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Monday, February 27, 2023

Ax Murderer of Birmingham, Alabama, at Large, Feb. 27, 1923

Fiend Still Uncaught

Seventeen murders committed for $200 is the record of an axman in Birmingham, Ala. In the last two years he has killed 17 persons and wounded 17 others. The murderer smashes the skull of his victims and then rifles their stores for money. He never steals anything but money, and in the last two years has secured only a few pennies more than $200.

No clew has been left by the fiend during his two years of murder, except the small ax found on the floor of Luigi Vitellaso’s store after Vitelaso and his wife had been so badly injured January 23rd, last, that the wife died almost immediately and her husband’s death followed few days later. Detectives are convinced that each of the murders has been done by the same man, that he is a white man, and is possessed by a homicidal mania.

From the front page of the Lenoir News-Topic, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 1923. The newspaper spelled the last name Vitallaso and Vitalaso in the same sentence; I don’t know which is correct. It also used the old spelling for clue—clew.

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