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He found a dead body in every bed, along with a blood-covered axe still lying in the room where the Stillinger girls lay dead. The entire Moore family and their two friends were brutally slain. 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. Nine months before the murders at Villisca, a similar case of axe murder occurred in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Two axe murder cases followed in Ellsworth, Kansas, and Paola, Kansas.
Life Without Light: Creatures in the Dark With Sarah McAnulty
While they used the blade of the axe on Josiah, the rest of the victims were killed using the blunt end. Not many people will have heard of Villisca, a small town in southwestern Iowa about an hour or so south-west of Des Moines. This sleepy-town back in 1912 was home to just 2,039 people and no more than two square miles in size. However, this house in Villisca (now known as the Villisca Ax Murder house) would become the location of one of the most brutal mass-murders in the history of the United States. The blade of the weapon struck Josiah, while the blunt end crushed the rest of the victims. This distinction possibly indicates that Josiah had been the killer’s real target.
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During the evening, 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik, entered the living room and opened fire with a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. On the night of December 6th, 1959, at 2475 Glendower Place in the affluent area of Los Feliz, one of Los Angeles’ creepiest mysteries took place. 4.30 am, cardiologist Dr. Harold Perelson struck his wife Lillian in the head with a ball-peen hammer as she laid in bed. Dr. Perelson then struck his 16-year-old daughter Judye with the same hammer which woke her screaming.
The Gruesome Story Of The Unsolved Villisca Axe Murders
On one hand, the stranger held the lamp, lighting the way through the house. 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? Listen to this week's episode of our haunted house podcast series, Dark House, for exclusive ghost stories and insights into the notorious home's haunted reputation. The full story of the Villisca Axe Murder House is featured in episode 2 of House Beautiful’s new haunted house podcast, Dark House. On February 3, 2003, legendary music producer Phil Spector shot actress Lana Clarkson to death in his house in Alhambra.
The Case Goes Cold And The Villisca Axe Murders House Becomes A Tourist Attraction
While many have tried to solve the case, the Villisca murders remains a mystery and most likely will forever. Moore and Jones despised each other, according to Villisca residents. However, it was considered a stretch that Jones could progress to murdering his business rival. There were also rumors around Villisca that Moore had engaged in extramarital activities with Jones’s daughter-in-law.
Nobody could understand why such a talented doctor, who adored his wife and children, would wake in the middle of the night and bludgeon them in their sleep. "He sent a bloody shirt to a laundry the week after the murder. It's a viable possibility that he was the killer. It can't be proven today, at least to my satisfaction." VILLISCA, Iowa — It's been 111 years since the tragic murders of eight people at a home in Villisca. Along came another suspect, an oddball itinerant preacher with sexual problems and mental illness who happened to spend that fateful night in Villisca.
Horton's search of the house revealed that the entire Moore family and the two Stillinger girls had been bludgeoned to death. The murder weapon, an axe belonging to Josiah, was found in the guest room where the Stillinger sisters were found. In Mueller's suspected crimes there was often but not always a sexual motive directed towards a pubescent girl, as with Lena's being partly disrobed. Two years after the Villisca killings, police turned their attention to an Illinois resident and serial killer. 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 mansion reportedly had several secret panels, a secret corridor behind a bookcase, and hidden trapdoors. Also at the 1.84-acre property, there was a 60-foot swimming pool and a championship tennis court. Other suspects, such as William Mansfield and Henry Moore, were also considered. However, due to the lack of evidence, most of what historians know today is based on legend. Kelly made a confession which was later withdrawn before his trial. Following the murder, many Villisca residents believed Iowa State Senator Frank F. Jones was the culprit.
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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. 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.
Investigators discovered blood on a white Ford Bronco at his home address. They also discovered a women’s shelter had received a panic call from Brown four days prior to her murder. Brown said she was afraid of what Simpson might do to her as she refused to reconcile their marriage.
She wouldn’t take any money for it, so Brown gave her a box of chocolate-covered cherries for the ax. That’s how Epperly’s interest was revived — and how he later came to have the ax for 20 years before donating it to the state historical society. Epperly begins his own story in 1955 when he and two college buddies, all social studies majors, piled into a car they owned together and headed toward Villisca to write a paper for class on the murders.
Peckham let the Moores' chickens out and called Ross Moore, Josiah's brother. Like Peckham, Moore received no response when he knocked on the door and shouted. While Peckham stood on the porch, Ross went into the parlor and opened the guest bedroom door, where he found Ina and Lena Stillinger's bodies on the bed. Moore immediately told Peckham to call Henry "Hank" Horton, Villisca's primary peace officer, who arrived shortly thereafter.
The jury deadlocked 11 to one for acquittal, according to Iowa Cold Cases. The family was discovered in the morning after Josiah Moore didn't answer a call from his clerk. Neighbors became concerned that the Moores were not up doing their typical morning routines, prompting neighbors to call some of their relatives. This month marks 110 years since a family of six and their two visitors were bludgeoned to death in their sleep at a home in the small southwest Iowa town of Villisca.
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]
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. According to reporting from the Tribune, the victims were killed with an ax the killer, or killers, found in the family's backyard, while they slept sometime around or after midnight. The family had spent the evening at a program at the local Presbyterian Church and returned home around 10 p.m. 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.
They (and all of America) were subjected to a lurid televised trial. On August 14, 1980, Playboy model Dorothy Stratten was shot to death by her estranged husband Paul Snider at their former shared house in Rancho Park. Rebel Without a Cause co-star Sal Mineo was stabbed to death near his West Hollywood apartment on February 12, 1976. Most of the hotel was demolished in 2006 to make way for an LAUSD campus. Gangster Mickey Cohen's former bodyguard was stabbed to death on April 4, 1958, by his girlfriend Lana Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane. Stompanato was abusive and Crane said she was acting in defense of her mother.
