In the early hours of Monday, June 10, 1912, an unknown intruder entered a two-story wooden house through the unlocked back door. The small Midwest settlement had a population of around 2,000, where everyone knew each other by sight, and the residents did not worry about crime. 

But on that June night in 1912, once the killer had completed these grisly acts, he then did several things that mystified investigators at the time and then for decades thereafter.  

The killings shook Villisca to its core, and the failure to convict the murderer despite several attempts only added to the growing fear and unease in the community. The reality was that the killer had disappeared without a trace, leaving no clue as to their identity or whereabouts. It was possible that the killer had slipped back into their own home in the area, or even escaped on one of the 30 trains that passed through the town every day, with a head start of up to five hours. 

Read MF Thomas' novels

Like Clockwork https://amzn.to/417lOzy
Arcade https://amzn.to/4aTpisx
A Sickness in Time https://amzn.to/41apSPK
Seeing by Moonlight ...