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Ax Murders of Saxtown: The Unsolved Crime That Terrorized a Town and Shocked the Nation
An entire household massacred. A family feud. A sheriff found dead. Neighbor turned against neighbor. Reports of ghosts, bounty hunters, deathbed confessions, and legacy fortunes.
In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene.
Nicholas J. C. Pistor's "The Ax Murders of Saxtown" is a gripping tale of suspense and suspicion that exposes brand new information about the century-old crime and showcases the flaws of the nineteenth-century justice system.
In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene.
Nicholas J. C. Pistor's "The Ax Murders of Saxtown" is a gripping tale of suspense and suspicion that exposes brand new information about the century-old crime and showcases the flaws of the nineteenth-century justice system.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 23, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 25, 2018
Imagine you're a farmer in 1874. You live out in the middle of nowhere. There are no cars, electric lights... each night brings a blanket of silence to the world. Then, one fateful night, there's a knock on the door. You answer it... and it's an axe-swinging maniac!
Sound like a cheesy horror film? For one farming family in Southern Illinois, that nightmarish scenario actually happened. A family of five, including two children, one a baby in her mother's arms, were slaughtered in their home. It was called the most shocking crime since the murder of Abraham Lincoln and garnered national attention.
Nicholas Pistor examines original sources to share the story of the ax murders of Saxtown.
The grounds of the Stelzriede farm glowed with the orange light of oil lamps and handheld torches. A few hours had passed since the Stelzriede bodies had been discovered. The tough Saxtown farmers arrived one by one, and then in groups. ... Many showed up on the property with their families. They were too afraid to leave them home alone. pg 44, ebook.
I would have been the same way. There had been extensive rains around the time of the murders and the roads in and out of town were nearly impassable. The residents of Saxtown believed the killer could still be among them. Eek.
The small Southern Illinois town of Saxtown was a farming community where people primarily spoke German. Everybody knew everybody else and their business. The closest city, sheriff and bank were located in Belleville, almost nine miles north of Saxtown. At the time, they believed the motive for the killings was money. The Stelzriedes were known to loan out cash and it was thought that they kept a stash in their home.
They also left a fairly large inheritance behind.
Pistor goes into how authorities conducted investigations during the late 1800's. It made me wonder that they ever managed to solve anything. There were no forensics or sophisticated evidence gathering protocols.
Public awareness was important in solving crimes. An eyewitness could crack the case open before it began. Detective work relied heavily on what other people saw, a distinct challenge in the remote and lonely woods of Saxtown, where farms were spaced by miles and miles. pg 44, ebook
The saddest part of this non-fiction tale is, in my mind, how terribly this crime affected Saxtown. For decades, residents accused each other of the murders. There were lawsuits and whispers of restless ghosts on the Stelzriede property...
If you're looking for a true crime read, this is an interesting pick, plus you get to learn about a few other shocking crimes that took place in Southern Illinois and history.
And if someone knocks on my door tonight, I don't think I'm going to answer it.
Sound like a cheesy horror film? For one farming family in Southern Illinois, that nightmarish scenario actually happened. A family of five, including two children, one a baby in her mother's arms, were slaughtered in their home. It was called the most shocking crime since the murder of Abraham Lincoln and garnered national attention.
Nicholas Pistor examines original sources to share the story of the ax murders of Saxtown.
The grounds of the Stelzriede farm glowed with the orange light of oil lamps and handheld torches. A few hours had passed since the Stelzriede bodies had been discovered. The tough Saxtown farmers arrived one by one, and then in groups. ... Many showed up on the property with their families. They were too afraid to leave them home alone. pg 44, ebook.
I would have been the same way. There had been extensive rains around the time of the murders and the roads in and out of town were nearly impassable. The residents of Saxtown believed the killer could still be among them. Eek.
The small Southern Illinois town of Saxtown was a farming community where people primarily spoke German. Everybody knew everybody else and their business. The closest city, sheriff and bank were located in Belleville, almost nine miles north of Saxtown. At the time, they believed the motive for the killings was money. The Stelzriedes were known to loan out cash and it was thought that they kept a stash in their home.
They also left a fairly large inheritance behind.
Pistor goes into how authorities conducted investigations during the late 1800's. It made me wonder that they ever managed to solve anything. There were no forensics or sophisticated evidence gathering protocols.
Public awareness was important in solving crimes. An eyewitness could crack the case open before it began. Detective work relied heavily on what other people saw, a distinct challenge in the remote and lonely woods of Saxtown, where farms were spaced by miles and miles. pg 44, ebook
The saddest part of this non-fiction tale is, in my mind, how terribly this crime affected Saxtown. For decades, residents accused each other of the murders. There were lawsuits and whispers of restless ghosts on the Stelzriede property...
