Villisca: The True Account of the Unsolved Mass Murder That Stunned The Nation. Still carrying the ax, the stranger walked past one room in which two girls, ages 12 and 9, lay sleeping, and slipped up the narrow wooden stairs that led to two other bedrooms. but it is hard to verify. So what do we know? 3 A Messy Cover-Up. I just assumed that was the murder weapon du jour for that era. Chula Vista : Aventine Press, 2003; Omaha World-Herald, June 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 1912; December 27, 1913; June 10, 2012. The Axeman struck households in New Orleans from 1917 to March 1919. Note the phone’s startlingly “human” features. On entering through the Burnhams’ window he knocked over some ink, which in turn led to fingerprints being left. 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Although accounts are sketchy, we know that a New Orleans newspaper article printed during the height of the Axeman murders (1918), contained an interview with a retired police detective who compared the Axeman attacks to several Italian grocers who had been … Close relatives or neighbours as suspects. Elizabeth Coffin Tuttle collection -- 1857-[1900s] Creator: Tuttle, Elizabeth Jane Coffin, 1840-1921 Extent: 23 items Abstract: This collection contains a journal and recipe book, family photographs, and other material related to Elizabeth Coffin Tuttle of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Lancaster, New … The Moores were not discovered until several hours later, when a neighbor, worried by the absence of any sign of life in the normally boisterous household, telephoned Joe’s brother, Ross, and asked him to investigate. This little town has a lot of paranormal stories surrounding it. Jeremy Bamber and the White House Farm Murders: Wrongful Conviction? The 1909 Savannah axe murders was a triple homicide that occurred at 401 West Perry Street in the downtown district of Savannah, Georgia, in December 1909. Unsolved. Then we have the issue of body covering and posing. On the night of March 9, … Leaving the couple dead or dying, the killer went next door and used the ax—Joe’s own, probably taken from where it had been left in the coal shed—to kill the four Moore children as they slept. On 17th December 1912 he snuck into his mother’s home in Columbia, Missouri, crept up behind her and bludgeoned her to death with an axe. The History. This is a curious feature of almost every single axe murder – and one of the creepiest. Kelly was obsessed with sex, and had been caught peering into windows in Villisca two days before the murders. Fingerprints were also found. The idea that the killer had lain in wait for the Moores to go to sleep was supported by some evidence; Linquist’s investigation had revealed a depression in some bales of hay stored in the family barn, and a knot hole through which the murderer could have watched the house while reclining in comfort. Of the other axe murders on my map, if there’s one set of crimes that might point us to another serial killer, it’s the double-event known as the Colorado Springs Axe Murders. The killings became known as the “Villisca Axe Murders,” and are easily the most notorious murders in Iowa history. Another strange incident occured on that night in Paola, one which suggests the Hudsons were targeted randomly. On the morning of 1st October 1911 the 1st Presbyterian Church stood locked up with the confused Reverend waiting outside. Was Axeman a copycat? The fire was too intense for anyone to enter, but there was hope that the rest of the family had survived; no one heard anyone scream or shout from inside. “The Man From the Train” by Bill James & Rachael McCarthy James. I had never heard of these murders. They were butchered viscously with an axe by an unidentified assailant, and the crime was never solved. Or murders left unsolved for the past 109 years? Pictured left: The Villisca Review, June 13th 1912. This was in no small part due to some of the suspects, which included a local senator and reverend. Once we add the possibility of copycat crimes into the mix it becomes very hard to discern fact from fiction in this series. Give a Gift. Photo: from Fayette Public Library via camptowncemetery.blogspot.com. Arrested in 1917, the Englishman was repeatedly interrogated and eventually signed a confession to the murder in which he stated: “I killed the children upstairs first and the children downstairs last. There was little street lighting and most houses lit by oil lamps. As usual, the murders attracted a big crowd once word got around town, as seen in this old photo: One aspect to this crime that differs from the others is the murder weapon. Unfortunately for Wilkerson, Mansfield turned out to have a cast-iron alibi for the Villisca killings. The family was completed by Sarah’s daughter, 12 year-old Emma. Over the next few months many blacks were