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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.
Experiences
The killings became known as the “Villisca Axe Murders,” and are easily the most notorious murders in Iowa history. The Villisca ax murders — one of the most heinous crimes in the state's history — took place overnight on June 9, 1912. It remains unsolved despite years of investigations, multiple grand jury hearings, a slander lawsuit and a murder trial, according to the Iowa Cold Cases blog. 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.
Discovery of the crime
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.
Villisca axe murders
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.
Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa to be bought by US Ghost Adventures - Des Moines Register
Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa to be bought by US Ghost Adventures.
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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.
Reverend George Kelly
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.
Would you stay overnight at the Villisca Axe Murder House? - Little Village - Little Village Magazine
Would you stay overnight at the Villisca Axe Murder House? - Little Village.
Posted: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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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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."
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The faces of both parents, as well as the children, had been reduced to nothing but a bloody pulp. Jo Naylor/FlickrThe Villisca Axe Murders house where an unknown attacker committed one of American history’s most disturbing unsolved murders of all time in 1912. James started his research in an attempt to solve the Villisca murders, and with his daughter found archival newspaper stories detailing dozens of families murdered under similar circumstances across the US. The Jameses thus believe that Mueller was guilty of the Villisca murders as part of a killing spree that lasted over a decade, killing at least 59 people in 14 separate incidents, including the Colorado Springs and Paola crimes.
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.
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.
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