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A review by nancyadelman
The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery by Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James
5.0
This is a legally-unsolved, cold-case true crime story written by Bill James, an author best known for writing about baseball. He has one other book about true crimes and then this. James doesn't really have much in the way of true-crime credentials, but I think that this genre would suit him just fine and wish he would write more crime.
Anyway, this book is about a serial killer traveling around America starting in 1898 until 1912. The killer was able to escape detection by traveling on the train from one state to another, or one rural outpost or another. In 1900, the phrase "Serial killer" did not exist and police departments certainly did not communicate with others and so this killer was able to travel up and down the east coast of the United States and then east-west. His crimes are obvious, now, that a serial killer was at work because he had over 30 similarities in his crimes, with every crime. The police in one town not talking to another police force enabled this man to travel around and murder entire families. Some (but not all) of his characteristics are: killing families with the blunt end of an axe to the head, using the family's own axe and leaving it at the scene of the crime, covering the heads of his victims to reduce blood spatter, closing and covering all of the windows, and all of the families he chose had homes very near the intersection of two railroad line for a fast and easy getaway.
The author spent a good deal of time researching this man's crimes and comparing them to other crimes in the area and showing the reader why the killer did this crime, but not that one. In fact, when the author sat down to write this book, he was only planning to write about the killer of one family; when he began researching, he found one crime after another that indicated a serial killer was at work. The author states confidently that he believes the killer murdered well over a hundred people, and is directly responsible for the deaths of ten-fifteen other people who were wrongfully convicted of his crimes and subsequently lynched or put to death.
As a true-crime aficionado, I found this book hard to put down. The author has a unique voice and directly addresses the reader and explains his rationale for various things. At the end of the book, he even writes about the man that he suspects is the Man From the Train, and why he believes this man in particular is his man. This book was gripping and fascinating.
Anyway, this book is about a serial killer traveling around America starting in 1898 until 1912. The killer was able to escape detection by traveling on the train from one state to another, or one rural outpost or another. In 1900, the phrase "Serial killer" did not exist and police departments certainly did not communicate with others and so this killer was able to travel up and down the east coast of the United States and then east-west. His crimes are obvious, now, that a serial killer was at work because he had over 30 similarities in his crimes, with every crime. The police in one town not talking to another police force enabled this man to travel around and murder entire families. Some (but not all) of his characteristics are: killing families with the blunt end of an axe to the head, using the family's own axe and leaving it at the scene of the crime, covering the heads of his victims to reduce blood spatter, closing and covering all of the windows, and all of the families he chose had homes very near the intersection of two railroad line for a fast and easy getaway.
The author spent a good deal of time researching this man's crimes and comparing them to other crimes in the area and showing the reader why the killer did this crime, but not that one. In fact, when the author sat down to write this book, he was only planning to write about the killer of one family; when he began researching, he found one crime after another that indicated a serial killer was at work. The author states confidently that he believes the killer murdered well over a hundred people, and is directly responsible for the deaths of ten-fifteen other people who were wrongfully convicted of his crimes and subsequently lynched or put to death.
As a true-crime aficionado, I found this book hard to put down. The author has a unique voice and directly addresses the reader and explains his rationale for various things. At the end of the book, he even writes about the man that he suspects is the Man From the Train, and why he believes this man in particular is his man. This book was gripping and fascinating.