The horrific unsolved mass murders of America.
The case took place in Villisca, Iowa during the 1900's. It was a small midwestern town with a population of 2500. But the town was thriving. In 1912 they built a publicly funded armory for storing military equipment, which was the only one in the state of Iowa.
The town was slowly growing and evolving until it wasn't. Everything changed on the 10th June of 1912.
Josiah Moore, a reputed businessman, along with his wife Sarah and their 4 children( Herman, Katherine, Boyd and Paul) bought a house in Villisca in 1903. They were a happy Christian family.
The Moore family were close with their neighbors. So on 9th June, 1912 the neighborhood kids Lena and Ina Stillinger asked their parents if they could tag along with Moore's to the children's day service at the church and then later stay the night over. The parents agreed and they all went to the church together. After the service had ended, Around 9:30 they went back to their house and went to bed.
The next morning around 7:30, a neighbor decided to check on them. She found it odd how quiet the house was because normally it's very noisy during the morning. She knocked on the door but no one answered. So she started getting more and more concerned.
At one point she called Josiah's brother and he agreed that in fact it was unlikely of them to be so quiet. Then Josiah's brother Ross decided to go to their house. He drove there and with the neighbor lady he tried to find the spare key. Once they had found the key, Ross went inside the house. At first it seemed normal but then he checked the first floor bedroom, where he found 2 figures covered in sheets and then he spotted blood on the bed frame. He ran outside and told the neighbor about it.
They called the Sheriff and Ross also called a man by the name of Ed, who was an employee of the Moore family. When Ed arrived Ross asked Ed to check the house because it was too hard for him. Ed went inside the house and noticed that there were bodies in every bedroom. Also he may or may not have found the murder weapon which was an ax. But it was very clean and it was leaning against a wall of the downstairs bedroom.
According to Dr. J Clark Cooper, the first floor bedroom was very brutal. They found blood and pieces of brain scattered around the place. When Cooper lifted the cover he was unable to recognize who he was looking at because of how brutally the face was beaten and that was the same for all the victims.
Dr. Cooper noticed some very interesting things at the crime scene. Such as;
- They found a 4 pound piece of slab bacon which was found wrapped in a cloth, near the ax.
- On the kitchen table there was a plate of uneaten food and a bowl of bloody water.
- All the mirrors of the house were covered in cloths which were taken from the victims' closets.
- There were also kerosene lamps left at the foot of the couple's bed and also the Stillinger sisters bed.
- One of Sarah's shoes was found lying on the side of Josiah's side of the bed and it was covered in blood.
The police also found that all the doors were locked from the inside but none of the windows were broken. So the killer must have had a spare key. Some others also believed that the killer was inside the house already because the police found several bags of cotton batting on the floors and inside the closet of the room where the Stillinger sisters stayed. And it appeared as if someone was sitting inside the closet waiting for the right moment.
The police started investigating and they had few suspects. There was a man by the name Reverend Lyn Kelly who attended the Sunday school on 9th June and left Villisca around 5 in the morning of June 10th. He told the travelers of the train that there were 8 dead souls in Villisca. But no one knew about the murders at the time.
2 weeks later he returned to Villisca as a detective and joined the group of investigators who were investigating the case. He started working with them but after a few weeks he caught the authorities attention because people were coming forward about him. They said that he had a very questionable past. He'd been assigned as a visiting minister in several small communities where he got a bad reputation. He was known as the person with "odd behavior". He was also known as a peeping tom. He also had several mental breakdowns and had been to a psych ward.
Later a grand jury indicted Kelly for the murder of only Lena Stillinger. He was interrogated throughout the summer of 1917. Then surprisingly enough, he signed a confession on August 31st where he confessed to all the murders. He stated that God had whispered to him, "suffer to the children to come unto me". But during his trial he recanted his confession. In the trial the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 for an acquittal. A second jury was brought in and again acquitted Kelly in November because of lack of evidence.
There were also other suspects for the murders too. It was suspected that Frank Jones, a fellow business rival of Josiah, was the original killer. Although He was never arrested, but some believed that he perhaps hired William Mansfield, a serial killer who was heavily addicted to cocaine. Detectives believed that it was done by him, because the other murders he committed were very similar to the Villisca house murders. He was arrested but later released from the charges.
While another detective believed that another serial killer, Henry Moore was the one behind the murders. Because a few months after the murders he was convicted for killing his mother and grandmother with an ax. And the murders were very similar to the Villisca murders but still he was never charged for the Villisca murders.
Some others also believed that the killer was inside the house already because the police found several bags of cotton batting on the floors and inside the closet of the room where the Stillinger sisters stayed. And it appeared as if someone was sitting inside the closet waiting for the right moment.
Regardless, the case was never solved. Now, the Villisca Axe Murder House has been placed on the national registry of historic buildings and is open for tour. Many believe it to be haunted by the 8 souls who lost their lives on 10th June, 1912.
