Villisca Axe Murders Part 2: Paola, Ellsworth, Monmouth, and Colorado Springs

Continuing with our ax murder series, these unsolved cases involve bloody murder and opportunistic murder weapons.

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Ref:
AZLyrics - request for access. AZLyrics.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/twiztid/serialkilla.html 

A Decade of Death - American axe murders 1909-1920. Welcome to DarkIdeas.net. (2021, November 8). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://darkideas.net/true-crime-articles/from-the-dusty-archives/a-decade-of-death-american-axe-murders-1909-1920/ 

Entire Kansas Family Murdered. (n.d.). 

Family of Five Murdered in Kansas. (n.d.). 

James, B., & James, R. M. C. (2017). The man from the train: The solving of a century-old serial killer mystery. Scribner. 

Six are Murdered as They Sleep. (n.d.). 

Transcript

Marissa: 0:00

Macabrepedia makes light of dark subject matter and may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Matthew: 0:18

In the final years of the 19th century and into the early decades of the 20th century, the US was the playground for a psychopath using the railway systems to criss cross the country killing families in their sleep, his weapon of choice and X. In the book, The Man from the train Bill James and his daughter, Rachel McCarthy, James compiled a compelling story to link dozens of murders and a body count north of 100 victims to a single man, we covered the Villisca AX murders that took place on June 9 1912. In our last episode, we are working our way backwards through time and the events linked to the possible man from the train. Was it all the same person you will never know. But the deaths we are covering in this entry are those that are most difficult to deny a connection through? These are the five events that started to lead authorities to connect this series to a traveling serial killer. What is it about a serial killer that attracts you and makes this podcast that you can sharpen an axe to taking you back through a hallway to a black room, no walls or ceilings just doorways to pass through. You choose chainsaws are always nice. But razor blades and knives are way more precise. When it comes to cutting. This shit. Here is an art. And we finish what we start. So join us as we add another entry into this our Macabrepedia.

Marissa: 1:57

Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia a marriage of true crime and the truly bizarre we are your hosts Matthew and Marissa. And it sounds like we are continuing. Do you have axe murderers? whole segment that we started last week with the Villisca Axe murders.

Matthew: 2:13

Continuing on with this series, I like that you said that like you're surprised like oh, I guess that's news to me. No, I

Marissa: 2:21

knew I knew. Yeah. So

Matthew: 2:24

the today's entry, we'll be covering the events spanning between September 17 1911 And June 5 1912. These these murders are all obviously, all of the crimes seem to be very similar have the same MO that's obviously why they all seem to be connected is because they follow a lot of the same, same, same situations are the same, the same modus operandi. But let's take a quick second, and kind of cover what that actually looks like. Because in the in this in this particular one, we're covering five events again, because most of these murders are just changed the names everything else pretty much remains the same.

Marissa: 3:16

Right? Now we can have like five episodes in a row where it's pretty much the exact same. Yeah,

Matthew: 3:19

same thing. Just listen to the last one, but change Valeska to payola. No. So to kind of cover what these are. So according to the James's, and a man from the train, there are a series of murders that are all connected close to railway systems where somebody could theoretically get on and off of a train. Sometimes at a station, sometimes trains would just slow down. Passing through a particular area. There's one of those right behind my work actually. But yeah, but sometimes there's there's like train stations that stop and then there's other parts where it just there's a place where there's a lot more people that could be there. So you know this is a time before where you're not going to have like the ding ding ding ding and the arms come down and lights are flashing and stuff and like I said right behind my work there's there's a place that's like that, that doesn't have those arms, it just slowly drives and it goes in between there. So but it goes slow enough that someone can easily hop on there. Give a couple little dudes as it's coming through and you're good to go. Anyways, so he we're gonna assume that it's a man because most serial killers are right. So there is

Marissa: 4:34

the imagine if it was a woman How cool would that be?

Matthew: 4:37

How cool would that be? I mean, it'd be it'd be it'd be interesting sure be interesting. But the all of these murders all of them, not just the five that we're dealing with now. All of them are within. I think the furthest one is still like less than a mile from the train, train tracks. So it's very easy to get get on and off on some on On this these trains here, other things, windows are generally covered curtains drawn. There is often a lamp that has been placed with is normally still lit very low, or it looks like it had been lit very low. The chimney is missing. The doors are normally all locked up tight. And they happen at night. They happen normally on a weekend, generally on a Sunday. And they're most often done with the blunt side of an axe. Now, kind of going through that and recover covering some of the stuff that we kind of covered in the Valeska stuff. You use the back end of an axe because it's faster. The the removing of the chimney on a lamp. So you have like the oil lamp that you can you turn a little key and it raises the wick up and down and increase the flame. So you have to take the chimney off in order to light the lamp. That is there's no reason to put the the chimney back on the chimney is primarily a safety measure if you're going to kill everybody in the house and possibly burn the place down anyways. Hardly a reason to put a chimney back on there. It's more noise and all this stuff actually, in one of the there was in one of the murders. There is he drops the chimney, and it shatters. And lets people know that that's that somebody's there in any hands up beaten feet, less lucky people there. But the the windows be a lot of covered curtains drawn. The doors being locked. These are all things that I don't I don't think of those. In case you guys didn't realize that from Valeska if you hadn't listened to the Liska stuff, I don't think that all these are the same guy. I don't I think the ones we're covering today, same guy, probably they're very close together. They make these are very, very close as far as one either timeframe, or they make sense as far as location goes. But when you go to when you're when you're going to kill somebody in their home, you probably want to make sure that they're there. You probably want to make sure that they're asleep. That means it's a nighttime kill. Windows covered doors locked, who doesn't close their curtains and lock their doors before bed.

