The Villisca axe murders occurred between the evening of June 9, 1912, and the early morning of June 10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, Iowa, United States. Some of the most unsettling details about the crime scene, aside from the sheer brutality and tragedy of it, include a door locked from the inside, and linens covering every window and mirror in the house. The mysterious massacre that occurred in 1912 has not yet been solved.
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| Front view of the Villisca Axe Murder House. (Image credit: Horror Obsessive) |
It is said that, on June 10, 1912, every morning the locals had a tradition of visiting nearby houses. However, that morning they were shocked by the corpse lying horribly in the house of a family named JB Moore.
They find 6 children and a married couple who were tragically killed with an axe. The incident is believed to have occurred in the middle of the night.
The incident quickly spread throughout Iowa City. Until it was reported by the local newspaper at that time. Many suspect that the perpetrators of the massacre were local people. No doubt, they are suspicious of each other.
The six members of the Moore family - Josiah B. Moore (43) and his wife Sarah Moore (39); their four children, Herman (11), Katherine (10), Arthur (7), and Paul (5) and two house guests Ina (8) & Lena Stillinger (12) were found bludgeoned in the Moore residence. All eight victims, including six children, had severe head wounds from an axe.
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| An article in The Day Book, Chicago, 14 June 1912 about the murder case. (Image credit: Wikipedia) |
The Moores were well known and well liked in their community. On June 9, 1912, Mary Katherine Moore (Katherine) invited Ina Mae (8) and Lena Gertrude Stillinger (12) to spend the night at the Moore residence. That evening, the visiting girls and the Moore family attended the Presbyterian church where they participated in the Children's Day Program, which Sarah had coordinated. After the program ended at 9:30 p.m., the family spent some time socializing with other parishioners and then the Moores and the Stillinger sisters walked to the Moores' house, arriving between 9:45 and 10 p.m. After a snack, everyone retired to their beds.
Sometime after midnight, the killer(s) took Josiah’s axe from the back yard of the home, entered the house, and murdered all of its occupants.
The following morning, at approximately 5:00 a.m., Mary Peckham, the Moore's next door neighbor stepped into her yard to hang laundry. At approximately 7:00 am. she realized that not only had the Moore's not been outside nor the chores began, but that the house itself seemed unusually still. Between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., Mary Peckham approached the house and knocked on the door. When she received no response, she attempted to open the door only to find it locked from the inside. After letting out the Moore's chickens, Mary placed a call to Josiah's brother, Ross Moore.
Upon arriving at the home of his brother, Ross Moore attempted to look in a bedroom window and then knocked on the door and shouted, attempting to raise someone inside the house. When that failed, he produced his keys and found one that opened the door. Although Mrs. Peckham followed him onto the porch, she did not enter the parlor. Ross went no farther than the room off the parlor.
When he opened the bedroom door, he saw two bodies on the bed and dark stains on the bedclothes. He returned immediately to the porch and told Mrs. Peckham to call the sheriff. The two bodies in the room downstairs were Lena Stillinger, age 12 and her sister Ina, age 8, houseguests of the Moore children. The remaining members of the Moore Family were found in the upstairs bedrooms by City Marshall Hank Horton who arrived shortly. Every person in the house had been brutally murdered, their skulls crushed as they slept.
According to Villisca Iowa website, several facts regarding the crime scene were as follows:
- Curtains were drawn on all of the windows in the house except two, which did not have curtains. Those windows were covered with clothing belonging to the Moore's.
- All of the victims faces were covered with the bedclothes after they were killed.
- A kerosene lamp was found at the foot of the bed of Josiah and Sarah. The chimney was off and the wick had been turned back. The chimney was found under the dresser.
- A similar lamp was found at the foot of the bed of the Stillinger girls, the chimney was also off.
- The axe was found in the room occupied by the Stillinger girls. It was bloody but an attempt had been made to wipe it off. The axe belonged to Josiah Moore.
- The ceilings in the parent's bedroom and the children's room showed gouge marks apparently made by the upswing of the axe.
- A piece of a keychain was found on the floor in the downstairs bedroom.
- A pan of bloody water was discovered on the kitchen table as well as a plate of uneaten food.
- The doors were all locked.
The murder case set off ten years of investigations, grand jury hearings, trials, and other litigation. Legislation was written in response to the murder, including the establishment of the current State Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s predecessor. A lengthy investigation yielded several suspects, one of whom was tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury and the second ended in an acquittal. Still, the case remains unsolved to this day.
Over 100 years later, however, the Villisca Axe Murders remain a mystery. The murder or murderers are probably long dead, their gruesome secret buried with them.
The house change hands a few times over the years. In 1994, Darwin and Martha Linn of Corning, Iowa purchased the former home of murder victim J.B. Moore and his family. The house was returned to it's original condition at the time of the murders on June 10th, 1912. It was listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places and opened for tours.
The reported of ghost sighting just keep accumulating. Things like disembodied giggles and screams, unexplained movements, a strange fog moving from room to room when the train passes through the town at the time of the murders, and strange behavior from visitors that indicate the possibility of possessions are just some of the activities that indicate a paranormal presence at the Villisca Axe Murder House.
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