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Joseph Vacher (1869-1898), also known as 'the French Jack the Ripper', was just as Hendrik de Jong, 'the Dutch Jack the Ripper', not the actual Jack the Ripper. That's for sure.
But, if Vacher had started his gruesome murder career just a few years earlier, the chances are that the unknown person we now know as 'Jack the Ripper' would have been known as 'the English Joseph Vacher' - as Vacher was as a killer much more productive than he person who was active in London, 1888.
Anyhow, there are remarkable similarities in the lives of Vacher and De Jong. Both were born in poor peasants families, both enlisted at a very young age, both were locked away in lunatic asylums for a while.
But there the similarity ends. Vacher acted in a way much more as Jack the Ripper than Hendrik de Jong ever did. Vacher is believed to have killed at least 11 people, "both males and females, he stabbed them repeatedly, disembowelled them and sexually assaulted them."
Vacher was arrested in 1897 and beheaded in 1898.
See: Fiona Guy. Joseph Vacher: the French Jack the Ripper. Sword and Scale, June 8, 2017.
http://swordandscale.com/joseph-vach...ck-the-ripper/
But, if Vacher had started his gruesome murder career just a few years earlier, the chances are that the unknown person we now know as 'Jack the Ripper' would have been known as 'the English Joseph Vacher' - as Vacher was as a killer much more productive than he person who was active in London, 1888.
Anyhow, there are remarkable similarities in the lives of Vacher and De Jong. Both were born in poor peasants families, both enlisted at a very young age, both were locked away in lunatic asylums for a while.
But there the similarity ends. Vacher acted in a way much more as Jack the Ripper than Hendrik de Jong ever did. Vacher is believed to have killed at least 11 people, "both males and females, he stabbed them repeatedly, disembowelled them and sexually assaulted them."
Vacher was arrested in 1897 and beheaded in 1898.
See: Fiona Guy. Joseph Vacher: the French Jack the Ripper. Sword and Scale, June 8, 2017.
http://swordandscale.com/joseph-vach...ck-the-ripper/