The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1898-01-18
AWFUL MANIA TO STAY.
EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF A
FRENCH MURDERER.


Home to Him-Formerly a Soldier and
Only Twenty-Five Years old - Record
without Parallel i'm Criminal Annals
There is nothing in modern history
With which to compare the sauguinarv
career of the French slaughterer. Va
:ner. The Jack the Ripper murders
II London ten years ago are com
oletely eclipsed by it, and the reveal
ion is still incomplete. Twenty-three
tssassinations have already been
brought home to this bloodthirstv
wretch. 1t is doubtfulif the murderer
himself knows the number of his vie
inns. He nonchalantly tells the story
IL some fresh tragedy to the examin-
.ng Magistrate from time to time as
;he details recur to his diseased mind.
Investigation in each case so far has
produced full confederation of the
nurderer's narrative. These cases
include several crimes not heretofore
discovered, but the victims BODY has
n each instance been found where in
1icated-in disused well or lonely
thicket.
The story OF this mau. who killel
merely for the sake of killing. should
De made known throughout Christen-
dom, for it constitutes the most start
ing warning of modern times AGAINST
me criminal folly of turning loose upon
society an individual subject to fits of
Eomicidal mania. Nacher. who is only
about twenty-five years old, was peas
iut living near Lyons. He served his
military term in aregiment of zouaves.
and proved 80 good soldier that he
was made commissioned officer.
1t was complained of him that he wos
orutally severe to the recruits under
hlm. y young man, member of n
renowned French family, tells how Va
cher once abused HIM SO savagelv
while drilling him that he lost his tenn
per and sprang at the young martinez
Luckily for the soldier, his companions
seized him before he had succeeded in
striking his tormentor, otherwise court
martial and sentence to death for as
saulting an officer might have been his
tate under the stern laws of military
discipline in France.
Just after completing his service
Nacher was ill in hospital for several
weeks. During his confinement, he
attempted to blow out his brains with
a revolver, and he still carries the bull
let somewhere inside his skull. The
shot produced recurrent fits of in
sanity OF so violent a character that he
was confined for time at the lunatic
asylum at Dole. DIR. Gilbert. the
well-known expert in mental diseases.
says that the physicians at the ASYLUM
released Vacher, although they knew
he was not fit 20 be at large, because
they were afraid of an outcry in the
press against the arbitrary confine-
ment of a citizen under the pretext
that he was insane.
That was three years ago. Since
that time Vncher has wandered
through the country districts of
France, leaving everywhere a trail of
blood, but undetected, even unsus
pected, until by mere chance he was
caught almost redhanded near Lyons.
Most of his victims were shepherd
boys and girls, whom he found tend
ing their hocks in lonely fields or on
hillsides, but sometimes he killed
men and women. In each case he
seemed seized with frenzy after
striking down his victim, and cut and
slashed aud often dismembered the
body. He told the Magistrate one
day that he considered himself n
scourge sent by Providence to afilict
humanity. But his motive was often
more rational aud sordid. One man
he killed because his victim wore
clean-lcoliing shirt which Vacher COW
eted. Sometimes, he admits. he
killed because he needed money and
food.
The murderer was always remark
ably clever in shifting suspicion from
himself. Two years ago he killed n
;hepherd boy on a country road few
miles from Lyons He hacked the
body almost into pieces and then
strolled on. Within a few minutes
the mutilated corpse was discovered
and there was immediate search for
the murderer in all directions
gendarme mounted on a bicycle soon
overlook Vacher, and called upon
him to produce his papers. He read
lily handed over his discharge from
the ZOuaves as on-cOmmissioned
officer
"Why, that is my old regiment"
exclaimed the gendarme. II am hunt.
lug man who has just cut boys
throat Have You seen any suspic
ious character as You came along?"
'Oh, yes, responded the murderer
without the least sign Of discomuOsure
81 saw man running across the folds
TO the north about q mile back And
lhe gendarme hurried or after the
Imaginary culprit