The Night Marauder: East Tennessee’s Serial Killer, 1919-1926

The Night Marauder is the true crime account of a serial killer who preyed on women in and around Knoxville, TN, between 1919 and 1926.  Learn more about the case from Dr. Locklin-Sofer who has been researching, with the help of her Maryville College students, the case which was never solved though several men were tried as suspects. The marauder tended to choose the small and vulnerable homes of the working class, most of whom did not yet have electric lights. The darkness and simple layout of the two-three room houses made his escape easier. One suspect in particular was tried three times in Maryville, in sensational cases that attracted attention from newspapers across the nation. When that suspect was finally acquitted and he moved away from Tennessee, life returned to normal, and the public seemed to forget that the whole ordeal had ever happened.

About the presenter

Dr. Locklin-Sofer has been teaching history at Maryville College since 2000. Her usual scholarship concerns eighteenth-century Europe, especially France before the revolution, but the pandemic lockdown and an interest in the history of murder turned her attention to this new, local history project.

The program is presented by the East Tennessee Historical Society and is and free and open to the public. The lecture will begin at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville. Guests are invited to bring a “Brown Bag” lunch.