Fall 2018:

This was part of a historical horror series released by Amazon for checkout on special. I ended up listening through all of them, and being both fascinated and horrified by the things within. The questions that are left, and the points about how certain authors and certain novels headtip to these things was quite interesting. ( )

Another quick read. These little short serial killer synopsis just lead me down a rabbit hole to get more information. This one seemed a bit vague in its details and the case the prosecution put together was vague as well. Another possible case of typical Chicago style police brutality in gaining confessions. Unfortunately a young man was put to death for the crimes and we may never really know if he did it or not. ( )

In the mid-1930s, a series of murders occurred in Chicago, then L.A.. The perpetrator would find an open or broken window to climb through, and armed with a brick, he would bash a woman's head in, or in one case, a little girl's, either rape or expose her, then steal whatever valuables he could grab. The bloody brick was usually left lying next to the dead or dying victim. There were several witnesses to this series of crimes: one rape victim who was beaten with the brick but survived, one woman accosted in her hospital bed who scared the perpetrator off, one seven year-old boy who was in bed next to his mother as she was beaten to death, and there was the accomplice of the murderer .
After nearly two years, L.A. police arrested an African-American teenager named Robert Nixon, who confessed and signed a confession of all the brick murders. At his trial Nixon's main defense was that he was tortured by the police until he signed the confession.
The author states that it's likely that the police did use brutality to get a confession, but that Nixon's clothes were covered in human blood when he was arrested near the home of the last victim, that when he left Chicago the brick murders ended there, and also that they ended for good after his arrest in L.A.
I think this is the last of the Bloodlands collection of forgotten crimes, and another that I'd never heard of before. I was surprised that they had such advanced blood testing in the 30s, and also, that there seemed to be piles of bricks everywhere, just handy for a murder. I would have liked a more in-depth account of the trial and Nixon's psychology, but it's possible there weren't enough court papers to draw from. ( )

An interesting case I have never heard of, but I am not quite sure if the Afterword was conjecture or fact. ( )

The Brick Slayer tells about a serial killed in the late 1930's that was suppose to be black or dark skinned. The police were rounding up lots of black men checking them out. They finally picked out this one young man that has an IQ of 76 and tortured him the whole time he was locked up. He confessed. The newspaper were making terrible racists statements about him. There is so much more...Lots of interesting information! ( )