Marissa: 7:37

Yeah, but he covered the mirrors and stuff too.

Matthew: 7:41

In some of them very few have the mirrors covered. One of them has a superstitious has it has a telephone covered. And actually we didn't put this in the Valeska episode. But the guy who owns the Villisca AX Murder House, he does tours and he has a theory that says that Reverend Kelly, that one of the one of the suspects actually got into the house after the murders and was the person who actually covered all the mirrors and stuff. But didn't actually commit the crime. But he's he was known also in that if we listened to the other episode, he was like a peeping Tom. So he was like peeking into Windows and stuff like that. And going through the articles, and everything for the murders that we're talking about. Now, people are peeking through the windows. So it's not like they're completely like I mean, like to find the bodies, they're peeking through windows. And in a number of these they are they're able to get the push themselves through the door. Like not like by kicking it in or anything in two of these. There was at least one of these, where it's a woman who just goes in there she just goes in so so even if you take the idea of this was a town where nobody kept their doors locked, okay, so the door was unlocked, and they walked in, so that also whatever. And there are there like in the Valeska other people had keys to the person's house, which implies that the doors remain locked a good portion of the time. If you're giving away spare keys the people asked

Marissa: 9:09

they did. The broker door did lock the door or at least some

Matthew: 9:13

counseling. Yeah, but I'm saying to get into the house. Some of the some of the newspapers were saying that the brother unlocked the door. Yes, he had a key. So you Why would you give a spare key to somebody if you never lock your doors, right? The doors would just always be unlocked. Right. So it just makes sense. Like so like, I think that the similarities between most of these killings are because that's just the shit you would do. When you're it's just obvious stuff. If you're going to be putzing around inside of somebody's house, you make sure the curtains are drawn, the curtains are probably already drawn in most cases. There are certain situations where there's like a piece of clothing that's put up over something hung up over a window or put place to one of them it's placed over a phone, which there's certain theories that it's because phones of the time looked like faces and they didn't want to be seen. If you're playing into that mental, like mental health issue, obviously, if you're if you're a serial killer, you probably got some mental health issues. Everyone says, oh, yeah, I

Marissa: 10:13

was gonna ask. So what are we talking about data?

Matthew: 10:17

loaders, just saying, Sorry, Sorry, audience,

Marissa: 10:21

I guess let's go.

Matthew: 10:23

Because we're tying them all together because it all falls through to the Liska.

Marissa: 10:27

I know. But come on. Well, we got.

Matthew: 10:29

So as I said, Before, we were kind of going to go backwards in time from Valeska and work our way back. So four days prior to Valeska, which happened on June 9, right. 1912 There was a murder in payola, Kansas on June 5 1912, four days before Valeska. And for those who aren't super familiar with the Midwest of the United States, payola is in the eastern portion of the state of Kansas, and it is about 180 miles straight south of Alaska. Oddly, Google Maps, doesn't you can't get there by train, if you just now. Yeah, but also, I mean, I feel like there's, there's probably not a straight shot to I don't know, I just noticed that because I punched in all these all the locations into Google Maps, and I switched it to train. None of them said they were connected. Well,

Marissa: 11:28

I think it's passenger trains, and I won't show like cars. Yeah,

Matthew: 11:32

yeah, there's train tracks. You can zoom in, you can see the train tracks, but I don't. Either way, it doesn't particularly matter. Just an interesting little, little anecdote there. So we're gonna start with payola, which I had thought to not start with because of the murder weapon.

Marissa: 11:53

So no, so why don't you start with it?

Matthew: 11:56

Because I said, we're going to work backwards in time. So this is the one that's working backwards in time. So according to the Western spirit, June 14 1912, the article A murderer came in the night while asleep in their home, Mr. And Mrs. Rollin Hudson, a young payola couple were slain in a most brutal manner. Their heads were crushed with a pick. Now pick a pick now there are okay, so going back to the murder weapon, it's an axe and all the occasions right. The belief is it's an X because the x is readily available. This guy is not walking around with his murder weapons, he is picking up what is available at the time, so these might have had to pick x. So it may have been a pick x now that I've seen pick x or call x which is also it's called a mattock, which is you know, it has the tapered end like a pic and then the other side is like, more like a like a hoe like it's like a an axe blade but turned flat. So it's like it's like a whole like a garden hoe. But I've also seen it referred to as a Masons pick as a possible weapon. Masons Peck is like a small pickaxe, which is very similar to a plaster hammer. Which means the murderer is once again Ebenezer pook?

Marissa: 13:42

I doubt it but yeah.

Matthew: 13:44

Coming across from London, coming from London Town. Yes. Yes. killing more people.

Marissa: 13:50

That was Ebenezer.

Matthew: 13:51

It was Ebenezer boom done series over thank you so much. Next week. So so this one's a little bit different because it's a pick or pick axe or Masons hammer or something along those lines. The idea is this has a much this has a tapered pointed and they never find the weapon but it doesn't fit the the normal blunt side of an axe with the sharp side of an axe it seems like it's something it's something that's why they don't know if it's a pick axe or whatever. But it's it is a it's, you know, more of a spike that that's being utilized here. The bodies were found lying in a pool of blood discovered by the neighbors 15 hours after the tragedy had happened. The this is both from this is this is a theme that seems to be in all the articles is that these guys fought a lot. A lot of the information that has been provided in these articles in regards to the payola murders is by a person that they used to board with named Mr. Cole, or have also seen Mr. Koh are in the in the man from the train. It's co because Bill James makes a joke of they were cohabitating Oh,

