Crime writer Colin Wilson speculates the Axeman could have been Joseph Momfre, a man shot to death in Los Angeles in December 1920 by the widow of Mike Pepitone, the Axeman's last known victim.
According to scholar Richard Warner,[REF] the chief suspect in the crimes was Frank "Doc" Mumphrey (1875-1921), who used the alias Leon Joseph Monfre/Manfre.