Turning the Page: “The Man from the Train” by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James

Danny Federico

Columnist

Genre: Investigative nonfiction

My rating: 3/5

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Synopsis: “The Man from the Train” is an interesting case, and it’s apparent throughout the book that the co-authors did their research. They assert that the Man from the Train was a drifter who, obviously, traveled across the nation via train. He was likely a woodcutter who often bounced from place to place as the seasons changed. Although this man held a humble trade by day, his nighttime proclivities were more sinister.

​ Co-authors Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James outline 38 cases in which families of three or more people living in small or isolated towns near railroad tracks were murdered. The majority of the cases follow a similar pattern attributed to the Man from the Train:

(1) Victims were murdered using the blunt side of an axe, crushing their skulls;

(2) Said axe, which belonged to the victims or the victims’ neighbor, would be left in plain sight at the scene;

(3) The entire household would be murdered;

(4) Inside the home, windows and mirrors would be covered with sheets, blankets, towels or clothing to hide his nighttime activities;

(5) The glass chimneys of the kerosene or gas lamps he used inside victims’ homes for lighting would be removed and placed on the floor or on tabletops;

(6) The murderer would cover victims’ faces and bodies in sheets or blankets, which the co-authors speculate was to prevent blood splatters;

(7) Victims’ bodies would be rearranged, stacked or posed after the murders;

(8) No valuables would be stolen – in fact, cash and jewelry would be found by law enforcement in plain sight; and

(9) The murderer had a perverse sexual interest in prepubescent girls.

​ More calling cards could be added to that list (a total of 33, in fact), and believe me, Bill and Rachel lay them all out from pages 349 to 352. Those nine are simply the ones that become most apparent throughout the book. They are also the ones that easily summarize the majority of the cases mentioned.

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My thoughts: It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written one of my book reviews (almost two years, yikes!), so bear with me while I shake the rust off my gears. Our reporter, Christian Peterson, gave me a copy of “The Man from the Train” for Christmas. About a month ago, I started incorporating it into my nightly “wind-down” routine before bed, taking one chapter at a time. I plan to keep this routine, so I look forward to writing more reviews. Maybe I’ll finally finish “Mistborn.”

​ “The Man from the Train” was certainly an enjoyable read. It does seem, as one review from the Raleigh News & Observer states, that the authors appear to “solve the case” by the end of the book. I appreciate how much research went into the book, and I can tell the co-authors spent many hours carefully considering whether the Man from the Train was the prime suspect in many of the cases they examine.

​ However, although the first half of the book had my undivided attention, I found myself eager to reach the end. The nine points I mentioned earlier consistently show up in the co-authors’ arguments for why the Man from the Train was likely the perpetrator of certain murders. These same points were listed frequently as bullet points throughout the book. It got to the point where I felt like I was reading an argumentative essay instead of a book. And to an extent, that’s exactly what it is. Bill and Rachel presented their theory and found plenty of evidence to support it.

​ That leads me to another issue I had with it: the timeline jumps around. The first section of the book covers cases between 1909 and 1912. Section II is all about the Villisca, Iowa, murders in 1912. We then jump all the way back to cases between 1900 and 1908 in Sections III and IV. Section V mixes all the crimes, except for Chapter 40, which goes back to 1898, and Chapter 43, which flashes forward to 1922.

​ Along with trying to keep up with the timeframe, as I stated earlier, there are a total of 38 (or 39 if we count the family in Chapter 43) that are mentioned throughout the book. When only the last name of a family you haven’t heard about for several chapters is suddenly mentioned toward the end of the book, it becomes a tad bit difficult to remember the details of their specific case. Several times toward the end of the book, I found myself wishing I had written down the names, dates and a brief synopsis of each murder mentioned, so I could jog my memory when those instances came up.

​ As I said, I enjoyed learning about these cases and how they tie together. In fact, the co-authors actually have me convinced that [REDACTED] was, more likely than not, the Man from the Train. However, I feel the story could have been executed more effectively. It’s one I’m happy I read, but one that I don’t plan on going back to anytime soon – if ever.