Hello everyone! This is Noel and I'm really excited to tell you about my 3rd favourite crime story of all time! The Villisca Axe Murders! This is a story I've known for almost 3 years and it still haunts me to no end! I've wanted to write about this story in my own words for 2 years! But it is really long, so I rarely had much motivation to write it during all that time. But I thought today was the best possible day for me to finish it and publish it because it is the 112th Anniversary of this world changing story! I really hope you like it and thank you all so much for being patient. Credit to Wikipedia, FindAGrave.com, and the legendary YouTuber, Horror Stories for the information. Like a lot of other cases, I learned about it from him and I am really sad that he's retiring from YouTube. We will miss you very much, Horror Stories. Thank you and enjoy.

On this day, 112 years ago, in the early morning hours of June 10th 1912, 8 people, a family of 6 and two guests staying over for the night, were all violently MURDERED in their sleep from an axe inside their house in Villisca Iowa, and to this day, 112 years later, it is still unknown as to who murdered those 8 people on that fateful night and it remains one of, if not, the BIGGEST unsolved murder mystery in HISTORY...

Villisca was a small, quiet, and peaceful town in Southwestern Villisca Iowa in The United States during the 1910's with a population of 2500 people. In this town, lived a happy and wealthy family known as The Moore Family. The family consisted of the father, 43 year old Josiah Moore, the mother, 39 year old Sara Moore, and their four children, 11 year old Herman Montgomery Moore, 10 year old Mary Katherine Moore, 7 year old Arthur Boyd Moore, and the youngest child, 5 year old Paul Vernon Moore. Josiah worked as a businessman who owned a hardware store and Sara worked at the family's church. They were a wealthy, successful, and happy family who had a great life together, and they wouldn't want to spend it with anybody else. Unfortunately, what NO ONE could've predicted, was what would happen to them in the early hours of June 10th 1912, would be an event so horrifying that it would become a GIANT staple in History and change the world FOREVER...

On the night of June 9th 1912, Sara Moore coordinated an annual event at the family's presbyterian church called "The Children's Day Program" as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. The family left their house at 8:00 PM and headed off to their church and had a fun time like they always did. Two of Katherine Moore's friends, 11 year old Lena Gertrude Stillinger and 8 year old Ina May Stillinger were also attending the event and without their parents because they were away. After the service ended one hour later at 9:00 PM, the Stillinger sisters asked the Moores if they could stay at their house for the night since they were alone and were too scared to walk home in the dark. The Moore's happily invited them over without a problem. Joe called The Stillinger's residence and asked their older sister, Blanche Marie Stillinger if they could stay at their house for the night. Blanche gladly agreed to let them stay over for the night and told Joe she would notify her parents because they were out for the night.

After Joe told his family that the sisters could stay for the night, they left the Church at 9:30 PM and arrived at their house 15 minutes later. At their home, they ate dinner, ate desert, and then went to bed. Little could anyone on Earth have guessed however, that what would happen to them on that very night, would arguably be considered the most EARTH SHAKING event in History...

On this day, 112 years ago, at 5:00 AM on the morning of June 10th 1912, a day that would change the entire World forever, The Moores' neighbour, Mary Peckham was hanging laundry in her backyard when she noticed that nobody was awake at their house and it was completely silent, which was really unusual for The Moores since they were usually awake at that time. But Peckham decided to just brush it off since she thought they were just sleeping in a little longer. But 2 hours later at 7:00 AM, Peckham realised that the house was just as quiet as it was 2 hours earlier. At this point, Peckham started to grow a little concerned about what was happening and went to The Moore's house and knocked on their door but no one answered. After nobody responded to her knocking, she tried to open their door, but she found out it was locked from the inside. Something was not right and Peckham was getting more worried.

Peckham then went to the Moores' backyard to let the family's chickens out of their coop and called Joe's brother Ross for help. Ross also found it strange that the Moores' weren't awake at this time and they weren't answering Peckham's door knocks. When he arrived at his brother's house, he tried knocking and calling for them, but still, no one answered. He tried looking through the windows to see if anyone was inside the house, but for some reason, all the window shades were pulled down...

Now Ross was getting really confused and concerned, so he used a spare key to open the door. Little did he know what horror he would find inside the house and the effect it would have on the whole world...

When Ross walked inside the house, he found two bloody bodies covered by a sheet lying on the bed in the guest bedroom and blood was splattered on the bed's headboard...

The most scared he ever was in his life, Ross ran outside and immediately called Joe's hardware store and asked one of the employees to alert the Marshall of Villisca, Hank Horton that his brother and his family were murdered at their house...

Horton arrived at the house an hour later at 8:30 AM and started looking around for what happened. Inside the house, Horton found an uneaten plate of food and a pot of bloody water on the kitchen table. He also found that all the mirrors and glass parts of the doors were covered with the Moores' clothes. He even found the axe used for the murders leaning against the wall in the guest bedroom. However, it was wiped clean with a 4 pound piece of bacon wrapped in a cloth next to it. Inside the bedrooms of both the parents and their children, axe marks were found on the ceiling along with dust particles from the ceilings on the beds. This made Horton believe that whoever the killer was, was swinging the axe in a psychotic state around the room during the murders.