arrested for each of the crimes. This is similar to behaviour at Colorado Springs. A mechanic, Johnny William Barrentine, wa… Chillingly, she claimed to be a leader of the Voodoo cult Church of Sacrifice. Fingerprints were definitely found at the Burnham and Dawson homes which would have been preserved at the time of Moore’s incarceration. As I have already mentioned, the act of killing two families in one night all but eliminates a crime of passion as the motive. Their uncle Leon was also found in their room, a knife blade broken off in his back. My list of sources below is extensive and many concentrate on only one or two of the crimes. Senator Jones was a successful farm equipment businessman who had become angered by Josiah Moore leaving his employment and setting himself up as a rival. She described him as short and black. When news of this murder reached the ears of the Sheriff of Lafayette, he finally began to suspect all four murders were linked. Few people in Villisca believed that a man of Jones’s age and eminence—he was 57 in 1912—would have swung the ax himself, but in some minds he was certainly capable of paying someone else to wipe out Moore and his family. Shortly after midnight on June 10, 1912—one hundred years ago this week—a stranger hefting an ax lifted the latch on the back door of a two-story timber house in the little Iowa town of Villisca. Convicted ax murderer Henry Lee Moore was the suspect favored by Department of Justice Special Agent Matthew McClaughry–who believed he committed a total of nearly 30 similar murders across the Midwest in 1911-12 . Truthfully, we rarely hear about people being slaughtered with axes, but that was not the case in the early 1900s. This is the "Murder House". The murders have an odd similarity to the very famous Hinterkaifeck and Villisca Ax murders that occurred years later in the early 1900s. Why is that? Arthur Burnham, pictured here with his family, was initially arrested but released once it was confirmed he had been at work when the crimes were committed. It appeared that the killer had also used the blade of the axe on him, reverting to the blunt end for the other victims. He had lived a full life, a happy life, on the surface at least. When searching the car, the police found the two girls dead inside the drunk, who were both shot in the head. First, the dead man had worked for him for seven years, becoming the star salesman of Jones’s farm-equipment business. Bottom: The Wayne family consisted of Henry, Blanche, and their two year-old child Blanch (not pictured). ax murders detailed show, crime scene management in the time period was non-existent. The use of familial DNA recently led to the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo, 72, suspected of being the so-called Golden State Killer, blamed for a spate of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. Because by 1916 Wilkerson managed to get a hearing in front of a grand jury to decide if either Senator Jones or William Mansfield should stand trial for Villisca. They fail to account for victims drawing the curtains before bed. Believed to have been built in 1868, this American colonial home was the site of one of the most horrific murders of the 20 th century. ‎Show Redrum Blonde, Ep The Saxtown Ax Murders - Oct 15, 2019 It took time for the case against Kelly to get anywhere, but in 1917 another grand jury finally assembled to hear the evidence linking him with Lena’s murder. Nonetheless, analysis of the sequence of murders—and several others that McClaughry did not consider—yields some striking comparisons. A family reported hearing the chimney of their kitchen lamp fall to the floor. The screen to their door was cut and the lock picked with wire. Then he struck Sarah a blow before she had time to wake or register his presence. and 5a.m. California Do Not Sell My Info He used the Times-Picayune cartoon as the record’s cover. Louisiana and Texas were left scarred and scared for a long time. Plus it is likely that blackmail, extortion, or debt revenge would have meant also robbing the victims in recompense. During several years in the early 1900’s, New Orleans teetered on the brink of panic after a string of horrendous murders that were as gruesome as they were terrifying. Occasional home invasions and axe murders continued, but police were hesitant to link them. The catch was that he would avoid anywhere playing jazz. However, you don’t know who may be watching, or who might stumble upon the body the next day. Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought? We can be certain that the patriarch of the 5-person family who lived above a restaurant was war veteran George Washington Hood (80). What happened next marked the Villisca killings as truly peculiar and still sends shivers down the spine a century after the fact. It does not necessarily mean that they form part of one killer’s signature. We cannot escape the fact that, due to the massive number of crimes, it is unrealistic to believe that such a high percentage of the population were willing to dispatch their social enemies in such a cruel and violent way. Thinking he was fooling police, he returned to his mother’s home the following day and pretended to ‘find’ the bodies. Reply One respondent received a “lascivious” multi-page reply which told her she would be required to type in the nude. Jack the Ripper is an exception on this list, because he is the only criminal among … Both the early murders (1911-12) and later set (1917-19) had much in common. Most sinister, for those who believed in the little preacher’s guilt, was the fact that Kelly had attended the Children’s Day service held at Villisca’s Presbyterian church on the evening of the murders. The murder was discovered by Mrs. Charles Musick, Mrs. Sherman Not only that, all of them got away with it. This leaves us with one unusual behaviour. My path was diverted from researching Hinterkaifeck suspects by the book ‘The Man from the Train’ by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James. If one man was responsible for these crimes, he waited another eight months before striking again. Shooting the Messenger by Mike Cox 3-22-18; William H. Frizzell's First and Last Speech by Mike Cox 12-7-17; The Bullet that Killed John Wesley Hardin by Mike Cox 11-10-17; Murder Mystery at Fort Griffin by Mike Cox 10-19-17 They were followed by the county coroner, L.A. Linquist, and a third doctor, F.S. What a mistake that was. Bobby & David Phillips – a case of mistaken revenge? Personally I think it is the Colorado Springs double event that ties many of the crimes together but the popular vote has gone to Villisca. Their final verdict on Mueller as the killer being, “there’s no real reason to believe that it’s not him”. Both also had knives sticking out their backs. The cause is known, but the manner of death (homicide, suicide, accident, overdosing) could not be determined. William and his wife Charity were likewise found in their bedroom. Police bloodhounds followed the killer’s scent through the back fence of the property and towards a pond. Therefore it is very unlikely that fingerprints were not taken from Mansfield to check against all of the axe murders. Lovey Mitchell (mis-named here as ‘Loving’) was arrested twice over the Dawson murders. It is hard to pinpoint when they started exactly; names and dates are not always consistent across newspapers. There is also the tragic coincidence of the Stillinger girls staying the night by a cruel twist of fate, which adds an extra human element to the story. Alfred and Elizabeth Casaway (or Cassaway in some texts) lived a hard life as a black man married to a white woman. On visiting the tiny two-room house they found the front door unlocked. Even still, I stopped after reaching the 30-case mark. To preserve my sanity (and also coherency to this article) I settled on a period with a large number of crimes; crimes with the possibility that many were linked. In an interview with Mel Magazine promoting the pair's new book, "The Man From the Train," the Jameses detail how a man traveled across the country and slaughtered families from the … Most households left an axe on the woodpile in the back yard. However, as he notes, there is not much that we can say with 100% certainty. 1. One of the town’s larger and better-appointed properties, it still stands today and has been turned into Villisca’s premier tourist attraction. Terms of Use Authors of new book think this man is responsible for Villisca axe murders. Although I can’t find specific mention of this anywhere, we can safely assume that they did not belong to William Mansfield (right). Oil lamps carried into rooms where the attacks took place. He stood trial for the crime, represented himself, and walked away a free man. But his motive in that case was greed–he planned to obtain the deeds to his family house–and it is rare for a wandering serial killer to return home and kill his own family. One month after Raymond was imprisoned, Lafayette would be surprised by another family axe murder. The Des Moines Register. The killer then descended the stairs and took his ax to the Stillinger girls, the elder of whom may finally have awakened an instant before she, too, was murdered. The case has left people puzzled for more than a century. Fewer witnesses, more shadows, and occupants likely asleep. This means a serial killer is most likely the perpetrator. Although the canonical murders attributed to the Axeman did not start until 1918, an earlier series of murders bore enough similarity to warrant attention. Nothing in the letter reflects the widely-held belief that, whatever the motives, the Axeman was a white, working class man. Aries Works Entertainment, an Iowa independent