The morning of June 10th, 1912, the Moore family was found murdered, by an unknown person in their home by an axe.
The Moore family consisted Josiah B. (43), Sarah (39), and their four children: Herman Montgomery (11), Mary "Katherine" (10), Arthur Boyd (7), and Paul Vernon (5). The family was very well-known, Josiah was a businessman and Sarah was established in their family Presbyterian church, which where they were the night of the murders. June 9, 1912, the family was at a Children's Day event where Sarah coordinated the kid's participated in singing, acting and story-telling. At 9:30pm, the family walked back home, with Katherines' friends Lena (12) and Ira (8) Stillinger, whom she invited to spend the night. They arrived around 9:45 and 10pm, they ate milk and cookies then went to bed.
At 7 a.m. the next day, June 10, Mary Peckham, the Moores' neighbor, became concerned after she noticed that the family had not come out to do their morning chores. At 5am, Mary came out to hang her laundry, when she came out again to retrieve it she noticed that the house was unusually quiet, usually the children are out doing chores and noise is coming from the home. Mary went over and knocked on the Moores' door. When nobody answered, she tried to open the door and discovered that it was locked. She then let the Moores' chickens out and called Josiah's brother Ross Moore. Ross knocked and shouted but received no response, he had a spare key so he unlocked the front door, while Mary stayed on the porch, and walked inside. He walked into the parlor and then to the open doorstairs bedroom, he there found Lena and Ira Stillinger's bodies on the bed. He ran out and told Mary to call Henry "Hank" Horton, the peace officer of the town.
Horton arrived and searched the home, returning outside stating that the entire Moore family and the Stillinger girls had been bludgeoned to death, "Every bed had a body!" he stated. The murder weapon was found to be an axe found in the doorstairs bedroom sitting next to a 2pd wrapped uncook slab of bacon and a piece of keychain.
The scene was soon trampled on by over 100 people trying to get a look at the murdered victims, hours later the scene was finally closed so that the investigation and doctor could conclude what exactly happen. The murders took place around 12:45am and 5am. The suspect had been staying in the barn and there were two cigarette butts found upstairs in the attic, meaning that the person responsible had been watching the family for some time. The axe found had been Josiah's out of the coal barn.
The murders' started in Josiah and Sarah's bedroom, Josiah was the only one where the killer used the sharp end of the axe and it was much more brutal than the others, he received over 30 blows and cut so much that his eyes were missing. All other victims, the killer used the blunt end and the heads were smashed not chopped or slashed. The murders' were done in such a frensy that the axe hit the ceiling leaving dents and wholes. After killing Josiah and Sarah, the killer then went into their childrens room and bluntly smashed the four children as they slept, then proceeded downstairs to Lena and Ina.
Lena and Ina were the last to pass away, Lena is suspected to have awoken during the attack with a possible defense wound on her arm. She was also found laying crossways on the bed, with her gown lifted up and with no underwear showing that the killer either did or tried to sexually assault her.
After the killing of the Stillinger girls, the killer then went back upstairs and swung more blows to the victims. Came back downstairs, tried to clean the axe from the blood, but seemed to have given up and set it in the bedroom where the Stillinger girls were laying. He then washed his hands in the basen in the kitchen and made a plate of food, but did not eat it.
The crime scene was gruesome, the pillows were so soaked in blood and brain matter that when the doctor arrived the blood started to congeal, speculated the time of death at 12:45am. All the victims faces were covered with bedcloths to hide the brutality. The killer had came into the home from the back unlocked door and had covered all windows and mirrors with bedding or clothing. The kerosene lamp found in Josiah and Sarah's room was found with no chimney and the wick had been bend to stop a lot of light from shining, a similar light was found in the Stillingers room. No fingerprints were found that did not match the family.
The Moore-Stillinger funeral services were held in Villisca’s town square on June 12, 1912, with thousands in attendance. The funeral cortege was 50 carriages long. National Guardsmen blocked the street as a hearse moved toward the firehouse, where the eight victims lay. Their caskets were later carried on wagons to Villisca Cemetery for burial.
The suspects: Due to no forensics at the time and so many people allowed into the crime scene there was nothing to exactly go on, but there are some suspects...
- Frank Jones, Iowa Senator, was an old partner of Josiahs for over 9 years, but when Josiah left to start his own business, taking John Deer with him, the two parted ways as competators. Also, Frank believed that Josiah had an affair with his daughter, which fueled the speculations that he either committed the acts himself or hired a man named William Mansfield. Mansfield is believed to be a serial killer, he was found guilty of killing his wife, child,and in-laws 2 years after the Villisca murders. He is believed to have committed the axe murders in Paola, Kansas, four days before the Villisca crimes. He was also suspected in the double homicide of Jennie Peterson and Jennie Miller in Illinois. Each crime site was accessible by train, and all murders were carried out in virtually the same manner.
Mansfield was released after a special Grand Jury of Montgomery County refused to indict him, on grounds that his alibi checked out. 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. 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.
- Rev. George Kelly moved to Iowa that year, traveled to Villisca that day, and even was at the church that night. After the bodies were found he entered the house and asked police questions possing as a Scotland Yard Detective. Kelley was arrested in 1914, for sexual harrassment on a woman he hired, then sent to a psychiatric hospital. He confessed to the murders in 1917, and went on trial two times, but acquitted for lack of evidence.
-Henry Lee Moore is a suspected due to being a serial ax murderer starting with his mother and grandma. He also killed them with the blunt end of the ax and 22 other suspected murders. He was never tied to Villisca but did serve 36 years for the murder of his mother and grandma.
-Andrew Sawyer ended up in Creston on the job site of Thomas Dyer requesting a job, he was hired but over time, crewmen began to complain about Andy's demean and communication between them. The crew claimed that Andy would talk all the time about the murders in Villisca, even boosting about how he did it and fled to Creston to avoid being caught and even had an alibi. Some claimed that he even slept with an axe at night. Dyer then went to law enforcement and had him arrested. Andy was dismissed of all charges due to being in Osceola, Iowa on vagrancy charges.
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