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Book Review of Villisca: The True Account of the Unsolved 1912 Mass Murder That Stunned the Nation

Villisca: The True Account of the Unsolved 1912 Mass Murder That Stunned the Nation
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Helpful Score: 2


The title says it all! On the book jacket: "In 1912, what is still arguably one of the most violent crimes in U.S. history took place in the rural Iowa town of Villisca. Law enforcement officers encountered a scene of unimagined violence: eight victims, six of them children, bludgeoned to death with an ax while they slept. Everywhere there were clues. But inexperienced investigators failed, and private detectives took over. When Det. James Wilkerson charged that a respected state senator had been motivated to the unthinkable by the promiscuity of his daughter-in-law, the community was drawn into a bitter and accelerating struggle between powerful men. And then a deranged and perverted minister confessed . . ." Let me tell you, they all had their subtexts going on and the minister wasn't the only perverted one...maybe the only truly mentally ill one...but not the only perverted one!