Billy the Axeman (also referred to as the Ax-Man, the Midwest Axeman, and the Man from the Train) was the name of a suspected serial killer thought to be responsible for a series of family murders that occurred mainly in the U.S. Midwest between September 1911 and June 1912.
Attacks attributed to this killer are characterized by the slaying of a whole family in their beds by crushing their skulls with a blunt instrument, usually an axe. The families often lived in very close proximity to the railroad, which is assumed to be what the killer used for transportation. Possible signature characteristics include the destruction and covering of the victim's faces and the staging of one of the female victims in a manner that indicated lust murder.
The notion of such a killer was first introduced by the press in 1911, and over the past 100 years, many different theories have been advanced. Most theories focus on a series of crimes, which ranged from 1911 to 1912 and claimed between 24 and 30 victims depending on the crimes included. More recently the authors Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James published The Man from the Train, in which they argue for a much longer crime series spanning from 1898 to 1912. This revised theory attributes over 90 deaths to him, which would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in US history.
History
The idea that a roaming killer was behind a series of axe murders in the American Midwest was first introduced by the press in 1911, calling him Billy the Axeman. At the time, people noticed similarities like the use of an axe, the attack on whole families and the closeness of many sites to the railway. Many press articles and a number of law enforcement officers therefore considered the possibility that a single killer was responsible for a series of crimes across the Midwest.
The idea of such a killer was then used by Matthew Wilson McClaughry, a Special Agent of the Department of Justice, to connect the axe murders committed by Henry Lee Moore in 1912 with this series. This attempt proved ultimately unsuccessful and no one was ever prosecuted for more than one of the crimes in the series. However, the idea of such a serial killer remained popular with true crime authors, bloggers, and podcasters.
In 2015, author Todd Elliott substantially expanded the scope of possible murders. He initially focused on a series of axe murders that also took place between 1911 and 1912, but happened in the southern states of Texas and Louisiana. He noticed a number of similarities, such as whole families were killed in the middle of the night, typically by blows with the blunt side of an axe, and many crimes scenes being in close proximity to railroads. He concluded that the same person must have been behind them. One difference of the southern series was that almost exclusively black and mixed race families were targeted.
In 2017, authors Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James published The Man from the Train, in which they further expanded this original idea. They propose that more murders should be expected given that even the earliest crimes that are usually considered already show a mature modus operandi, suggesting an experienced serial killer behind them. They claim that the murder series extends much farther back in time, and also present a suspect which had not been discussed before.
Identifying characteristics
Axes were regular household tools in the early 1900s and a substantial number of murders were committed with this weapon. To distinguish crimes connected with the Midwest murder series from other axe murders, different authors have developed a list of characteristics that detail the modus operandi and possible signatures, and therefore point toward a single individual being behind them. The first to systematically describe such a set of similarities was Beth Klingensmith.
According to Klingensmith, the murders were typically committed on a Sunday night in a small town. The murderer would use train hopping to quickly approach the town. Once there, he would pick a house that met certain criteria, observe it and wait until the people inside would be fast asleep. The murder weapon, typically an axe, was always a weapon of opportunity taken either from the house or a neighboring premise. He would typically enter the house through an unlocked door or a rear window, by removing the screen and placing it against the wall. Once inside, he would use a lamp from the house to illuminate the crime scene. He would remove the chimney from the lamp, carefully place it (to avoid tripping over it), and bent the wick down. During the commission of the murders, the victims' faces were covered, possibly to reduce blood splatter. He committed the murders by smashing the victims' heads with the blunt side of the axe. The killings were done quickly. After the murders, the perpetrator remained at the crime scene, washed his hands, covered the windows, moved the bodies, staged them, mutilated them further and often covered them additionally. Both during and after the killing, he attacked only the heads and faces of the victims, leaving the rest of the body unharmed. When he left the crime scene, he cleaned the murder weapon of fingerprints, left it at the scene and jammed the house before leaving. He fled the town the same way he had come, jumping onto a carriage of a train that was passing by the nearby railway line.
Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James use the same basic structure but make a number of revisions. Unlike Beth Klingensmith, they also try to infer a number of signature elements that may reveal an underlying motivation of the crimes. First, they observe how often one of the female victims, typically a prepubescent girl, would be found pulled down toward the end of the bed and exposed in a sexually explicit manner. Although newspapers at the time avoided details, they often strongly implied that some form of assault on the victim had taken place after death. The crimes contain both necrophilic and pedophilic signature elements. In addition, the authors note a possible aversion of the killer to human faces. This is indicated by the killer often additionally targeting the victim's faces after the murders, covering their faces, covering mirrors, as well as covering telephones, which in the 1910s often had starkly human features. The authors observe a difference between the later crime series of 1909–1912 and the earlier crime series of 1900–1906. In the later crime series, the murders occurred in small towns and the houses were jammed shut after the murder. In the earlier crime series, on the other hand, most of the murders occurred in remote farmsteads, and the murderer burned the house down. The authors also proposed a different selection process by the murderer. In the early series, they suspect he would settle in a place for a while, get employment in a logging or mining business and carefully scout the area around his place of employment for potential attack sites. He would then commit his murders after his temporary contract would run out. In the later series, in particular during the Midwest series, he would simply hop off the train, walk into a small town and select a house after observing it shortly. They note a number of additional similarities. One is the proximity of many of the crime scenes to logging and mining operations, where someone experienced with handling an axe or pickaxe could find work. Another is the lack of a financial motive. The victims were either very poor, or if they were not, valuables were often left at the scene of the crime in plain sight. The murders were often committed in relative proximity to each other a few weeks apart. They note that murders that fit his modus operandi would occur in the northern states in summer and in southern states in the winter.
In addition, several authors have tried to infer personal characteristics of the killer. Some have suggested that the killer could not have been tall given he was able to swing an axe in often very confined in-door spaces. This notion is further substantiated by the detection of foot prints of size six at one crime scene. Analyzing the attack patterns, it has furthermore been claimed that the killer may have been left handed. Aaron Mahnke of the Lore podcast has also speculated whether the killer had wiped his fingerprints due to them being on record from a previous incarceration.
Classic theory
Both back in the 1910s and in later publications, the number of crimes that are considered to be committed by the same axe murderer does vary. However, a series of six family murders that happened on five different occasion between September 1911 and June 1912 in the Midwest are always discussed within the context of these killings. Depending on the author, other murders preceding or following this series are sometimes included as well.
Timeline of the axe murders associated with the Northwestern and Midwestern crimes. Murders are marked with black marks. Inferred ranges of the murder period in the Northwest and Midwest are given as blue and green bars, respectively.
Early Northwestern murders The two family murders that are most often also included happened in the summer of 1911 in Ardenwald, Oregon and Rainier, Washington. These Northwestern crimes preceded the main Midwestern series by two months. Back then, the press did connect these crimes with the Midwestern series but W. M. McClaughry later excluded them from his theory. Modern authors have likewise come to different conclusions with some arguing for a connection and others being skeptical.
Ardenwald
The Hill family murders happened on the night of June 9 to 10, 1911, in Ardenwald, Oregon. The victims were William Hill, 31, his wife Ruth Hill, 33, and his wife's two children from a previous marriage, Philip Rintoul, 8, and Dorothy Rintoul, 6. They were killed in their beds with blows to their heads. The murder weapon, an axe, was found at the crime scene. The murders were assumed to have happened shortly after midnight based on a neighbor's dog barking around that time. The bodies of the dead were moved and covered after the crime. Dorothy and her mother Ruth had both been sexually assaulted after the killing. Dorothy had bloody fingerprints on her body and Ruth's body had been pulled down toward the end of the bed. The killer had washed at the crime scene and covered the windows with cloth.
The crime was discovered the next morning by a neighbor when William Hill did not report for work that day. There were a number of suspects in the case. One of them, their neighbor Nathan Harvey, was charged with the crime in 1912 but ultimately acquitted.
Rainier The Coble family murders happened on the night of July 9 to 10, 1911, in Rainier, Washington. The victims were Archie Coble, 28, and his wife Nettie Coble, 18. They lived in a small house somewhat outside the town. Mr. Coble worked as a clerk at a store in Rainier and used the nearby railroad tracks to walk to work.
They were murdered in their beds with blows to their heads with the blunt side of an axe. The killer had covered the face of Archie Coble after the murders. Nettie Coble had been pulled down toward the end of the bed and assaulted after death. Blood was found on the chimney of the oil lamp, suggesting the killer had handled it. However, it had not been removed. Due to the similarities, the press did connect the two murders at the time. Several suspects were investigated. One was a Swedish immigrant who worked on the nearby railroad. Another one was his foreman at work, a man named George Wilson. Both implicated themselves during interrogation. Eventually, Wilson was convicted for the crime but doubts about his guilt remain.
Main Midwestern murder series