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Enter from Cemetery Road, go straight in about 200 feet or so and loom for the large gray monument that says Moore. Ina and Lena's graves are a row closer to the road and to the left if you are facing the back of the Moore's monument. Brave souls can tour the Villisca Ax Murder House and even stay overnight, if they dare. Kelly made a confession which was later withdrawn before his trial. "Everyone's in bed, just like they went to sleep," Houser said. "Everybody loved them. And all of a sudden they wake up, and everyone's dead in bed."
The Spookiest House in Iowa - The Villisca Ax Murder House - KHMO News-Talk-Sports
The Spookiest House in Iowa - The Villisca Ax Murder House.
Posted: Tue, 19 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Wonderland murders
Homicide investigators were frantically trying to solve, and later they learned more than 20 serial killers were stalking the L.A. Brilliant musician Sam Cooke was shot to death at the Hacienda Motel on December 11, 1964, supposedly by the manager (who said he attacked her). There was a lot of strangeness going on that night (Cooke had a woman with him at the motel who left with most of his clothing), and some people dispute the official story.
Discovery of the crime
The murder weapon, an axe belonging to Josiah, was found in the guest room where the Stillinger sisters were found. Two years after the Villisca killings, police turned their attention to an Illinois resident and serial killer. William Mansfield murdered his wife, daughter, and parents-in-law in a way that was eerily similar to the Moore family murders. Later, investigators linked him to other axe murders that happened in Kansas and Colorado, and he was even a suspect in the notorious Axeman of New Orleans case. Sometime after midnight on June 10th, 1912, six children and two adults were found bludgeoned to death by an axe that was left at the scene.
Crime Stoppers
This sleepy-town back in 1912 was home to just 2,039 people and no more than two square miles in size. However, this house in Villisca (now known as the Villisca Ax Murder house) would become the location of one of the most brutal mass-murders in the history of the United States. 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. Payroll records, however, provided an alibi that placed Mansfield in Illinois at the time of the Villisca murders.
She was just six miles from where Judy Miller's body was discovered -- with Miller's same ligature marks. As the slayings terrorized residents, detectives banded together to track down some of the most notorious murderers of that era, from the Freeway Killer to the Hillside Stranglers to the Skid Row Stabber. On April 1, 1984, legendary soul singer Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father after an argument between the two escalated into a physical fight. The shooting took place at the West Adams home where Gaye’s parents lived.
Storyline
Villisca Axe Murder House at Center of New Netflix Movie - WHO TV 13 Des Moines News & Weather
Villisca Axe Murder House at Center of New Netflix Movie.
Posted: Fri, 09 Jun 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Diles then forced Holmes to beat Launius to death with the pipe until his head exploded. Susan Launisis was also brutally beaten in her bed but she miraculously survived, albeit with life-changing injuries. On July 1st, 1981, one of the most brutal slayings in Los Angeles history became known as “The Wonderland Murders”. John Curtis Holmes was a superstar in the world of hardcore pornography due to his physical abnormality.
He’d also been convicted of sending obscene material through the mail and had spent time in a mental hospital. Authorities first became interested in Rev. Kelly a few weeks after the murders after being alerted by recipients of his rambling letters. The Children’s Day service was an end-of-the-year Sunday school program.
His known mental illness made authorities question whether he knew the details because of having committed the murders or was imagining his account. "Today in your life you know people that weren't murdered because of the work that these detectives accomplished," he said. "The world is a far safer place today because of the work of those detectives."
The murderer also had searched dresser drawers for pieces of clothing to cover the mirrors in the house and the glass in the entry doors. On the kitchen table was a plate of uneaten food and a bowl of bloody water. 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.
Sarah Moore was a co-director and her children performed their little speeches and recitations along with the other Sunday school members. Legislation was written in response to the murder, including the establishment of the current State Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s predecessor. At one point, after a long interrogation, he eventually signed a confession detailing the crime. However he almost immediately recanted, and a jury refused to indict him. One of the townspeople even took a fragment of Joe’s skull as a keepsake. The state of the bodies wasn’t the most concerning part, however, once the police had searched the home.
On Sunday evening, June 9, 1912, Josiah (Joe) Moore and his wife Sarah took their four children, Herman, 11, Katherine, 10, Boyd, 7, and 5-year-old Paul to the Children’s Day service at the Presbyterian Church. Accompanying them were Lena (12) and Ina Stillinger (8), neighbors who had asked their parents’ permission to stay overnight with the Moore children. Jennifer Kirkland/FlickrOne of the children’s bedrooms inside the Villisca Axe Murders house. On one hand, the stranger held the lamp, lighting the way through the house. A ghost hunter staying overnight at the Villisca Ax Murder House needed to be rushed to the hospital. The 37-year-old man was found with a self-inflicted stab wound to the chest.
Twenty-two other ax murders had been committed in the mid-west during this time period. It was suggested that Moore was a serial killer who had a hand in all these killings. Despite the same surname, he was no relation to the murdered Moore family. Following Darwin’s unfortunate passing in 2011, his wife Martha took over operation of the house for the next twelve years, actively involved in operating the house with longtime manager Johnny Houser. Its sister company, Junket, provides food tours, brewery tours, special events, historic tours, and specialty experiences across the country. Read more about the murders and the restoration of the house here.
However, it was Reverend Lyn George Kelly who police got closest to nailing for the Villisca Axe Murders. The murder weapon was left leaning against the wall in the bedroom of the Stillinger girls. The killer had attempted to clean the blade, however, blood could still be seen on it.
Then he made his way to the children’s room, and finally back down to the bedroom downstairs. In each room, he committed some of the grisliest murders in American history. In the early hours of June 11, 1912, sometime between midnight and 5 am, eight people were bludgeoned to death inside the home of the Moore family.
Lena’s nightgown was pushed up to her waist and she was wearing no undergarments. This led to police believing that the killer(s) sexually molested her or attempted to do so. Doctors concluded that the murders took place between midnight and 5 am. Two cigarettes found in the attic suggest the killer, or killers, waited in the attic for the family to come home. Waiting for the family to go to sleep before making their move. Not many people will have heard of Villisca, a small town in southwestern Iowa about an hour or so south-west of Des Moines.
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