The killer had been waiting for the man to arrive.

Abraham was a German immigrant in his mid-50s, who tended to sleep wherever he found work.

He was also a trained blacksmith and had been helping out in the shop owned by Peter

Leas Jr. in the small town of Hyde Park, just north of Reading, Pennsylvania.

On the 9th of June 8th of 1916, Abraham thick returned home around 9pm after seeing

some friends and walked through the shadows outside the blacksmith's shop on his way

to the barn where he slept, and that's when a figure stepped out of the darkness and

brought the handle of an axe down hard upon his head.

Abraham instantly collapsed.

With his victim on the ground, the killer then turned his axe around and proceeded to bring

the sharp blade down upon Abraham's neck.

Over and over, the axe cut into his flesh and bone until the only thing keeping the head

attached were a few strands of skin.

At the killer then buried the body, he might have gotten away with it too.

But he didn't.

So when the woman who lived across the street woke up the following morning and looked

out the window, Abraham's fixed body was easy to spot.

The police were called, and moments after arriving to investigate they found the killer,

sitting calmly inside the blacksmith's shop and mumbling to himself about what he had done.

It was the shop owner himself, Peter Leas.

But the most terrifying aspect of his story isn't what he did or how he did it.

It's why.

...