|
Addendum:
New information and sources relevant to the Brookfield murders
|
|
In my account of the triple murder in Brookfield in 1898, I focused on the stories printed over about a week in the Worcester press, and I made no attempt to add anything to the story. My covering it at all was a reflection of the coincidence of discovering on the same page of a Lynchburg, Virginia newspaper as a story on the death of my grandmother’s brother in a railroad accident. I wondered what came of the murderer, almost certainly Paul Mueller – whether he was ever caught or whether he went on to carry out more atrocities. But any effort to find out was well beyond the scope of my intentions. In late September, I heard from two different readers, within three days of each other, each relating a separate and distinct resurrection of the Brookfield murder story that she had encountered. One of the new sources was much more substantive than the other in terms of what it revealed about the Newton murders or the murderer in later years. I will start with the less relevant one, attributable to one Becky Coors in an email dated September 30, for which I am grateful.
|
|
On the night of September 29, 2017, The Learning Channel (TLC Network), as part of a regular program entitled “Kindred Spirits,” aired an episode involving strange goings-on at a house located near the Newton farmhouse in Brookfield (“Home Sweet Holmes,” https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/kindred-spirits/). In the course of their research, the hosts of the program came across the Newton murders and included in their story a brief overview of what had happened, showing images of some of the headlines and sketches from the newspapers. That was about the extent of their coverage, but it was notable just for finding and calling attention to the murders within a few months not only of my brief account but also the chapter in the book by Rachel Faugno.
|
|
On September 27 I received an email from Heather Bistyga informing me of a recently published book by Bill James and Rachel M. James (his daughter) entitled The Man From the Train: the solving of a century-old serial killer mystery (Scribner, New York, 2017). The lead author, Bill James, is well known as a recognized authority on Major League Baseball statistics and baseball in general. Since the 1970s he has published numerous works on baseball stats and has been one of the pillars of the sabermetrics trend among baseball analysts and followers. (A list of his other publications in the front of this book shows twelve books about baseball and one about crime, a forerunner to this book on serial murders.)
|
|
For reasons of their own, James and his daughter, who was originally working for him as a research assistant and later with him as co-author, decided to plunge into the topic of multiple murders of a serial or at least suspiciously similar nature, after examining a gruesome case of the late night murder by axe of a family of six, plus two visiting children, in Villisca, Iowa in 1912. Searching through old newspapers now available online, aided by the capability of word or phrase searches, they began to uncover other murders bearing similarities during the several years preceding the Iowa case, and eventually came across the Newton case in Brookfield. Not having done any analytical or investigative work on this subject myself, I will continue in the role of a “newsboy” selling papers, alerting you to what is available to be read, without commentary or assessment, and I will try not to give away too much, thus to avoid spoiling anyone’s enjoyment of the book. For anyone interested in learning more about the Newton murders and the murderer, The Man From the Train is recommended.
|
|
Don Chamberlayne, October 20, 2017
|