The Man From The Train (James, 2017)

[jmenges]

I see some discussion of the book The Man From The Train on another thread so I thought I’d start one here.

This is a small excerpt from my review, published in Ripperologist Magazine several years ago.



“In looking at the Villisca case and finding other, nearly identical murders in the same geographical region, all linked by train tracks, a pattern began to emerge to the authors. They noticed the same signature and modus operandi, concepts unknown to the police in the early years of the 20th century, being repeated time and time again.

Some, but not all, of the signature and M.O. that the authors use to connect these dozens of crimes are:

The killer targeted homes within a short walk from the train tracks just outside of small towns where there was no local police force.

He waited until the early morning hours just after midnight to strike, often hiding in a barn.

The families he picked to kill more time than not had a prepubescent female as one of its members.

He would borrow an ax either from the house itself or from a neighboring house and leave the ax behind after washing it of blood. The ax was often left next to the young girl victim.

He would only use the blunt end of the ax, never the sharp end.

He would pull the curtains or use other material to cover the windows and lock all of the doors, or jamb them shut, prior to leaving.

He would find an oil lamp, remove its chimney, and place it in some conspicuous place inside the crime scene (a calling card that I found very interesting).

He would cover up the heads of all of his victims.

He would murder everyone while they slept and leave them in their beds, except the young girl, whom he would often move and leave posed.

He would never commit robbery.

He would leave the house through a back window, return to the train track (in some cases bloodhounds traced his movement back to the train) and strike in another town after a routine ‘cooling-off’ period and like-distance away from his prior attack.

The shear repetition of the above factors, in case after case,does drill into the reader a sense that these authors are on to something.”

The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century Old Serial Killing Mystery
Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James
Simon & Schuster 2017
ISBN-10: 1476796254
ISBN-13: 978-1476796253
Hardback: 480 pages


JM

[erobitha]

I saw Herlock mention the book, and it sounds intriguing. It does not sound like there was much in the way of escalation.

On the face of it, the ritualistic nature of the murders, the pattern of victimology and the nature of the calling card would indicate that the murderer was attempting to recreate an event.

The repetitive nature shows a compulsive disorder to keep repeating the same thing over and over. Some of the behaviours described are so specific, using the rear of the axe instead of the blade, cleaning the axe and leaving it behind, posing of the young victim and then the arson afterwards. This is a routine the killer knows inside out.

My hunch would be the murders resemble an event he may have been subjected to and survived, or he was witness to and was intrigued to do it for himself.

All speculation, of course. Probably should read the book.

[Losmandris]

Sounds intriguing! Surprised that this series of murders has not had more coverage. Sure it would make for a great Rippercast episode!

[jason_c]

I see some discussion of the book The Man From The Train on another thread so I thought I’d start one here.

This is a small excerpt from my review, published in Ripperologist Magazine several years ago.



“In looking at the Villisca case and finding other, nearly identical murders in the same geographical region, all linked by train tracks, a pattern began to emerge to the authors. They noticed the same signature and modus operandi, concepts unknown to the police in the early years of the 20th century, being repeated time and time again.

Some, but not all, of the signature and M.O. that the authors use to connect these dozens of crimes are:

The killer targeted homes within a short walk from the train tracks just outside of small towns where there was no local police force.

He waited until the early morning hours just after midnight to strike, often hiding in a barn.

The families he picked to kill more time than not had a prepubescent female as one of its members.

He would borrow an ax either from the house itself or from a neighboring house and leave the ax behind after washing it of blood. The ax was often left next to the young girl victim.

He would only use the blunt end of the ax, never the sharp end.

He would pull the curtains or use other material to cover the windows and lock all of the doors, or jamb them shut, prior to leaving.

He would find an oil lamp, remove its chimney, and place it in some conspicuous place inside the crime scene (a calling card that I found very interesting).

He would cover up the heads of all of his victims.

He would murder everyone while they slept and leave them in their beds, except the young girl, whom he would often move and leave posed.

He would never commit robbery.

He would leave the house through a back window, return to the train track (in some cases bloodhounds traced his movement back to the train) and strike in another town after a routine ‘cooling-off’ period and like-distance away from his prior attack.

The shear repetition of the above factors, in case after case,does drill into the reader a sense that these authors are on to something.”

The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century Old Serial Killing Mystery
Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James
Simon & Schuster 2017
ISBN-10: 1476796254
ISBN-13: 978-1476796253
Hardback: 480 pages


JM

I managed to read about the first half or more on my kindle before I lost the book when I had issues with my device. I may have it saved somewhere. The authors detail the crimes very well. However, I am always ultra-skeptical when true crime authors a) try to link crimes(especially so many crimes in this instance) and b) try to solve cold cases. Are some of the crimes linked? Quite possibly. Are they all linked? Almost certainly not. In any era ever underestimate the number of murderous psychos out there.

[Herlock Sholmes]

One of the good points about the book in my opinion Jason is that the author resists any attempts at shoehorning any murders into the series which would have been an easy trap for him to have fallen into. He’s quite happy to suggest a murder as unlikely to have been committed by the same man or as one that there might just have been an outside chance of being by the same man. I have to say that the ones that he felt confident about linking to the series I tended to agree with but that’s just my opinion of course and others might disagree. I think he did a well balanced assessment and it didn’t feel like he was ‘writing to impress’ which I think is how some books can come across.

About £8 inc p+p on Amazon or eBay. Well worth it imo.

[Fiver]

It appears this was not the last person to use the train. There's also Angel Resendiz, also known as the Railroad Killer.