Table Of Content
"Just tons of crime scene, all destroyed by half the town wandering around looking at it." The crime scene was a macabre tableau of brutality, with shattered skulls, pools of blood and peculiar details. Despite a nationwide manhunt, multiple suspects and two trials, the murder remains unsolved. A number of books and documentaries have chronicled the murders and subsequent paranormal investigations of the Moore house. They cite various individuals who claim to have seen a man with an axe roaming the hallways, or heard the desperate cries of children in their bedrooms, or become trapped inside the bedroom closet where Lena Stillinger is thought to have hid from her attacker.
Crime Stoppers
Local officials quickly lost control of the crime scene, where an estimated 100 people arrived to gawk at the mutilated bodies. Fingerprinting had yet to become a widely established tool of criminal investigation in the US, and the massive disturbance to the house from onlookers prevented detectives from collecting sufficient evidence for a conclusive investigation. The killer or killers used the blade of the axe on Sarah, while using the blunt end on the rest of the victims. Herman, Mary Katherine, Arthur, and Paul were next bludgeoned in the head in the same manner as their parents. Afterwards, the murderer returned to the master bedroom to inflict more blows on the elder Moores, knocking over a shoe that had filled with blood, before moving downstairs to the guest bedroom and killing Ina and Lena.
William Mansfield
Those experiences cost guests $428 a night—apparently, people will pay good money to sleep in the presence of potentially malevolent spirits. In 1912, the quiet town of Villisca, Iowa was home to one of the most gruesome murders in American history. When a relative and a neighbor unlocked the door of the Moore house on the morning of June 10, they found eight corpses all bludgeoned to death with an axe.
History
Josiah Moore had worked for Frank Jones at his implement store for many years before leaving to open his own store. Moore reportedly took business away from Jones, including a very successful John Deere dealership. Moore was rumored to have had a sexual affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, though no evidence supports this. Linn and Sampson say that Laursen has recovered from his injuries, but will not comment any further out of respect for the family. The town has drawn a lot of attention since the Laursen episode, however, and both Sampson and Linn, the caretaker, say they have been inundated with media inquiries, which they hope will end soon. The Villisca Ax Murder House has even been featured on the popular web series, Buzzfeed Unsolved.
TV series will revisit Villisca ax murders - Des Moines Register
TV series will revisit Villisca ax murders.
Posted: Sat, 05 May 2018 01:22:05 GMT [source]
What to know on the anniversary of the 1912 Villisca ax murders
YouTuber Bailey Sarian featured the murders on an episode of her weekly series, Murder, Mystery & Makeup. The murders were described in Episode 271 (October 17, 2021) on the podcast Morbid. The Travel Channel's television show Destination Fear filmed at the location for the eighth episode of their third season. The murders were described live in Episode 168 of the podcast My Favorite Murder, by Karen Kilgariff. The murders were also described in Episode 16 of the podcast Lore, by Aaron Mahnke.
While we know the names of the victims of the Villisca axe murders, the identity of their killer remains a mystery. In spite of a bevy of clues and a host of possible suspects no convictions were ever obtained. Kelly had arrived in Villisca for the first time the Sunday morning of the murders and attended a Sunday school performance by the Stillinger girls before departing early Monday. He returned two weeks later, and, posing as a detective, joined a tour of the murder house with a group of investigators. Ignoring the sleeping girls downstairs, the stranger made his way up the stairs, guided by the lamp, and a seemingly unerring knowledge of the home’s layout. He crept past the room with the children, and into Mr. and Mrs. Moore’s bedroom.
A number of gruesome unsolved murders have turned this simple home into a morbid tourist trap.
There was also a rumor that Joe was having an affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, though the reports were unfounded. The townspeople insist, however, that the Moores and the Joneses harbored a deep hatred for each other, though no one admits it was bad enough to spark murder. The first was Frank Jones, a local businessman who had been in competition with Joe Moore. Moore had worked for Jones for seven years in the farm equipment sales business before leaving and starting his own rival business.