film company completed shooting of a feature length film, Haunting Villisca in the summer of 2005. This time, the newspapers describe the posing in detail. The rancor caused by Wilkerson lingered on in the town for years. The children’s broken bodies lay in front of them as if on an altar. Might the Ellsworth killer have covered the telephone out of the same desperate desire to ensure that, nowhere in the murder house, was there a pair of eyes still watching him? As soon as word was public that a murder had occurred, citizens congregated at the location, milling through the scene, destroying or even stealing evidence. Rollin and Anna Hudson were the victims of an ax murderer in Paola, Kansas, just five days before the Villisca killings. This reminded me of the Dawson killing, where the gas pipe used was removed and discarded near a pond. Tracks in the back yard suggested multiple perpetrators. It surprised me how little I could find about police hunting for a racist terrorising black families. The implication was that the murders would continue even with her incarceration; all police could do was wait and see if she was telling the truth. View Comments. Returning to a nearby rented hotel room, he washed the blood from his clothes and arms and waited for the next day to dawn. He had been in the town on the night of the murders and freely admitted that he had left on a dawn train just before the bodies were discovered. Lena and Ina Stillinger. 10. Worse, he was also believed to have slept with Jones’s vivacious daughter-in-law, a local beauty whose numerous affairs were well known in town thanks to her astonishingly indiscreet habit of arranging trysts over the telephone at a time when all calls in Villisca had to be placed through an operator. The killers were so focused on what they were doing, they rarely stopped to take even cash in open view. Officials from other areas flocked to the town of Glidden, Texas, to compare notes. I do not cover The Zodiac on this site as there are many quality websites available on those crimes already. They are crimes so horrifying to the core of what shakes our humanity. At his trial in October 1911, his children Clementine and Zepherin claimed to see him return home covered in blood on the night of that murder. In 1911 -1912 a series of axe murders occured. Admittedly that is some coincidence, but it does appear to be just that. September 29, 1892. But it would make very little sense for someone with one of those motives to kill their target family and then move on to kill the neighbouring family also. Judge for yourself whether the letter-writer is more likely a serial killer or a prankster: Predictably, on the night of 19th March every music hall in the city was full of people listening to jazz. “The 1910s Ax Murders: An Overview of the McClaughry Theory.” Emporia State University Research Seminar, July 2006; Nick Kowalczyk. Wilkerson—who made enough of a nuisance of himself to derail Jones’s attempts to secure re-election to the state senate, and who eventually succeeded in having a grand jury convened to consider the evidence he had gathered–was able to show that Mansfield had the right sort of background for the job: In 1914 he was the chief suspect in the ax murders of his wife, her parents and his own child in Blue Island, Illinois. Later, bloodhounds would follow his scent to the Nodaway River, 500 metres to the east. The axe was a handy tool to have around the home, and it was also a rather handy way to end another person’s life. `Slay utterly’ came to my mind, and I picked up the axe, went into the house and killed them.” This he later recanted, and the couple who claimed to have spoken to him on the morning after murders changed their story. This man had caused some of the most gruesome and disturbing murder scenes, scaring everyone in the large city. If you live in Belleville, Michigan you might. Several bloggers offer thoughtful insights into the Midwest ax murders. Nor did the assailant or any of the four children make sufficient noise to disturb Katherine’s two friends, Lena and Ina Stillinger, as they slept downstairs. Detective James Wilkerson ended up developing a theory involving the local Iowa State Senator Frank Jones and suspected hired killer William Mansfield. That set in train a sequence of events that destroyed what little hope there may have been of gathering useful evidence from the crime scene. He headed straight to the adults’ room and killed them first. Read More. Arsenic poisoning murder mystery in the 1800s. The screen of the Burnham’s window was also cut before the killer gained entry to their property. Cookie Policy The Reverend Lyn Kelly, a markedly peculiar Presbyterian preacher, attended the Children’s Day service in Villisca at which the Moore children gave recitations, and later confessed to murdering the family—only to recant and claim