REVIEW: The Man From the Train

The Man From the Train
Author: Bill James

In the past, Freight trains thundered through most American communities, big and small, several times a day. I owned a home in a very small Kansas community in the 1990's. Coal trains would clatter through shaking the windows and making that easily recognizable, loud clack-clack whine and whistle. The trains and their noise became a regular, comforting part of life. When the trains became fewer and fewer, the lack of that sound seemed wrong and somehow disturbing. But it is also true that sometimes drifters and criminals rode the trains, jumping off to cause problems in the town and nearby farms. At times they were just travelers, modern day hobos....but at other times they were looking to do harm or steal.

The front cover of this book caught my eye immediately. It's a sight that is disappearing in many towns.....railroad tracks going off into the distance.  In Western NC, the county I live in has re-purposed most of its train routes  into paved fitness rail-trails with the real train traffic going through the more rural, smaller towns. It isn't like in decades past where livestock and freight trains were essential for all communities across the country.

In the early 1900s, trains were the lifeblood of  most communities. But, someone evil rode the rails. Not just another hobo, freely riding, strumming a guitar like in all those country songs. But a killer. A serial killer who murdered from one end of America to the other. He was never caught. Nobody ever noticed the massive scope of his killing streak until now. Bill James and his daughter, Rachel researched and found the killer's trail 100 years after the fact. The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery presents the facts and their conclusions. It's a tale of a murder and unprepared small town law enforcement and justice systems. The story makes me incredibly appreciative of modern forensic science and investigation techniques. The murders were never linked or properly investigated because of communication and investigation problems, plus lack of modern scientific processes. Plus, by the time the bodies were discovered, the murderer was long gone, riding the rails to another town and other potential victims.

The first section of the book focuses on details and background of crimes that the authors believe were perpetrated by the same man. The second section shares details about law enforcement procedures in the early 1900s and the limitations of forensic testing at the time,and more details of crimes the authors believed can be traced to The Man From the Train.  In the last section, the authors reveal their conclusion and present a suspect that they believe was The Man on the Train. The man who killed multiple families in the middle of the night, in their own homes over several years in the early 1900s.

This book is very different from most true crime books. The information presented combines researched factual accounts of crimes mixed with added conjecture based on the authors' research and opinion. There is no way to jet back more than 100 years in time and put the research and theories to the test, so in the end, readers are left to form their own opinions. The writing style is an interesting mix of factual reporting, humor and conversational tone. I didn't mind the mix, as a former reporter I fully understand that humor makes it possible to more easily discuss horrible details. Plus, the conversational tone and occasional jokes make this a much more readable book. It pulled me in and made me feel more engaged with the writers...like they were sharing their information with me rather than formally presenting bare evidence. I wouldn't have enjoyed 450 pages of dry facts about 100+ year old axe murders. But I enjoyed this book immensely. If this were a book about a more recent crime spree where evidence, documentation and witnesses were still available to interview, then this writing style might be inappropriate. But, given the passage of time, the subsequent limitations on research, and the fact that guessing is pretty much required in this case, the more relaxed style works.

The authors make a lot of assumptions about the researched data, but I enjoyed reading about their theory and the potential suspect. All in all, an enjoyable read that will have me pondering for days, wondering if they got it right. Especially when I'm walking, alone at night, on the rail-trail.