22 - Death Rides the Rails, Part Two

The infamous Villisca murder, the convoluted clues and divisive aftermath, when a charismatic conman came to town.

Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.d.gable/media_set?set=a.10215817484383598&type=3&uploaded=16

“Axe murders claiming 31 victims during the last 4 years probed,” Green Bay (WI) Semi-Weekly Gazette, July 20, 1915.
“Confesses Blue Island murder,” Princeton (IN) Daily Clarion, July 19, 1915.
“Family and guests murdered in sleep,” Bayard News, June 13, 1912.
“Farmer is a suicide after killing two,” Webster City Freeman, September 17, 1912.
“Four are victims to mysterious axe,” Dixon (IL) Evening Telegraph, July 6, 1914.
Getting the Axe. http://gettingtheaxe.blogspot.com/
James, Bill and Rachel McCarthy James. The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. New York: Scribner, 2017.
“Ricks is not the man,” Marshalltown Evening Times-Republican, June 14, 1912.
Taylor, Troy. Murdered in Their Beds: History and Hauntings of Villisca and the Midwest Axe Murders. Whitechapel Press, 2012.
“Thinks slayer knew family,” Waterloo Courier, June 12, 1912.
Villisca Ax Murder House. http://www.villiscaiowa.com/index.php
“Whole family brutally slain in their home; accused man, jailed, in peril of lynching,” Tacoma (WA) Times, December 7, 1910.
“Wrong confession by death's head,” Keokuk Daily Gate City, January 23, 1910.

Opening music by Kevin MacLeod.
Closing music by Soma.