“Impressive . . . an open-eyed investigative inquiry wrapped within a cultural history of rural America.”
—Wall Street Journal
The Man from the Train
The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery
Description
An Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime, The Man from the Train is an “impressive…open-eyed investigative inquiry wrapped within a cultural history of rural America” (The Wall Street Journal). In this groundbreaking work of historical true crime, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical genius to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.
Between 1898 and 1912, families across the United States were brutally murdered in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Valuables were left untouched, bodies were staged, and faces covered. Some cases, like the infamous Villisca Axe Murders in Iowa, gained national attention—but few believed the crimes were connected. Fewer still noticed that every family lived within walking distance of a train line.
Digging through thousands of newspapers, court transcripts, and public records, James and his daughter Rachel uncovered a chilling truth: these murders were the work of one man, traveling by rail, who would go on to become one of America’s most prolific yet largely forgotten serial killers.
Riveting and immersive, The Man from the Train offers a vivid portrait of turn-of-the-century America, exposing how cultural blind spots, flawed investigations, and opportunistic detectives allowed this killer to operate undetected. Blending meticulous research with narrative drive, this modern classic of true crime nonfiction will fascinate readers of Devil in the White City, My Favorite Murder, and fans of unsolved mysteries and historical crime investigations.
Reviews
“[An] incredible book . . . one of the most readable works of non-fiction I’ve ever picked up . . . James has a conversational style of writing that draws the reader in, even when he departs from murders to offer short history lessons on 19th century detectives-for-hire (pretty bad), 19th century newspapers (not great) and mob justice (truly horrifying) . . . Even more remarkable than the exhaustive research and addictive narrative, the [authors] actually seem to solve the case and reveal the identity of The Man From the Train. Skeptics may balk, but I’m convinced.”
—Raleigh News & Observer
“Truly spectacular . . . The book shines when we get to see the Jameses’ thinking. Like the recent Netflix documentary ‘The Keepers,’ it’s fun to watch these amateur detectives solve a puzzle. And solve it they do — after 400 pages, when Rachel discovers the killer’s first crime way back in 1898. Did they get it right? I’m pretty sure they did. Either way, the final twist in the story—set 10 years after the Villisca murders on the other side of the Atlantic—gave me chills.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“The Man from the Train is a beautifully written and extraordinarily researched narrative of a man who may have killed 95—or more—people, dating back more than a century, mostly in small-town Middle America . . . This is no pure whodunit, but rather a how-many-did-he-do.”
—Buffalo News