Known as the "French Ripper," Joseph was a sight for sore eyes. He suffered from partial paralysis on the right side from a self-inflicted head injury from when he was 25. Apparently, after being scorned by a woman, he shot her three times and unsuccessfully tried to blow his own head off. Later, the misfit killer would claim that his horrible condition played part in murderous rampage.
In 1893 he was arrested for shooting another woman and was placed in an asylum where, after repeated escape attempts, he was declared cured of his violent "persecution mania" and released. A month after his release on April 1, 1894, Vacher started roaming the French countryside looking for women and children to slaughter.
In a demonic frenzy Joseph would strangle, stab, and disembowel his victims to the tune of more than 11 savage killings over three and a half years. He also enjoyed mutilating their sexual organs and raping them alive and post mortem. Near each crime scene witnesses reported an ugly, foul mouthed tramp passing by.
In August, 1897 he was arrested for offending public decency outside Touron. While in jail police realized he looked very much like the descriptions of the French Ripper and established several links between him and some of thee crimes. Eventually Joseph confessed in a rambling written accounts describing every detail of the killings. Although he confessed to only 11 kills, authorities suspect him of 14. During his trial he blamed his bad disposition because he had contracted rabies from a dog bite at the age of eight. Nevertheless, the court found him guilty of murder and guillotined him December 31, 1898.