Explore the real-world places that appear in Murderland: A Thousand Miles of Killing on the Highway by Caroline Fraser. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Salina, Kansas — Carl Stothers Murder, Denver, Colorado — Murder Circuit Junction, U.S. Route 66 — The Mother Road Murders, Kansas City, Missouri — Transportation Hub & Crime Nexus, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — Central Plains Murders and 9 more.
Salina, Kansas — First documented murder in the killing spree
Carl Stothers, a traveling salesman, was murdered in or near Salina in 1911. This killing marked the beginning of Henry Moore's documented murder spree across the Great Plains. Stothers was robbed and killed while traveling the highways that would become Moore's hunting ground. Fraser uses this murder to establish the pattern of violence against vulnerable, isolated travelers that would define Moore's killing career.
Salina was a major railroad and cattle town in central Kansas, established in 1858. By 1911, it was a thriving commercial hub on the transcontinental routes that connected the coasts, making it a natural convergence point for traveling salesmen and vagrants.
Salina remains a prosperous city of about 47,000 people in Saline County. The downtown area has been revitalized, though little remains of the roadside establishments where crimes like Stothers' murder likely occurred. Modern I-70 follows much of the original highway routes Moore traveled.
Downtown Denver — Hub of early 20th-century crime networks
Denver served as a major center for Henry Moore's operations and those of other serial killers documented in Fraser's investigation. The city's booming population and transient communities provided cover for predators. Moore and his associates moved through Denver repeatedly, using it as a base for forays onto the surrounding highways and mountain passes where bodies were discovered.
Denver experienced explosive growth during the Colorado Gold Rush and silver boom of the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, it was a major metropolis with a large transient population of miners, laborers, and drifters—ideal cover for criminals operating across multiple states.
Denver is now Colorado's capital and largest city with over 700,000 residents. The downtown skyline features modern skyscrapers and revitalized neighborhoods. LoDo (Lower Downtown) preserves some historic buildings from the era Fraser covers, though the transient crime networks of Moore's time are long gone.
Visit: LoDo Historic District (historic site)
Oklahoma Panhandle to California — Primary killing corridor
Route 66, the legendary highway connecting Chicago to Los Angeles, served as Henry Moore's primary killing ground. Fraser traces multiple murders along this iconic road, showing how the anonymity of the highway enabled predators to move freely across state lines while targeting isolated travelers, hitchhikers, and drifters. The 'Mother Road' became a highway of death, where victims disappeared into the vast American landscape.
U.S. Route 66 was established in 1926 and became America's most famous highway during the Depression and post-war eras. It passed through eight states and symbolized freedom and opportunity, but also provided perfect cover for mobile criminals preying on vulnerable travelers.
Much of Route 66 has been replaced by Interstate 40, though sections remain and have become nostalgic tourist attractions. Historic motels, diners, and roadside attractions dot the remaining segments. The road's once-dangerous anonymity has been largely domesticated by modern surveillance and development.
Visit: Route 66 Historic Highway (landmark)
Missouri River crossing — Major junction point for Interstate Commerce
Kansas City served as a crucial junction point in Fraser's investigation of Moore and other serial killers operating across the plains. The city's role as a major railroad and highway hub made it a gathering point for itinerant workers, hobos, and victims. Multiple murders investigated by Fraser trace connections through Kansas City, where victims boarded trains or automobiles that became their death traps.
Kansas City is now a major Midwestern metropolis with over 500,000 residents. The historic River Market and Union Station have been restored. Modern infrastructure and surveillance have eliminated much of the anonymity that made it a dangerous hub for mobile predators in Moore's era.
Kansas City is now a major Midwestern metropolis with over 500,000 residents. The historic River Market and Union Station have been restored. Modern infrastructure and surveillance have eliminated much of the anonymity that made it a dangerous hub for mobile predators in Moore's era.
Visit: Union Station & River Market (historic site)
Oklahoma County — Crossroads of southern plains routes
Oklahoma City and the surrounding region witnessed multiple murders documented in Fraser's investigation. The city's position on major north-south and east-west routes made it a corridor for Moore's hunting. Victims traveling through Oklahoma on the highway system—many of them hobos, hitchhikers, and transient workers—disappeared along the desolate stretches connecting Oklahoma City to smaller towns and rural areas.
Oklahoma City boomed after the 1889 Land Rush and the discovery of oil nearby. By the early 1900s, it was a rough frontier town with a large population of migrant workers, railroad employees, and drifters moving between job sites. The surrounding countryside was largely undeveloped, providing isolated areas ideal for disposing of bodies.
