The Killer of Little Shepherds:
A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr
Imagine the investigators on CSI working without the modern tools of forensics: no DNA, no ballistics lab, not even a basic knowledge of putrefaction to establish time of death. Until just over a century ago, there was no organized study of forensic science and autopsies were likely to happen on a victim’s kitchen table, if they happened at all. In his latest book, Starr, a veteran journalist, traces the beginnings of criminal science, a fascinating history made all the more compelling by the interwoven story of 19th century French serial murderer Joseph Vacher, known as the Killer of Little Shepherds.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/13679.jpg?resize=202%2C300&ssl=1)
The tale of Vacher’s crime spree is written with the dramatic tension of a good novel and the impeccable detail of a well-researched history. Starr traveled to France and pored through case files and letters that Vacher wrote from jail, and the quotations that enliven the story are drawn from these records.