slanders |
