Historedia
EuropeEvent

Execution of French serial killer Joseph Vacher

When
1898
Where
Bourg-en-Bresse
Episodes
1

Joseph Vacher, a French serial killer active between 1894 and 1897, was executed by guillotine in Bourg-en-Bresse on 31 December 1898. His conviction stemmed from the murder of Victor Portalier, following a judicial investigation that linked numerous unsolved crimes across Southern France. The execution took place in the morning before a large crowd, marking the end of his criminal career.

Episodes

  1. 31 December 1898 · Bourg-en-BresseExecution at Bourg-en-Bresse

    Vacher was executed by guillotine in Bourg-en-Bresse on 31 December 1898 before a crowd of 3,500 people.

Background and detail

Background. Vacher was known as "The French Ripper" or "The South-East Ripper" due to comparisons with Jack the Ripper. He killed between 11 and 50 people, primarily adolescent farm workers, between 1894 and 1897. Judge Émile Fourquet connected these crimes in 1897 by collecting records of unsolved murders in Southern France, identifying a single perpetrator based on shared victim profiles and mutilation patterns.

Execution. The execution occurred at 7:03 a.m. on 31 December 1898 in Bourg-en-Bresse. It was carried out by guillotine in front of a crowd of 3,500 people. This event concluded the legal process initiated by the judicial connection of his crimes across Southern France.

People involved

Sources

  1. Joseph Vacher Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.