The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
In the tradition of Larson’s Thunderstruck but with superior narrative focus, Starr examines two men whose lives intersect, resulting in scientific advancement and the capture of a killer. A decade after Jack the Ripper, French army officer turned vagabond Joseph Vacher murdered and mutilated at least 25 people throughout the French countryside. Criminologist Alexandre Lacassagne, specializing in the nascent science of forensics, is called in to determine Vacher’s method and/or madness.
As is the wont of true-crime fiction, this book is sensational and swift. But its real strength is the ability to show the history and progress of forensic science and its effect on the criminal justice system. Vacher’s story seems almost a comedy of errors — he kills at will in broad daylight with frequent witnesses, yet with no central identification or communication system in place, his victims numbered in the double-digits before his capture, made by happenstance and hearty peasants rather than policework. Lacassagne fights an uphill battle against ignorance and pseudo-science, with his ultimate goal to use science to unlock the secrets of the “alienated” human mind. This book reads like fiction and fascinates with fact — definitely worth picking up, especially if one is curious about the origins behind today’s CSI craze.
