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They lived there for 9 years, up until the day the murders occurred. While Reverend Lyn George Kelly came closest to being convicted of the murders, there were plenty of other suspects. Five years later, in 1917, Kelly was arrested for the Villisca murders.
Villisca Ax Murder House – The Scene Of A Brutal Mass Murder In 1912
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. Sometime after midnight, the killer or killers picked up Joe’s axe from the back yard, entered the house, and bludgeoned to death all eight of its occupants. A painter who worked on the property told CBS, “Basically, it’s like a crime scene frozen in time.” He described the family’s Christmas tree with presents wrapped underneath had been there since the murders took place. The crime scene was a macabre tableau of brutality, with shattered skulls, pools of blood and peculiar details.
Discovery of the crime
The documentary, now available on DVD, features Dr. Edgar Epperly, the historian considered the foremost authority on the Villisca murders. Kelly — the son and grandson of English ministers — had suffered a mental breakdown as an adolescent. Since immigrating to America with his wife in 1904, Kelly had preached at Methodist churches across North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Iowa. He’d been assigned as a visiting minister to several small communities north of Villisca, where he developed a reputation for odd behavior. He’d also been convicted of sending obscene material through the mail and had spent time in a mental hospital.
Reverend acquitted by jury for family's murder
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. One of the townspeople even took a fragment of Joe’s skull as a keepsake.
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. The killer or killers used the blade of the axe on Sarah, while using the blunt end on the rest of the victims.
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After reading about the Villisca Axe Murders, read about another unsolved murder, the Hinterkaifeck murders. Then, check out the history of Lizzie Borden and her infamous string of murders. 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. The event would come to be known as the Villisca Axe Murders and it would baffle law enforcement for over a century. Curious to learn all the details of the Villisca Axe Murder House and why it's one of the most haunted places in the world?
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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.
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Then, as quickly and silently as he had arrived, the stranger left, taking keys from the home, and locking the door behind him. The Villisca Axe Murders may have been quick, but as the world was about to discover, they were unimaginably horrifying. YouTuber Bailey Sarian featured the murders on an episode of her weekly series, Murder, Mystery & Makeup. The murders were described in Episode 271 (October 17, 2021) on the podcast Morbid.
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. It was not long before Holmes fell into a downward spiral of addiction.
Herman, Mary Katherine, Arthur, and Paul were next bludgeoned in the head in the same manner as their parents. Afterwards, the murderer returned to the master bedroom to inflict more blows on the elder Moores, knocking over a shoe that had filled with blood, before moving downstairs to the guest bedroom and killing Ina and Lena. Seemingly afterwards, a 4lb slab of bacon was taken out of the icebox and laid next to the axe. Investigators also found untouched food and bloody water during the search.
His motive, he said, was to obtain the deed to their Missouri family home. "The ax was left downstairs, raw bacon laying on the floor, mirrors covered with sheets, food on the table, cigarette butts in the attic, bloody water," Houser said. "Just tons of crime scene, all destroyed by half the town wandering around looking at it." 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.
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.
Over the past 90 years, the property had numerous owners up until 1994, when Rick and Vicki Sprague bought the property. However, after only a few months, the Sprague family sold the property to Darwin and Martha Linn. Now, more than 100 years later, it’s unlikely we will ever find out who committed the crime. The Villisca Axe Murder house will remain a mystery, never to be solved.
Lena also had a bloodstain on her knee and an alleged defensive wound on her arm. The bodies of Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children and two visiting girls were found in the Moore home in Villisca, a Montgomery County town located about 100 miles southwest of Des Moines. Josiah was a prominent businessman and well-known church worker in town, according to reporting from the former Des Moines Tribune.
He had covered the Moore parent’s heads with sheets, and the Moore children’s faces with clothing. He then went through each room in the house, covering all of the mirrors and windows with cloths and towels. At some point, he took a two-pound piece of uncooked bacon from the fridge and placed it in the living room, along with a keychain.
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 killings became known as the “Villisca Axe Murders,” and are easily the most notorious murders in Iowa history. 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.
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