You might think that writing about axe murder is morbid. “But, really, it’s the history of civilization!” says Rachel McCarthy James, whose new book, “Whack Job” (St. Martin’s), chronicles the bloody and fascinating history of this versatile tool and the people who wield it. In a video interview, James spoke about her favorite axe murderers, the banality of chain saws and Paul Bunyan. Her answers have been edited and condensed.
Who was your first? What got you interested in axe murder?
Well, it really started when I moved back to Kansas after college. My dad [the noted true-crime and baseball writer Bill James] was working on the book that would become “The Man from the Train,” and hired me as a research assistant. Pretty quickly, it became clear that I was going to be a coauthor.
So, definitely, the first axe murderer for me would be the subject of that book. The axe was not quite a central part of the case; it was one of many elements, although the fact that all the serial murders were committed with the back of an axe was certainly something the newspapers [in 1911 and 1912] focused on.
So how, exactly, are you defining “axe murderer?”
It’s such an interesting phrase, isn’t it? We don’t say “knife killer” or “gun shooter.” Culturally, it’s very broadly defined — axes are used around the world, and I explore their use as weapons of war, and as tools of execution and human sacrifice. It’s really entwined with different versions of how we experience, and how we commit, violence. In the case of William Tillman, which I write about, who was a free man trying to escape enslavement, that was self-defense. He wasn’t acting out of revenge or rage; he was trying to save his own life, save his own freedom. And a lot of these killers weren’t especially fixated on axes; it’s just what was around.
Do you distinguish between hatchets and axes?
Not explicitly, because in both cases, what makes it interesting is that it’s a tool as much as it is a weapon. The axe has been crucial to the development of human civilization in so many ways, in terms of altering landscape, allowing us to build houses. And with progress, almost inevitably, comes grisly brutality. Working together means coming into conflict with each other.
What’s one of the most intriguing axe murders you came across in your research?
I was fascinated by the 1980 case of Candy Montgomery, who murdered Betty Gore with a huge, three-foot axe. At the time I wrote the proposal, that story seemed kind of forgotten. Then maybe two months after I signed my book deal, there were two different warring TV series!
Which do you think is more accurate?
I like the Hulu one quite a bit better.
You end up taking a surprising line on Lizzie Borden.
I put that in the book proposal almost out of obligation. I wasn’t that excited about it until I actually got into the story and understood how deep the puzzle goes and why it’s so transfixing to just so many people — beyond the catchy rhyme. And now I’m quite convinced that the case is far more complicated than we’ve been led to believe.
While you get into global history, it struck me reading your book that the axe has a very particular relationship to the American mythos.
It does embody American colonial self-visions in a lot of ways. An axe was something that any pioneer knew how to wield — there were so many different uses for it, building homes, shingles, as a cleaver, even shoeing horses — and I think it was part of how they saw themselves earning the land, even though, of course, it wasn’t really earned. But many of the people who came over, like George Washington’s grandfather, were not used to tilling the land themselves. They were using enslaved people to do a lot of that work for them. Putting axes in their hands as well, which could be a key to rebellion.
Recently I came across a vintage hatchet cookie-cutter, and realized it could have been intended for Washington or Lincoln’s birthday.
Yes, it’s just an odd fact that both these February presidents have the hatchet association. It’s clearly about self-reliance.
We associate it with Paul Bunyan, too.
Paul usually has a double-sided axe, which is interesting because that’s kind of traditionally considered a feminine tool.
Logging is a big part of the axe story. Of course, logging now is all about sawmills and chain saws, which have also become symbols of gruesome violence, but the chain saw is, really, a tool. It doesn’t have a history as a weapon, the way that the axe does. It really is just for cutting wood and, you know, occasionally you see it in real-life murders for dismembering. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” stands out. I mean, how many people really know how to use a chain saw?
You make the point that because everyone once had axes lying around — and did know how to use them — it was often the weapon of choice in a crime of opportunity. But nowadays, it’s a more exotic tool. Does an axe murder today imply a greater level of intention and derangement?
Here in Lawrence, with homelessness growing as it is in so many places, there have been a number of incidents of people in encampments threatening each other with axes. Again, they have it as a tool, and when things escalate, it’s there.
How are you at wielding an axe?
Not very good at all. I’m OK at throwing axes, but not great at swinging them. My boss’s husband collects axes, and we went to their property so I could get a little practical knowledge. I was sore for a week after about 45 minutes of swinging the axe. It made me realize how hard it would be to actually murder someone.
Just to get it high enough to have the leverage — not to be morbid — is a feat. I mean, you need to be in shape. Or you’d have to be driven by an almost superhuman rage.
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