I spent the day at Grandma’s today and we got to talking about her mother. She told me stories I hadn’t heard about her first job, and then about her housekeeper who lived in disguise… No. Really.
EDITED TO ADD: I got Grandma to talk more about her housekeeper. She had remembered that it had been Nellie’s husband who had been killed and that it happened in Alabama. She said that Nellie was worried about the same men finding her and killing her. I figured an ax murder should be easy to find records of.
It turns out– serial killers.
From 1919-1923, Birmingham, Alabama had a series of ax murders. I’ve only found two articles online but the timing is right for him to have been a victim of the “ax syndicate.”
FURTHER EDITED TO ADD: Apparently, this trial got some attention because the confession came through an early use of “truth serum.”
Holy crap. That’s amazing. I smell some kind of short story–you’ve got the interviews about the time anyway.
I know. It sort of screams for a short story, doesn’t it.
Thanks Mary for your research. Curiosity you know.