Marissa: 15:13

like Coe? Yeah, I

Matthew: 15:14

guess I don't know if I'd listened to it on audio. That's true. This one is called que ce o le. Either way, they, Mr. Cole, I'm going to say it because that's the way it is on the article that I'm referring to here. Had them as always fighting, always breaking up in the divorce was they are not divorcing, but separating multiple times and in the times that. Well, there's rollon. I've also seen Roland again, there. There are a number of newspaper articles and newspapers that are in print at any given time, and they don't always get their facts right, particularly the little details. And sometimes they one will make it way more sensationalized than the other and they come up they draw completely different conclusions. There is rollin and Anna Hudson, they are. They are known, like I said, according to people who know them, particularly this guy, Mr. Cole, they fight constantly. They're always arguing, always fighting. Now, obviously, he isn't the murderer. I'm sorry. Mr. Hudson is not the murderer because he ends up dead in this situation as well. But Mr. Cole had said that they had split a few times. And he had seen Mrs. Hudson with other men had caught her with other men. Now, does this mean that like they were like out and about during one of their splits? Or was this? You know, he caught them in the act. And they were on a break, man doesn't count. So we don't know. But it seems to be that there's a lot of, at least for some of the newspapers to put a lot throw a lot of shade on on her behaviors. As she's, she's she's, she's just running around on her husband and that's the cause of it. They've only been married for like two years. They were very recent. They moved to payola very recently, it was April 10. of 1912. That they moved from Ohio to payola.

Marissa: 17:36

Last four days for Titanic sank. Cool. I'm just saying.

Matthew: 17:43

I love that so many of your things are just like, what, what is the timeframe between that and the title?

Marissa: 17:49

I was very briefly obsessed when I was a kid.

Matthew: 17:52

So rollin husband, rollin Hudson, and Anna Hudson had moved from Ohio in on April 10 1912. To the to payola. They were briefly with the Colts and stuff. They I believe that they were with the Colts in Ohio and then the Colts moved and then they moved with them. I think that's what the it says an American that train but so they have been here long so they they're certainly not here long enough to make any enemies. It's only been a couple of months that they've lived lived in this area. Now, man from the train, and we got five of these to cover so it was kind of up up up up. Man from the train says that on the night that the murders happened or the day before the murders happened. A pig faced man and a blue suit showed up. He's the only only man from the train says that it's a pig face man. The other articles just refer to him as a man in a blue suit with a straw hat.

Marissa: 18:55

There was a Doctor Who episode like that much the pig faced. Remember that one was a David Tennant episode. I think I got it. Oh no.

Matthew: 19:05

I remember. I remember the eye of the beholder. What

Marissa: 19:08

was the one with Martha? No, it was the one with the Daleks and Manhattan I think might have been the name of it. You remember that? The dev Ross was in it. And they were making these. This is these companies people who are part pig.

Matthew: 19:24

Ready? You have five of these guys. Okay. So only the man from the train refers to the person who shows up as a pig faced man. Everybody all the other newspaper articles that I see everything refer to him as a man in a blue suit with a straw hat. He shows up at the house. There is speculation that he is an ex lover of Mrs. Hudson. Which who weird what's he doing in town? He becomes I suspect number one spot boiler he's never found he shows up people see him. And when he is immediately welcomed into the home as if he was either expected expected or was it was a friend who, you know, they recognize immediately. Also rollin was there at the time. So the husband was there both, both of them were there at the time. So if this was an ex lover, it doesn't seem like they'd be like, Hey, come on in, you know what I mean? So, and earlier in that day, the man in the blue suit was found or heard asking for directions to where these people live, like they didn't really know that he was showing up but when he got there, very warm welcome. He goes into the house, everything is cool. Some people say that they saw him leave some people say they didn't see him leave, because that's how that's how I witness accounts work. The murderer from the clues that they found had crawled in through a window or at least there was a screen that had been removed and cut and then the window had been jimmied open so if this is a person who's invited it most likely was not this guy right? Because if he had shown up and was welcomed in why would he leave through the window or why would he come back and do the window only speculation that I can put to make it so it's this guy is he killed them left and then made it look like he broke in because to hide his tracks right. But when people go into the house same basic idea that they they show up and this is the woman there's there's just these two women they go up to the house or peek into the windows and kind of look in see what's going on. It can't see if there's anything happening in the house but the fact the couple hadn't been seen for hours and since like the night before, so she gets one of her friends are walking around. Third woman shows up and just like just go in the house. She opens a door soon as she opens the door. She's like, oh shit. closes the door. There happens to be a guy in a buggy, Mr. Hints is passing by. They're like, hey, help us they're frantic. He gets out of the buggy goes up to the house. He's like what's going on? They tell him what's going on opens the door goes in he comes out and he's like what the hell so he freaks out and going into the scene there are the two bodies the bodies that and then the husband and wife dead in the bed. It appears that the wife was actually hit first. And this one Mrs. Hudson was hit first. And both of them were battered within like where you couldn't even tell who they were

Marissa: 22:53

How Do They Know It was either that he get up or something?

Matthew: 22:57

I think it was just because of the way that the strike hit her that I don't know what the news articles but the they were like partially embraced the two of them as if like like you know spooning I guess is was probably the best way to put it didn't really coordinate the way that this is reconstructed. It doesn't seem like it was like a you know they were huddled together or anything like that. But just like back back inside of thing I would say a pickaxe of serious size is a terrible murder weapon for speed. Like how are you going to get that thing up and down real fast? Yeah,

Marissa: 23:36

so they can get stuck if if an ice gets stuck axle definitely gets stuck.

