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Insane Naked Axe-Wielding Man Slaughters Family in Their Home

Andrew Martin
3 min readMar 6, 2025

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Mental illness is a terrible affliction that can alter the life of the sufferer unless properly addressed and treated. Unfortunately, there are often situations where innocent people can be affected by their actions before an intervention can occur. One of the worst came in 1880 when a family in a sleepy Illinois town was slaughtered by a naked insane man carrying an axe, who broke into their home.

Although Louis Tochstein was raised a staunch Catholic, as he grew older he dabbled with other religions, visiting different services and learning more about different faiths. His interest became a fervor, serving as a catalyst for him to start descending into madness. He enjoyed imploring people to fall to their knees with him and pray. However, things came to a head on December 4, 1880 when he forced his two sisters to partake in his favorite activity, as he shouted about the end of the world, which he believed was only days away.

The young man had never been violent, but the episode with his sisters was so alarming that his family decided that things were no longer safe. Believing that he would be better off in…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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