Murder on the Rails: The True Story of the Detective Who Unlocked the Shocking Secrets of the Boxcar Serial Killer

by William G. Palmini Jr., Tanya Chalupa

When a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran is found bludgeoned to death at a railroad trackside campsite frequented by drifters, Detective Bill Palmini is called in to solve the vicious murder. Similarly brutialized bodies are discovered in rail yards and camps across the country.

Palmini and his team find themselves immersed in the harsh world of the Freight Train Riders of America, a brotherhood of vagrants who live by a twisted code of thievery, fraud and violence. After a suspect, Robert Silveria, is apprehended, a strange bond forms between killer and copy during intense, chilling interrogations. The media dub Silveria "The Boxcar Serial Killer." Fascinating and horrifying, Murder on the Rails is a finely wrought true crime thriller.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is written by a detective that worked on the case and tells about the murders committed by Robert Silveria, a modern-day hobo and train hopper. I did not know there is still a transient culture of train hoppers to this day so that was the most interesting part of the book for me. The most interesting part about the author is that he is an Elvis Impersonator. I would have liked the author to go more into his background and personal information and it seems there is not much to know about the killer and his younger years so I will give the book 3 stars because I would have liked to have had more biographical background but otherwise it was an interesting case.