Matthew: 23:40

But anyways, so there's no real suspects for this. And they follow the same things windows are covered for the most part. Obviously, the women said that they're peeking through the windows. So it's not like complete they're not like stuff placed over the windows it's just drawn curtains right? They didn't weren't able to see anything now

Marissa: 24:03

I wonder why the list could get so much has gotten so much press and all these other ones not so much.

Matthew: 24:10

Well that one pulled in like politicians and stuff and I know and then there was

Marissa: 24:14

also children involved I

Matthew: 24:16

suppose there's plenty Oh, just you wait but there's a that's pretty much it for this. It could have been an ex lover seems like there's really trying to shame Anna into seeming like she's like she's running around on on on rollin and doing whatever and there they have a terrible marriage. Nothing is stolen. That's that's probably I think it's probably like the thing that ties everything together the most between all of the murders is nothing's ever stolen. You know? So obviously, this is unsolved crimes do so. There's not much really else to say. Tons of people show up. Sorry, go into the house. Everything just you know, getting ruining the evidence. So then from payola, Kansas, we then shoot a few 100 miles across Kansas, almost another straight line like a nice nice little nice little line for a railroad train to Ellsworth, Kansas. Now in Ellsworth, Kansas, the showman family, a family of five are murdered. William showman, his wife and their three children were family slain in the city Sunday night. Now this is October 15 1911. So there is an eight month jump between Ellsworth, Kansas and pay all of Kansas, this is a long stretch of time between murders for this guy, if it's all connected, most of the other ones are within a few weeks of each other. This one is months apart, speculation, maybe personal speculation maybe that he found a reason to kind of stay in this part of Kansas. And maybe he found some found found a love interest and dedicated a lot of time to that or found a really solid job that he just didn't really want to leave or, you know, the the idea that, you know, maybe the after the murders that he had committed right before this one that we're about that we'll we'll touch on, he was satiated for a while, or he may have been put in prison for another unrelated reason. And that is what stretch it out. Also, October to June, a lot of cold months in there. There's not a lot of murders that happen in November for this, if we're assuming this is all one guy. November, February or November, January, February. There's no murders. Generally, there's a couple in March couple in December. But the this is kind of an inactive time for him throughout the entirety of his of his stretch, you

Marissa: 27:13

know, go out in the snow and the coal if you don't have to.

Matthew: 27:18

Yeah, but some of the other murders take place in the far south, where October would be a great time for murder. Yeah. You know, like December in Florida. That's and that's no different than that's no different than October and in Kansas is warmer, you know? So anywho we are in Ellsworth, Kansas?

Marissa: 27:38

I have to wonder this guy seems like? Well, I mean, you probably have a lot of practice swinging an axe this time. It's pretty common. But he there doesn't ever seem to be like wounds on other parts of the body. He's just straight up like he hits the head, and he butters it and destroys it.

Matthew: 27:56

Yeah. I don't I don't think that that. I don't think that that's a skill that most people wouldn't have. If you split wood. That's what I said, you're pretty pretty, you're pretty good at it. If you just took an axe right now and just tried to hit something,

Marissa: 28:15

oh, I'd be really shooting all over the place. But if you do that, as you would at this time, then yeah, you should be good at it. Also, I

Matthew: 28:21

mean, a lot of these faces are mangled beyond recognition. Also, I'm thinking these, this is multiple wounds across the head, to try to make sure this person is dead. So they're basically just pop up, pop up, pop up,

Marissa: 28:35

yes. But in Valeska, it was noted that it was possible that the forensic investigators or whatever at the time, they did not have experience with these axe murders. So they wouldn't have been able to tell if it was one shot or

Matthew: 28:47

multiple. I'm not sure about that. I know, I'm just from the other forensic and information that we've had, like, even if you go back to like orange a wolf, which was early 1800s. They, they were they they knew were like the different stages of of death and what happens in those moments. And they could identify different things based upon the different the, you know, the the way that the body looked, I'm I'm pretty sure that they were doing one of those through times eyes trying to undervalue the skills of some of the people who may have seen it. I'm just guessing also pieces of the skull. Again, this is we're not trying to stretch Villisca any further through all of these other episodes, but the pieces of the fragments of the skull were found laying around, right. So I mean, that kind of seems like it's a couple of back swings.

Marissa: 29:48

It could be I'm not saying it's not I'm just saying that people in Iowa, which was the Valeska ones and maybe in Kansas also they wouldn't see many axe murders. So

Matthew: 29:57

yeah, but there's also probably a way that you would also drop A lot of animals to is through multiple bludgeoning them in the head

Marissa: 30:04

that's a possibility

Matthew: 30:05

I think that they would know I think that they knew that there was multiple shots I'm pretty sure that there's also multiple wounds in the in the wood in the room. So I mean I think there's more than one hit

