Do you ever stop to wonder if there are serial killers walking among us? Does it frighten you to consider that you may have once brushed shoulders with one, or worse, even engaged in some casual conversation with a ruthless murderer?
A bizarre little news story plopped into my news feed just the other day and it just had to be shared. It concerns events surrounding a Virginia television reporter’s horrifying encounter with one man, Nate Eaton. Luckily the newscaster recently shared his chilling story and this is what he had to say:
“It was the fall of 2009. I was a television reporter in Virginia and was working on an undercover story about panhandling in Richmond. My photographer and I asked three people to act as panhandlers for an hour in different parts of the city. We watched with hidden cameras to see how much money they could bring in with the agreement that it would be donated to charity. We decided to interview real panhandlers but this was a challenge as most didn’t want to speak on camera.”
Yet with time, they managed to find someone who was happy to share their story:
“His name was Mike Adams and he proudly proclaimed that he had been hopping trains and traveling the country as a professional panhandler for 20 years. ‘What do you say when people tell you to get a real job?’ I asked him. ‘I got one. I’m a traveler,’ was his response. ‘Would you want to do anything else?’ I inquired. ‘F*** no,’ he replied.”
Adam revealed that he could make around $700 a week doing what he does. He also insisted we visit his ‘hobo camp’ near the train tracks. Thankfully, we never did.
A few months later, the reporter had published his story and moved on. That’s until one day when Nate came across an online feature that promised an exclusive jailhouse interview with someone known as ‘The Train Killer.’ He admits:
“I watched the piece and realized the self-proclaimed murderer looked and sounded very familiar. It was Mike Adams. The same Mike Adams who had spoken with me nearly seven years ago. He was behind bars in Virginia and bragged that he had murdered between 16 to 30 people.”
Speaking of the crimes he committed, Mike said he had been merely killing off the dregs of society:
“I’m proud of what I did. I’m a necessary part of life.”
Found guilty of killing a man in California and as suspect in murder cases in numerous other states, Nate began to wonder if this man was also responsible for the homicides in Idaho. Summing up the courage, the reporter decided to call the killer himself at his home in Henrico Country jail. Here’s the recorded audio clip below:
Contacting Mike’s attorney, Nate couldn’t find any more information regarding the Idaho murder cases linked to the killer. Ultimately, it seems as if people will never really know how many people Adams really murdered.
And as for Nate and his photographer, they’ll never really know what would have happened if they had followed the unassuming pan-handler back to his ‘hobo camp’ that one evening years before.
