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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.
A number of gruesome unsolved murders have turned this simple home into a morbid tourist trap.
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His hitman’s name was Blackie Mansfield, whose relatives were also conveniently axed to death. In the boom that followed the railroad opening, the house at 508 E. 2nd Street was built in 1868 on lot 310 for local resident George Loomis. The home would have echoed most others in the area in size and features, at about 600 square feet, with two bedrooms, a parlor, a downstairs sewing room and a kitchen and an outhouse. Since this is a living museum, guests are asked not to sleep on the beds; sleeping bags will be provided.
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Life Without Light: Creatures in the Dark With Sarah McAnulty
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.
Crime Stoppers
"He sent a bloody shirt to a laundry the week after the murder. It's a viable possibility that he was the killer. It can't be proven today, at least to my satisfaction." According to the Villisca Ax Murder House's website, it is believed that an unknown person entered the Moore's home sometime after midnight on June 10 and murdered all eight occupants. The murderer came upon the axe in the Moore backyard and brought it with him into the house. Although it now resides at the Villisca Historical Society, for years it was passed from one person to another and was once even traded for a box of chocolate-covered cherries. After grand jury hearings, confessions, trials, and acquittals, there were no answers.
☛ Grisly, Mysterious Crime Scene ☚
Researchers today believe a serial killer traveling by train is a plausible explanation for not only the murders in Villisca, but other seemingly random ax murders ranging from 1910 to 1919. They point to the pattern of crimes McClaughry identified in 1913. As early as May 1913, investigators speculated the Moore family’s murder might be part of a string perpetrated by a serial killer.
“Slay Utterly”: Villisca Axe Murders 1912
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.
He remembered sitting on the porch of his boyhood home after Sunday dinner in Leon, listening to older family members discuss the unsolved crime. His lifelong determination to find every detail in the unsolved case is nearly as puzzling a mystery as who slaughtered the eight people in their sleep. Find information on tours, including overnight stays, at villiscaiowa.com. Curious to learn all the details of the Villisca Axe Murder House and why it's one of the most haunted places in the world? Listen to this week's episode of our haunted house podcast series, Dark House, for exclusive ghost stories and insights into the notorious home's haunted reputation.
Suspects
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.
Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver
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.
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.
In Josiah and Sarah’s bedroom, the ceiling showed gashes from the axe’s upswing. While Villisca still possesses the same small-town charm and appeal it did over a hundred years ago, its legacy is forever tainted by the events of June 1912. To this day, the Villisca Axe Murders continue to haunt the small town. Its effects are sewn into the fabric of its history and never seem to fade even with the passage of time. Dyer testified that later when the crew hit Fontenelle, Iowa, Sawyer purchased a newspaper which he went off by himself to read.
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.
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