Most Notorious (Podcast) 'The Man From The Train'

[Howard Brown]

"The Man From the Train"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLtIhqZTA4

For decades, the 1912 Villisca, Iowa axe slaughter of the Moore family has been one of the greatest unsolved family massacres in American history. Many believe that it was a local towns person, but others believe it was the work of an transient serial killer.

From the late 1890s until possibly as late as the 1920s, Paul Mueller, a German sailor, rode the American rails, murdering entire families with the blunt edge of an axe, according to my guest, Rachel McCarthy James. She, along with her co-author and father, baseball historian and statistician Bill James, make a convincing case in their book, The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery, that they have discovered the slayer of potentially a hundred or more people across the United States, Canada, and even Germany.

[Anna Morris]

I highly recommend "The Man From the Train" by Bill and Rachel James. I do not agree with all of their conclusions but they did a fine job explaining the many axe murders across the U.S. early in the last century and at the very end of the century before.

[Andrew Gable]

Of all the murders they mention, I do think that the 1911-12 murders in Colorado Springs, Monmouth IL, Ellsworth KS, Paola KS, and Villisca were the same guy. The killing of the Casaways in San Antonio in 1911 *might* be the same guy - I'm unsure on this one. It's often counted among the axe murders of blacks in the South that were taking place at the same time. These are the killings Clementine Barnabet eventually gets arrested for. Not sure if the Casaways should stay in the Southern series or the Midwest ones. Specifics of the case seem more consistent with the Midwest series. I'm also kind of up in the air as to whether the killing of the Hills in Ardenwald, Oregon was the same killer.

I just generally feel like it was a bit of a reach as it's nearly impossible one guy was responsible for ALL of them in the book. That said, it is definitely a good book information wise. I just disagree with the conclusions.

[Howard Brown]

Andrew....what was it about the axe that made it such a prevalent weapon from say 1910 to 1940 ? At least in America.

After the WW2, it seems to have fallen out of favor of murderers.

[Andrew Gable]

A lot of people have said it was just the commonality of axes back then, I mean I feel like pretty much everyone had one and sometimes probably more than one. But it is odd too, I mean while most people aren't as dependent on chopping wood for fuel anymore (or having to kill chickens for dinner), an axe isn't exactly hard to come across either. I always found it strange that the majority of axe murders I'm aware of *don't* use the blade end but the flat bludgeoning end.

[Howard Brown]

I always found it strange that the majority of axe murders I'm aware of *don't* use the blade end but the flat bludgeoning end.

Yes it is strange. I hadn't thought of that.

[Anna Morris]

Despite TV shows like 'Gunsmoke' and 'Bonanza', gun play in the old west was not that common. Instead of six-shooters, people more likely had rifles and shotguns if they were armed. My point is, most people were not armed with intended weapons. If you scour chroniclingamerica.loc.gov , the old newspapers, for axe murders, there were a number of them from at least the 1870's up to about the 1920's. As said by others, the axe was a readily available weapon likely kept in the intended victim's yard, quickly discarded after the fact.

Up until about the 1950's axes were still widely used in the timber industry. Chain saws did not come in until about the 1950's. One theory from the book is 'The Man From the Train' may have been a lumberjack, well versed in the use of axes. Additionally, in those times, meat sources were a lot closer to the table than they became around the 1950's. I cannot stand details about meat production then or now, but I do know that axes had their place.

An itinerant man, riding the rails, might well have worked in the timber industry and done farm labour.

The series of axe murders that included the so-called 'Mulatto Axe Murders' which began in Louisiana and East Texas, as well as those in the Midwest which included Villisca, IMO, are connected. I wonder if a mixed race man who could pass as either black or some level of white, was the perpetrator. I do not think the 'evidence' holds up against Clementine Barnabet and her crazy clan. One contemporary report said Clementine and her family had come from somewhere like Haiti and their religious beliefs were extremely different from their neighbors in Louisiana. Therefore they were most likely to be blamed. In the end, I believe if evidence had been strong against her, she or some of her kin would have been executed or even lynched by their neighbors.

The Man From the Train crimes remind me of the modern day, rail riding serial killer Angel Resendez Ramirez, a Mexican national who was eventually caught and executed in Texas. I am not suggesting the axe murderer was Mexican but if the axe murders committed in African American neighborhoods can be connected to the Midwest series, I think brown skin would be an advantage. IMO, such a man would need to look like a darker person of perhaps Mediterranean background in the predominantly white Midwest. The southern axe murders targeted people and families of mixed race. If the murders can be connected, did the killer target people most like himself in the south? It doesn't look like robbery was the motive in any of these crimes.

[Phillip Walton]

A lot of people have said it was just the commonality of axes back then, I mean I feel like pretty much everyone had one and sometimes probably more than one. But it is odd too, I mean while most people aren't as dependent on chopping wood for fuel anymore (or having to kill chickens for dinner), an axe isn't exactly hard to come across either. I always found it strange that the majority of axe murders I'm aware of *don't* use the blade end but the flat bludgeoning end.

Its what is available. The most common murder weapon here in the UK is a knife. Every kitchen has a variety knives and guns are almost impossible to legally obtain.