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He spent days in state archives, cracking open old attorney generals’ files untouched for so long the rubber bands holding them together burst into dust. But with earning his doctorate and eventually becoming a Luther College professor in teacher education, and having a wife and child, the research went in fits and starts. Along came a charming southerner named James Wilkerson, a detective who convinces the surviving family members and eventually many in town that he has found one. Jones, who had a running business feud with Moore, and claimed that Joe was sleeping with the pretty and loose wife of the senator’s son, Albert.
A number of gruesome unsolved murders have turned this simple home into a morbid tourist trap.
After reading about the Villisca Axe Murders, read about another unsolved murder, the Hinterkaifeck murders. Then, check out the history of Lizzie Borden and her infamous string of murders. After murdering the Moores, the killer had apparently set up some kind of ritual. He had covered the Moore parent’s heads with sheets, and the Moore children’s faces with clothing. He then went through each room in the house, covering all of the mirrors and windows with cloths and towels. At some point, he took a two-pound piece of uncooked bacon from the fridge and placed it in the living room, along with a keychain.
What to know on the anniversary of the 1912 Villisca ax murders
He went to his mother’s home and beat her with a rusty coal ax while she sat in a chair putting ointment for her joints. He went upstairs and then beat to death his 82-year-old sleeping grandmother. While living in Missouri, he’d developed a habit of visiting various morgues in st. Louis to look at the dead bodies.
Villisca Ax Murder house
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. 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.
The centerpiece of the celebration was the display of the axe used to kill 8 people. The murders panicked the little town of Villisca, which was torn apart by worry and rumors. There has never been a more famous or infamous crime in the history of Iowa. Brutal, sadistic, methodical, and horrifying, the Villisca Axe Murders have fascinated the state for a century.
The newspaper carried a front-page account of the Villisca murders and according to Dyer, Sawyer “was much interested in it.” Dyers crew complained that Sawyer slept with his clothes on and was anxious to be by himself. They were also uneasy about the fact that Sawyer slept with his ax and often talked of the Villisca murders and whether or not a killer had been apprehended. Many researchers on the Villisca murders have done deep dives Kelly. While intelligent and articulate, he suffered from mental issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had a penchant for peeping in windows, and was known as a “fire bug,” and confessed to a series of arson crimes. Others adamantly insist that the crazed Reverend George Kelly was the culprit.
By the time the police, the coroner, a minister, and several doctors had thoroughly perused the crime scene, word of the vicious crime had spread, and the crowd outside the home had grown. Officials cautioned the townspeople against going inside, but as soon as the premises was clear at least 100 townspeople gave in to their gross fascinations and traipsed through the blood-spattered home. 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.
The axe that had been used to kill them had been swung so high above the murderer’s head that it gouged the ceiling above the bed. The faces of both parents, as well as the children, had been reduced to nothing but a bloody pulp. Wilkerson managed to convince a grand jury to open an investigation in 1916, and Mansfield was arrested and brought to Montgomery County from Kansas City.
Reverend George Kelly
He then left Villisca at 5 am the next morning on the train heading westbound out of the town. In 2017, in the book, The Man on the Train, journalist Bill James theorized the murders could have been the work of Paul Mueller, a German immigrant drifter and logger. James even tied Mueller to the infamous Hinterkaifeck ax murders in Germany, stating his belief Mueller returned to Germany after running into trouble with the law a few times in the U.S. They went to see if Miss Van Gilder could identify the man under arrest there as a man with whom she talked on the Saturday morning preceding the murders.
He kept a scrapbook of famous murder cases; one researcher said he may have started his collection as early as age eight. The other prime suspect in the Ax murders was Reverend George Kelly, a traveling preacher originally born in England. Kelly and his wife settled in Macedonia, Iowa, in 1912 after several years of preaching throughout the Midwest.
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But little evidence tied Henry to the Villisca killings, so it was dismissed. "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. "Just tons of crime scene, all destroyed by half the town wandering around looking at it." After the bodies were found, there was no protection of the crime scene and evidence.
In the third group are those who believe the Moore murders were the work of someone totally unrelated to the town of Villisca, a possible traveler, hobo, or serial killer. Other suspects, such as William Mansfield and Henry Moore, were also considered. However, due to the lack of evidence, most of what historians know today is based on legend. VILLISCA, Iowa — It's been 111 years since the tragic murders of eight people at a home in Villisca.
One day he called Don Brown, a college buddy who worked on the original college paper, and told him he saw a photograph of a person who had the ax. Brown approached the family and found out the man had died, and the widow just wanted to get rid of the still-bloodied ax. She wouldn’t take any money for it, so Brown gave her a box of chocolate-covered cherries for the ax. That’s how Epperly’s interest was revived — and how he later came to have the ax for 20 years before donating it to the state historical society. 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.
Josiah Moore worked for Frank Jones at the Jones store for several years until he opened his own implement company in 1908. According to Villisca residents, Jones was extremely upset that Moore had left his employ and managed to take the very lucrative John Deere franchise with him. Rumor was that Moore had an affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, Dona, which further fanned the flames. Detective Wilkerson of the Burns Detective Agency openly accused Frank Jones and his son Albert of hiring William “Blackie” Mansfield to kill Josiah Moore.
Police believed that the murderer had washed his hands in it before leaving. Everyone in the house was dead, all eight of them bludgeoned beyond recognition. The next morning, the neighbors became suspicious, noticing that the usually rambunctious home was dead quiet. What he saw after letting himself in with his own key was enough to make him sick. Then, as quickly and silently as he had arrived, the stranger left, taking keys from the home, and locking the door behind him. The Villisca Axe Murders may have been quick, but as the world was about to discover, they were unimaginably horrifying.
