Review: The Man from the Train by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James

This was a fascinating book.  Between 1898 and 1912 there were quite a lot of axe murders of entire families throughout the US.  I never knew how many!  The most famous likely being Villisca.  The authors sort through the historical records and discuss the different cases, including if others were convicted of the crimes (many times) and executed.  The compare similarities in methods and signatures of the crimes.  They give opinions of which were connected crimes vs. those that were not - including those of the New Orleans Axe murderer.  It is a fascinating read and they clearly did a huge amount of research on the crimes.  It shocked me how many axe murders there were during the period.  It was shocking.  Of note -- Lizzie Borden was not mentioned. LOL

They even propose who they thought the killer was and make a case.  Of course, we'll never know for sure, but it was a very interesting book.

Terri