The Killer of Little Shepherds

Douglas Starr braids the relentless 1890s hunt for French serial killer Joseph Vacher, who murdered and mutilated at least eleven rural victims, with the simultaneous rise of forensic science under pioneering criminologist Alexandre Lacassagne. The book shows how one brutal case helped establish the scientific foundations of modern criminal investigation and legal psychiatry.

ISBN 9780307266194 · Alfred A. Knopf · 2010