The Jameses identify common features to these crimes, many of which are also found at the Villisca scene. Find information on tours, including overnight stays, at villiscaiowa.com. One person tried in vain to open the doors and windows of the home before calling the town marshal, who broke down the door when he arrived. The slain family members were found in different bedrooms throughout the house.
This aroused suspicion and a private investigator wrote back to Reverend Kelly, asking for details that the minister might know about the murders. Kelly replied with great detail, claiming to have heard sounds and possibly witnessed the murders. His known mental illness made authorities question whether he knew the details because of having committed the murders or was imagining his account. "There is a whole body of folklore surrounding the Moore murders," Rundle, the documentarian, says.
KCRG-TV9’s piece featured an additional video with a tour inside the notorious home. The documentary, now available on DVD, features Dr. Edgar Epperly, the historian considered the foremost authority on the Villisca murders. Authorities first became interested in Rev. Kelly a few weeks after the murders after being alerted by recipients of his rambling letters. Sarah Moore was a co-director and her children performed their little speeches and recitations along with the other Sunday school members.
What makes the Villisca Ax Murder House so spooky? - Des Moines Register
What makes the Villisca Ax Murder House so spooky?.
Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Like Peckham, Moore received no response when he knocked on the door and shouted. While Peckham stood on the porch, Ross went into the parlor and opened the guest bedroom door, where he found Ina and Lena Stillinger's bodies on the bed. Moore immediately told Peckham to call Henry "Hank" Horton, Villisca's primary peace officer, who arrived shortly thereafter. Horton's search of the house revealed that the entire Moore family and the two Stillinger girls had been bludgeoned to death. The murder weapon, an axe belonging to Josiah, was found in the guest room where the Stillinger sisters were found.
Lora Castleman with Local 5's sister station in Arkansas learned more about the century-old mystery surrounding what happened on June 10, 1912. The Moore-Stillinger funeral services were held in Villisca’s town square on June 12, 1912, with thousands in attendance. National Guardsmen blocked the street as a hearse moved toward the firehouse, where the eight victims lay. Their caskets, not on display during the funeral, were later carried on several wagons to the Villisca Cemetery for burial.
He also had a history with the Moore family, as many had seen him watching them while at church and out and about in town. A dry cleaner in a nearby town had received bloody clothing from Kelly a few days after the murders. He reportedly also asked police for access to the home after the crime while posing as a Scotland Yard officer. The house change hands a few times over the past 100 years, and the reported ghost encounters just keep accumulating. So while what happened there in 1912 makes it a terrifying place to be on its own, ghosts or no ghosts, it definitely continues to earn its title as one of America's most haunted houses. Nine months before the murders at Villisca, a similar case of axe murder occurred in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Seemingly afterwards, a 4lb slab of bacon was taken out of the icebox and laid next to the axe. Investigators also found untouched food and bloody water during the search. After the search, people were let in to see if they could have committed the crime, completely contaminating the weapon. The next day, June 10, Mary Peckham, the Moores' neighbor, became concerned after she noticed that the family had not come out to do their morning chores. When nobody answered, she tried to open the door and discovered that it was locked. Peckham let the Moores' chickens out and called Ross Moore, Josiah's brother.
Detective Wilkerson wasn’t the only one who believed that the Villisca murders had been the work of a serial killer. In May 1913, a federal investigator declared that not only had he solved the Villisca murders, but also 22 other axe murders across the country. He laid the blame at the feet of Henry Lee Moore—no relation to Josiah Moore and his family—who had already been convicted of the murder of his mother and grandmother just a few months after the Villisca killings. Henry Lee Moore served out 36 years of a life sentence and was paroled in 1949. In spite of the claims of the federal investigator, Henry Moore was never charged with the Villisca killings or any of the other murders of which he was suspected. "The ax was left downstairs, raw bacon laying on the floor, mirrors covered with sheets, food on the table, cigarette butts in the attic, bloody water," Houser said.
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