When Horton inspected the victims, he discovered that all of the victims were killed by the axe handle, except Sara Moore, who was the only one killed by the axe blade. Joe and Sara were struck in their heads at least 20 times and it was likely the unknown killer entered their room a second time to do more damage after everyone in the house was murdered. Josiah Moore's head was completely crushed except for his lower jaw and Sara Moore's head was covered in slices from the axe's blade. Horton also found blood and even brain tissue and skull fragments splattered all over the bed's headboard...

In the guest bedroom, Lena Stillinger was hanging a third of the way out of the bed. Her nightgown was pulled up above her waist, her underwear was lying under her bed, and her blood and brain tissues were even found on her pillow... It's possible she may have been the only victim who woke up as the killer possibly could have pulled her off the bed, which is why she was in an odd position, but it's also possible that the killer murdered her and then pulled her off the bed. Her sister Ina was lying on the right side of the bed facing left towards Lena. Ina's hips were rotated and her behind was hanging out of the bed, facing a lamp on the floor next to it. It's possible the killer positioned the sisters this way for his own viewing pleasure.

In the children's bedroom, all four of the Moore children appeared to have slept through the murders like their parents and were killed by the handle of the axe just like their father and the Stillinger sisters. The whole house was a terrifying sight.
Trying to comprehend what on Earth he just saw, Horton ran back outside to Ross and Peckham saying, "My God, Ross... There's somebody MURDERED in every bed...". Ross drove to the town's police station to alert the rest of the police and the doctors to investigate the house even more, but while he was alerting the police and doctors, he made a terrible mistake. He mentioned the murders to some nearby townspeople. Not only that, but Operators used the new invention in the 1900's known as the "All Call Switch'' and sent out messages telling everyone about the murders and the news of the tragedy spread all over the city, which resulted in the city's stores closing...

At least 100 trespassers ran into the house to look and scream at the bodies all over the house. Not only were these people being very disrespectful, but they were also possibly disturbing and tampering with possible evidence as well. Horton tried as hard as he could to extract everyone out of the house, but it was no use. "When you get people out one door, more would come pouring through in another. No one would listen." Horton said. Even worse, coroners didn't arrive at the house until all the trespassers had left.

Luckily though, Horton arrived in the house with two doctors and the three were able to examine the entire house before it became flooded with trespassers.
When Horton and the two doctors examined the house, they discovered two finished cigarettes in the house's attic, leading many people to speculate that the killer hid there until the octad went to sleep. It's also believed that none of the victims woke up during the murders. Most people believe the killer either drugged their food so they would stay asleep while the killings happened, or the killer was strong enough to kill them instantly from the first hit and did more damage after they were dead.

There are two theories about the piece of bacon next to the axe in the room where the Stillingers were. Some people believe the killer meant to steal it when they left but simply forgot it, or the bacon was used as a pretend vagina, especially because it was placed right next to the sisters.

The trio looked all over the house for potential evidence, but they found nothing.

Surprisingly though, Iowa was not the only state that was dealing with a gruesome case, as there were other axe murders occurring in several other states. There was even a possibility that they were all done by the same person because all the murder locations ran alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad, which would have made it really easy for the killer to access the locations. Not only that, but most of the murders were done the same way, with the victims being killed by the axe handle instead of the axe blade. Some of the murder locations even had the windows and mirrors covered with clothes just like Villisca. But even other places where axe murders had been occuring provided no evidence to help the police and detectives.

Villisca was never the same after that horrific night. Stores sold all their guns and door locks within days and anyone felt like they could be a suspect in the case. People even started to wonder if the Native Americans who first came to Iowa named the town "Villisca" not because it means "pretty and pleasant view", but because they named it after the word "Wallisca" which means "evil spirits". Many people, including people who lived in the house years later, believe it's haunted by the ghosts of the Moores and the Stillingers. The whole town was scared and the sense of peace Villisca was known for was completely gone.

Many people suspected of carrying out the horrific murders, but most of them were cleared and had little to no evidence connecting them to the crime. But there were four people who appeared to be the most likely suspects and the police and detectives' only hope at solving the case. The four people who were suspected the most were Frank Jones, William Mansfield, Henry Moore, and Reverend George Kelly.

56 year old Frank Fernando Jones was the senator of Iowa who worked with Josiah Moore for several years until Josiah opened up his own implement company and they both became competitive rivals. Their enmity with each other was so big, they never acknowledged each other whenever they ran into each other in the town. There was even a rumour that was never proven that Josiah actually had an affair with Frank's daughter in law, Dona, which obviously made their relationship much worse.

It was theorised that Jones had hired a 26 year old man named William Mansfield who was known as "Insane Blackie" to kill the Moores as an act of revenge. What made this theory even more possible was that Mansfield was suspected of murdering his own wife, infant child, and father and mother in law with an axe. All of them were also bludgeoned to death by the axe handle, the windows and mirrors were covered with their clothes, the lamps on the night stands were placed next to the beds, and the axe was also wiped clean just like the Villisca murders. Not only that, but he was also suspected of committing a series of other axe murders in Paloa, Kansas and Aurora, Illinois. The man who believed that William Mansfield was the culprit the most was Detective James Newton Wilkerson.