Marissa: 30:19

I don't know I'm just saying

Matthew: 30:22

I'm pretty sure he's pulverizing their faces with multiple swings. So from the so this this is the one with the Ellsworth Kansas murders This is the one where people first start to connect the dots. Okay. So from the this is directly from from the the Coffeyville journal with the entire Kansas family murdered man wife and children are hacked to death motive for crime unknown. And Ellsworth chauffeur and four other slain with an axe while they slept. Ellsworth Kansas October 17 slain as they slept Sunday night, the bodies of wills showman a chauffeur, his wife and three small children were discovered last night in the showman home by a neighbor who chance to call and who entered the house when no one responded to this as his knock but as her knock but either way, the features of the victims were battered. Past recognition by blows from an axe, the youngest member of the family, a baby had been beaten until its head was severed from the body. All three of the children were under five years of age. That's what I said it's a little different depending on what newspaper you're reading from. Although the crime was committed some time last night. It was not discovered until six o'clock this evening. The authority so far have failed to find anything pointing to a cause for the crime nor a clue to the guilty person. showman was a poor man which does away with the motive of robbery. He was 27 years of age. His wife was the same age both had lived in Ellsworth all their lives. They had been married seven years and had three children Lester, age six, Fern aged four and Fenton age two, the family had spent the evening at the home of a neighbor, Miss O W. snowex, the one who found him not seeing any of them today and this snacks called at the two at the showman home and discovered the tragedy. The members of the family were found lying in the two beds of the one room of their two room house. Each one with the skull crushed in the showman home is a small two bedroom cottage in the outskirts of Ellsworth, and situated 300 to 400 yards distance from the nearest neighboring house. showman was employed as an all around man at an Ellsworth garage. The bodies of the five victims were found in one room all were in bed, the father, mother and baby in one bed and the two other children in a second bed, which was in the room. The room where the bodies were found looked like a slaughter pen. There was blood on the walls, ceiling floor bed and every other article in the room. In this room also was the bloody axe which the murderer had used and which he had left in his flight. So this, this is a total bloodbath in here, also a chauffeur. This is kind of like you know, this is 1911 1912, a chauffeur at the time kind of like a taxi driver, you rent a chauffeur for the day court and I think it's Man On The Train man from the train. You could buy him for like $1 and they just kind of drove around for the day because not everybody had cars at the time. It was like they were Ubers Yeah, yeah, for the most part. I think it was yeah, you can just rent them for the day and drive them around. But as an all around man at the garage, I guess he was also a mechanic and all that stuff to continuing in the articles and ex convict is suspected officers search for murdered woman's brother in law by the Associated Press this article here. Ellsworth, Kansas October 17. The authorities today are seeking an ex convict in connection with the murder of William shoman wife and three children. The convict was released from a penitentiary a year ago after serving a term for grand larceny. His wife, a sister of Miss shamans, Mrs. Jones, obtained a divorce and remarried This is while he was in prison, it is said the convict was seen in the vicinity. bloodhounds are being used today in an effort to trace the murder. Three times the dogs were taken to the house and each time took a trail and followed it to the railroad crossing where it was lost. The coroner's jury jury is investigating the murder today and The ex convict theory is being probed. Now, final portion of this for the from the Associated Press may be the same maniac. Colorado murders similar to Ellsworth, Kansas killing is the ones we're about to cover here in a second. by the Associated Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, October 17. A striking similarity between the murders of William shoman wife and three children at Ellsworth, Kansas, Kansas, was discovered yesterday and that of Miss A Jay Burnham, her two children and Mr. And Mrs. H. C. Wayne and their children here being Colorado Springs, September 17. The shocking nature of both crimes in the apparent absence of a motive in both cases has caused belief here that both crimes were committed by the same maniac. So that Ellsworth is when they first start being like, Yo, what's up, moving backwards to the Colorado Springs murders of September 17 1911. This was an unusual one that's different than the rest of them. Because it was, I believe, the first time that he did what's called a double event where he killed man from the train killed two times in the same day.

Marissa: 36:30

I realized he did to Colorado Springs, I didn't realize it was the same day,

Matthew: 36:33

same day, September 17 neighbors there's some belief that he hit the wrong house because one of the houses had if you're going with this like pedophile, looking for looking to do the have some kind of sexual gratification from this, one of the house had a younger daughter and the other one was probably the wrong house effectively so he went to the wrong house first and then skipped over to the other trying to fulfill what he's actually trying to do. There's actually another one that's in between called Monmouth it's very similar. We're not going to we don't have to go through that one. The Monmouth the Monmouth Illinois happened September 30. So just to kind of keep the timeline together October 15. Backup 15 days to September 30. That's Monmouth Illinois. Same basic idea. The only things about Monmouth it's a little bit different. No X was found it was a gas pipe. Again, he's only grabbing what he if he's got like he's I'm killing somebody today. I'm gonna use what I have. That

Marissa: 37:47

seems like a much less effective weapon. A lead pipe will still do it'll still do it. It's literally one of the worst murder weapons and clue but sure, it seems like a hatchet is just going to be more effective.