Oklahoma City is now a major metropolitan area with over 650,000 residents. The downtown area has been dramatically revitalized, particularly following the 1995 bombing and subsequent reconstruction. The rural highways that once provided isolation for predators are now more developed and monitored.
Between Amarillo and Canadian — Remote rural killing grounds
The Texas Panhandle's desolate highways between small towns provided ideal hunting grounds for Henry Moore and contemporary killers. Fraser documents murders in this region where victims—many traveling between distant towns—vanished into the vast, sparsely populated landscape. The flat, barren terrain offered killers anonymity and escape routes across multiple state borders with minimal law enforcement presence.
The Texas Panhandle was ranching country, with vast open spaces, scattered homesteads, and few towns. By the early 1900s, highways began cutting through the region, but settlement remained sparse. The area was notorious for its isolation and lawlessness, attracting both fugitives and predators.
The Texas Panhandle remains largely rural and undeveloped. Modern highways pass through long stretches of grassland and ranch country that differ little from Moore's era. Population density remains low, though surveillance technology and cellular networks have reduced the isolation that once sheltered killers.
Creek County — Gateway between plains and south
Tulsa's oil boom created a transient population of workers, drifters, and vulnerable individuals. Fraser connects multiple murders in the Tulsa area to the larger pattern of highway killings. The city's rapid growth and its position as a major transportation hub made it a place where predators could move freely among the floating population of itinerant laborers and travelers seeking work during economic hardship.
Tulsa experienced rapid growth after oil was discovered nearby in 1901, becoming one of America's wealthiest cities by the 1920s. However, the boom also brought crime, vice, and a large population of transient workers. The city was a major railroad junction and gateway between north and south.
Tulsa is Oklahoma's second-largest city with over 400,000 residents. The downtown area, largely devastated during the early 20th century and again during economic downturns, has undergone recent revitalization. The oil industry remains important, though the transient crime networks of Moore's era have been replaced by modern law enforcement systems.
Ford County — From frontier town to highway murder site
Dodge City, once famous as a cattle-driving terminus and frontier outpost, became another point on Fraser's map of highway murders. The city's location on major routes heading west and its history of transient populations made it another node in the network of dangers facing travelers in the early 20th century. Moore and other killers used the highways radiating from Dodge City as hunting grounds.
Dodge City was established in 1872 as a buffalo-hunting outpost and became the terminus of the great cattle drives from Texas. By the 1880s, it was one of the Old West's most famous lawless towns. When cattle driving declined, the town remained a transportation hub on new railroads and emerging highway routes.
Dodge City remains a working cattle and agricultural hub with about 28,000 residents. Historic Front Street has been preserved as a tourist attraction recreating the Old West. Modern US-54 and US-56 follow routes where once only cattle trails and dusty roads existed, now heavily traveled but more controlled than in Moore's era.
Visit: Boot Hill Museum & Front Street (museum)
Throughout the Great Plains and Midwest — Vagrant assembly points
Fraser extensively documents the hobo camps and transient gathering points where vulnerable populations congregated during the Depression and earlier. These informal settlements—often located near railroad yards, grain elevators, and on the outskirts of towns—provided hunting grounds for predators. Many of Moore's victims likely came from or passed through these camps, making them part of the invisible underclass that didn't report missing persons or deaths.
Hobo camps and vagrant communities proliferated during economic hardship, particularly the 1890s Depression and the 1930s Great Depression. These unauthorized settlements housed migrant workers, unemployed men, and others unable to afford housing. They were located on the margins of towns near transportation infrastructure, surviving through informal economies and charity.
Modern homelessness persists but in different forms—shelters, encampments, and street populations in urban centers rather than rural hobo camps. The railroad yards that once hosted massive transient populations have been consolidated or abandoned. Contemporary surveillance and social services have made the truly invisible populations smaller and more visible to authorities.
Leavenworth County — Prison investigations and records
Fraser's investigation involves consulting prison records and interviewing inmates who may have known or encountered Henry Moore or other serial killers. The Kansas State Penitentiary served as a repository of criminal knowledge and historical records crucial to her research. Inmates' accounts and archival materials related to prisoners from Moore's era provided essential context for understanding the scope and nature of highway murders.
The Kansas State Penitentiary was established in 1868 and is one of America's oldest continuously operating prisons. Located in Lansing along the Kansas River, it housed some of the most notorious criminals in Midwestern history and served as a major repository of criminal records and investigations.
