The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial

The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery

An Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime, this â€œimpressiveâ€¦open-eyed investigative inquiry wrapped within a cultural history of rural Americaâ€ (The Wall Street Journal) shows legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applying his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.

Between 1898 and 1912, families across the country were bludgeoned in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Some of these casesâ€”like the infamous Villisca, Iowa, murdersâ€”received national attention. But most incidents went almost unnoticed outside the communities in which they occurred. Few people believed the crimes were related. And fewer still would realize that all of these families lived within walking distance to a train station. When celebrated true crime expert Bill James first learned about these horrors, he began to investigate others that might fit the same pattern. Applying the same know-how he brings to his legendary baseball analysis, he empirically determined which crimes were committed by the same person. Then after sifting through thousands of local newspapers, court transcripts, and public records, he and his daughter Rachel made an astonishing discovery: they learned the true identity of this monstrous criminal and uncovered one of the deadliest serial killers in America.

â€œA suspenseful historical accountâ€ (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Man from the Train paints a vivid, psychologically perceptive portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, when crime was regarded as a local problem, and opportunistic private detectives exploited a dysfunctional judicial system. James shows how these cultural factors enabled such an unspeakable series of crimes to occur, and his groundbreaking approach to true crime will convince skeptics, amaze aficionados, and change the way we view criminal history. â€œA beautifully written and extraordinarily researched narrativeâ€¦This is no pure whodunit, but rather a how-many-did-he-doâ€ (Buffalo News).
Country USA
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2017-09-19
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2017-09-19
Format	Kindle eBook

The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery

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