Joseph Vacher

Joseph Vacher (16 November 1869 – 31 December 1898) was a French serial killer, rapist, and necrophile who killed between 11 and 50 people, many of them adolescent farm workers, between 1894 and 1897. He was contemporarily called "le tueur de bergers" ("the killer of shepherds"), but upon his capture became more commonly known as "The French Ripper" or "L'éventreur du Sud-Est" ("The South-East Ripper"), owing to comparisons to the more famous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England, in 1888. Vacher's scarred face and plain, white, handmade rabbit-fur hat composed his trademark appearance.