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But when Rundle began filming his documentary in the 1990s, there had been little talk of the house being haunted. He says that in his years of filming inside the house, he never experienced or saw anything out of the ordinary, nor did any of the previous occupants he spoke with who had lived in the house for years before it became a tourist attraction. Perhaps the most surprising name linked to the brutal Villisca murders was Frank F. Jones. Josiah Moore had worked for Jones for several years before leaving to start his own business selling farm implements. When he did so, he reportedly took a lucrative John Deere contract with him. While that might not have been motive enough for murder, rumors also persisted that Moore had been carrying on an affair with Jones’ daughter.
The True Story Behind the Hauntings at the Villisca Axe Murder House
The murders were described in the episode Who Committed the 1912 Villisca Ax Murders? The murders and purported paranormal activity was described in Episode 21 of the podcast And That's Why We Drink. The House and Murders were used as the setting and premise of the haunted house horror film The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016). Police obtained a confession from him; however, it followed many hours of interrogation and Kelly later recanted. Sheriff Sampson has been on the county police force since 1992, and sheriff for the last six years. He says that he's never been called out to the house for any emergencies in the past, and refers to Villisca as just "your basic, small-town, Iowa farming community."
The Gruesome Story Of The Unsolved Villisca Axe Murders
Now, the house has become a tourist attraction and sits at the end of the quiet street as it always has, while life goes on around it, undeterred by the horrors that were once committed within. Shortly after midnight, a stranger entered through the unlocked door (not an uncommon sight in what was considered a small, safe, friendly town), and plucked an oil lamp from a nearby table, rigging it to burn so low it supplied light for barely one person. On one hand, the stranger held the lamp, lighting the way through the house.
The Case Goes Cold And The Villisca Axe Murders House Becomes A Tourist Attraction
Villisca Axe Murder House, one of Iowa's most haunted locations weareiowa.com - Local 5 - weareiowa.com
Villisca Axe Murder House, one of Iowa's most haunted locations weareiowa.com.
Posted: Fri, 09 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The home would have echoed most others in the area in size and features, at about 600 square feet, with two bedrooms, a parlor, a downstairs sewing room and a kitchen and an outhouse. The house, redubbed the Villisca Ax Murder House, now is open for tours and overnight visits. 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. No sale was ever attempted, and no changes were made to the original layout.
Kelly signed a confession months later saying God had whispered to him to "suffer the children to come unto me." Neighbors reported they did not hear any cries from the rooms of the sleeping family. 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.
The cases were similar enough to raise the possibility of having been committed by the same person. Other murders reported as possibly being linked to these crimes include the numerous unsolved axe murders along the Southern Pacific Railroad from 1911–1912, the unsolved Axeman of New Orleans killings, as well as several other such murders during this time period. The chief Villisca suspect was a traveling minister named George Kelly, who was arrested in 1917 after years of sending inquiring letters about the murders to police and family members of the victims. Kelly had previously been arrested for sending obscene material through the mail, and had been held in a mental hospital in Washington, D.C. After his arrest, Kelly made a full confession to the Villisca slayings. However, the confession came after hours of interrogation, and he recanted almost immediately. His first trial ended in a hung jury, while the second resulted in an acquittal.
Jennifer Kirkland/FlickrOne of the children’s bedrooms inside the Villisca Axe Murders house. A bowl of water was found in the home, spirals of blood swirling through it. Police believed that the murderer had washed his hands in it before leaving. 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.
The True Story Behind the Haunted Villisca Axe Murder House - House Beautiful
The True Story Behind the Haunted Villisca Axe Murder House.
Posted: Wed, 06 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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. Accusations regarding the culprit spread quickly throughout the small town of Villisca, Iowa, sparking suspicious glances among neighbors that would lead to friendships torn asunder. Unfortunately the crime-solving technology of 1912 was not sophisticated enough to identify the murderer, and the case has gone unsolved to this day. Amateur detectives ranging from historians to psychics have tried their hand at solving the case, but a verdict has never been reached.
According to Wilkerson's investigation, all of the murders were committed in precisely the same manner, indicating that the same man probably committed them. Wilkerson stated that he could prove that Mansfield was present in each of the differing crime scenes on the night of the murders. In each murder, the victims were hacked to death with an axe and the mirrors in the homes were covered. A burning lamp with the chimney off was left at the foot of the bed and a basin in which the murderer washed was found in the kitchen.
Every transient and otherwise unaccounted-for stranger was a suspect in the murders, Andrew Sawyer was one of those people. He also was obsessed with the murders and slept fully clothed as if he was ready to make a clean getaway and he also slept with an axe by his bed. The bodies of Lena and Ina Stillinger were discovered in the downstairs bedroom. At the base of 12-year-old Lena's bed, a kerosene lamp was found, possibly used to project light onto her body, which was lying in a sexual pose with her underwear missing, blood smeared across her legs, and defensive wounds across her arms. Investigators believe she was the victim of sexual abuse, and also the only member of the house who attempted to fight off her attacker. "They play with the children, they hear voices, they get pictures of anomalies," says Martha Linn, 77, who bought the house in 1994 and restored it to its 1912 condition, stripping the place of all electricity and plumbing and turning it into a tourist attraction.
Kelly recanted his confession at trial, and his case went to the jury on September 26. A second jury was immediately empanelled, but acquitted Rev. Kelly in November. Paranormal and other phenomenon are most often experienced in the dark hours, and many say that the whistle of a 2 a.m. Before booking, please be aware that an overnight stay is experiential in nature – it’s not meant as accommodation but to offer a one-of-a-kind chance to experience a place known to be haunted in the hours most likely to generate activity. The jury deadlocked 11 to one for acquittal, according to Iowa Cold Cases. The second suspect seemed far more likely and even confessed to the murders – though he later recanted claiming police brutality.
Jennifer Kirkland/FlickrIn recent years, the Villisca Axe Murders house has become a tourist attraction, with visitors even allowed to venture inside. Everyone in the house was dead, all eight of them bludgeoned beyond recognition. The next morning, the neighbors became suspicious, noticing that the usually rambunctious home was dead quiet. What he saw after letting himself in with his own key was enough to make him sick.
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