In 1912 what was arguably the most violent crime, the darkest mystery, in Midwest history took place. Law enforcement officers encountered a scene of unimagined violence: eight victims, six of them children, bludgeoned to death with an ax while they slept. Everywhere there were clues. But inexperienced investigators failed, and private detectives took over. When Detective James Newton Wilkerson charged that a respected state senator had been motivated to the unthinkable by the promiscuity of his daughter-in-law, the community was drawn into a bitter and accelerating struggle between powerful...

Peter Hopley was indentured and spent his youth working the farm rather than going to school. Edna Everly's early years were in a dirt-floor cabin near the tiny settlement of Iranistan. He fought Indians and hauled freight for the Union Pacific Railroad. She was still a child when her drunken father was found beaten to death on the road near Turkey Creek. Peter and Edna married, and together built the largest crop and livestock operation in Cass County. That was only the beginning. Peter acquired a ranch in Nebraska, a farm and vineyards in California. The choice lots he owned in Phoenix were...