"Something terrible has happened here..." Those were the words uttered by Ross Moore after discovering the bodies of his brother, his family and two houseguests in Villisca, Iowa in June 1912. That horrifying discovery created a legend that became both an unsolved mystery and a haunting that continues to this day. The small town of Villisca received an unwelcome visitor on that dark night and the town was touched by a horror unlike anything that it had seen before - or has seen since. Over the years, the brutal murders committed that night have earned a place in infamy and they remain the most famous in a series of murders that were committed across the prairie during that era. But that night in June was not the first time that the monster who committed the "Villisca Ax Murders" had tasted blood. He blazed a terrible trail across the region in the years before and after the Villisca murders, using the railroad lines to carry out his horrific deeds. This book will bring you the story of the Villisca Ax Murders, along with the history and the hauntings that followed, but it tells another story as well. It is a tale of madness, murder, horror and blood and the story of the "transient butcher" who wreaked havoc in the American Midwest and then vanished into history, his name and face forever unknown. Only his dark legacy lingers behind with us today and it remains a chronicle of one of the bloodiest unsolved murders sprees in our history. The small towns of the American prairie were never the same again.

Examine the obscured line between those who create crimes and those who report on them in this sordid history of journalism "If it bleeds, it leads"--this maxim is as true now as it was 300 years ago. Crime is the staple of the news, and the British public's appetite for crime stories shows no sign of abating. Today, following Leveson, the line between journalists and the criminals they expose has been blurred; but, in fact, it was ever thus. The reporters who have delved into the most terrible crime stories of each era have often, by necessity, had questionable morals and dubious practices. The "hacks in the macs" and the "murder pack" would go to any lengths to get a story--and serve it up to an ever-eager reading public. In this colorful history of the wild world of crime reporting since 1700, crime reporter Duncan Campbell goes behind the scenes to show how the phone hacking scandal is nothing new--in fact, it is part of the great British news heritage. Revealing what it's really like to deal with murderers, gangsters, robbers, cat burglars, victims, informers, and detectives, Campbell draws on 40 years of experience to explore the dark arts of journalism, as the relationships between the press, public, police, and criminals, and their impact on society, are being questioned as never before.

Join author Troy Taylor for the inaugural book in the -Dead Men Do Tell Tales Series-, a gripping, blood-soaked look at American crime, mystery and the hauntings that show how the consequences of murder sometimes extend beyond the grave! In this book, many of Taylor's files are opened for the first time as he presents new, revised, updated and expanded stories that were often cut from some of his earlier books because they were too graphic and frightening. Journey back in time and experience first-hand some of America's strangest murder cases; ghostly tales of violence and murder; gangland ghosts and never-before-told stories America's Depression-era outlaws; unsolved deaths and mysterious disappearances; ghost-infested prisons and jails; and famous cases and accounts like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Ed Gein, Albert Fish, H.H. Holmes and his -Murder Castle-, Dillinger, the Kansas City Massacre, Alcatraz, Eastern State Penitentiary, the Mansfield Reformatory, the Villisca Ax Murder House, Lizzie Borden, the Black Dahlia, and dozens more! You don't want to miss this title with dozens of Troy's stories that are uncut and uncensored for the first time. It's not a book for the faint of heart!

One of the most violent crimes in U.S. history took place in the quiet, neighborly town of Villisca, Iowa. A family of eight went to church that night, went back home, got into their beds, and fell asleep. When the sun rose the next morning, none of them would be alive. Their house was a scene of unimaginable violence and bloodshed. The entire family of eight was bludgeoned beyond recognition with an ax while they slept. Six of them were children. Was it a madman who just picked their house at random... or was it much more than that? Special Agent Roy Marshall guides us through the crime scene, the investigation, the clues, and the fallout that led right to the steps of the State Capital.

The ax-man murders of 1912 in Louisiana and Texas leave a bloody trail of evidence that points to the largest, unsolved serial killing in history of the United States. It’s a tale of ritual murder, voodoo mayhem, and wholesale killings that leads the reader on a shocking train ride across two states and into the chapters of a real American horror story. The fiendish slayings of 10 sleeping families nestled in their beds is only the beginning of the terrifying account of a true crime that remains unsolved. Axes of Evil sheds light on an unwritten part of American history and uncovers the American “Jack the Ripper.”

1964—Life on the North Dakota farm hasn’t always been easy for Marjorie Trumaine. She has begun working as a professional indexer to help with the bills—which have only gotten worse since the accident that left her husband, Hank, blind and paralyzed. When her nearest neighbors are murdered in their beds, though, Marjorie suddenly has to deal with new and terrifying problems. Sheriff Hilo Jenkins brings her a strange amulet, found clutched in the hand of her murdered neighbor, and asks her to quietly find out what it is. Marjorie uses all the skills she has developed as an indexer to research the amulet and look into the murders, but as she closes in on the killer, and people around her continue to die, she realizes that the murderer is also closing in on her. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The father of Eric Edgar Cooke despised his baby son from the moment he saw him. Bashings and a hate-filled childhood followed for the boy with the crooked mouth, launching a personality unique among serial killers. He stalked the city of Perth for months, shooting strangers in the dead of night and using a sickening variety of weapons to steal the lives of strangers. Unknown to the terror-stricken citizens of this trusting, emerging metropolis, the young father of seven children who pulled the trigger had for years been doing other sinister night work. In a remarkable twist of fate, the killer's life tangled with that of 19-year-old John Button, whose 17-year-old girlfriend was killed. Both men confessed to that crime. This riveting investigation into the life and untold crimes of the last man to hang in Western Australia reveals new evidence to indicate that at least one innocent man, John Button, went to jail for one of Cooke's murders. Estelle's efforts to clear John Button's name, have led to the West Australian Court of Criminal Appeal re-opening the case against John Button after nearly 35 years. The new edition will include a chapter covering the case and the final decision.