Villisca Ax Murder House, July 9, 2006
The world’s largest unsoved ax murder took place in the small town of Villisca, Iowa in 1912. It happened something like this:
On the morning of June 10, 1912, at 5 a.m., Mary Peckham went into her yard to hang up laundry. She noticed no movement in the home of her neighbors, the J.B. Moore family, which was odd. No one had begun the chores. No little feet belonging to the Moore’s four children stomped up and down the porch steps. The house was still.
By 7 a.m. there was still no sign of activity. Mary grew concerned and approached the house. She knocked on the door, tried the knob, and found it locked. She tried to peek in the windows, but found all were covered with curtains, blankets or towels. Mary then called J.B.’s brother, Ross Moore.
Ross brought over key and unlocked the door. Upon entering, he found a grisly scene: Mr. and Mrs. Moore, their four children (ages 11, 9, 7, and 5), and the children’s two houseguests (Lena and Ina Stillinger, ages 12 and 8 ) murdered in their beds. All eight were bludgeoned to death in their beds, apparently with an ax that was left at the crime scene, leaning up against a wall.
The Moores had not been robbed. A single plate of uneaten food sat on their table. All of the mirrors and windows had been covered with some type of cloth — a Victorian tradition that is supposed to keep the soul from becoming trapped in a mirror upon death.
An incredibly sloppy and chaotic investigation followed, even by 1912’s standards. Hundreds of townspeople trapsed through the home to gawk at the murder scene before police could secure it.
Several suspects were questioned but none were ever convicted. You can read more about that here: http://www.villiscaiowa.com/
Here’s a little history on the hauntings:
However, I found no evidence of hauntings, but none to the contrary, either.
I’ll share with you some interesting pieces of information my tour guide shared with me, which cannot be found on the Web site:
-The home had been rented to families off and on over the past 95 years. One tenant spent only one night in the house, and then slept in the barn for every night after that his family occupied the home. They were aware of the home’s history when they rented the house.
-Small children on the tour with their parents (who would take a child to such an awful place?!?) are often distracted by, but not afraid of, playmates the adults can’t see. One child told his mother he wanted to go into the kitchen to play with “that little girl” when there were no other children present in the house.
–Several paranormal investigative groups, including Troy Taylor’s, have stayed overnight and documented activity in the house.
On the sunny Sunday afternoon I toured the home, I didn’t get so much as an orb in my photos. But here they are anyway.
Please note: The owners of the J.B. Moore home have made an attempt to set up the home as it was believed to have been a the time of the murders. However, none of the furniture in the home belonged to the Moores. Most of it is not even antique, and the walls and ceilings have long been papered over and painted.
Above: The first-floor bedroom where the Stillinger sisters were found murdered.
The murderer left the ax (believed to be taken from the Moore family’s shed) leaning against the doorframe into this room.
Mr. and Mrs. Moore slept in this room. Although no trace of now exists, at one point the marks made by the ax as it swung upward were visible indented in the ceiling.
This attic area, accessible via a small closet in Mr. and Mrs. Moore’s bedroom, is thought to be where the murderer(s) hid while waiting for the family to retun home on the night of June 9.
The children’s room.
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