Matthew: 37:57

Yeah, well, you know, I don't know these are blazing knives are way more precise but are still gets it done. Right. They found that they found a pipe it was discarded. Everything else pretty much the same. That being said, it was a Georgia Dawson who was 13 was found dead in the bed. This is in Monmouth and she may have been posed in a suggestive way. Kind of you know, lending credence to this being for some kind of gratification. Another thing in Monmouth is they find a flashlight with and we're going to tie this into Colorado Springs with engraved on it. It says Lavie Colorado Springs, like etched in it when they're doing this is this is months later they find this this light that says this. This is what they were like replacing a fence or something and they find this. It's believed that that was like planted evidence to try to tie the things together. Because also keep in mind this is also a timeframe where anybody can be an investigator and there was generally rewards and stuff. So it's like I found this and I tied it together and lovey is one of the suspects in these crimes. And I'll read an article with him in a second too. But the It also could have said and some people reported it as lovely Colorado Springs, but it all comes down to is there a comma? But that seems to be a piece of like planted evidence to try to try to tie it together. Also what is etched in there? Some says Colorado Springs, some says lovey, some says all it's all kinds of there So we're just get rid of that. The this one set like I said Monmouth the 30th of September 1911. Everything else is the same other than that. That it was a bar and then they eventually find something from Colorado Springs so that ties into there. So from the article of the care from Colorado Springs, six are murdered as they slept Slayer use an axe to deadly purpose at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 21, murdered in their homes by some unknown persons who used an axe the bodies of six persons, three in each of two neighboring houses. So six total bodies three in one house, three in the other. These are right by side each other. These are side by side. Yes. So there's the Burnham's in one house and the wanes in the other. They were found here Wednesday afternoon, the heads of all the victims had been crushed and the appearance of the bodies indicated they had been dead several days and that death came while they slept. A report says the murderer has been caught and that he has confessed but this is denied by the police who feared a lynching might follow such an announcement. An axe which last week had been loaned to Mr. Henry F. Wayne, one of the victims by Jr. Evans, a neighbor was found bloodstained by Mrs. Evans on Monday near the back door of the Wayne home. No attention was paid to the fact however, as it was thought that the axe had been used in the killing of chickens. The list of the dead Miss Alice may Burnham wife of AJ Burnham cook at the Modern Woodmen Sanitarium. There are two children Alice aged six and John aged three. Henry F. Wayne a consumptive until recently a patient at the Woodman Sanitarium and Miss Wayne and their one year old baby girl. discovery of the bodies was made by a neighbor who called at the Burnham home to spend the afternoon, not getting any response and noticing a strong odor, the visitor forced and entrance. The bodies of Mrs. Burnham and those of her two children were found in their beds, which were covered with blood and the walls and the ceilings were also spattered. Alarm given the woman rushed to the street and gave the alarm a dozen persons instantly went to the Wainhouse where they had been no signs of life since Sunday, covered in the bed as though they were in a natural sleep were the bodies of Mr. And Mrs. Wayne, and their baby, all horribly mangled, as in the case of the bodies in the Burnham house. that such a crime had been committed in a thickly settled neighborhood and left on revealed for three days

Marissa: 43:03

nobody even checked on him.

Matthew: 43:05

When they did check the whole neighborhood apparently, for three days is regarded as an incredible not is regarded as incredible. Not even a footprint is to be found on the door of either house and not a person could be found who had seen anyone about the premises since Saturday afternoon. When all the murdered persons were at different times in the neighboring grocery store. So far as can be learned, there is no motive to the crime. Both the Burnham and Wayne families were of moderate means. Burnham who lives at the sanitarium where he is employed, was arrested soon after the discovery of the crime, but there seems to be nothing to implicate him in the crime. So that's the husband of the woman and her two kids that

Marissa: 43:58

were found. That's what I was gonna ask. He,

Matthew: 44:01

he so consumptive. So he, this is kind of like Doc Holliday from tombstone, you got to drier climates in order to try to dry out your lungs from tuberculosis. Another thing was to go up in elevation to try to do so which I do not understand. I guess it's fresher air, but it's also thinner air. So but anyway, so they had moved out to Colorado because of this. So there's this this TB Sanitarium out there, which he happened to work at. And he obviously number one suspect your whole family's dead and then you're nowhere to be found. Well, you may find them at work, but he also lived there, I believe as a patient as well as a person who worked there. Okay. I mean, it's why not, I guess, I guess. But so they find him his employers He was at work when the crime must have been committed. He was last seen at his home Sunday afternoon and is said to have left there about five o'clock Little is known of the Wayne family here. One month ago, Wayne brought his wife and child to this city and rented the house in which they were murdered. Neither had any real relatives here. When brought into the morgue, the bodies were almost unrecognizable the head of everyone was either cut or smashed in in almost every case the number of wounds indicated that the murderer had cut and smashed until he was sure he had destroyed all life that was another pretty vicious one. What I want to do also is I want to take some of these pictures that I found that are of the the houses where these murders where these murders took place that are just they're packed with people just people this this is like during like right you know when when the news is showing up and they're snapping pictures and stuff there's people like cute in line to like go in there and see the see the murder scene and stuff like that. Like it's and then there's a there's another picture where there there's like people all in there like Sunday best like hey, let's go to the murder house and take a big group photo out in front of it so like it's it's nuts like how hard it was to keep people from

Marissa: 46:26

getting bodies still in the house.

Matthew: 46:28

Presumably I don't know exactly when the when the pictures were taken. They were allowed like Find A Grave and stuff. And there's

Marissa: 46:36

well we know that happens. I mean happened with Ebola scare people just like file do the hands are still on the beds.

Matthew: 46:42

Yeah. So one more article. This one also kind of ties them all together. This is the one with I told you there was a flashlight or a lamp or whatever that was found with the etchings on it that said lovey, lovey Mitchell was a black man who is blamed for all of these, all of these murderers that he's believed to be connected to all of these because of primarily because of that doesn't seem to have any other evidence evidence other than the fact that a lot of a lot of people jumped to the conclusion if there was if there was a if there was a person of color or a stranger in town must have been the person who did it. I will update some of the language that is in this article. Police believe murders in Colorado, Iowa and other states will be cleared by the capture. St. Louis Missouri inquiries made of the St. Louis police by the St. Louis police indicated that the arrest here of its set it's loving in here but it's loving Mitchell. A black man would result in reopening investigations to 30 murders committed since 1911. Identical in nearly every detail the crimes were committed at night while victims lay asleep in their beds and all came to their deaths by means of blows from an axe. The warrant on which Mitchell was arrested charges him with the murders of William E. Dawson, his wife and daughter in Monmouth, Illinois. On the night of September 30 1911. Communities in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado and Kansas have been terrorized since the first axe murders committed in September 1911. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, when six persons were slain in nearly every instance the murderer killed an entire family. Mitchell laughed at his arrest and says he will be able to clear himself. He made no objections to being taken back to Illinois to face the charges of murder. A list of recent acts murders follows HC Wayne wife and child and Miss Mrs. AJ Burnham and two children Colorado Springs Colorado September 11 William E. Dawson wife and daughter Monmouth Illinois September 1911, William shoman wife and three children Ellsworth Kent, Kansas October 1911. JB more for children and to girl guests Valeska, Iowa, June 19, June 1912. Now these are interesting, and we'll touch on these in the next episode. Miss Mary J. Wilson and Miss George Moore, Columbia, Missouri, December 1912. Jacob Ness Lisa, his wife, their daughter, and the ladders infant Blue Island, Illinois, July 1914. We'll touch on those because the those two murders are connected to Henry Lee Moore, the guy who was yes, I remember him. Well, for our listeners was also connected to the Valeska murder. So that whole list was probably the same guy. Well may have been the same guy, the Mary J. Wilson and Georgia more, or Miss Jordan sorry, Miss Mrs. George Moore, in Columbia, Missouri, that's his mother and grandmother. And he was he was put on trial for that. We'll save that story for another day, though. So that's kind of where we are at this point in the story. Obviously, it's just kind of like, you know, a piece of time in here. That's we're going to continue to tie together and cover some other other murders. Some of them are a little bit different. There's going to be some that aren't from a man on the train, but they are sometimes connected to this whole spree and there's some fun stuff in there. And in the Like, legitimately fun stuff in there, like not just from a morbid perspective, fun stuff. Like there's actually some interesting things that happened in some of these, but but we're gonna do a new segment,