If you're looking for a true crime read, this is an interesting pick, plus you get to learn about a few other shocking crimes that took place in Southern Illinois and history.
And if someone knocks on my door tonight, I don't think I'm going to answer it.
May 29, 2014
This book revisits a notorious late 19th-century crime: the unsolved murder of five members of a German immigrant family in southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis. I heard the author on the radio and was intrigued by the story, and while it is an interesting part of local history, I was disappointed with the book. First, it's not until two-thirds of the way through the book that the author reveals that all the official records of the murders were stolen a few years after the murders took place, ensuring that they would forever be unsolved. While this detail is itself interesting, it means that much of the author's research relies on local lore or sensationalized newspaper accounts. Second, I found the author's broad generalizations and occasional mistakes to be jarring. At one point he says that cholera is not contagious - I believe John Snow and Haiti would disagree! He also makes sweeping generalizations about large groups of people, such as stating that all German immigrants had "land lust." (What about all the German immigrants that settled in cities like St. Louis? Wasn't the desire for land pretty characteristic of most immigrants, especially those who settled in rural areas? Did you have to be a German immigrant to want free land? Pa Ingalls comes to mind...). In another part, he contrasts the town schoolteacher, who was obsessed with solving the murders, with all the local farmers, suggesting that because they worked with their hands, they were incapable or uninterested in working with their minds as well. I have a hard time trusting the author when he seems to make sweeping judgments rather easily.
April 13, 2014
This review is of a book won from Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program.
We're familiar with Jack the Ripper and the murders in the Whitechapel district in London in 1888. Many of us are also familiar with the Clutter family murders in Kansas in 1959 as immortalized by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood. There are several other murders throughout time in various places - some solved, some remain mysteries - that many of us are familiar with from literature or movies or just legend.
What happened in Saxtown, Illinois in 1874 was unfamiliar to me until I read this book. I have to admit, I love this shit. I've been watching the first season of the BBC show Ripper Street recently, so delving into this book was fitting in a way. This is a true crime history as well as a ghost story - I cannot think of a better combination. I rarely will turn down either, so when they come in the same package, huzzah!
Because the mystery here has gone unsolved, Pistor offers us as much evidence as he and others have been able to unearth over the years. There's unfortunately not a lot of information, which is not surprising considering investigations of 1874 were subpar to say the least. I am sure a lot went undocumented, and it was easy for people to come and go without much trace. Hard to say if this mystery will ever be solved, but it's still an interesting story in the meantime.
January 7, 2014
This book is meticulously researched and detailed. I've tagged it as history as well as true-crime because, in reality, it's more history than anything else. The crimes in question occurred in 1874, and the book focuses as much on exploring the German settlement of Saxtown and its neighboring villages, and how the close immigrant community and their ties to one another affected the investigation, as on the crime itself - though there's plenty of detail on that, as well!
The discovery of the crime and the reaction of the townsfolk is well-described. The circus-like atmosphere as neighbors waited for authorities to arrive is painted vividly. A number of suspects are identified early on. There are the requisite dedicated investigators, who disagree with each other, and some nasty criminal-types on the other side. But this case is 140 years old - talk about a cold case! - and some of the information and files have gone missing.
The first part of the book is slow going, due to the afore-mentioned great detail, which in some cases becomes too much. I probably didn't need pages of background on the editor of one of the newspapers, a re-hashing of events surrounding Lincoln's death, or a biographical sketch of the governor. Obviously the author delved into all this to improve his knowledge of the area and the times and to allow him to paint a more accurate picture of the social atmosphere, which is great, but it probably didn't need to be presented en-masse here. In addition, this makes the first half seem to skip around, as we leave the crime scene for lengthy periods of time to go roaming in previous history, only to return and be greeted by a repetition of facts already introduced into evidence.
The second half of the book moves faster, with the background covered. Much of this part focuses on the impact the gruesome murders had on a variety of associated peoples' lives, even down to their children. There's no happy ending here, but this book fits nicely into the annals of historical true-crime.
The discovery of the crime and the reaction of the townsfolk is well-described. The circus-like atmosphere as neighbors waited for authorities to arrive is painted vividly. A number of suspects are identified early on. There are the requisite dedicated investigators, who disagree with each other, and some nasty criminal-types on the other side. But this case is 140 years old - talk about a cold case! - and some of the information and files have gone missing.
