American Bluebeard: Lies and Dead Wives

by Alene Burnett-Reaugh

My great grandaunt Beatrice, a well-to-do young widow, met a man on a train in 1919, they were soon married, and that was the last anyone heard from Beatrice. It turned out he was a serial killer. James P. Watson traveled throughout Canada, the Pacific NW, and California by train or expensive automobiles, always staying at elegant hotels. He approached attractive and refined women with marriage proposals and promises of exotic travel; he ran lonely hearts ads in local newspapers. Watson married as many as 50 women, and after extracting their money, killed at least 22 of those "wives" and abandoned many more. He made a good living for twenty years at this career. But, it took only one suspicious wife to bring down his house of cards.

226 pages, Paperback

Published September 28, 2021

Reviews

[judy roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating, good, true story of a twisted serial killer. Extensive research provides solid base for this book. I'm not usually a fan of true crime stories, but this book held my interest throughout. Nice to see an Amazon book that is well edited.

[Mary Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written book about an odious man who married women, took their money, and often murdered them. He got away with it for over 20 years and was only caught when a living wife hired a PI to find out what he was up to. He preyed primarily on women who had assets, but occasionally would marry a poor one. There's no way to know how many women he murdered but it was upwards of 50.
I would have given 4 stars if the author hadn't included the killer's horrible poetry.

[Heather Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Resource

What an amazing amount of research compiled so nicely! You've done well by your great-grand aunt and all of the victims.

[Gwen Kubberness · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am currently writing a book about this guy that is why I bought this book but I seem to have a lot more information but there was a some information in this book that I did not know really true story creepy guy