Photo Album Circa 1900: Ain, Haute-savoie, Switzerland, Head Of The Killer Joseph Vacher

Album of Photographs (circa 1900).

(Ain – Haute-Savoie – Switzerland). VIEWS AND MONUMENTS, AND THE HEAD OF VACHER.

1 oblong 4to album (23.5 × 28 cm); [33] pp. containing around sixty photographs of various sizes: Bellegarde railway station (Ain, roundhouse under construction), Lausanne’s Grand Bridge (Switzerland), Château de Saint-Maurice (Switzerland), bridge over the Rhône near Vouvry (Valais), Gorges du Fier (dated 18 October 1896), Porte-du-Sex (Valais), La Roche-sur-Foron (Haute-Savoie), view of Geneva and its monuments, views of Saint-Gervais (Haute-Savoie), Ambilly (Haute-Savoie), Menthon-Saint-Bernard and Le Parmelan, the Pont de la Caille (two photographs), unidentified views and monuments, groups of men, military review, etc. Three postcards at the end.

Album partly loose, spine partly detached, some leaves detached. Tears to several leaves, not affecting the photographs.

Among the contents is a remarkable photograph of the severed head of Joseph Vacher shortly after his execution. “Photograph of the head of the criminal Vacher, known as ‘the Shepherds’ Killer,’ executed at Bourg (Ain) on 31 December 1898 (photograph taken 40 minutes after the execution).” (Caption on a small handwritten note).

Joseph Vacher, born in Beaufort in 1869, is considered one of the first serial killers in France. Nicknamed “the Shepherds’ Killer” or “the Jack the Ripper of Southeast France,” he was sentenced to death on 28 October 1898 and guillotined on 31 December the same year in Bourg-en-Bresse.