Table Of Content
There was also a rumor that Joe was having an affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, though the reports were unfounded. The townspeople insist, however, that the Moores and the Joneses harbored a deep hatred for each other, though no one admits it was bad enough to spark murder. A few suspects were named over time though none of them panned out. The first was Frank Jones, a local businessman who had been in competition with Joe Moore. Moore had worked for Jones for seven years in the farm equipment sales business before leaving and starting his own rival business.
Ghostly encounters
The family friends who were staying in the guest room—Ina Mae Stillinger, age 8, and Lena Gertrude Stillinger, age 12—were the last to be killed. All of the victims except Lena appeared to have been asleep when they died. Lena was the only one who appeared to have defensive wounds, and was lying across the bed. A traveling minister named Reverend George Kelly arrived in Villisca for the first time on the morning of June 10th to attend the Sunday school directed by Sarah Moore.
The Time a Ghost Hunter Stabbed Himself at My Axe Murder Museum - VICE
The Time a Ghost Hunter Stabbed Himself at My Axe Murder Museum.
Posted: Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Unsolved Villisca Axe Murders of 1912
Payroll records, however, provided an alibi that placed Mansfield in Illinois at the time of the Villisca murders. He was released for a lack of evidence, and later won a lawsuit he brought against Wilkerson, and was awarded $2,225. Wilkerson believed that pressure from Jones resulted not only in Mansfield's release but also in the subsequent arrest and trial of Reverend Kelly. Despite the doctor’s warning, the curious residents of Villisca descended upon the Moore house and ventured inside. The crime scene became instantly contaminated, and given the lack of forensic advancements at the time, finding any concrete DNA evidence left by the perpetrator was an almost-impossible task. An early suspect in the murders was Joe Ricks, a man who was arrested in Monmouth, Illinois when he stepped off a train wearing shoes that were covered with blood.
Tours
The murders were described live in Episode 168 of the podcast My Favorite Murder, by Karen Kilgariff. The murders were also described in Episode 16 of the podcast Lore, by Aaron Mahnke. Frank Fernando Jones was a Villisca resident and an Iowa State Senator. Josiah Moore had worked for Frank Jones at his implement store for many years before leaving to open his own store. Moore reportedly took business away from Jones, including a very successful John Deere dealership. Moore was rumored to have had a sexual affair with Jones’ daughter-in-law, though no evidence supports this.
The night of the murder, Mary invited two of her friends, Lena Stillinger (12) and Ina Stillinger (8) to the home for a sleepover. "Everybody loved them," said Johnny Houser, a tour guide at the Villisca Ax Murder House. "Think of that family from your small hometown that everyone loves, everyone respects, nobody has a problem with."
Mansfield was arrested and brought to Montgomery County from Kansas City. Payroll records, however, provided a rock solid alibi that placed Mansfield in Illinois at the time of both the Paola, Kansas, and the Villisca murders. Local newspapers reported a woman testified she overheard three men in the woods plotting the murder of the Moore family a short time before the killings. The Moore family The sheriff drove Mansfield into the nearby countryside outside the city limits, and he somehow managed to get back to Kansas City. In a small house in Villisca, the Joe Moore family and two visitors were axed to death. Such a bloody murder was beyond the comprehension of residents desperate to find the killer.
He recounted the tragedy, not just of murder, but ruined reputations. One example was Harry Whipple, also offered as a suspect by Wilkerson. Whipple was a big, kind-hearted man, but kids on the street began to run away from him. He spent weekends driving across country, tracking down similar murders.
A number of gruesome unsolved murders have turned this simple home into a morbid tourist trap.
In the weeks that followed, he displayed a fascination with the case and wrote many letters to the police, investigators, and family of the deceased. This aroused suspicion and a private investigator wrote back to Reverend Kelly, asking for details that the minister might know about the murders. Kelly replied with 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. I wasn’t the only one visiting the ax murder house that afternoon. There was a group of three women in their 20s winding down their tour when I opened the door to the house, which appeared to give them and the tour guide, also a younger woman, a bit of a scare.
Responses to Villisca Axe Murders
Scholars still debate the trial testimonies and pore over lists of potential suspects. No one else has ever been tried for the murders, and the crime remains one of the most horrific, unsolved mass murders in American history. All the victims were found in their beds, their heads covered with bedclothes, and all had their skulls battered 20 to 30 times with the blunt end of an axe.
Despite a nationwide manhunt, multiple suspects and two trials, the murder remains unsolved. Kelly had arrived in Villisca for the first time the Sunday morning of the murders and attended a Sunday school performance by the Stillinger girls before departing early Monday. He returned two weeks later, and, posing as a detective, joined a tour of the murder house with a group of investigators. The house change hands a few times over the past 100 years, and the reported ghost encounters just keep accumulating. So while what happened there in 1912 makes it a terrifying place to be on its own, ghosts or no ghosts, it definitely continues to earn its title as one of America's most haunted houses. The paranormal reality television series Scariest Places on Earth covered the story of the Villisca axe murders and hosted a paranormal investigation on the property.
He also had a history with the Moore family, as many had seen him watching them while at church and out and about in town. A dry cleaner in a nearby town had received bloody clothing from Kelly a few days after the murders. He reportedly also asked police for access to the home after the crime while posing as a Scotland Yard officer. However, the potential hit man, Blackie Mansfield, was arrested in 1916. He also pinned another ax murder in Aurora, Colo., on Mansfield as well. Some of the most unsettling details about the crime scene, aside from the sheer brutality and tragedy of it, include a hidden attic, a door locked from the inside, and linens covering every window and mirror in the house.
The young woman related that she was accosted by a stranger who inquired where the home of the Moores was located. Later, when she told Mrs. Moore of the occurrence, the latter said a man answering the description of the stranger had been hanging about their place. The Monmouth suspect who gives the name of Joe Ricks, told the Illinois officers that he came from Clarinda, Ia., a town 15 miles from here. Dyer, when the train passed into Villisca, he looked over and saw such a tree south of the track about four blocks away.
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. The 1,200 square foot house contains two stories and a cellar, and was originally constructed in 1900. Over the following ninety years, the “Villisca Axe Murder House” had 7 additional owners. The Moore home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 and received the “Preservation at its Best” award in the small public category from the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance in 1997. The next day, June 10, Mary Peckham, the Moores' neighbor, became concerned after she noticed that the family had not come out to do their morning chores.
Though Lena Stillinger’s nightgown had been pushed up and she’d been left exposed, doctors concluded she had not been sexually abused. Lena also had a bloodstain on her knee and an alleged defensive wound on her arm. 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. A bowl of water was found in the home, spirals of blood swirling through it.
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