James C. Dunham, was a multiple murderer who, on the night of May 26, 1896, killed his wife, her family, and two of that family's servants in

Campbell, California Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was in ...

. Using an axe and two

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

s, Dunham murdered: * Hattie Wells Dunham (his wife) * James Wells (her brother) * Ada Wells McGlincy (her mother) * Colonel Richard Parran McGlincy (her stepfather) * Two household servants Minnie Schlesser and Robert Briscoe Dunham's motives are unknown. The sole survivors were Dunham's and Hattie's 3-week-old son and a farmhand, George Schaible, who had hidden in the barn during the massacre. Although investigators conducted an extensive manhunt throughout

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

, Dunham was never found and the case remains officially open. The manhunt had also found pieces of Dunham's clothing as well as recent campfires. It was believed that he escaped via bicycle rather than horse with the latter being much more common during that time period; a plausible reason for this was that Dunham was a long distance cyclist. Rumors persisted of his having escaped to Cuba.

References

External links

Full article on Court TV's ''The Crime Library''May 28, 1896 San Francisco Call newspaper coverage of the crime
American mass murderers Familicides People from Campbell, California Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Year of death unknown 1890s missing person cases 1896 in California {{US-crime-bio-stub