The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr

He went into the army where, for a while, he did well, although he was somewhat brutal in his command of his other soldiers, and then, as often happens with psychopaths, he fixated on a woman in 1893. And he was sent to a monastery but then sent away for, at the time, undisclosed reasons. He grew up in a farm in rural France, early on had clerical tendencies. Steven Berkowitz: Doug, why don’t you tell us the story of Joseph Vacher?ĭouglas Starr: Joseph Vacher was basically a psychopath before people knew the term psychopath. So, without any further adieu, here’s Steve Berkowitz talking to Douglas Starr. Steve is also a reporter for Story Collider Magazine which explores the intersection between science and narrative. Starr was interviewed by my friend, Steve Berkowitz, a New York City storyteller and an instructor with the Moths Community Education Program.

He’s also the author of the 2010 book, The Killer of Little Shepherds, subtitled A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science which I’ve wanted to do an episode about for quite a while. He’s a veteran science writer and co-director of the graduate program in science journalism at Boston University. On this episode -ĭouglas Starr: The late 19th Century was a blossoming of all forms of science from anatomy to chemistry to bacteriology, and this started coming together in the minds of some scientists as a way of solving crime. Welcome to the Scientific American podcast science talk posted on March 15th, 2013. Right now, is offering a free audio book and a one month trial membership to the Scientific American audience. features more than 100,000 titles including science books like The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr and sci-fi like Extinction by Mark Alpert. Steve Mirsky: This Scientific American podcast is brought to you by, your source for audio books and more.