The first part of the book is slow going, due to the afore-mentioned great detail, which in some cases becomes too much. I probably didn't need pages of background on the editor of one of the newspapers, a re-hashing of events surrounding Lincoln's death, or a biographical sketch of the governor. Obviously the author delved into all this to improve his knowledge of the area and the times and to allow him to paint a more accurate picture of the social atmosphere, which is great, but it probably didn't need to be presented en-masse here. In addition, this makes the first half seem to skip around, as we leave the crime scene for lengthy periods of time to go roaming in previous history, only to return and be greeted by a repetition of facts already introduced into evidence.
The second half of the book moves faster, with the background covered. Much of this part focuses on the impact the gruesome murders had on a variety of associated peoples' lives, even down to their children. There's no happy ending here, but this book fits nicely into the annals of historical true-crime.
July 2, 2020
Meh.
This offered literally no new information on the long-ago case so save your $$$ and just read Wikipedia or something.
This offered literally no new information on the long-ago case so save your $$$ and just read Wikipedia or something.
May 2, 2015
I have the impression that the author really didn't like the people he was writing about. Also some chronological snobbery going on.
May 2, 2016
What an interesting read! A mystery that was left unsolved and keeps you wondering why the people were murdered. Was it really for money? A good read!
April 18, 2023
Taken from the back of the book. "In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene."
You can tell Nicholas Pistor put a lot of time researching but when it comes to presenting it, he fell short. I liked that he did not go into graphic detail of the crime scene. Nicholas did have to use a bunch of speciation/assumptions on some of the details due that fact that the original murder records disappeared. More than half the book is a slow, dry read but did like the Chapters on how they were set up. This helped with the timeline of the events.
It is so sad that this case may not be fully solved. A whole family and a sheriff murdered, leaving behind a huge mystery and whole lot of fear.
You can tell Nicholas Pistor put a lot of time researching but when it comes to presenting it, he fell short. I liked that he did not go into graphic detail of the crime scene. Nicholas did have to use a bunch of speciation/assumptions on some of the details due that fact that the original murder records disappeared. More than half the book is a slow, dry read but did like the Chapters on how they were set up. This helped with the timeline of the events.
It is so sad that this case may not be fully solved. A whole family and a sheriff murdered, leaving behind a huge mystery and whole lot of fear.
June 15, 2021
Pretty good little book about an ole timey cold case. For some reason I find these older crimes so much more interesting than modern ones. I guess the lack of technologies and modern accommodations makes it more interesting. It shows how much has changed in the last 100 years. Well, everything except how horrible human beings treat each other. With a slew of suspects and literally no evidence, this is a good little murder/mystery that should keep you interested.
May 5, 2018
E for effort but after his 10 years of research I was not impressed with the author’s book.
September 27, 2019
Easey going read.
October 21, 2019
Very interesting read especially since I'm from the area.
August 14, 2022
A good look at an unsolved mass murder of a whole family just outside of St Louis back in the 1870’s
September 9, 2023
Local to me so I wanted to read this but it's so dry. I don't have the patience for this. Moving on.
January 17, 2025
This book was okay.
July 7, 2025
Always ‘fun’ to read about something that happened in your back yard!
July 14, 2014
WHEN I BEGAN THIS BOOK ON JUNE 15, 2014: Eighteen years prior to the murder of Lizzie Borden's family in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892, the Stelzriede family was murdered with an ax in the small German community of Saxtown, Illinois in 1874. Because Saxtown was not far from present-day Columbia, Illinois, and close to St. Louis - my home town - and because I read a favorable review of this book in the local newspaper, and because it was written by St. Louisan Nicholas J. C. Pistor, I decided to put it on my 'To-Read' shelf!
AT THE CONCLUSION OF READING THIS BOOK IN JULY, 2014: St. Louis Author Nicholas J. C. Pistor crafts a well-researched account of this unsolved crime from 1874, set in a rural farming community of German immigrants in the Columbia, Illinois area (near St. Louis, Missouri). Being a dabbler in genealogy, I was impressed with the author's historical research, which includes a meticulous, 45-page Source list. My favorite books are those with a well-written story from which I walk away at the conclusion having learned something: such as history, geography, science. Reading this story I learned much about the histories of St. Louis, rural criminology, German immigration and farming, and the role of newspapers prior to electronic communication. A great read, especially for you St. Louisans!!!
AT THE CONCLUSION OF READING THIS BOOK IN JULY, 2014: St. Louis Author Nicholas J. C. Pistor crafts a well-researched account of this unsolved crime from 1874, set in a rural farming community of German immigrants in the Columbia, Illinois area (near St. Louis, Missouri). Being a dabbler in genealogy, I was impressed with the author's historical research, which includes a meticulous, 45-page Source list. My favorite books are those with a well-written story from which I walk away at the conclusion having learned something: such as history, geography, science. Reading this story I learned much about the histories of St. Louis, rural criminology, German immigration and farming, and the role of newspapers prior to electronic communication. A great read, especially for you St. Louisans!!!
