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Jennifer Kirkland/FlickrOne of the children’s bedrooms inside the Villisca Axe Murders house. The event would come to be known as the Villisca Axe Murders and it would baffle law enforcement for over a century. The murders were described in the episode Who Committed the 1912 Villisca Ax Murders? On the August 3, 2017 episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast. The murders and purported paranormal activity was described in Episode 21 of the podcast And That's Why We Drink.
Queensland Police Museum
My last question to the guide was if she’d ever personally experienced anything weird now that she works here. Frank Jones, a Villisca businessman with political sway throughout the town, was another suspect. Several years before the murders, Josiah Moore had been an employee of Jones, but Moore left to start up his own business. While the Villisca perpetrator had draped cloth over the mirrors and reflective door panels, the murderer in the Illinois case used sheets to conceal the windows so no one could see in. It later came to light that Mansfield had been in Illinois around the time of the Villisca killings. Indeed, an eyewitness later claimed that he saw Mansfield boarding a train in Clarinda, Iowa, only twenty minutes outside of Villisca.
What was that? My night in the Villisca Ax Murder House - Shaw Local News Network
What was that? My night in the Villisca Ax Murder House.
Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
William Mansfield
The murders spawned nearly ten years of investigations, repeated grand jury hearings, a spectacular slander suit and murder trial, and numerous minor litigations and trials. Soon, reports of similar enough crimes happening throughout the country began to pop up. Though the crimes were not quite as gruesome, there were two common threads – the use of an axe as the murder weapon, and the presence of an oil lamp, set to burn extremely low, at the scene. I didn’t come here looking for proof of the paranormal, just a good ghost story, but I was still curious.
Villisca Ax Murder house
In the 1990s, the home was painstakingly restored by historians Martha and Gavin Linn into a sort of living museum, recreating the home as it was on the night of the crime, right down to the lack of electricity and plumbing. He followed the lost trail of Kelly, overjoyed that he located a job application that traced him through 1920, and the trail of a piece of Joe Moore’s skull, plucked from the house and passed among residents. What Epperly came to realize is that he wasn’t interested in the sensational manner of the gruesome crime, but in its aftermath. He had left Villisca behind but never forgot it after he earned his degree from the University of Northern Iowa and started to teach social studies in Pella. People switched churches or didn’t allow kids to play with kids of families who believed in one or the other’s innocence. The Villisca Ax Murder House on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Second Street in Villisca will be open for tours from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Accusations regarding the culprit spread quickly throughout the small town of Villisca, Iowa, sparking suspicious glances among neighbors that would lead to friendships torn asunder. Unfortunately the crime-solving technology of 1912 was not sophisticated enough to identify the murderer, and the case has gone unsolved to this day. Amateur detectives ranging from historians to psychics have tried their hand at solving the case, but a verdict has never been reached. Kelly was left-handed, which police determined from blood spatters that the killer must be.
Groups can book the house for $500 for up to five people, and $100 for each additional person. Kelly — the son and grandson of English ministers — had suffered a mental breakdown as an adolescent. Since immigrating to America with his wife in 1904, Kelly had preached at Methodist churches across North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Iowa. He’d been assigned as a visiting minister to several small communities north of Villisca, where he developed a reputation for odd behavior.
Moore was in love with a 16-year-old girl named Queenie Nichols who rejected his marriage proposal because he didn’t have a home of his own. He assured her that he’d be soon the sole inhabitant of his mom’s house, where he lived on and off. On the night of Dec. 17, 1917, he checked into a hotel in Columbia using an alias.
Villisca Ax Murder House is 'one of nation's most haunted places' - WCVB Boston
Villisca Ax Murder House is 'one of nation's most haunted places'.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
YouTubers Sam and Colby published a paranormal investigation video of the 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.
In the 1990s, the home was painstakingly restored by historians Martha and Gavin Linn at greatexpense and effort to appears exactly like the night of the crime, right down to the lack ofelectricity or running water. Due to their dedication, the Josiah B. Moore House is now on theNational Registry of Historic Places. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. While many have tried to solve the case, the Villisca murders remains a mystery and most likely will forever. It wasn’t until 1917 that a Grand Jury indicted Kelly for the murder of Lena Stillinger. In August of that year, Kelly confessed to the murder, saying that God had whispered “suffer the children to come unto me” in his ear.
Two axe murder cases followed in Ellsworth, Kansas, and Paola, Kansas. The cases were similar enough to raise the possibility of having been committed by the same person. The killer or killers used the blade of the axe on Sarah, while using the blunt end on the rest of the victims.
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. The Villisca Ax Murders of June 1912 remain an enduring and unsettling enigma in Americancriminalhistory. Following Darwin’s unfortunate passing in 2011, his wife Martha took over operation of the house for the next twelve years, actively involved in operating the house with longtime manager Johnny Houser. Its sister company, Junket, provides food tours, brewery tours, special events, historic tours, and specialty experiences across the country.
His motive, he said, was to obtain the deed to their Missouri family home. Police discovered a plate of food and a bowl of bloody water on the kitchen table, which the killer might have used to wash his hands. He also searched through the drawers and found garments to cover various surfaces in the house, including mirrors and glass panels in the doors. However, most strangely of all was that the killer left a four-pound slab of bacon in the Stillinger girls’ room.
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. Seemingly afterwards, a 4lb slab of bacon was taken out of the icebox and laid next to the axe.
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. The Children’s Day service was an end-of-the-year Sunday school program. Sarah Moore was a co-director and her children performed their little speeches and recitations along with the other Sunday school members. Legislation was written in response to the murder, including the establishment of the current State Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s predecessor.
McClaughry, a federal officer assigned to the Villisca case, announced that he had found a suspect in those murders and four other crimes others committed throughout the Midwest around the same time. In 1917, Kelly was arrested and charged with the murder of one of the victims of the Villisca Ax Murders. Kelly was about to enter Presbyterian seminary and was doing some work for the Presbyterian Church in Villisca. His presence in Villisca on the night of the murders and his subsequent departure in the early morning hours of June 10th made him a prime suspect in the case.
Kelly died in 1959 at age 80 in Islip Hospital in upstate New York, one of the country’s largest and most notorious psychiatric hospitals at the time. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Brave souls can tour the Villisca Ax Murder House and even stay overnight, if they dare.
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