Massacres, Trains, and Iowa: Connecting the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders to a Cross–Country Serial Killer
Wednesday, 27 Oct 2021 at 7:00 pm – Great Hall, Memorial Union
The Man From the Train is a recent true-crime book written by Bill James and his daughter Rachel McCarthy James. In the book, they document a lengthy list of serial axe murders in the early part of the 20th-century that they believe were committed by one man. Their list includes two mass killings in Iowa; the most famous of which is the 1912 murders in Villisca. Eight people, including six children, were killed, and the murders were never solved. But maybe there is an answer. Join us for the story of the incredible historical research Bill and Rachel did to document and connect a cross-country killing spree that happened more than 100 years ago.Bill James is most known for coining "sabermetrics," which is the scientific analyzing of baseball usually with statistics. He worked for more than a decade for the Boston Red Sox.
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