The Villisca Axe Murder House

This is the Villisca Axe Murder House.

It is located at 508 East 2nd Street in Villisca, Iowa.

At some point between the night of June 9th and the early hours of June 10th, 1912, an unidentified killer entered this residence and murdered eight people with an ax.

The victims included Josiah B. and Sarah Moore, their four children (aged 5-10), and two of the children's friends (aged 10-12).

One theory posits that the offender patiently waited in the attic for the Moore family to return home from a local church.

However, the cellar door was later found unlocked.

It is believed that most of the victims were asleep when the attack took place. One of the children's friends, Lena Stillinger (12), was the only victim who displayed signs of defensive wounds.

A mentally ill traveling minister named Reverend George Kelly became the main suspect in the case after it emerged that he had left Villisca hours after the murders occurred. Kelly, who had a history of voyeurism, had been teaching Children's Day services at the church that the Moore family attended on the evening before the crime. In the weeks that followed, he displayed an unhealthy fascination with the case by sending letters to the police and relatives of the family. He even claimed to have heard sounds on the night in question.

One week after the multiple homicide, Kelly reportedly had a bloody shirt cleaned at a drugstore.

Little is known about Kelly's movements following his acquittal. On April 6th, 1959, he died in a psychiatric hospital in Central Islip, New York, at the age of 80.

Although there were a number of other suspects, none of them were ever charged with the crime.

The murders remain unsolved to this day.