Marissa: 51:09

a new segment a new while.

Matthew: 51:11

Don't sound so surprised. I hope you're not surprised. It's supposed to be your segment with Marisa has McCobb minute

Marissa: 51:19

name. Maybe not final.

Matthew: 51:22

Maybe we need some theme music for it, too.

Marissa: 51:26

All right, well, let's all give a hearty Big shout out to those underappreciated and hardworking baldies of the animal kingdom. Vultures. Yeah, thank you for Emily, our patron for suggesting this as a topic, so it's going to be a mini little factoid, I guess. Vultures, they are incredible creatures who do way more than feast on the bones of dead roadkill. I mean, that's mostly what they do, but there's more to it than meets the eye. Vultures are often seen as unclean or waiting on death in Western culture especially. But that is completely untrue. While they do eat almost exclusively carry on they never circle waiting for somebody or something to die. While a few vulture species eat fruit or fish even Did you know that

Matthew: 52:14

I did not know that they brought carry on

Marissa: 52:19

carry on Darien carrion. Do I say hello.

Matthew: 52:24

I guess it doesn't matter for annunciation But

Marissa: 52:28

Christ they bring they bring

Matthew: 52:29

their little pack lunches.

Marissa: 52:31

Oh my god. Carrion, Jesus found carrion birds. It's something I learned when I read it and therefore whatever whatever. Anyway, some do, do eat that not everything. It's specific species eat fish and fruit but they have really weak claws. Their flight is also not subtle at all they are they're pretty loud, which predators like owls are not at all they are pretty much super silent when they fly but vultures now you can hear them coming

Matthew: 52:59

sound like they sound like they're made out of like, paper racing paper. Yeah.

Marissa: 53:04

It's kind of awesome. The stomach's of vultures are highly acidic, which kills nearly all of the bacteria that's in the back the viruses and parasites also mostly get destroyed when they eat it.

Matthew: 53:15

Hence my doctor medicine thinks his vulture juice drinks and

Marissa: 53:19

yes indeed, Vulture their bald heads actually let them dig into carcasses but not get matted up with blood so it keeps them kind of clean. they urinate difficult

Matthew: 53:29

thing to clean if you had it would be also I mean just your feathers would go because you're thinking these these creatures are digging their hole heads deep into these carcasses. Right? So I mean feathers go they lay back, right so trying to pull that back out is like having like your head be barbed

Marissa: 53:48

so that's why they're bald, man. Wow. Yeah. They also urinate on their legs to cool off but also we all know we don't all yeah don't some of us do Yeah. Continue and it can seem gross out and you know a jellyfish team to back it up

Matthew: 54:09

that is not know that that actually doesn't work. No, no

Marissa: 54:12

doesn't work. Okay,

Matthew: 54:13

that's just don't pee on yourself for jellyfish things.

Marissa: 54:17

It does not work if you pee on yourself or jellyfish takes but okay, but let people do it. Right. Okay,

Matthew: 54:21

let's do it. We'll do it. Yeah.

Marissa: 54:23

People do acid people do it.

Matthew: 54:24

People do. Encourage it. If you're not the one stung. If you're the one stung, don't do pee. If somebody else is stung, have everyone pee on them because that is way funnier. Yeah,

Marissa: 54:37

so that doesn't actually work. But anyway, doesn't work. No, it's something that people people still do that. But it's also when they urinate on their legs. It actually also helps to kill any bacteria or parasites that are happening attached to their legs.

Matthew: 54:50

So that's power power P Yeah.

Marissa: 54:53

The filters are

Matthew: 54:54

really cool. They are the they destroy some bacteria

Marissa: 54:59

they do. They will They do. Actually. Botulism is one of the most deadly, you know, pathogens known to you to humans, but vultures no problem at all. No vultures and a bunch of other stuff too. We owe a lot to vultures and history can show us why. Just one example is from the mid 1990s. So it's actually pretty recent, when the vulture population in India was decimated. This is because veterinarians were prescribing the medicine diclofenac. It's a drug that kind of helps relieve pain and cattle, which is great for the cattle, but it's actually deadly for vultures who would then eat the cattle? Oh, weird and adjust it Yeah. Because of this huge population decline of vultures, other scavengers moved into eat the dead animals, including feral dogs who brought with them rabies. This is believed to have contributed to the deaths of 48,000 people in India and a rabies outbreak that may have never happened if the vulture population had remained steady. Yeah, it's crazy.

