The Villisca Axe Murders occurred in June 1912 in the southwestern Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 town of Villisca

Villisca, Iowa

Villisca is a city in Montgomery County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,344 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Villisca is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land....

, when an unknown attacker entered the Moore residence, murdered the eight occupants of the house, including six children, with an axe

Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...

 and then disappeared.

Details

On June 9 of 1912, the Stillinger sisters, Ina (8) and Lena (12), were invited to spend the night at the Moore house. When the day was ending, the visiting girls and the Moore family went off to a church, and came back to the Moore house at 9:00. They were likely not aware that there was an intruder or intruders who are thought to have been inside the attic or cellar, waiting for them to fall asleep, so they could attack. Once they were asleep, the intruder took the family axe and went up to the master bedroom, where Mr. Josiah Moore(43) and Mrs. Sara Moore(39) were asleep, and bludgeoned them in the heads. The murderer went into the children's room and bludgeoned Herman Moore (11), Mary Katherine Moore (10), Boyd Moore (7), and Paul Moore (5) in the head like their parents. The killer possibly returned to the master bedroom to add more blows to the parents. Afterward, the murderer went downstairs to the guest room where Ina and Lena were sleeping, and hacked them in the heads. Lena may have been killed trying to get away and keep from being killed in a sexually traumatic way. Her undergarments were on the floor, her nightgown was rolled up, and there were wounds on her arms. But, there was no way to see if she was sexually traumatized or not. In the morning, their neighbor was suspicious when she noticed that the Moore family did not come out to do their morning chores. Before going to check their house, she fed her chickens and went to knock on their door. The neighbor then called Mr. Moore's brother, Ross, to see what was going on. Ross got in and returned, having left her on the porch, saying to call the sheriff, because he saw that the guests and the family inside were murdered. After the years of trying to solve the case, the police and investigators gave up in 1917. The case remains unsolved, and the house is now a tourist attraction.

Suspects

Over time, many possible suspects emerged, including Reverend George Kelly, Frank F. Jones, William Mansfield, and Henry Lee Moore; however, as the investigation progressed, these suspects were exonerated.

Reverend George Kelly

Rev. Kelly was said to be unbalanced and perhaps a pedophile. He was a traveling minister who happened to be teaching at the Children's Day services on June 9, at the same Presbyterian church the Moore family was attending. He and his wife left the town early on June 10, the day the bodies were discovered. Despite this, he was acquitted after two separate trials.

Frank F. Jones

Frank Jones was a Villisca resident and Iowa State Senator. Jones worked at Josiah Moore's company J.B. Moore. He worked there for many years before leaving to open his own store. It is said that Moore took away business from Jones, including a very successful John Deere dealership. It is also rumored that Moore had an affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, though there is no hard evidence to support this.

William Mansfield

The most promising evidence goes to the theory that Senator Frank F. Jones hired William “Blackie” Mansfield to murder the Moore family. It is believed that Mansfield was a serial killer because he murdered his wife, infant child, father- and mother-in-law (two years after the Villisca crimes); committed the axe murders in Paola, Kansas, four days before the Villisca crimes; and committed the double homicide of Jennie Peterson and Jennie Miller in Colorado. The locations of these crimes were all accessible by train, which is a major link. Another important link is that all murders were carried out in exactly the same manner.

However, Mansfield was released after a special Grand Jury of Montgomery County refused to indict him on grounds that his alibi checked out.

Henry Lee Moore

The evidence may have added up against Mansfield, but there was another man who was thought to be the axe murderer: Henry Lee Moore (ex husband of John's sister). It came up in the inquest that Henry Moore often threatened to kill Josiah Moore. Josiah had told his employer of the threats and Henry's son had confirmed it to be true. His son, Lee, also reported that his family knew nothing of the whereabouts of his father. Henry Moore was convicted of the murder of his mother and grandmother several months after the murders in Villisca; his weapon of choice being an axe. Nine months before the murders at Villisca, another similar case occurred in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Two other cases followed in Ellsworth, Kansas and Paola, Kansas. All cases were similar enough that the possibility that all were committed by the same person was impossible to dismiss.

Random Stranger/Traveling Serial Killer

There is a possibility the murders were committed by a random person, most likely someone passing through town on a train.

Renovation

The house in which the murders took place was originally built in 1868 on lot 310, and the Moore family purchased it in 1903. After the murders, the house went through the possession of eight people, the most recent acquisition occurring in 1994 by Mr. Darwin Linn, who, along with his wife, successfully restored the house to its original condition at the time of the murders. In 1998, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 and was also given the Preservation at its Best award by the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance

Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance

Preservation Iowa, formerly called the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance , was founded in 1989 by members of the public concerned about the destruction of significant historic sites and buildings in the state of Iowa....

 in 1997.

Tours

The house is open to overnight sleepovers and tours, available for groups of up to six people, for a fee.

Alleged haunting

Prior to the renovation in 1994, at least three recorded paranormal happenings were claimed to have taken place in the house. Former tenants said that they had seen the figure of a shadowy man with an axe standing at the foot of their bed. Shoes filled with blood were found, and have since been reported to move into the middle of the room or fall over onto their side. As one report goes, a closet door opened and closed one evening, and, later that night, the tenants were seen and heard by neighbors around 3 a.m. running out of the house, screaming. In addition, there are reports that other tenants’ children woke up at night to the sound of children crying. Those tenants often returned home to find their clothing taken from their dresser and closet and strewn about the room. The father of the children was said to have been sharpening a knife in the kitchen when it suddenly turned around and forcefully stabbed him in the thumb. He later explained it felt as if someone had a grip on his wrist. The family departed the house that day and did not return.

The house was investigated by the Ghost Adventures

Ghost Adventures

Ghost Adventures is a weekly American paranormal television series that premiered on October 17, 2008 on the Travel Channel. Currently produced by MY-Tupelo Entertainment , the program follows and stars ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin, as they investigate locations that are...

 Crew (GAC). During the episode, EVP's were carried out. One EVP is believed to have picked up the voice of a man saying, "I killed six kids". The voice was described as if someone were swinging an axe as they said, "six kids". Another EVP revealed the names of Lena and Paul, two of the murdered kids. When asked who murdered the eight people, an EVP revealed the name, "Andy", who was one of the possible suspects. Reports show that Andy was found acting strangely, and even saying, "I'll cut their damn heads off", and making swinging motions with his arms, as if he were swinging an axe.

Multiple paranormal investigations were conducted at the house, resulting in many electronic voice phenomena

Electronic voice phenomenon

Electronic voice phenomena are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings. Common sources of EVP include static, stray radio transmissions, and background noise...

(EVPs), videos, and photographs that the creators of Ghost Adventures claim suggest that the house is haunted.