These all seemed like huge red flags and a lot of evidence to prove Mansfield was the killer the police and detectives were desperately looking for, but Mansfield's payroll records confirmed that he was in Illinois at the time of the Villisca murders and as a result, all of his charges were dropped. Mansfield was dumbfounded and furious at Detective Wilkerson and he filed a lawsuit against him and received $2,250. Many people who knew Frank Jones also claimed he was a very nice man who would never commit or commission such a horrific crime.

Several months later, a 37 year old forger named Henry Lee Moore, who was not related to the Moore family was convicted of murdering his mother and grandmother with an axe in their home in Colombia, Missouri and he was suspected of committing the Villisca Axe Murders and 22 other murders across the country. However, there was no evidence that connected him to any of the other murders he was suspected of and he was only convicted of murdering his mother and grandmother. He was sentenced to life in prison, but he was paroled by the Governor of Missouri, Forrest Smith 36 years later in December 1949. He died 13 years later on September 30th 1963 at the age of 88.

All three of these men appeared to be decent suspects in this case, but they never have a lot of solid evidence to prove they were the real killers. However, there was one man who appeared to be the most likely suspect in this case with the most amount of evidence tracing directly back to him. That man was Reverend George Kelly.

Reverend George Jacklin Kelly was a 33 year old English immigrant who moved to the United States with his wife Laura in 1904. He worked as a travelling preacher who preached at churches all across the country. Kelly appeared to be a good religious man, but he was also a sex addict who suffered from several mental disorders. He was known to be a peeping tom who often looked through windows inside houses and he was even arrested for writing sexually perverted letters to women who applied to work with him. But there were a lot of concerning facts about him that might have proved that he was the man behind the Villisca Axe Murders.

Reverend Kelly was a guest at the same exact church the Moore's and the Stillingers went to for the children's day program and he left Villisca the next morning at 5:19 AM. When he learned about the murders, he became very fascinated with the story. Throughout the weeks following the murders, he wrote letters to police, detectives, and family members asking for specific details about the case and he even visited the Moore's house and joined a team of investigators who were coincidentally there at the same time he was.

A lot of people found it strange how obsessed he was with the case and were wondering if he knew anything else about the murders, so a detective named Tom O'Leary from Kansas City wrote a letter to him asking him if he knew any details about the story they didn't. Kelly wrote back to O'Leary, but his story didn't look very believable.

Kelly claimed that he was walking by the house that night when he heard a loud thud coming from inside. He claimed he saw the killer step outside the front door when a couple walked by the house and waited to go back in until the couple was gone. He also claimed he witnessed Sara Moore sit up in her bed before the killer struck her with the axe. There were already a lot of suspicious elements that made it clear that something was not right with Kelly.

But perhaps, the BIGGEST warning sign with George Kelly was there was a rumour that he was talking about the murders on his train ride BEFORE they were even discovered...
After realising all the red flags with Kelly, he was arrested in 1917 and spent the entire summer in jail. However, many people, including several police and detectives were unsure if he was really a good suspect because he had obvious mental disorders.

But a lot of other people were confident they finally had the killer in their hands and they were going to make him pay for what he did. After Kelly was arrested, his interrogators shouted at him, threatened him, and even beat him to the point where he was badly bruised. They tried everything to get him to confess that he was the killer.

After hours of being yelled at, threatened, and beaten, Kelly confessed to being the man responsible for the Villisca Axe Murders. He claimed that he heard voices in his head telling him to go to the Moore's house and kill everyone inside. He said "Suffer the children to come on to me. I heard a voice. And the voice said "slay utterly". And I went on because I was in the grip of something I did not understand.".

At first, the police and detectives were satisfied that they finally found the killer they were looking for for the past 5 years. However, Kelly immediately took back his confession, saying he was forced to confess. Kelly was tried twice for the murders, and both of the juries found him not guilty. The two juries and many other people in the town were still convinced that Frank Jones was the man behind the murders and he was trying to use his power to frame a mentally ill man. Not only did Kelly suffer from several mental disorders, but he was only 5 feet and 2 inches tall and weighed 119 pounds and he was mostly a quiet and calm person. Most people didn't think he was capable of violently killing 8 people with an axe inside their house. All charges against Kelly were dropped and he was released.

Frank Jones passed away 38 years after the murders on January 29th 1941 at the age of 85 and George Kelly passed away 48 years after the murders on April 6th 1959 at the age of 80.

Even with the four most likely suspects, no one was ever convicted of the Villisca Axe Murders.

The investigations lasted for many years, but as the decades went by, the hope of catching the killer just continued to fade away more and more and the killer was never caught. Whoever was responsible for killing the Moore family and the Stillinger sisters took their secret with them to the grave. 112 years later, it is still unknown as to who was responsible for the Villisca Axe Murders, and we'll probably never know.

To this day, the Villisca Axe Murders remain one of, if not, the BIGGEST unsolved murder mystery in history...

The end...