The True Story Behind the Haunted Villisca Axe Murder House
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Earlier this month, Robert Steven Laursen Jr., 37, of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, was one such visitor. He arrived with a group of friends for a "recreational paranormal investigation," according to Montgomery County Sheriff Joe Sampson. "From my understanding he was alone in the northwest bedroom, and the rest of the party was outside, and he called for help on their mobile, two-way radios," Sampson told me. His companions found him stabbed in the chest—an apparently self-inflicted wound—called 9-1-1, and Laursen was brought to a nearby hospital before being helicoptered to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. In the 1990s, the home was painstakingly restored by historians Martha and Gavin Linn at greatexpense and effort to appears exactly like the night of the crime, right down to the lack ofelectricity or running water.
What to know on the anniversary of the 1912 Villisca ax murders
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.
One of America’s Most Haunted Houses
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.
Why Did a Ghost Hunter Stab Himself Inside a Famous Ax-Murder House?
Then he made his way to the children’s room, and finally back down to the bedroom downstairs. In each room, he committed some of the grisliest murders in American history. The paranormal reality television series Scariest Places on Earth covered the story of the Villisca axe murders and hosted a paranormal investigation on the property. In the wake of the brutal killings, suspicion was cast upon transients and strangers who might have been passing through town at the time. One such individual was Andy Sawyer, who was reported to the sheriff by his employer as a result of his odd behavior.
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.
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.
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. 2nd Street was built in 1868 on lot 310 for local resident George Loomis.
Though Lena Stillinger’s nightgown had been pushed up and she’d been left exposed, doctors concluded she had not been sexually abused. Lena also had a bloodstain on her knee and an alleged defensive wound on her arm. Legislation was written in response to the murder, including the establishment of the current State Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s predecessor.
The Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa lets you sleep in a crime scene - Slate
The Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa lets you sleep in a crime scene.
Posted: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The blows were delivered so forcefully that gouges were left in the ceiling. Some of the most unsettling details about the crime scene, aside from the sheer brutality and tragedy of it, include a hidden attic, a door locked from the inside, and linens covering every window and mirror in the house. Kelly was left-handed, which police determined from blood spatters that the killer must be.
Attend the tale of Villisca on WQPT, still a haunting mystery 109 years later - WHBF - OurQuadCities.com
Attend the tale of Villisca on WQPT, still a haunting mystery 109 years later.
Posted: Fri, 29 Oct 2021 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.
Groups can book the house for $500 for up to five people, and $100 for each additional person. 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. After reading about the Villisca Axe Murders, read about another unsolved murder, the Hinterkaifeck murders. Then, check out the history of Lizzie Borden and her infamous string of murders. Soon, reports of similar enough crimes happening throughout the country began to pop up. Though the crimes were not quite as gruesome, there were two common threads – the use of an axe as the murder weapon, and the presence of an oil lamp, set to burn extremely low, at the scene.
Though Detective Wilkerson of the Burns Detective Agency in Kansas City accused Jones of the crime, no formal charges were ever brought against the senator. Eerier still is the fact that after the murders were over, the killer or killers moved through the house, carefully covering the faces of the deceased—and the mirrors in every room—with cloth. One of these men might have committed one of the grisliest murders in American history. The memory of the eight victims lives on in Villisca, where the Moore home has been returned to its original condition at the time of the murders. "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.
Before this, those who visited were interested in the place merely as a well-preserved document of the past (the house is on the National Registry of Historic Places). "It's unfortunate that more people aren't interested in the true story of the house, because like any historical story there's something to be learned," Rundle says. "If people are just going in there to get scared at something they thought they heard or saw, I don't know what they learn from that." A brutal, unsolved murder case from last century still attracts morbid visitors to the crime scene that is now unabashedly named the Villisca Axe Murder House. After the Linns opened the house to the public, visitors reported all manner of unexplainable phenomena, from feelings of dread, to sounds such as footprints and children’s laughter.
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