Matthew: 55:59

I mean, they're I mean, they just they clean up stuff, and they're not harmful or not particularly dirty, really, either. So no,

Marissa: 56:08

they just like to eat dead things. That's

Matthew: 56:10

all love you love your neighborhood vultures, we have tons of them,

Marissa: 56:12

we have a ton of them. Pretty much anytime a day, you can look up and see some of them flying around, always, these awesome animals will also destroy nearly any disease that you feed them. It's a huge help to our ecosystem. It helps protects both, it helps protect both people and animals. So they really do help a lot. There. Also, it didn't know this before this, they are big advocates of ending poaching in their own way.

Matthew: 56:37

Natures are Yes, they've unionized

Marissa: 56:40

now. So search circling vultures in the air, they can actually lead authorities the body of poached animals. Yeah, so this alerts authorities when there have been poachers in the area. This is so true, that poachers actually try to poison vultures sometimes. And like in one instance, it was hundreds of vultures, they can really take out a population when they do this. Vultures are, it seems like the biggest threat to them is poison. Easily.

Matthew: 57:06

Yeah, I wonder if that poison is actually like, I wonder what their poison is? Like, I mean, what, what, what they're doing to poison him?

Marissa: 57:13

Like, what's yours? I don't know.

Matthew: 57:15

I mean, it's like, I wonder if it just throws off their biome, or if it's just like, cuz they destroy most diseases and stuff.

Marissa: 57:23

I think it was causing something that the kidneys, there's something going on. But it really is a really big problem. 16 out of 23 Vulture species are now endangered. Wow. Yeah. And like I said, poisoning is one of the main culprits with this. So next time, you see a vulture on the side of the road, or circling overheads ended up thank you, because they're actually really cool. In the end, the bundle

Matthew: 57:54

and they throw up,

Marissa: 57:55

they do throw up. People like to say it's like a what is it a defense mechanism or something?

Matthew: 58:02

It kind of can be a number of different things you can can throw up to lighten its load or if it's red, yeah. Or if it's to be if it's trying to distract something or intimidate I guess, but I mean, like, you know, if it's if it Hawks up a bunch of meat against a predator, the predator might just stay it's kind of similar to like a salamander losing its tail kind of a thing. You go after that the easier meal. There was actually there was vulture vomit was believed to be there was there was a point in time I really wish I'd looked this up, but I didn't Oh, it didn't. There's a an entire episode have ridiculous history on it. But there was a meat was falling from the sky in the Midwest, and it was being found on like people's fences and stuff. And one of the ideas was that a a kettle of vultures had thrown up as they were passing by. Actually, vultures are one of those birds that has a bunch of different names depending on what they're doing. They do.

Marissa: 59:03

So next time, we see you know, vultures feeding on a deer on the side of the road, it's a week

Matthew: 59:08

that's awake, if they're feeding, it's awake. If they're chillin, it's a Congress. And if they're in flight, it's a kettle I think,

Marissa: 59:16

that I don't know. Also, really, I came across this, which was kind of interesting. It's not part of this, but I thought it was kind of cool. You know, the Parsis of India, they have the tradition of leaving their dead out to just be picked clean by vultures and carry on, right? Well, that's 1000s of years old. It's an old tradition, but they're with a declining population of vultures, particularly in that area. They've had to come up with other solutions. So what they've done well religious for, for religious purposes, they cannot bury or cremate the body because they believe that it pollutes nature. So they've come up with a system where they actually use these like sun concentrators, they, they they use a solar energy basically to rapidly dehydrate the body. Sounds cool. Yeah. It is interesting for sure. But they've had to come up with it because of the vultures haven't been there. Yeah.

Matthew: 1:00:16

repopulate India's vultures. Let's do it, folks. Yeah,

Marissa: 1:00:20

no, they're awesome.

Matthew: 1:00:22

Well, but that was, I guess that's it for this week's episode. Another little fun little thing I would love for you guys to do is, you know, thank you as always to our patrons and everyone who supports the podcast financially. But if you are unable or unwilling or whatever to do so financially, I would, I would love to see a huge uptick in our comments. And reviews on Apple to help kick that algorithm up. Now the fun part of this one, I would love to see everyone give us a five star review. But I want you to write just the most ridiculous comment that you can. It doesn't have to even be about the show. You can just write whatever you can you can rip me apart in the comments. I don't really care. I just I just want to I just want to see that happen. And then whatever hashtag Ebenezer did it, but either way, I think it'd be really funny because, you know, I had also said, I believe previously in the Grave Digger episode that when I die, I want to have I want to have lies written on my tombstone, like just random people never know me never knew anything about me just write some, some garbage of something that I never actually did or never accomplished. If you guys could do that on Apple reviews, that would also be amazing. So please do feel free to get it and but we really appreciate you guys coming in and listening and hanging out and doing that and I hope you guys enjoy it to all of our supporters. Both patrons and non if you have any requests, concerns, comments, things that we could do on our Patreon page for you special little requests such as Hey, do a segment on vultures. Sure. I love vultures you know, let us know hit us up you can reach out to us on Twitter and Facebook at Macabrepedia

Marissa: 1:02:23

and Instagram Macabrepediapod and Gmail macabrepediapod@gmail.com

Matthew: 1:02:29

And if you are a patron you can join us on the discord where it's just me and one other guy talking but yeah, yeah if you guys are jump on the Macabrepedia Discord if you're a patron and yeah give us a little feedback there have longer conversations and about the about the stuff but anyways, thank you so much for joining us as always. Join us next week as we add another entry into this our Macabrepedia