The Kansas State Penitentiary remains operational with over 2,000 inmates. It continues to maintain extensive historical records and has become a site of historical tourism and academic research into American crime and penology. The 1868 Gothic Revival building remains the central feature of the complex.
Visit: Kansas State Penitentiary (tour)
Spanning multiple states — Historic migration route exploited for murders
The historic Overland Trail and its modern equivalents (including US-30 and associated state routes) connected the East Coast to California and served as the setting for many murders Fraser investigates. These routes, originally used by settlers and migrants, became highways for early 20th-century travelers and transients. The long stretches between settlements provided killers with victims and isolation, a deadly combination that claimed dozens of lives across multiple states.
The Overland Trail was one of America's most important westward migration routes, especially during the California Gold Rush. Migrants, drifters, and traders traveled it for decades before railroads and then automobiles provided faster transportation. The route passed through vast empty territories with minimal law enforcement.
Modern Interstate 80 largely follows the Overland Trail corridor across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Historic markers commemorate the trail's importance. The landscape is now heavily traversed by commercial trucking and tourism, with numerous towns, service stations, and surveillance systems replacing the isolation that once characterized the route.
Visit: Overland Trail Historic Markers (landmark)
Missouri River crossing — Major eastern gateway to western killing grounds
St. Louis served as a crucial gateway in Fraser's investigation, the point where many victims may have boarded trains or automobiles heading west toward Moore's hunting grounds. The city's role as a major transportation hub and gateway to the American West made it a place where transient populations gathered before dispersing onto dangerous highways. Fraser traces connections of murdered travelers through St. Louis's railroad stations and roadside establishments.
St. Louis was the nation's second-largest city in the 19th century and served as the primary jumping-off point for westward migration and settlement. The city was a major railroad hub with numerous yards and stations. By the early 1900s, it had a notoriously large transient population and was a center of organized crime.
St. Louis is now a major Midwestern city of about 300,000 residents (over 2 million in the metro area). The iconic Gateway Arch, completed in 1965, dominates the riverfront. Modern transportation networks have replaced the railroad yards and river traffic that once made it a hub for itinerant workers, though Union Station remains a significant transportation center.
Visit: Gateway Arch & Union Station (monument)
Multiple locations — National crime database development
Fraser's investigation relies on FBI records and the agency's early attempts to track serial killers across state lines. The FBI's development of criminal identification systems and interstate crime databases in the early 20th century provides documentary evidence of murders and perpetrators that might otherwise have remained isolated local incidents. FBI case files and correspondence about highway murders form crucial evidence in Fraser's reconstruction of the killing spree.
The FBI was established in 1908 and gradually developed systems for tracking criminals across state jurisdictions. The agency pioneered fingerprint databases and criminal record centralization, though in Moore's era (early 1900s), interstate communication about serial murder was still primitive and inconsistent. The lack of coordinated national crime tracking allowed serial killers to operate across multiple states with minimal detection.
The FBI maintains extensive criminal databases and uses advanced forensic and digital technologies to track suspects across jurisdictions. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and similar systems now provide real-time information sharing among law enforcement agencies nationwide, making the kind of coordinated serial killing operations that occurred in Moore's era far more difficult to sustain.
1910s-1940s network expansion — Modernization enabling mobile predators
Fraser examines how the expansion and improvement of American roads and highways in the 1910s-1940s created unprecedented opportunities for mobile serial killers. As the automobile became commonplace and road networks expanded, predators could move freely across state lines targeting vulnerable hitchhikers and travelers. The anonymity of automobile travel and the long distances between towns created a deadly convergence of technology, geography, and human vulnerability that Henry Moore and others exploited.
The American road system developed rapidly in the early 20th century, transformed by the automobile and federal investment. The Federal Road Aid Act of 1916 began a systematic program of road improvement. By the 1920s-1930s, a substantial network of paved highways connected American cities, fundamentally changing patterns of travel and migration. However, law enforcement infrastructure did not develop at the same pace, leaving highways largely unmonitored.
The Interstate Highway System, established in 1956, further expanded and improved road networks. Modern highways are heavily trafficked, have multiple service stations and rest areas, and are monitored by state police and highway patrols. Surveillance cameras, cellular networks, and digital tracking have made highways far less anonymous than in Moore's era. Mobile predators still exist but face far greater obstacles.
More by Caroline Fraser: All Caroline Fraser books
Other nearby maps: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn locations map