Bill James' research began with an attempt to solve one famous unsolved crime, the
Villisca axe murders, in which a family of six and two house guests were slaughtered in
Villisca, Iowa, on the night of June 9, 1912. James suspected a possible serial killer based on what seemed like the actions of a practiced criminal at Villisca. He found some similar crimes in period newspapers and brought on his daughter Rachel McCarthy James, who found more. Via research in newspaper archives the Jameses discovered scores of murders of entire families, committed from 1898 to 1912. These crimes occurred in Nova Scotia, Oregon, Kansas, Florida, Arkansas, and other locations, some of which they ascribe to Mueller. Mueller was about 35 years old in 1897, reportedly claimed to be a German military veteran, and was known as a skilled carpenter who spoke very little English. He was described as short and muscular in stature, with unusually small and widely spaced teeth his most distinctive feature. Mueller is believed to most likely have worked as an itinerant
lumberjack, given his woodworking skills, the killer's use of an axe, and the fact that most of the murders occurred in or near logging areas. The authors also suggest Mueller may have been responsible for the unsolved 1922
Hinterkaifeck murders in Germany. The murders bear some similarities to the U.S. crimes, including the slaughter of an entire family in their isolated home, the bodies being moved after the killings, a young girl among the victims, use of the blunt edge of a farm tool as a weapon (a
mattock), and the apparent absence of robbery as a motive. The authors suspect Mueller, described as a German immigrant in contemporary media, might have departed the US for his homeland after private investigators and journalists began to notice and publicize patterns in the American crimes. ==Reception==