September 1, 2016
I've always been a fan of true stories that feature both crime and mystery, and am delighted to have found a new one in, "The Ax Murders of Saxtown." Rather, an old one, as this true story took place 140 years ago. The horrific murders of an immigrant German family made front page news all across the country but have since been forgotten - until now - as Nicholas Pistor has brought this story back to life.
And bring it life he does with an excellent narrative style that keeps you turning the page. As potential suspects were introduced, I found myself trying to solve the crime, not unlike when I watch an episode of Law and Order. But unlike SVU, the detectives of the day had limited and often questionable evidence to work with, as these murders took place before major advances in forensic science. The author does an excellent job of providing this historical context throughout the book. More than just a well-paced murder mystery, the book doubles as a history of solving crime in the late 19th century Midwest countryside.
Anyone who appreciates true crime and American history will love this book. I generally don't write reviews, but felt compelled to encourage people to pick up (or download) this one.
And bring it life he does with an excellent narrative style that keeps you turning the page. As potential suspects were introduced, I found myself trying to solve the crime, not unlike when I watch an episode of Law and Order. But unlike SVU, the detectives of the day had limited and often questionable evidence to work with, as these murders took place before major advances in forensic science. The author does an excellent job of providing this historical context throughout the book. More than just a well-paced murder mystery, the book doubles as a history of solving crime in the late 19th century Midwest countryside.
Anyone who appreciates true crime and American history will love this book. I generally don't write reviews, but felt compelled to encourage people to pick up (or download) this one.
September 13, 2014
I wanted to find out who murdered the family and I didn't find out - very disappointing!
An entire household massacred. A family feud. A sheriff found dead. Neighbor turned against neighbor. Reports of ghosts, bounty hunters, deathbed confessions, and legacy fortunes.
In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene.
Nicholas J. C. Pistor’s The Ax Murders of Saxtown is a gripping tale of suspense and suspicion that exposes brand new information about the century-old crime and showcases the flaws of the nineteenth-century justice system.
An entire household massacred. A family feud. A sheriff found dead. Neighbor turned against neighbor. Reports of ghosts, bounty hunters, deathbed confessions, and legacy fortunes.
In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene.
Nicholas J. C. Pistor’s The Ax Murders of Saxtown is a gripping tale of suspense and suspicion that exposes brand new information about the century-old crime and showcases the flaws of the nineteenth-century justice system.
January 29, 2014
Curiosity made me buy this book. I've lived in the area of these murders for the last 15 years and this is the first I've heard of the incident. The author presents a very powerful vision of the life and times near Millstadt in the late 1800s. I was captivated by the narration and research presented in this book and could not put it down. Imagine my surprise to find out my street was named for one of the suspects!
An entertaining book on a real murder that remains unsolved to this day!
An entertaining book on a real murder that remains unsolved to this day!
April 28, 2014
Unsolved murder close to home
I had never heard of this case until I accidentally found this book on Amazon. To my surprise, it happened in Illinois, perhaps about 30 miles from my hometown. The author does an excellent job recreating the farming life of German immigrants living in the Milstadt/Saxtown area. The details of the murders and investigation have been meticulously researched, bringing this unsolved crime to life again. A riveting must read.
I had never heard of this case until I accidentally found this book on Amazon. To my surprise, it happened in Illinois, perhaps about 30 miles from my hometown. The author does an excellent job recreating the farming life of German immigrants living in the Milstadt/Saxtown area. The details of the murders and investigation have been meticulously researched, bringing this unsolved crime to life again. A riveting must read.
June 14, 2014
I normally do not read a lot of nonfiction. Due to the amount of local history, I found this book very interesting. Never one to enjoy gore, I did find the detailed description of the murders unsettling, but they were important to know in order to understand the rest of the story. Combining many different sources, Pistor did an excellent job of researching. What a excellent example his story is of what can be accomplished with careful research,in-depth study, and thoughtful analysis.
April 6, 2014
ooh wow...... a must read..awesome story line pulls You right in.. detailed characters.. and setting.. really enjoied this book.
April 22, 2014
3.5 if I had the option
May 21, 2014
I had a hard time reading this book. The style it was written really didn't flow. The subject matter was interesting and I wanted to like it but I just did not.
September 9, 2018
This book was interesting to me because the house where the murders took place is about 50 miles of where I live and friends of mine live just down the road from it. At various points, it was a little tedious reading, but I enjoyed the book overall.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews