Villisca Axe Murders: unsolved to this day

VILLISCA, IOWA—For a unique travel story, there’s nothing like a spooky house where something went terribly wrong.

This particular house, located in Iowa, witnessed a crime involving eight victims, six children, and to this date, no one has been convicted of the crime.

For the backstory, the house was known as the Moore resident, where the family and two guests were staying the night. The six family members, of Josiah and Sara Moore, plus their children Herman, Mary, Arthur and Paul, were well known and liked in the town. Ina Mae and Getrude Stillinger, two more children were staying the night due to a power outage at their house.

At seven am the next morning, one of the neighbors noticed it was remarkably quiet, for a house with eight people. The farm animals were unattended, so neighbor Mary Peckham investigated. Knocking on the door yielded no response and the door was locked, so Mary took care of the chickens, then called Josiah’s brother, Ross. Ross would find no response to either knocking or shouting. Ross, with a copy of the house key was able to open the door, and on entering, discovered the first two bodies in the guest bedroom, of Ina and Lena. Moore told Peckham to go get the local peace officer, Hank Horton, who arrived shortly, and Horton discovered the entire Moore family slain. The weapon of choice, an axe, was found in the guest room, where the two girls were found.

One leading suspect was a minister named George Kelly. He had just arrived in town that night, and had a record for peculiar behavior including a mental breakdown as a youth. As an adult, he had been accused of being a Peeping Tom and other offensive behavior, and on June 8, 1912, he came to teach at the Children’s Day services, and the Moore family attended on the 9^th. He left town between 5am and 5:50am, on June 10^th, mere hours before the bodies were discovered. Reverend Kelly confessed to the murders in court, but the jury didn’t believe his confession. As the weeks followed, he started showing a fascination with the case, writing letters to the police, investigators and even the relatives of the deceased. This would arouse suspicion, and a private investigator wrote back to Kelly, asking for details that the minister might know about the murders. Kelly reported back in great detail, claiming to have heard sounds and possibly witnessed the murders. His known mental illness made authorities question whether he knew the details because of having committed the murders or was imagining his account. Two years after the murders, Kelly was arrested for sending obscene material through the mail, and was sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington DC, the national mental hospital. Investigators speculated again that Kelly could be the murderer of the Moore family. Three years later, Kelly would be arrested for the murders a second time, the police obtained a confession from him, however, it followed many hours of interrogation and Kelly later recanted, and after two separate trials, he was acquitted.

Iowa State Senator Frank F. Jones would be mentioned, primarily because Josiah Moore had worked at his implement store for years, before opening his own store, which reportedly took business from Jones. Moore also was rumored to have had an affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, but no evidence supports this.

Probably the biggest suspect pool, based off the number of people who visited the town via train, was the William “Blackie” Mansfield theory. Nine months prior, a similar axe murder had occurred, in Colorado Springs Colorado, and two more axe murders occurred in Ellsworth and Paola Kansas. The cases were similar, and others unsolved along the South Pacific Railroad, added questions if this case was part of a serial killer chain during the 1911-1912 time period. The Colorado Springs murder, went as far as to imitate using an axe, covering windows and even wiping off the axe, and after the murders, covering the victim’s heads with bedclothes. Mansfield, who was the prime suspect in one case, was investigated by the Burns Detective Agency in Kansas City. Detective James Newton Wilkerson, suggested that he was a cocaine-addicted murderer with an axe, and speculated Mansfield had killed his own wife, infant child, father-in-law and mother-in-law in Blue Island, Illinois in 1914. Wilkerson would convince a grand jury to bring Mansfield in for a trial in 1916, but payroll records were able to provide him an alibi. Later, Mansfield was able to bring a lawsuit against Wilkerson, winning over $2200. Wilkerson, believed that pressure from Jones, resulted not only in Mansfield’s release, but the subsequent arrest and trial of Reverend Kelly.

As the time has gone on, further stories, books and even several TV programs have put out further speculation, adding other suspects to the list. The house, built in 1868, would change hands about eight times since the murders. Avoiding being torn down, the present day owners have restored it to the 1912 condition, and it is adorned with a few photos of the family, kitchen equipment, toys, and beds. Groups that specialize in paranormal events are allowed, for a fee, to stay overnight at the residence.

Is the house haunted? When talking with a couple people who were there, who was also taping the rooms, and performing K-2 and spirit box sessions, using thermal devices, they think the house is haunted. Popular opinion holds that in places were people meet sudden and violent ends, spirits remain trapped in this world, either to warn the living, or to finish a task before completing the journey.

The town’s name, Villisca, is found nowhere else on earth. The town founders thought the word was derivative from Sac and Fox “Waliska,’ which meant “pretty place.” The axe murder event was the first news event to take the Titanic from the front page of local newspapers.

(Contact Joe Budd at sales2@nativesunnews.today)

 

 

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