I am starting this thread because I couldn't find one for him. He's been listed as possible suspect in several missing person or unsolved murder cases on here, but doesn't have his own thread. If he does, I'm sorry about that.
This guy hopped trains and traveled throughout the Midwest. He'd occasionally rape and murder young boys along the way.
WILLIAM J "FREIGHT TRAIN" GUATNEY
William J. GUATNEY (Murderpedia)
Slayer Of Innocence (Jim Conover, 2003)
A book about Guatney.
Here is a Find-A-Grave "memorial" for Guatney, with few details.
This guy hopped trains and traveled throughout the Midwest. He'd occasionally rape and murder young boys along the way.
WILLIAM J "FREIGHT TRAIN" GUATNEY
William J. GUATNEY (Murderpedia)
Homicide investigators viewed the charges merely as a starting point, suggesting Guatney might have murdered fifteen children in the past five years alone. Nebraska charged him in the deaths of 13-year-old Jon Simpson and 12-year-old Jacob Surber, abducted from the state fair at Lincoln, in 1975.
Both were discovered days later, and Guatney was arraigned on August 22, 1979, refusing to enter a plea. The Kansas charge involved Jack Hanrahan, a 12-year-old who disappeared from his Topeka neighborhood on May 20, 1979.
Slayer Of Innocence (Jim Conover, 2003)
A book about Guatney.
The book details in first person narrative the true events of a lengthy investigation and nine day, twenty-four hour surveillance of a suspected pedophile serial killer at the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois. Over a period of seven years, from 1972 until 1979, sixteen (16) young boys who's ages ranged from seven to fourteen, disappeared.
Fourteen were found murdered in much the same manner and type of locations. Two of the victims have never been found. In almost all the cases, a railroad track or switchyard was nearby and in many cases a county or state fair was in progress.
Here is a Find-A-Grave "memorial" for Guatney, with few details.