police brutality. Watch the new and 7th season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime! Williams (who became the first to examine the bodies and estimate a time of death). You will also find plenty of contradictions between websites. Raising the ax high above his head—so high it gouged the ceiling—the man brought the flat of the blade down on the back of Joe Moore’s head, crushing his skull and probably killing him instantly. I mapped most of them on Google Maps, colour-coded with, at first glance, possible connections. It shows how easy it is for information to be warped over time. This was the last time anybody heard from them. At Hinterkaifeck, the maid who had only just started working at the farm was also covered. McClaughry listened to Moore’s trial and statements with growing interest. At the other scene, it is inferred that the Waynes were covered, but also that Blanche Wayne may have been posed in a sexual way. His theory was that Henry Lee Moore, Georgia’s son and a convict with a  history of violence, was responsible for the whole series. And one question niggles at me most – why did they stop? He was given the nickname Axeman. By sundown there was not a dog to be bought in Villisca at any price. The history of the Villisca Axe Murder house is detailed in this section with recollections of the crime, the town, the victims, inquest and suspects. Was this similar behaviour to the Dawson crime scene, where the killer also made for a body of water? The researcher Beth Klingensmith has suggested that as many as 10 incidents that occurred close to railway tracks but in locations as far apart as Rainier, Washington, and Monmouth, Illinois, might form part of this chain, and in several cases there are striking similarities to the Villisca crime. But none would be spared overkill. They married in Mexico but lived in San Antonio, where mixed marriages were illegal. Tours/Overnights. Finally, the killer covered the victims… but a difference here was that they were covered before being bludgeoned. Axeman was known for breaking into homes in New Orleans in the middle of the night. They were killed on the same night as their neighbours. On the night of the murders a neighbour saw this man on the front porch of their house at around 9pm. Edgar Epperly, the leading authority on the murders, reports that the town quickly split along religious lines, the Methodists insisting on Jones’s innocence and the Moores’ Presbyterian congregation convinced of his guilt. This shows that, contrary to popular belief, it is not unique to killers who know their victims. It appears from descriptions that Pauline Showman was also posed or assaulted after death. William Hodgson Bingham was 73 when he passed away in January 1911. In 1999, high school seniors J.B. Hilton Green Beasley and Tracie Jean Hawlett, both 17 years old, were on their way to a party. On the night of 31st January into 1st February 1911 , the three members of the Byers family were killed in their beds in Crowley, Louisiana. This makes sense as there is a clear motive. I found whole websites devoted to single cases or single suspects. She was killed in her bed in September 1911 by an ax man who heaped bedclothes on her head and stopped to wash his hands, leaving the weapon at the scene. Wilkerson also believed Mansfield was responsible for the axe murders of his wife, infant child, father-in law and mother in law in Blue Island, Illinois on July 5, 1914 (2 years after the Villisca murders), the Axe Murders committed in Paola, Kansas, 4 days before Villisca murders and the murders of Jennie Peterson and Jennie Miller in Aurora, Colorado. On the evening of June 9, 1912, six members of the Moore family and two guests were found bludgeoned two deaths. He was left-handed, and Coroner Linquist had determined from an examination of blood spatters in the murder house that the killer probably swung his ax that way. A mere five days after the Hudson murders, six members of the Moore family would spend their Sunday evening at church. Responding to a tip, police discovered the bodies of 11 men buried on his property in 1996. James Mitchell DeBardeleben – Forgery, Kidnapping… Serial Killer? Then the killer crossed the crossed the Mississippi River to the neighboring town of Gretna. But his children are referred to as Roy, Winfield and Almeda (“The Man from the Train”) or Royal, George Jnr and Sarah (The Raleigh Herald newspaper 1909). After knocking at the door for a while and receiving no answer, they went round the back and found the back door unlocked. The most obvious suspect may have been Frank Jones, a tough local businessman and state senator who was also a prominent member of Villisca’s Methodist church. Alfred found work at a local school and was missed immediately when he didn’t show up on 21st March 2011.
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